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HUNTSVILLE — By a 6-0 vote, with one member absent, the Scott County Board of Education has approved payment of $50 per day for accumulated sick leave of retiring teachers.

That action came during the course of a lengthy, mostly routine session held at the Central Office here Thursday night.

Reimbursement for accumulated sick leave days of “certified personnel” will be included in the final check issued to the retiree. However, in order to be approved for the new benefit, the retiring teacher must notify the director of schools at least 90 days prior to the effective date of his or her retirement.

Another condition suggested by Sam Wright and included in the motion was that the retiree will be paid only for those sick leave days which were built up during a teacher’s employment by the Scott County Board of Education, and not those which were transferred in from another school system.

In related matters, the board voted 6-0 (with Board Chairman Jake Sharp absent due to illness) to approve the certified personnel salary schedule for the upcoming school year, and accepted an employment/job description form to be implemented for classified staff with the start of the new school year.

Of the latter, Director of Schools Sharon Wilson said the vote to approve the employment/job description form “brings us into compliance with our own policy” and “will make dealing with personnel a lot more efficient . . . . We’ll put it to good use.”

Wright told fellow board members that he had started working toward adoption of the employment/job description form for system employees eight years earlier, adding that he was glad to see it adopted before he stepped down from his seat on the board.

“I appreciate all the work that went into it,” Wright stated.

Board member Brian Strunk, acting as chairman in the absence of Sharp, read aloud the annual board evaluation of Director Wilson, saying she had received “a highly satisfied rating of 3.90 out of a possible 5.0” on her evaluation and was to be congratulated for her performance in her first year as director of schools.

On a motion by Esther Abbott, second by Wright, and an all-aye vote, the board presented the evaluation to Director Wilson.

In other business Thursday night, the board:

• Approved a differential pay plan as agreed upon through negotiations with the Scott County Education Association – a pay plan for certified personnel to be funded and implemented at the start of the new school year. Director Wilson explained that it was part of a 2007 legislative act which had given local school systems a year to implement. She added that of various ways the differential pay plan could have been implemented, Scott County chose lowering the teacher-student ratio in the classroom as its path;

• On a motion by Rodney West and second by Abbott, the board voted to approve a re-bid of vender services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Distance Learning and Telecommunications Grant, and to carry over all funds related to the project which involves a partnership with the Rhea County and Hancock County school systems;

• Approved awarding Food Services bids to Institutional Wholesale Co. for groceries, Mayfield Dairy for dairy products, and Merita for bread;

• Voted to request the Director of Finance to advertise for bids for vending machine services for snack foods, janitorial supplies, and an emergency notification system;

• Approved a Code of Ethics for the Scott County Board of Education, as presented in a model code prepared by the Tennessee School Boards Association, in order to comply with Public Chapter 898, which became law on May 12, 2008;

• Approved a list of dates, times and places for regular monthly and work session meetings of the board for the 2008-2009 school year, and to make that schedule available to “all schools, newspapers, and other individuals” upon request. The board still retains its right to have special called meetings during the year should the need arise;

• Approved, in separate motions, to pay dues to the Tennessee School Systems for Equity ($2,454), and to the National School Board Association’s National Affiliate Program ($4,000);

• Approved, in separate motions, continued participation in the S.T.A.N.D. drug prevention and education program through Safe Schools and Drug Free grants program ($12,500), and the Children’s Center of the Cumberlands child abuse education classes in all schools ($25,000);

• Voted to renew a contract with the Tennessee Technology Center in Huntsville to provide vocational courses to high school students at no charge to the school district;

• Voted to renew a contract with Goodwill Industries-Knoxvlle, Inc., which allows students to receive school-to-work experience;

• Voted to approve the Tennessee School Boards Risk Management Trust Intergovernmental Agreement for the new school year at a cost of $207,887 — which includes coverage in the property and casualty program as well as the workers compensation program;

• Approved private bus run contracts with drivers Pamela Jeffers and Kathy Henson;

• Voted to request renewal for the “Board of Distinction” program of the Tennessee School Boards Association; and,

• Approved changes and revisions to both the district-wide and Scott High School handbooks for the 2008-2009 school year..

Included with the agenda for Thursday night’s meeting was the previous month’s personnel actions of Director Wilson, which included hiring personnel for the 2008-2009 school year, as follows:

• Fairview — Meaghan Estes, music teacher; Shona Hatfield, teacher; and Kristi Sexton Russ, instructional assistant;

• Burchfield — Rhonda Whitehead, pre-school/Head Start teacher;

• Huntsville Elementary — Stephanie Hill and April W. Lowe, teachers;

• Scott High — Samuel Krahn, R.E.A.L. School teacher;

• Robbins — Shirley Stephens, teacher; and,

• Winfield — Christy Mays and Arlene Smith, both cooks at five hours per day.

Other new employees in the system include substitute bus drivers Terri Alcorn, Audey Huckeby and Lila Coffman.

Re-assigned by Director Wilson were:

• Tammy Henry, from half-time reading coach at Winfield and Burchfield, to full-time reading coach at Burchfield;

• Phyllis Kathy Strunk, from half-time reading coach at Fairview and Huntsville to full-time reading coach at Fairview;

• Garry Watts, from half-time reading coach to full-time reading coach at Robbins;

• Brenda Owens, from cafeteria manager to custodian at Burchfield;

• Josephine Phillips, from monitor/cashier to cafeteria manager at Burchfield;

• Jessica Botts, from half-time instruction assistant, half-time custodian to special education instructional assistant at Fairview; and,

• Joyce Strunk, from special education instructional assistant to attendance monitor at Fairview.

Also, Director Wilson announced the resigantions of Audey Huckeby, bus driver, and Scott Harvey, physcial education teacher at Burchfield.