by Janice Daniel
The Carroll County Board of Education met on Thursday, August 21st, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center, 775 Old Newnan Road, Carrollton, for their Regular Monthly Meeting. District 5 Board Member Thomas Sizemore and District 6 Board Member Bart Cater were absent. The Invocation was offered by District 1 Board Member Dr. Bernice Brooks.
Agenda was approved, as well as minutes of the July 17th, 2025 meeting and the August 18th, 2025 work session. There was no Public Input.
Consent Agenda as prepared in the August 18th, 2025 work session (separate article) was approved unanimously. This consent agenda was quite lengthy and included some policies that had to be revised due to changes in state laws.
The report by Superintendent Scott Cowart said that Bowdon High, Central High and Temple High earned national and metro-area rankings in the U.S. News & World Report’s Best High Schools ranking. This is the same publication from which a citizen quoted statistics at one of the HB581 Opt-Out Public Hearings to indicate that Carroll County Schools were far behind a comparable school in another Georgia County.
Cowart also told the board that eleven (11) county schools were recognized as Beta Schools of Distinction and ten (10) county schools were recognized as Beta Schools of Merit for 2024-25.
For the fifth time Carroll County Schools were named as a Best Place to Work by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and two (2) Carroll County Students, Kaiden Prothro of Bowdon High and Jonaz Walton of Central High were named to the Atlanta Journal Constitution Super 11 Team. The AJC Super 11 recognizes the best high school football players in the state, and two (2) of them were Carroll County students.
The 2024-25 Bowdon High School Baseball Team is one of only 300 high school programs in the nation recognized with a Team Academic Excellence Award by the American Baseball Coaches Association. Bowdon High’s baseball squad achieved a team GPA of 3.8 for last year, the highest in program history.
Nina Boyd, 5th grade math teacher at Mt. Zion Elementary, was recently selected to lead a Professional Learning on Classroom Management at a conference in El Centro, California.
Cowart said that Academic Performance Data released this summer by the Georgia Department of Education and the College Board highlight the significant impact of continued focus on literacy and advanced academics on student performance at Carroll County Schools.
Fox 5 Atlanta made a surprise visit to Central Elementary School on Friday, August 15th to feature the county’s no-cost meals for student programs, thanks to the Community Eligibility Program.
Cowart’s report gave the dates and times of each school’s Cluster Community Conversation upcoming meetings and asked the Board Member for each cluster to be there to welcome everyone and begin each meeting. He said it means a lot to the schools to know their District’s Board Member is interested and involved in these community conversations which include school staff and parents of the children enrolled at each school.
The County Band Exhibition will be September 30th at 6:00 at the Villa Rica High School, and everyone is invited to be there.
The board then voted on the final adoption of the school system millage rate at 16.077, representing the 4th consecutive year of approving the full rollback. The Board approved this item unanimously.
They also approved an amount up to $55,000 to build a canopy over the handicapped student ramp at one of the campuses where it was needed.
Cowart said that in addition to the $875,000 approved for buses this year, the State Allotment was $352,440, and with the Board’s approval of $43,072, the district will be able to obtain eight (8) new full-size buses. The approval was unanimous for the additional $43,072.
After an Executive Session, the Board unanimously approved the personnel actions recommended by the Superintendent.
In Board Comments, District 2 Board Member Sandra Morris said she hopes the people who were so critical of the Board during the HB581 Opt-Out meetings are taking note of the rollback millage rate approval, and how the school system is operating on Budget, as well as the academic achievements in the system as a whole.
The meeting was then adjourned.