Barrow County Schools began the new school year Monday with a trimmed budget, fewer bus routes, and a new energy policy.
But its Superintendent Wanda Creel said the 12,152 students got to school, the transportation changes went smoothly, and the day went great.
“The new routes went very well for the first day of school,” she said. “All of our schools and the Transportation Department worked very well and quickly to solve issues that arose with students.
“We did several double backs to pick up students, but only one of them was a routing issue.”
Barrow students back in class
Though Aug. 2 was an earlier start to the school year than many of other nearby systems, it was not the earliest in recent history.
Both the 2003 and 2005 school years started Aug. 1.
While some might question starting the school year so early in what is typically the hottest month of the year, Creel said energy cost-saving measures implemented over the summer break likely would cover any excessive cooling costs this month.
The school system over the eight weeks of the summer operated on a four-day workweek, shutting down all buildings every Friday and unplugging every appliance including vending machines.
“When we would leave on Thursday, we unplugged the Coke machines until Monday morning at 5:30,” Creel said.
Year-round employees who normally work 236 days annually also were required to take two annual leave days along with some scheduled furlough days so that the entire system could be shut down for nine days from July 2-12.
“We saved $40,000 in utilities by shutting down all our buildings for the week of July 5 and the eight Fridays,” Creel said.
She said she also implemented another energy saver: no personal items running off electricity allowed.
For more on this story, see the August 4 edition of the Barrow Journal or click here to read the full story online when you subscribe to our new e-edition.
Both the 2003 and 2005 school years started Aug. 1.
While some might question starting the school year so early in what is typically the hottest month of the year, Creel said energy cost-saving measures implemented over the summer break likely would cover any excessive cooling costs this month.
The school system over the eight weeks of the summer operated on a four-day workweek, shutting down all buildings every Friday and unplugging every appliance including vending machines.
“When we would leave on Thursday, we unplugged the Coke machines until Monday morning at 5:30,” Creel said.
Year-round employees who normally work 236 days annually also were required to take two annual leave days along with some scheduled furlough days so that the entire system could be shut down for nine days from July 2-12.
“We saved $40,000 in utilities by shutting down all our buildings for the week of July 5 and the eight Fridays,” Creel said.
She said she also implemented another energy saver: no personal items running off electricity allowed.
For more on this story, see the August 4 edition of the Barrow Journal or click here to read the full story online when you subscribe to our new e-edition.
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