Last week’s meeting of the Metcalfe County Board of Education was routine except for two issues.

Superintendent Patricia Hurt recently attended a meeting of ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Association.) “It’s not as positive an outlook as we would have liked to have heard,” she said. “But in an effort to be as transparent as possible with the board and the community, in terms of budgeting, we have been anticipating a 9.1 percent cut to all federal education programs.” Those programs include Title I and II, IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and Head Start. “This is as large a cut as we have seen in my seven years here.” Nothing is etched in stone yet, but Hurt wanted to give warning of possible cuts.

Board Chair Joey Shive brought up the resolution he first proposed at the February board meeting. The resolution calls for board approval prior to the purchase of fixed assets costing in excess of $3,000. After last month’s discussion, the resolution was amended to include an emergency clause.

Lakettia O’Leary expressed her disappointment of the $3,000 cutoff. Looking over the last budget she noted that most items purchased by the district would exceed that dollar amount.

“We’ve already approved the budget and approved a set amount in each area,” she said.

Another problem O’Leary sees with this resolution is that some purchases are made from the general fund, some from grant money, and some from a combination of the two.

She also stated that she had conducted a survey of 40 Kentucky school districts and none had a $3,000 cutoff for requiring board approval.

Discussion continued for some time with no real consensus. Shive even offered to attend special called meetings for purchase approval at no charge to the district, since extra meetings would be required if the resolution was in place.

Tim Brown suggested the resolution be designed for single items costing in excess of $3,000, not for multiple items on a single purchase order which total more than $2,000.

Finally, an amended resolution incorporating Brown’s suggestion was approved by a three to one vote. Donnie Perry voted against it; Karen Tudor did not vote.