Vance school board approves 12 of 13 for employment

Twelve of 13 employment recommendations received approval from the Vance County Board of Education Monday night, two of which were included as addendum items.

The exception included the recommendation for a tennis coach at Southern Vance High, initially denied during regular session but receiving further discussion during the board’s executive session.

While approval was given Monday night for 12 positions, all persons approved have already began working in the school system.

“It’s not like administration is trying to sneak someone in before it’s approved by the board,” said Ruth Hartness, a personnel committee member. “Sometimes we need a person, for instance if we had a crises situation in a classroom where someone needed to be in there other than a substitute.”

Will McLean, executive director of Human Resource Management for the school system, explained that all pre-employment screenings are completed prior to anyone going to work, and that personnel must give permission for start dates prior to regularly scheduled board meetings.

“For instance the mechanic, he is a brand new person. However, there was an emergency and we needed a mechanic because that department is relatively small,” McLean said. “We start this person on a temporary basis. We take precaution by letting the employees know.”

According to McLean employees are informed that they may be denied approval during the board of education meeting if something were to develop after their start date, even though they’ve already began work.

The finance committee received approval for four different budget amendments, including state public school fund, local current expense fund, federal grants fund and other restricted fund.

Also presented by the finance committee was the 2013-2014 budget calendar which, according to Steve Graham, finance officer for Vance County Board of Education, will provide a schedule for deliberations in terms of preparing a budget for the county.

The building and grounds committee presented information regarding science lab renovations and classroom repairs at Northern Vance High School.

According to Hartness, the committee has not yet received construction bids for the project, but has received input from staff on what they would like to see included as renovations begin.

“We’re not going to be able to give everyone in the classroom what they want,” said Gloria White, board chairwoman. “I just don’t think we’re going to be able to do that.”

During a report from the curriculum committee, White expressed concern that laptops issued to all ninth-grade students in the county were not receiving use in some classrooms.

White said she would be visiting schools to check on the status of laptop use, describing technology as, “the way of the future” and a tool that should be utilized by all teachers.

Discussion of technology led Emeron Cash, the District 5 representative, to encourage board members to remember the importance of basic learning skills such as cursive writing.

On June 21, 2012, the Vance County Board of Education adopted a policy requiring local curriculum require all second-grade teachers teach students to form upper and lower case letters in cursive. Third-grade teachers must continue the cursive writing process until students have mastered cursive writing.

The community relations committee did not meet during the month of February and brought forth no topics for board discussion.

Contact the writer at amauser@hendersondispatch.com.