Rockdale Career Academy CEO Tim Melvin resigned from his post as of Feb. 23.
According to the personnel recommendations at the March 11 Board of Education work session, former RCA Assistant Principal Miki Edwards was named as interim CEO on March 1. A personnel hearing was also reportedly held for Melvin on March 1.
Melvin had been with the RCA since its opening in 2005. Prior to that he had reportedly been an assistant principal in Garden City, a program director with the Secondary Technical Center, and an officer in the Army from 1984 to 1988, according to his biography with DeKalb Tech.
A posting for the CEO position was listed on TeachGeorgia.com as of March 7.Edwards, a lifelong resident of the county, was a seventh grade science teacher, assistant principal and principal at Memorial Middle, and was involved with opening of the RCA.
"It was working with the opening of the RCA program that really drew me to wanting to be here because I was amazed with what all we would be offering to the high school students here in Rockdale," she said. She said her goal during the interim period was to continue to expand the programs for students and build relationships in the community. "RCA has been and will continue to grow as an asset to Rockdale county."
In other BOE business:
RCPS, like all Georgia school systems, is grappling with budget cuts and trying to figure out what Governor Sonny Perdue’s recently announced revenue revisions and budget cuts will mean to Rockdale schools.
The RCPS budget committee was meeting when they received news of the additional cuts.
"That was really frustrating," said board member Darlene Hotchkiss. "We are going to have to do the two furloughs, (the two snow days), but the cuts are immense, just for this year… We know that this is a hardship on our teachers by having to do furlough days. The problem is the budget keeps getting cut that we can’t find another way to not do furloughs." She pointed out the effects of the recent two furloughs would be spread out and not taken out of just one pay period.
"That basically shot everything we’d been working on for the last 30 minutes," said BOE Chairman Wales Barksdale, of Perdue’s announcement. "We don’t know what we’ve got to work with." Cabinet staff are in the process of figuring out what it could mean for Rockdale, he explained.
Barksdale emphasized that the board’s priority would be to preserve student performance.
"I do feel like education has taken a larger proportion of cuts than it should. And other things don’t seem to be getting much scrutiny," he said.
