The Liberty County Board of Education met Tuesday night for a regularly scheduled session.

Superintendent’s year-end report
Liberty County School System Superintendent Dr. Valya S. Lee presented her year-end report to the board.
Lee highlighted the 512 students who completed end-of-pathway courses in career-, technical- and agricultural-education programs, which resulted in a 60.74 percent pass rate for fiscal year 2014. The pass rate is up from 43 percent in FY 2013.
Lee noted the implementation of Camp Fearless, an initiative beginning this summer that will provide additional support for McKinney-Vento students — those who are homeless or in transition.
Other 2014 training highlights included front-office safety training provided by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. Faculty and staff also learned how to visually screen for weapons and participated in active-shooter training on Fort Stewart and crisis-prevention-intervention training.
Lee also recognized new hires who will join LCSS in the coming year and personnel who have been promoted or transferred. These personnel included:
• Melissa Roberts, director of technology innovations
• Kellie Zeigler, coordinator for professional learning
• Stephanie Clark, director of federal programs
• Thomasina Butler, math-curriculum specialist
• Veronica Johnson, response to intervention coordinator
• Stascia Hardy, English language-arts curriculum specialist
• Roger Reese, chief financial officer
• Brittney Mobley, Taylors Creek Elementary principal
• Debra Sukaratana , Frank Long Elementary principal
• Anthony Calloway, Waldo Pafford principal
• Dr. Jennifer Walts, director of evaluation, assessment and accountability
• Susan Avant, executive director for teaching and learning

Action items
The board unanimously adopted its final budget for FY 2015. No changes were made since the tentative budget was adopted at last month’s board meeting.
The board approved a bid by Calico in the amount of $25,209.99 to replace worn-out kitchen smallwares and small equipment, in order to be in compliance with environmental-health inspections.
A motion to approve a $49,830 architect’s fee was tabled after discussion by board members, Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services Jason Rogers and Executive Director of Technology/Media Dr. Patti Crane.
The fee was associated with the installation of new LCD projectors at both district high schools and three middle schools.
Although a similar project was completed at the pre-K center and elementary schools two years ago, Crane explained that two sub-contractors had to be used — one for the electrical work and one for the audiovisual work. Crane said that because of the low-voltage requirements and the extreme amount of network and AV cabling involved, an architect is needed to ensure proper installation.
Board member Marcia Anderson asked why the contractors were unable to fulfill the requirements of the jobs themselves. Crane said that they experienced some problems with the contractors, and the architects were needed to ensure proper execution of the work and to conduct final assessments.
Rogers also pointed out that any project that utilizes federal funds must keep in compliance with the Davis-Bacon act, which, according to Rogers, “involves an enormous amount of record-keeping.”
Since the LCD-installation project would use federal funding, the responsibility of record-keeping would fall to the architect.
The decision was made by the board to table the item until further research could be conducted to find out what, exactly, the nearly $50,000 in architect’s fees would encompass and whether any contractor could conduct both the electrical and AV portions of the job, rather than having to use two separate contractors.