Clinton County Board of Education held its regular business meeting Monday evening, October 19 with all members present.

Paige Squires, Certified Public Accountant, first presented the 2014-15 year auditor’s report which showed no significant findings and was basically another clean audit for the district as a whole.

The board then approved minutes of previous meetings, approved between meeting disbursements and voted to pay claims and bills, as well as approving the following leave of absences: a family medical leave for Connie Riddle through October 18; a maternity leave for Shannon Shearer through November 30; and a family medical leave for Lonnie Marcum through October 20.

Two new school buses were purchased by the board through the KISTA program at a total cost of $199,296, with the board approving a resolution to participate in the program for the bus purchase. One of the buses will be a handicapped accessible vehicle and both will have air conditioning.

After approving activity fund budgets for each of the schools, the board approved a shortened school day for some students with disabilities, including two students at Albany Elementary, one at the middle school and three who attends Clinton County High School.

The board then voted to eliminate the position of Director of District Wide Programs as a revenue saving measure, approved each schools’ 2015-16 field trip schedules and Finance Director Mike Reeves gave a brief monthly finance report.

Board chairperson Paula Key then gave the following personnel report:

* Certified hired: Ashley Hardin, part-time Exceptional Education teacher of the visually impaired; Gina Poore, Future Problem Solving coach at CCHS; Amanda Hatfield, writing tutor at the middle school.

* Certified retired: Tina Langford, district-wide.

* Certified resignation: Kathleen Gregory, archery coach/director at Clinton County High School.

* Classified transfer: Maricris Grider from ECC cook to part-time ECC cook and part-time cook at the middle school.

* Substitute teacher: Kim Hadley, district-wide.

The board then approved the annual District Staffing Document listing all certified and classified positions currently established by the board and approved an overnight trip for selected band members from CCHS to Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee on November 19-21.

An SRO will now be placed at Clinton County High School, thanks to a collaboration between the City of Albany and school board, as the board voted to enter into an agreement with the city for the purpose of hiring a School Resource Officer for a period of one year, beginning November 16.

Supt. Charlotte Bernard noted the SRO was being provided for through a grant received by the city and that Mayor Nicky Smith had requested the officer be placed at CCHS the first year. He will have an eight-hour shift at the school during that time.

The grant itself is for a total of three years and will be renewable for two more years beginning in 2016. Board members feel in light of recent national incidents involving school related shootings, now was the perfect time to have the SRO in place.

The board then voted to approve a revised job description for Director of Finance, Finance Office and Finance Secretary, basically updating the job description duties of each staff member.

Julie York, Director of Pupil Personnel, then gave the monthly attendance report for the second month, which ran September 2-29.

Attendance for the month stood at 95.03, just two tenths of a percent lower than a year ago when the average daily attendance was 95.27. The school with both the highest rate of attendance for the month (96.11) and most improved attendance from last year was the Early Childhood Center.

York also noted that an Attendance Audit, the first of its kind that had been done in the last several years, was conducted locally earlier this month and the audit turned out to be excellent for the district. She noted the hard work and good job the staff members who keep attendance records were doing.

AES principal Tim Armstrong then addressed the board and notified them of a private citizen donation that will see a portable carport installed at the student pick-up area of the school. The 14 foot high car-port will help keep students, parents and staff “out of the weather,” so to speak when children are being dropped off or picked up from school and will be at no cost to the district.

The regular business portion of the meeting lasted approximately 45 minutes, with the board then entering into executive session to once again discuss litigation in the case of James C. Thaxton and Michael P. Sinclair vs. Clinton County Board of Education and others, which is pending in U.S. District Court, Western District in Bowling Green.

No action was taken on the litigation following the closed session, but the meeting agenda was approved prior to adjournment.

The next workshop session of the board of education is scheduled for November 12 at 4:30 p.m., with the next regular business meeting scheduled for November 16 at 5 p.m., both at the Central Office board room and both open to the general public.