Statham Elementary School Governance Team Packet Summary — August 14, 2026
Key Items on the Agenda
The Statham Elementary School Governance Team is scheduled to begin its school-year governance work with organizational decisions, annual training, and reviews of district and school priorities. The agenda includes approval of the meeting agenda, a principal’s recognition and report, opportunities for requests to appear before the team, informational discussions, and three new-business action items.
Electing SGT Leadership
The team is scheduled to elect a chair and vice chair. The School Governance Team bylaws provide for those officers to be elected each year at the August meeting; current officers may be re-elected.
The chair works with the principal to set agendas, presides over meetings, and represents the school on the Cluster Governance Team. The vice chair substitutes for the chair when needed and also serves on the Cluster Governance Team. The principal may not serve as chair and generally does not vote except to break a tie.
Setting the Full-Year Meeting Calendar
The team is also scheduled to select its meeting dates for the full school year. The packet directs the SGT to meet once per month, with November and December permitted to be covered by a single combined meeting.
After the dates are set, the packet calls for the meeting schedule and SGT members’ names and email addresses to be sent to Linda Trotter. The team is also expected to identify its chair, vice chair, and recorder so recorder training and Cluster Governance Team representation can be arranged.
Conduct and Confidentiality Agreement
A third action item calls for approval and signing of the Appropriate Conduct and Confidentiality Agreement by each SGT member, with a copy kept on file at the school.
The agreement requires members to participate in training, attend meetings regularly, represent all students, work collaboratively, respect the school system’s chain of command, and comply with meeting norms. It also emphasizes restrictions on access to confidential information about individual students and employee performance or personnel actions.
Strategic and Governance Review
BCSS 2026–2031 Strategic Plan
The team is scheduled to review the Barrow County School System Strategic Plan: 2026–2031 along with the Charter System bylaws. The strategic plan organizes district priorities around five areas:
- Student Growth and Success: improving mastery of standards, literacy proficiency, and college, career, and life readiness.
- Quality Workforce: recruiting effective employees, retaining high-performing professionals, and developing and supporting staff.
- Operational Effectiveness: improving operational processes, maintaining fiscal responsibility and accountability, and allocating resources to prioritized needs.
- Community, Connection, and Commitment: strengthening communication, increasing family and community involvement, and expanding partnerships.
- Positive Culture and Safety: sustaining safe and welcoming environments, supporting social, emotional, and behavioral needs, and maintaining high expectations for students and staff.
Specific initiatives range from strengthening K–12 curriculum and literacy instruction to developing long-term fleet, technology, and facilities planning. The plan also includes cybersecurity assessment, strategic-plan integration into annual budgeting, expanded community partnerships, updated safety practices, and evaluation of student behavioral and social-emotional supports.
School Vision, Mission, and Beliefs
The agenda includes a review of the school’s vision, mission, and beliefs. This is presented as a review rather than an action to adopt changes at this meeting.
If changes are considered necessary, the packet recommends working through them with the school community over the following weeks or months. Any revisions would need to align with the BCSS strategic plan, and “Adopt School Vision, Mission, and Beliefs” would need to appear on a future meeting agenda before the SGT could take action on the changes.
Annual SGT Training and Meeting Procedures
The packet calls for annual training and orientation for SGT members. Two Charter Foundation training videos — Best Practices for Holding Meetings and Roles and Responsibilities — are assigned and together run approximately 35 minutes. Members may watch them before the meeting, with the agenda item providing an opportunity for questions and discussion.
A simplified guide to Robert’s Rules of Order is also included in the packet. It covers motions, amendments, referrals to committees, postponements, limits on debate, reconsideration, rescission, recesses, adjournment, and other meeting procedures. The SGT bylaws state that meetings are to be conducted under Robert’s Rules of Order or an adaptation approved by the team.
Governance Framework
The bylaws describe the School Governance Team as a body intended to make decisions and provide input supporting continuous school improvement. Its work is expected to align with the school improvement plan and resource priorities, benefit the overall student population and staff, support a positive school climate and stakeholder involvement, and recognize school successes.
The bylaws call for an SGT of 7 to 11 members, with an odd number of voting members. They also require annual training and execution of the conduct and confidentiality agreement. Regular SGT meetings are open to the public, and a majority of members constitutes a quorum for official business.
Public Participation
The agenda includes Requests to Appear Before the School Governance Team, with request forms and public-participation materials provided in English and Spanish.
The packet’s request form allows a citizen to identify a concern for SGT review, request a verbal presentation or submit a written statement, and suggest a resolution. It provides for a three-minute verbal presentation, with additional time possible at the chair’s discretion.
What to Watch at the Meeting
The most consequential scheduled actions are organizational: electing the chair and vice chair, establishing the SGT’s meeting calendar for the school year, and completing the required conduct and confidentiality agreement.
The strategic-plan and school vision discussions are framed differently. They are review and information items intended to orient the team to the district’s 2026–2031 priorities and the school’s own guiding statements. Any proposed changes to the school’s vision, mission, or beliefs would require additional community work and a future agenda item before formal SGT action.
