Clinton County Board of Education held its first work session of 2017 last Thursday evening at the Central Office with all board members present except Goldie Stonecipher. It was also the first meeting attended by newest member Gary Norris.

The session was both a work session and meeting, with presentations being made and votes being taken during the just over one-hour meeting.

The board first heard a presentation from Early Childhood Center Principal Sheldon Harlan pertaining to MAP data, followed by a presentation from Albany Elementary School Principal Tim Armstrong on student data, both MAP and KPREP.

The data from each school was for the first half of the current school year, and although both noted some deficiencies, they look forward to improvement over the course of the current second semester in all areas, as was seen during the last school year.

Principal Harlan thanked the board for implementing the “all-day” preschool program for several students, saying he believed that would definitely help improve student learning at an early age.

It was also noted that beginning this year, students enrolling in Kindergarten must turn five years old by August 1, as opposed to the current October 1 date.

Principal Armstrong also praised the all-day preschool program, and stressed the need for more parental involvement in each child’s education.

Following the data presentations, the board voted 3-1 to hire Angie Capps, of Burkesville, as board attorney. She will replace Lindsey Bell, who has served in that capacity for the past several years. Bell, who apparently had limited time to put into the job, is currently the Cumberland County Attorney.

The motion to hire Capps to represent the board was made by board chairperson Paula Key, with board members Kevin Marucm and Jeff Sams also voting yes and board member Norris voting no.

The board, on a motion by Sams, then voted to adjust days for the position of Mechanic II (at the bus garage) from 241 to 221 days.

They also approved Sherman Carter Barnhart Architects to evaluate the Early Childhood Center and Albany Elementary School at a cost of five cents per square foot for the purpose of updating the district facility plan.

The facility plan originally called for only the high school, middle school and Area Technology Center be evaluated, but after the first meeting of the District Facilities Planning Committee and a request from Principal Armstrong, the board opted to include the other two facilities.

Superintendent Charlotte Nasief noted that the total cost for evaluations on both schools, based on the square footage, would be a combined total of $5,894.80. She also noted with the plans in place on all facilities, the district may be able to put together a 10-year facility plan and use available funding as needed.

On a motion by board member Marcum, the board also voted unanimously to enter into an agreement with American Engineers, Inc. for the purpose of geo-technical exploration for Albany Elementary School sinkhole treatment in the amount of $2,615, with Sherman Carter Bernhard Architects to oversee the project.

The sinkhole problem is something of an ongoing one at AES, beginning years ago when it began to fall in and the problem is apparently back, as the district will look for ways to repair the problem.

Board member Norris said the building (school) was basically constructed on top of a cave system and two other sinkholes were also on the property, around the playground area.

During the work session portion of the meeting, Finance Director Mike Reeves gave an overview of the draft budget which was to be presented to the board at its regular meeting held earlier this week. No vote on the draft budget is required and a tentative budget will be presented in May.

Reeves noted that as of right now, the district was “right where they should be” financially and estimated the general fund budget would end up approximately $400,000 in the black. But, he said it was time the district began looking at the upcoming budget for 2017-18.

He told the board that the overall budget figure was around $14 million, but with “made-on-behalf” funds paid by the state, included benefits, etc., is required to be included in the local budget and that the actual amount for the district would be closer to about $11.6 million that goes through the local district.

Superintendent Bernard then presented a brief work session on some topics to be presented on the regular business meeting agenda. (Details on the regular monthly meeting of the board held Monday night of this week can be found in a separate article, this week beginning on page 1.)