JONESBORO — At its Monday, Aug. 28 work session, the Clayton County Board of Education voted to extend its summer math and reading tutor program into the school year.
The School Board implemented the program — called Grow Your Own — this summer when some 130 high school students were hired as math and reading tutors. The program was not only created to help teachers in the classroom and to help students who need tutoring but to give high school students who are interested in pursuing a career in education a chance to get some experience.
In the Aug. 28 meeting, the school board voted 5-0-4 to extend the program into the school year after feedback from staff and students.
Approving the extension were school board Chair Jessie Goree, Mary Baker, Dee Haney, Victoria Williams, and Benjamin Straker.
Abstaining were Jasmine Bowles, Mark Christmas, Sabrina Hill, and Joy Tellis-Cooper.
None of the school board members who abstained is against the program. Christmas, Hill, and Tellis-Cooper were concerned about the financials while Bowles wanted more information about how it will affect the tutors’ own classwork.
“This is a little premature in my opinion and just want to see a little more information how this will be laid out throughout the year,” Bowles said.
According to the original plan, 200 tutors were budgeted to be hired but 130 were actually hired, freeing up money for the program to be offered during the school year, Goree said.
“Why can’t they continue now?” Goree said. “We have the money to do it.”
Students ages 15 to 17 worked from June 1 to 29 six hours a day at $15 per hour.
When the tutorial training was over, students were paired with a district teacher to help summer school students who needed more support in reading and math.
Many teachers and students requested to have the program continue through the school…
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