School Board Holds Off On Staff Cuts

At a Tuesday afternoon special meeting, the Franklin County School Board decided for the time being not to lay off two secretaries, as had been recommended by the administration.

A motion by Board Member David Hinton to accept Superintendent Jo Ann Gander's recommendation to lay off Gina Moore and Janelle Paul died for lack of a second.

The two women, both hired in 2004, would have been cut as part of a Reduction in Force (RIF) outlined in the collective bargaining agreement between the district and the union.

Because the two women had the least seniority, they were to be the first to lose employment under the RIF terms, Gander said.

School Board Member Denise Butler said she declined to second Hinton's motion because she wanted to see how much money the district might be getting from two additional sources of funding - Medicaid money for school health services and Schools In Need of Improvement (SINI) money.

"I want to see the whole picture," said Butler. "If these things (cuts) are necessary, then let's do it all at once. It's cruel to do it piecemeal.

"There are too many things we're uncertain about," she said. "I'm not aware of our working numbers yet."

School Board Chairman Jimmy Gander agreed, saying that he wanted to see the entire budget picture before making layoff decisions.

"I don't want people wondering ‘Are we going to RIF you next week?'" he said, adding that he found fault with the administration's decision to rehire them last spring.

"The ideal time was not to rehire them," Jimmy Gander said. "If we have to do a RIF, let's try at least to look at the hard numbers and see how many we got to do."

Hinton said that with the district recently learning it faced a half-million dollar shortfall over previous budget estimates, it was time to act.

"One of the main purposes of consolidation was to minimize staffing," he said. "We definitely need to consider those things."

According to Sam Carnley, who is in charge of school finances, the district now employs nine secretaries, which is four more than the appropriate staffing standards as set by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools for a 900-student school, the size of the new consolidated school. Final enrollment counts will be available when they are sent to the state in October.

He said one of the nine secretaries was relocated to the Central Campus in Eastpoint, where some of their salary may be reimbursable by Medicaid funding because they would work on school health.

The decision then was made to cut two of the eight remaining secretaries, Carnley said.

He estimated that the district's additional Medicaid monies could total "a couple hundred thousand dollars" while the SINI money, which is allocated to Title I schools that fail to meet their average yearly progress (AYP) goals, could be as much as $300,000.

With three district schools all failing to meet AYP goals last year, these monies would be used to offset the costs of reading coaches, intensive reading teachers, the school psychologist and other personnel.

In other action, the board voted to accept the resignation of high school math teacher Steve Walker, who took a job in Wakulla County, and replace him with Virginia Millender. In addition, the board hired Connie McGinnis to serve as middle school ESE teacher, and Diane McGrath to be middle and high school guidance counselor.

The board also planned to spend at least $54,000 on a walk-in freezer from Moore-Warren for the new cafeteria. The board also got a $64,0000 bid from Polar King.

The board plans to question Clemons Rutherford Architect at the 5 p.m. workshop on Thursday, Sept. 4. as to why such a large expenditure was not included in the original building plans.

"This is a huge ticket item for us to cover now," said Butler. "I just feel like we need to have that discussion with them."

The board also plans to talk about the busing situation at the regular meeting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 4. Temolynn Wintons requested that they address overcrowding on buses, and the placement of pre-kindergartners on the buses along with high school students, and Jimmy Gander agreed to place it on the agenda.