District Teacher of the Year Katherine Prince receives her Jostens ring from Superintendent Joey Haney
Daniel Prince
District to pay roughly 25% of the cost for doors and metal detectors
Wrapping up our look at Monday’s meeting of the Union County Board of School Trustees, Superintendent Joey Haney said turnout was great for the latest Coffee with the Superintendent event he held last week. He reminded everyone that the Union County Schools annual recruitment fair is scheduled for January 28, 2023. He recently had the chance to speak to the Lions Club about the school district and to thank them for doing the vision screenings at the schools in the district. He said the Rotary Club will be giving away two books to students at Jonesville Elementary-Middle School, and that this year, they can come to the school for the distribution and read to the students. That book giveaway is scheduled for November 10. Teachers will receive 4 books from Rotary, as well. Haney and several of the school board members commended the team that put together the Reading Under the Stars event, saying the turnout was great and the participation from the schools was excellent.
Haney said the district has received a COPS grant for $241,306 that will go toward security at the schools. More doors will be purchased that use a sliding card system for entry, and it will also help the district purchase some metal detectors, which Haney said will be mobile and can be used at different schools and venues for various events. The total cost of the equipment is $321,741.94, with the grant covering 75% of the cost. The district’s portion is $80,435.94, which Haney said could be paid for over a three-year period. Mark Ivey made a motion that the district go ahead and pay out the full amount this year. The vote was unanimous.
Katherine Prince was presented with her District Teacher of the Year ring by Mr. Haney on behalf of Travis Conn at Jostens, who was unable to attend.
The school board unanimously voted to send Manning Jeter as its representative to the Legislative Advocacy Conference on December 3. Mark Ivey was selected on a unanimous vote as the alternate in case something comes up and Jeter cannot attend.
Eric Childers presented information to the board on changes to Administrative Rule JKE-R, dealing with the expulsion of students. He said the major addition was to add the superintendent to the line of appeals, so that expulsion case appeals would go before Mr. Haney as the next step before going to the school board.
Mr. Haney presented the finance report on behalf of Kelly Richardson, who was unable to attend. The district so far has $6.2 million in revenue and $4.1 million in expenses year-to-date, leaving a net gain of $2,067,158. He said the audit remains on track to be presented at next month’s board meeting, and he thanked Richardson and her staff for their hard work in ensuring the audit was completed on time this year. He also mentioned that a couple of the finance department members had attended a State Department of Education Finance Boot Camp last month to receive additional training.
The school board approved the personnel report and an overnight field trip request to send students to the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis October 26-29. The meeting then adjourned.