Clinton County Board of Education held a brief regular meeting Monday, April 9 at the Central Office with all board members present. The board also met briefly at the end of the meeting with members of the Superintendent Screening Committee. (A separate article on the screening process can be found beginning on page 1.)

The board first recognized several academic team students from both Clinton County Middle School and Albany Elementary for their accomplishments this past year in academic competition. The teams had placed well in several competitions including the district and state levels and also have several individual students finishing high or winning first place in various academic areas.

There were a total of 34 students recognized, 17 from each school.

Those students recognized from the elementary team were: Conlan Beck, Parker Choate, Jessica Criswell, Dalton Gregory, Caleb Guffey, Jackson Harlan, Paige Hicks, Bobbianne Key, Quade Martin, Emma McClellan, Jaden Mullins, Garrett Page, Logan Rigney, Rachel Sawyers, Delilah Talbott, Keonna Thompson, Jaxen Wallace.

Those middle school students recognized were: Gabby Beaty, Mary Willen Cross, Kaylynn Dalton, Seth Daniels, Mildred Dominguez, Zack Garmon, Haley Huckelby, Matthew Hunter, Zach McFall, Levi Neathery, Hunter Rigney, Noah Stockton, Chandra Tallent, Carly Upchurch, Jared Upchurch, Frank Zheng, Vivian Zheng.

After approving a family medical leave for Beth Sullivan through May 16, the board approved four between meeting disbursements, voted to pay claims and bills and heard a brief personnel report from Superintendent Mickey McFall. Only two classified personnel had been hired, including Jennifer Riddle, paraprofessional district wide and Nick Irwin, assistant CCHS baseball coach.

The board then amended the school calendar for the 2011-12 school year–one that required little amending. Only two days have been missed this school year, on January 3 and 13 and those days are to be made up on Monday and Tuesday May 14 and 15, with the latter date on Tuesday being the final day of classes for students. CCHS graduation is scheduled for Friday, May 18 at 7 p.m.

The board then approved Wilson and Company CPAs of Somerset to do the annual school district audit this year. The board has used this company for several years. The audit rate will be $20,250, which is $500 above last year’s rate.

An overnight trip for the girls’ softball team to Glasgow this coming weekend, April 13 and 14, was also approved, pending the Lady Bat Dawgs win its opening round game in the district tournament, which would require them playing in the championship game on Saturday morning.

Following an overview by Supt. McFall, the board voted unanimously to approve specific assurances that the use of Race to the Top funding will be targeted toward complying with performance measures as described in the action plan and scope of work agreement.

McFall told the board that Clinton County came in on the third round of funding through the new federal grant program and the district will receive $36,000. Most of the funds will be used for curriculum development, technology and professional training.

The board also approved a letter of agreement with the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation to implement Advance Kentucky, an initiative for Clinton County High School.

CCHS Principal Sheldon Harlan said the high school had been part of the highly successful program for five years now and added the budget for the program is $46,000 this year. Some $5,000 will be used from the aforementioned Race to the Top grant and other funding from matching sources.

Harlan said the program had been a tremendous success at CCHS and allows students to interact and learn with students in other area schools involved in the program. The incentive includes the AP test in which if a student scores a three (on a one to five scale) or higher, they earn college credits, up to nine total in a study area if they receive a five on the test.

Harlan said this year the subject areas under Kentucky Advance locally were English and History and they hope to add Biology and Statistics. He said anywhere from 80 to 100 students would benefit from the program, possibly up to 150 later on.

Director of Pupil Personnel Charlotte Bernard then gave the monthly attendance report for the seventh month of the school year. Overall, attendance district-wide was down slightly, from 92.29 last year to 92.08 the seventh month of this year.

Bernard said illness and a bad weather day in which school was dismissed early (due to severe storm threats) may have been factors in the overall decrease for the month. However, overall attendance for the year thus far remains up from last year, standing at 93.5 percent as a whole going into the final weeks of school.

The next regular meeting of Clinton County Board of Education is scheduled for May 14 at 5 p.m. at the Central Office and is open to the general public.