The Walker County school board plans to continue its relationship with Communities in Schools, or CIS, to assist children and families in need.

Marlo Watson, executive director of the program, talked with the Board of Education on Tuesday, during the board’s monthly planning session, about some of the problems in Walker, including the high dropout rate, absenteeism and undereducated parents.

The CIS mission is “to champion the connection of needed community resources with schools to help young people successfully learn, stay in school and prepare for life,” Watson said.

According to the Georgia Department of Education, Walker County only achieved a 57.6 percent completion rate in 2002, which earned the county a ranking of 161 of 173 school systems. The completion rate is the percentage of students who enter high school in the ninth grade and finish four years later.

Watson said she believes the program makes a difference. Walker curriculum director Dane Ward said the program really came together about two years ago and agreed it benefits families, students and educators.

“We’ve shifted from second to third gear,” he said. “We’re not into fourth yet, but I think we are getting there.”

In 2001, Walker County Partners for Family Connection teamed up with CIS to form the Walker County Connection, Watson said. Prior to the merger, Partners for Family Connection focused on families in the county while CIS addressed the dropout rate. Now they work together as one organization.

Before the merger, services were often duplicated, Ward said.

“It was a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing,” he said.

The board is considering continuing its agreement to act as the fiscal agent for CIS.

Other statistics Watson provided the board included 67 percent of Walker residents older than 25 have at least a General Educational Development, or GED, versus the state’s 79 percent in 2000. Also, in 2001, 33 percent of babies in Walker are born to mothers with fewer than 12 years of education. The state showed only 24 percent in that situation the same year.

In other business Tuesday, Lowell Kirkman, the architect designing the replacements for Rossville Middle School and Chattanooga Valley Middle School, met with the board to explain some terms of the contract. The board was reluctant to allow a paragraph, which states the board cannot charge professional negligence against Kirkman’s work without written certification by another practicing architect.

Kirkman said his firm has been involved in two frivilous lawsuits that were eventually dismissed, but cost him thousands of dollars in legal fees. He said the clause provides him an additional layer of protection against similar unnecessary legal action.

The school board’s regular monthly meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 17, at 7 p.m. in the Board of Education building at 201 S. Duke St., LaFayette. The agenda includes discussion about several agreements and policy revisions.

The board also plans to hear maintenance director Clarence Boyle’s update on the building program and from concerned resident and former teacher Dee Jackson.

Jackson said she intends to clarify the position of LaFayette High School principal Jon Pike’s supporters. The board last month declined to renew his contract