Rome Board of Education to discuss facilities, calendar at Tuesday meeting

The Rome Board of Education will hold its first meeting of the year Tuesday, a day after the Rome City Commission will have toured the middle school building in advance of a decision on participating in school funding.

The discussion stems from a request for the city commission to back bonds needed for the construction of a new $119 million RMS. Voters approved one education special purpose local option sales tax measure, but that will only partially fund the building.

At issue for the school board is that it can’t issue bonds dependent on future education SPLOST votes and doesn’t have taxing authority to get the money elsewhere. The board needs commission backing so that, if an education SPLOST package falls through, payment for the facility is still guaranteed through the commission’s ability to tax city property owners.

As part of Tuesday’s pre-meeting caucus the school board may also discuss a recent survey regarding the 2023-24 calendar.

Over 1,100 people completed the survey regarding options for next year’s school calendar, according to Superintendent Eric Holland. The largest difference in the opinions centered on a 166-day school year option, essentially a four-day-a-week school calendar, compared to three others with 180-day school years.

Among the other business will be choosing the 2023 chairperson of the board and receiving updates on principal evaluation software and school safety procedures.

Also, West Central Elementary School students will highlight what they’re doing at the school as their contribution to the monthly spotlight on the schools presentation.

The Rome Board of Education will meet on Tuesday, Jan. 10, at the Rome City Schools College and Career Academy, 990 Veterans Memorial Highway. The caucus will be held at 4 p.m. in Room A211 and the regular meeting will start at 5:45 p.m. in Room A201. Both sessions are public.