Orientation for new school board members was held before the regularly scheduled board meeting Monday.  “Never will I change a policy. It has to be the majority vote,” Superintendent of Schools James Jones explained to board members Russ Swafford, Mark Stone and L.W. Smith.  They were also advised that they must complete training in Nashville.

Jones provided salary information about 10-month employees and 12-month employees and minutes from last year’s meetings. Upon request from Smith a description of Treva Hyatt’s duties and pay was provided. “In the central office employees take on several jobs. We have a small staff for our area, he said, explaining that Hyatt handles the budget for Title I, Carl Perkins vocational money, and the school system.. She has been here for 17-18 years, he said, adding, “She does a good job.” He said they used to have Randy Buehler taking care of the budget, but he is no longer with the school system. When he left, Treva assumed that job and her salary went from $30,000 to $40,000 a year without a degree in finance. “If we hired someone with a finance degree we would pay around $70,000 a year,” explained Jones. Smith noted that he knew it was a hard job.

Mark Stone asked about a teacher that he knew of who has retired from the Fannin County School system after being there 30 yrs. and was wishing to be employed with the Polk County School System. Stone said he was unsure why she had to get another background check done after having a good record at Fannin. Jones said, “Every person we hire has to have a background check done. Someone could have a good background check somewhere else, then have something occur while they are there and still have a good background check from the beginning of employment. It is always required, even with substitute teachers.” Stone asked about another teacher not having had a background check. Jones said he would look into it. “If it is found that someone does not have a check done, they will be required to have it done by the end of the day or the next day,”  he said.

Regular Meeting:

$95,000 was amended to the general fund budget, which comes from the county budget to meet the yearly maintenance of effort required amount of funding.

A decision to raise substitute teacher pay was tabled until the next meeting.  

Yearly compliance to statutes and school board rules and regulations was approved. Louetta Moats explained that the compliance report is a list of laws that is gone through to see if the school system is following correctly. If something is found in non-compliance they have to make a plan to be in compliance.  

Treva Hyatt reported that she has spoken with a Verizon Wireless agent who said the school system should have been on a government contract for a while now. “The bus drivers have phones for emergencies-a child gets sick, or for some reason they have to call 911. With this new plan we should be able to save money.” The new contract was approved.

Overnight stay was approved for a field trip to Washington D.C.