Parkside Kindergarten Teacher Jordan Bradford, right, and Parkside Gifted Teacher Kristie Walker listen to updates from CCBOE Superintendent Shane Barnette at the community meeting held at Parkside Elementary School Thursday, Oct. 6.

The Cullman County Board of Education held its first of many planned community meetings since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the gatherings more than two years ago. CCBOE Superintendent Shane Barnette, along with several board members, gathered Thursday, Oct. 6, at Parkside Elementary providing parents and community members an update to the health of the district and provided them an opportunity to directly offer suggestions.

“More than anything, I just want parents, and everybody really, to kind of see what’s going on across the district and ask questions or make suggestions,” Barnette said.

One main topic of discussion was the various updates that have been ongoing at the district’s campuses, mainly consisting of the installation of newer, more efficient LED lighting and replacing outdated HVAC systems. Barnette said that these projects are not only providing students with a more comfortable learning environment but also reducing the districts’ $2.5 million annual energy costs by as much as 60 percent.

One particular project that was welcomed with enthusiastic applause was the announcement that the Parkside gymnasium had recently been added to the list of facilities within the district that will soon be receiving centralized air conditioning.

“What we’ve done, me and the board, is we’ve gone back and looked at everywhere that somebody doesn’t have access to an air conditioned gym for assemblies or for whatever and we are going to start off with air conditioning them first,” Barnette said.

The improvements that the district has made in graduation rates in recent years was also highlighted with Barnette saying, “We are blessed in Cullman County right now, because we have continued to excel at preparing our students for life after high school. Over the last six years we have continued to increase our graduation rate and our college and career readiness rates.”

Barnette attributed this increase to the employees of the CCBOE who refuse to wash their hands of students who might be contemplating dropping out.

“I’ve got a group of people in this room that if there is a kid that thinks they are going to drop out, we bring them in and sit them down and say ‘Oh, no you’re not’,” he said.

Barnette said that in addition to graduations that occur in May, the CCBOE has held additional graduations over the summer for students that may have required a little extra time to receive their diploma.

“We’ve held some in our board room for four kids one summer. and I’ll tell you what, they packed out the board room. They brought their grandparents or aunts and uncles from other states, and they’re all sitting and crying in our board room because their kid is graduating,” Barnette said.

The only public comment came in the form of enquiring as to if the CCBOE had any plans to educate the public on November’s election that will decide if the superintendent position will remain appointed or be elected.

“We haven’t done anything yet. At some point we’ll share some information about the difference, because it is a bit confusing. On the actual ballot it will say something like, ‘Do you want to elect the superintendent every four years?’ It’s kind of deceiving. People that are not familiar with the education system, they might not realize that we can hire [as opposed to electing],” Barnette said.