Clinton County Board of Education held a lengthy work session Thursday, January 17, prior to its regular meeting Monday night.

A few presentations and several topics were discussed during the one hour and 40-minute session, which ironically began with the announcement that board chairperson Paula Key had resigned the week before and it being the first official meeting for new board member Bobbi Ann Bair.

All other active board members were present for the meeting.

(A separate story on Paula Key can be found beginning on page 1.)

The board, on a motion by Sue Irwin, voted to change four high school assistant football coaching stipends at $1,500 each to two stipends at $3,000 each.

On a motion by Gary Norris, the board approved an agreement with Cumberland County Board of Education to establish a contract for a Skills U (Adult Education) staff to deliver services under the Cumberlands Skill U Consortium.

The Cumberland County School District will basically oversee the funding related to that program.

Nat Turner, Mechanical Engineer for the school district, then updated the board on the conditions of the heating and cooling systems (HVAC) at each school, as the district is looking to move forward with upgrading those systems due to the age of the units.

The school with the most need at this time is Albany Elementary, which has a system that is over 20 years old, or past its regular life expectancy.

Superintendent Nasief said there was bonding money saved back that would help pay for the upgrades for the first few years and make bond payments lower in future years.

Board architects were expected to be at Monday night’s meeting to explain the process in more detail.

Finance Director Mike Reeves also gave a review of the 2019-20 fiscal year draft budget, which requires no action.

Reeves reviewed the very preliminary estimates of expenditures and receipts, saying the only totally set numbers were the salary scale.

There is some $7.8 million in salaries, about 80 percent of the total budget.

The proposed budget totals $16.1 million, however, Reeves tried to explain again about “on-behalf” funds, or funds the district receives from the state but by federal law has to be included in local district budgets.

Reeves said there was approximately $4.2 million of those type “on-behalf” funds figured into the district’s budget, meaning that amount not having to be totaled in the budget would bring it closer to $12 million.

A tentative budget will be presented for a vote in May and the actually working budget will be presented for action in September.

Superintendent Nasief then conducted the board work session that covered several topics, including sharing information with the new board members.

The topics included in the work session was on the agenda, most to be voted on, during the regular meeting Monday of this week.

Nasief did discuss at length a couple of topics, including a proposed second School Resource Officer (SRO) through the sheriff’s office and “emeetings” which would allow lengthy board packets to be emailed in advance to board members via the internet.

She also noted that the Lexington Herald-Leader had called her in reference to Clinton County being only one of 17 school districts in the state that still allows for corporal punishment.

(Details of the board’s regular meeting held Monday night can be found beginning on page 1.)