Latest news, weather and high school sports for Albany and Southwest Georgia

ALBANY, GA -- A new state mandate requires all school boards to draft an ethics policy. Now, the Dougherty County School System has about a month to figure theirs out.

“Set the bar high and act with integrity. It will reflect well on the entire school system,” said school board chairman David Maschke.

Maschke is hoping the board will lead by example as they mull over a new ethics policy.

“The state board of education has mandated that all school boards adopt an ethics policy. So now we're in the hopes that we have closed in on what the ethics policy will look like,” said Maschke.

At the center of the new policy is trying to figure out how to deal with members voting on matters dealing with friend and business relationships.

“The intent is for when board members when they have a conflict, that they make the rest of board aware of it and then also recuse themselves from voting on that issue,” said Maschke.

The school board was not ready to make a decision on their ethics policy today, but they will have to make a decision during their next meeting on December 13th.

“They well they got to adopt this by the first of the year and so hopefully we'll get it done and mailed out to everybody and they will be able to adopt it,” said School System Attorney Tommy Coleman.