AMERICUS — Sumter B.O.E adopts tentative budget,

Hires new principals





By ROBERT GRIFFIN

robert.griffin@gaflnews.com

americustimesrecorder.com



AMERICUS— Looking down the barrel of a looming deadline, and faced with state budget cuts, with possibly more to come, the Sumter Board of Education adopted the tentative FY 2009-2010 budget at their meeting on Tuesday night. Before the meeting the board went into closed session to discuss personnel issues. When they came back into open session the board voted unanimously to the personnel changes, which included the hiring of Sharon Marcus as principal of Sumter County Elementary School, and Stacy Mack as principal of Early College.

Marcus moves up, after serving the past year as the Assistant principal of Sumter County Primary School. Marcus holds a Bachelor of Science degree in middle grades education from Georgia Southwestern State University as well as certification in different area such as Educational leadership, school counseling (p-12) and Middle Grades science and social studies.

Besides her work this past year as assistant principal, Marcus had spent 2002-2008 as a school counselor at Sumter County Primary and Elementary Schools. Marcus started her career as a science teacher at Staley Middle School in 1991.

Mack moves up to principal after serving the past two years as Assistant principal of A.S. Staley Middle School. Mack possesses a Bachelor of Science in Education from Georgia Southern University as well as a Masters in Education (Educational Leadership) from Troy State University. Mack is currently pursuing her Specialist degree in education from Troy State University. Mack has been in the Sumter County School System for all of her career, starting as a teacher at Sumter County Middle School in 1992 and working her way up to assistant Principal of Americus-Sumter High School-North Campus.

After the personnel decisions were made, the board focused its attention on the budget for 2009-2010. There was little discussion about the budget, since it had been done in previous committees. Michael Busman, the head of the finance committee did offer a comment about the budget. “With the cost of everything going up, and the cuts from the state, we cut three million dollars from the budget this year compared to last years,” Busman said.



The next meeting of the Sumter County Board of Education will be held Thursday July 16, at 6 p.m. at the Board of Education meeting room located at 100 Learning Lane.