FRANKLIN
Franklin City Public Schools’ school board will hold a special called meeting on Thursday, Feb. 2, at 6 p.m., in the conference room of the school board office in city hall. The stated purpose of the meeting according to the announcement by FCPS is to discuss and consider the QZAB Report, monthly financials, bills for payment, audit findings, the fiscal year 2017-2018 budget, school start times, overnight field trip requests and board member biographies.

According to Bob Holt, chairman of the board, the QZAB Report is an update on the status of the school division’s repayment of money that Franklin’s city council borrowed from the Commonwealth of Virginia to fund school division projects during a previous fiscal year.

The discussion of audit findings listed on the agenda, according to Holt, pertains to the audit of the school division that Franklin’s city council conducted for fiscal year 2014-2015 and the five internal control issues that were identified.

“That’s been an ongoing issue for over a year now so we hope to put that to bed,” he said.

But Holt expects the majority of the meeting will focus on determining a budget for fiscal year 2017-2018 so that the board can present city council with a funding request by April or May of this year.

The discussion of school start times will investigate concerns raised by both he and interim superintendent Kelvin Edwards Sr. recently that Franklin’s schools may be starting too early to allow children to get sufficient amounts of sleep.

“Data shows that schools are starting too early; kids are still asleep, especially at the high school level,” Holt said.

But Holt added that the discussion of start times will likely be just that, a discussion, and that the board has no plans to make any changes to school start times at the moment.

The meeting will be open to the public.

The school board will hold another called meeting on Monday, Feb. 6, at 11 a.m., also in the conference room of the school board office in city hall, to meet with a representative of the Virginia School Boards Association and lay out a plan for the division’s superintendent search, which will also be open to the public.