Nearly $2,000 extra is coming to Macon County Schools teachers at the end of January after the Board of Education approved using its 2023-24 supplemental pay for that purpose during its Monday, Dec. 11 meeting at Franklin High School.
According to MCS Finance Director Angie Cook, this is the third year MCS has received this funding from the state, based on real property values, the tax rate and median household income. This school year’s allotment is $962,018 for MCS.
As MCS did the last two years, the board decided to pay out supplement funding evenly among 363.3 eligible teaching positions. Cook said they can give out $1,995.90 per individual and pay the taxes and benefits from the remainder of the funding. Cook said there are 17 other MCS professionals who are not teacher-certified but have some specialized training, who will receive supplemental pay through ESSER funds.
Last school year, eligible MCS employees received $1,472 each in supplemental funding in January.
The board decided to follow last year’s recommendation and issue the supplemental pay in January 2024, noting the staff get other bonuses in December and February that would mean a higher tax rate and would negate some of their extra funds.
In other news from the meeting, Board Member Hilary Wilkes reported on a liaison meeting earlier that day. Wilkes said they are coming near the end of the design development phase for the new Franklin High School project and are finalizing the cost analysis.
“We anticipate the grant for the state lottery funds…to be submitted within the next three weeks and the earliest we would hear back from that is probably February at the very earliest,” Wilkes said. “We do like our chances, we are one of the few shovel-ready projects, we think, that are in the hopper for this, so stayed tuned on that.”
The state lottery funds grant is the Needs-Based Public School Fund Grant which could fund up to $62 million of the costs. Past estimates have the project costing at least $100 million, although that figure has likely changed in the last several months.
Wilkes said the liaisons also met two weeks previously on the Highlands School project, which she said is also near the end of the design development process, with construction documents getting ready.
“The RFQ (request for qualifications) for a CM (construction manager) At Risk is going out on Wednesday of this week,” Wilkes said, “And we will have it open for one month…the next step is to have a short list for [the commissioners] to interview, when they will pick one, they’ll negotiate, and then we’ll hire the CM At Risk and the goal is to have a vote on that hire at the February commissioners’ meeting.”
The board affirmed their unanimous vote opposing a request by the Macon County Board of Commissioners to make the school board election partisan. Each school board member spoke against the proposal at the November meeting. Breedlove said each school board member had a chance to review the resolution via email and approved it. Last meeting, Board Attorney John Henning said he would email a blind copy to each school board member, who could then respond with proposed changes or approve it.
On Monday, School Board Chair Jim Breedlove encouraged all the school board members to be present the next night, Tuesday, Dec. 12, at the county commissioners’ meeting. Partisan school boards would be on the agenda after being tabled last month. That meeting happened after deadline and will be covered in the Dec. 20 Franklin Press.
The only public comment Monday night was from Olga Pader, who spoke in opposition to partisan school boards.
The board unanimously voted to approve all overnight/out-of-district trip requests, all fundraising requests and to renew the school nutrition procurement plan. Feb. 27, 2024, already a FHS virtual day, will be ACT testing day.
Next month, Henning will bring back for a vote the revised policy addressing fundraising by outside organizations and a new student health services policy. All other 2000-level policies on the agenda with minor changes passed a second reading.
At the start of the meeting, the board unanimously elected Breedlove and Melissa Evans to each serve another year as board chair and vice-chair, respectively.
Board Member Stephanie Laseter took part in the meeting virtually due to illness. The board went into closed session at 7:39 p.m., returning to open session at 8:43 p.m. where they approved the personnel reports and adjourned.
The personnel reports included an administration change at East Franklin, effective Jan. 4, 2024. Sandra McMahan is going from principal to assistant principal and Crystal Parker is going from assistant principal to interim principal.
Alayna Ledford, MCS payroll clerk, will become co-finance officer on Jan. 4, 2024. Angie Cook, current MCS finance officer, is retiring in June 2024. Ledford will move into the role of Chief Finance Officer on July 1, 2024.
The personnel reports note that interviews for the FHS head football coach position are ongoing.
The next school board meeting will be at 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 22 at Iotla Valley Elementary School.