P.B. Ritch Phase-Out Possibly in Paulding's Plans

Some students in Paulding County could be attending new school facilities within the next five years, while others may no longer attend classes in buildings that exist today.

members at their meeting Tuesday night got a preview of the district’s five-year facility plan. One proposed part of the five-year plan is the phasing out of , though Associate Superintendent Brian Otott said such a move would not be enacted in the immediate future—students will still go there in the 2011-2012 school year.

In an interview following the meeting, Otott said the proposal was based on several factors.

“We want to make sure our students are in a facility that is conducive to learning. There are some plant issues there that need to be addressed, HVAC as well as septic issues,” Otott said. “There is a financial end to it as well—in phasing out a facility, the state basically compensates for you in providing you funds to build additional or new facilities.”

“[But] it is not in the plans to phase P.B. Ritch Elementary School out in the 2011-2012 school year if it continues to be an option for the district,” he added.

P.B. Ritch was originally opened as a middle school in 1987. When l opened a few years later, P.B. Ritch was made an elementary school. Operating with 57 percent of its instructional units in use based on capital outlay calculations, the school has about 330 students, making it the least-populated elementary school in the district.

Otott said under the phase-out plan, would be the primary relocation school for P.B. Ritch students. In response to one board member’s question, Otott said could be a possible destination as well. That school, however, currently has more students than can be handled with the school building’s existing 36 instructional units; portable classrooms are in use there.

But Hiram Elementary may one day be able to accommodate more pupils.

“Hiram is one of those [schools where] we have some land, we now have sewer that  almost basically comes on our property … We can build 76 classrooms at Hiram,” said Marty Turner, executive director of Maintenance and Facilities for the district. “We can put kids basically in a brand-new building. We can take care of the south end by this measure.”

As the potential phase-out of P.B. Ritch would move students to other sites, the district is required to hold at least two public hearings before a phase-out resolution could be sent to the state. Board members during the meeting set those hearings for Tuesday, March 22, and Thursday, March 31. Both meetings, which are open to the public, will convene at 6:30 p.m. in the central office boardroom.

Time is of the essence, which is why officials set those meetings in the next few weeks—if those meetings are held, and if the district can approve and forward its plans for the school by April 15, then it will receive five years of entitlement, or funding, for the school, which would be put toward construction of new instructional units. If officials could not move forward by April 15, the district would lose a year of funding.

Turner said one year’s worth of funding could be hundreds of thousands of dollars to $1 million or more.

“What we looked at doing was prioritizing the five-year facility plan and [also] look at, for us, what would generate capital outlay, where we could make the best use of our construction as well as the best use of getting money other than ourselves, the state helping us out,” he said.

In other facility-related business, board members approved:

• A projected project cost of more than $13.4 million for the district’s ninth middle school. Turner said the future school, slated to open in August 2012, will accommodate enrollment issues in the middle grades. The groundbreaking for that school will be held Wednesday, March 16, at 10:30 a.m.; the address is 60 Old Country Trail, Dallas, behind Dr. Robert Lee Dentistry.

• A resolution to phase out Hiram Elementary School as the district begins the process of building a replacement Hiram Elementary on the same property. As the new school will be built in the same place, no public meetings are necessary.

• A resolution to phase out the New Hope Education Center. The former Abney Elementary, the facility houses the district’s LEAP program for about 20 of its special needs students. That program will continue to be housed there.

“When we phase out that property, we’re basically telling the state we’re not going to house traditional regular-ed. students in that building and hold school there,” Otott said. “By phasing it out, we’ll receive those credits for construction throughout the district.”

New Hope also houses professional learning programs for teachers and staff.

Increased class-size maximums gets nod

Tuesday’s meeting also saw the board’s approval of a resolution for increased class-size limits as allowed by the Georgia Department of Education. The district will be allowed to increase class-size maximums by one to five students in grades K-12 in regular education and in several other class areas.

The district is operating under the same increased class limits this school year.

Student restraint policy approved

Board members gave final approval to a new policy, JGF(2), which deals with seclusion or restraint of students. Under the district rules, seclusion—in which a student is isolated or confined in a separate area until her or she is no longer a danger to themselves or others—is prohibited, as it is not allowed in the state’s public schools and educational programs.

“We’ve had seclusion and restraint [rules] in the school district for a number of years,” Clark Maggart, the district’s executive director of Human Resources, said during a January board meeting, adding that the practice is known as HELP—Human Empowerment and Leadership Principles. HELP is a state-approved safety management program.

“However, it’s been required that each local board of education adopt a policy,” Maggart added. The new policy, he said, contains language provided to the district by the Georgia School Boards Association.

Under the HELP protocol, staff trained and certified under HELP may physically restrain a student if he or she becomes a danger to themselves or others, or if there is an imminent threat of harm to themselves or others. Parents of those physically restrained must be notified within 24 hours of the incident.