Bethany Stephens

The Board of Education met this Monday for its July session.  Following standard opening procedures, the board approved a change in the agenda and went into closed session.  Upon reconvening, the board approved personnel lists as presented by Dr. Patricia Faulk, personnel director.  Sharon Penny, finance director, spoke with the board next and gave an informal financial summary due to accidentally forgetting to create a formal one.  Since the Capital Outlay Fund Balance is at the lowest that it has been in several years, Superintendent Greg Killingsworth informed the board that no roofing or major building projects (other than minor repairs) will take place until the Capital Outlay Fund is built back up.  Capital Outlay Funds are only used for buildings and site building and repair.

Marilyn Lee, the county’s new director of Curriculum and Instruction (previously filled by David Jordan), spoke with the board next giving them an overview of the program’s plans and thanking the board for hiring her.  Willa Dean Williams, director of Career and Technical Education, gave the board an update on her program as well and reported positive news concerning students who were proceeding on to compete and serve in various state level events.

The board next heard from Tripp Madden from Prudential Financial Services regarding the NC Deferred Compensation Plan for employees.  The plan would serve as an alternative to 401K plans already in place.  Since the plan is organized by the state, Madden explained that it is very cost effective for the county and would also be something that the county’s part-time workers could utilize.  Following the board’s approval to implement the Deferred Compensation Plan, the board also approved the designation of depositories and designation of school treasurers as presented by Sharon Penny and a fundraiser at Elizabethtown Primary School.

The board next heard from Amy Medlin, director of Child Nutrition, concerning the 2010-2011 Child Nutrition Calendar.  In an effort to reduce expenses and to treat Child Nutrition employees as fairly as possible, the proposed calendar would cut 7 working days (and hence salary for those days) for regular Child Nutrition employees and 4 for managers.  Medlin explained that all of the surrounding counties pay for even less days than the proposed calendar, and Child Nutrition employees are traditionally supposed to be a 9 to 9 and a half month position.  The proposed days to be cut from the calendar are made up of optional days when the kids are not at school.  Due to the majority of the Child Nutrition Staff choosing to take these days
off, Medlin explained that several of the employees were over cut on annual leave days which made their last paycheck considerably less anyway due to their pay being docked for these days.  Another option would be to lessen the hours of several of the employees, but this would result in bringing the workers’ hours below what would allow for benefits such as retirement, leave, and the like.  Medlin proposed that the latter option be the very last result unless absolutely necessary as there are several Child Nutrition workers close to retirement.  Medlin explained that the cut calendar option would have considerablly less impact on the workers’ finances and would closer align our county’s program with what surrounding counties are doing.  Since the program is overstaffed right now, the program can make these cuts and not fill retired positions in the next few years to get back on track without losing any current employees’ jobs.  After extended discussion, the board asked Medlin if she would provide the board with a more exact average of what the cut would cost employees each month before approving the proposed calendar.  It was decided that the calendar would be voted on next month upon receiving this information.

Superintendent Greg Killingsworth later invited the board to the principals’ retreat.  This year’s retreat will take place at Allen Brothers' Hunting Preserve the twentieth of July until the twenty-second.  Because the Allen brothers are donating the site for the retreat, the only cost for the retreat will be the price of meals.  The retreat will focus on writing and reading across the curriculum and related information.  In addition to news of the retreat, it was decided that Board Member Bruce Dickerson would not attend board training in order to cut expenses as he would be stepping down from his position shortly after the training.  Lastly, Killingsworth briefly discussed progress being made towards cutting fuel and mileage in order to save funds next year.