By TARA HETTINGER
The Greater Clark County Schools board approved the recently ratified contract with the teachers association, set up a new system that will make the board more transparent to the community, accepted a donation to the superintendent’s salary and much more at their meeting Tuesday night.
CONTRACTS
The board voted 6-0, with Christina Gilkey absent, in favor of the teachers’ 2-year contract, which includes a 0.75 percent raise retroactive to July 1, 2009, and it will open up for negotiations on salary for the second year as well as talks on one contract language issue.
The contract also includes language about teacher layoffs.
“Any staff reductions in Greater Clark County Schools for the 2010-2011 school year will be due to overstaffing and not due to state budget reductions,” it stated.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Nick Wiese, president of the teachers’ association, said about the contract. “We can move on and work on other things, like Race to the Top and what we do best, which is teaching.”
The board also approved the same amount of a raise for the Greater Clark Service Association, which represents bus drivers and monitors, and for those not represented by a union, such as cafeteria managers, certified supervisors, principals, and health assistants. TRANSPARENCY
The board approved the implementation of BoardDocs, a Web-based service for school board members to replace the binders filled with paperwork for each meeting.
Superintendent Stephen Daeschner said the move will help make the board more transparent. He said the Fridays prior to the upcoming Tuesday meetings, the entire board packet, which includes details of each item that will be voted on as well as the personnel report, will be made public via the Internet.
“It’s so transparent,” said Becka Christensen, board member, who admits that technology isn’t her strongest suit. “I’m going to be in every class and I will strive to do very well on it.”
Each board member will get to use a Dell laptop as part of the program. Missy DeArk, board member, said members will get to ask questions on agenda items more efficiently and more quickly with the program.
The cost to the program is $3,700 the first year and $2,700 each year after that. That pays for maintenance, support, training, customization and more. The district will also have to purchase computers for the board members. The approved motion includes buying a laptop for each member, costing $1,077 each.
“It’s going to save us a great deal of money, just with the paperwork I’ve seen since I’ve been on the board,” Christensen said.
The board voted 5-1 in favor of the program and the purchase of the laptops, with Ernie Gilbert, board president, being the sole no vote. Gilbert said he felt the dollars could be spent in a better way for the district, during this down economy.
FACILITIES CHANGE
The board approved a reorganization of the facilities department that will make the energy educator also in charge of supervising laborers and moving the director of facilities to more of a pro-active planning role, rather than a re-active one, according to Frank Collesano, chief financial officer.
Collesano said in a prior interview that the reorganization will prepare the department for having one less position. He said one of three people holding the higher paid positions in the department is set to retire in about a year. Collesano wouldn’t say who that was, but said that position would be eliminated.
WIRELESS
The board also approved the installation of a wireless network at Charlestown Middle School at a cost of $96,438.95 to Boice.net, according to the recommendation.
Marty Bell, chief operating officer who wrote the recommendation, said in it the network installation would be funded by using the technology common school loan fund and the capital projects fund.
FROM RED TO BLACK
Collesano made a presentation to the board, saying that the $99 million bond order to renovate the three high schools had been in the red, but various changes, including approving only necessary change orders, has brought the fund to a surplus of $668,779.
Collesano said some of those funds will be used to purchase a marquee for Charlestown High School similar to the one at Jeffersonville High School, scoreboards at the softball and baseball fields at CHS and library furniture at CHS.
He said the rest will be saved for any unforeseen circumstances, since the projects are on-going. The money may also help with the budget cuts coming from the state, he added.
Also at the meeting:
• In a 5-1 vote, with Gilbert voting against, the board approved hiring a consultant from Sodexho Services of Indiana to evaluate the district’s food service program and provide recommendations to improve food quality and efficiency of service.
The cost of the agreement is $8,357 per month.
The recommendation stated that based on analysis, the number of meals made per labor hour is low compared to national averages and food costs are 5-12 percent higher than acceptable standards.
• The Community Foundation of Southern Indiana gave another donation to Greater Clark totaling $5,800.
That donation is to help off-set Daeschner’s salary.
Collesano said the total received so far is $35,800. He said the target is $75,000.
• Daeschner said the board will receive information at their meeting on Feb. 9 detailing what will be done in light of the recent announcement of budget cuts coming from the state level.
