By Monroe Roark

Times Correspondent

  The Henry County Board of Education voted at its October 12 regular business meeting to adopt its 2021 meeting schedule, with almost no change from 2020.

  The board will continue to meet the second Monday of each month as a rule, with the study session at 4 p.m., executive session at 6 p.m. and the business meeting at 7 p.m. The lone exception is April, when the meetings are scheduled for the third Monday due to spring break.

  A January 6 meeting is scheduled to swear in new and re-elected members and also to select the chair and vice chair for the year. All meetings are at the district’s administrative office building, 33 N. Zack Hinton Parkway in McDonough.

  In other business, the school board voted to approve a $4,507,000 bid for construction of a new distribution center for the district. The low bid was from Bon Building Services of Conyers and the project is being funded by the district’s E-SPLOST.

  Also approved was the purchase of four additional buses with a net E-SPLOST cost of $75,520. According to a staff report, the $416,400 total cost to Yancey Bus Sales will be offset by $308,880 in state bond funds as well as a Georgia Department of Education Alternative Fuel Bus Funding Grant in the amount of $32,000.

  The board approved a $174,000 expenditure for school leadership training and development. According to a staff report, “The expertise provided by the University of Virginia Partners for Leaders in Education will support the development, implementation, and improvement of systems that create conditions to improve leader effectiveness and systems for continuous improvement through the partnership.”

  In an unrelated item, the board approved submission of a certificate to the Georgia Department of Education verifying the completion of McDonough Middle School, which qualified for partial state funding, so that the remainder of that money can be released to the district.