By: Holly Nine
Monday evening’s board of education meeting began by swearing in new board member, Mrs. Donna E. (Beth) Cercone (effective July 1, 2015) to fill the seat vacated by the resignation/retirement of Dr. R. B. Legg, Jr. until the position is filled by the voters in the 2016 May primary election. The meeting continued as the minutes from the previous meeting were approved. The budget revision in the amount of $3,308,215.94 was approved as well as payment of the current bills.
The discussion items were taken care of before the board members went into a brief executive session. In the discussions, Kelly Watts, from RESA III headquarters gave an update on the services that RESA III provides to Clay County. Mrs. Leslie Goe shared the accomplishments of the Clay Middle and Clay High TSA students who recently traveled to Dallas, TX to compete in the National Competition.
Mr. Doug Wayne, band teacher at Clay Middle, requested that the board of education consider approving repairs on some of the band instruments. The middle school students who are in the band are very respectful and take good care of the instruments that are lent to them by the school to use during the school year. There is natural wear and tear on that comes along with the use of the instruments and Mr. Wayne does as many repairs as he can himself.
Cathy Nichols, owner of Axys projects asked the board for their consideration in joining with Axys projects for high school juniors and seniors to have internships for the C&C woodshop that she has in her business.
Next, Jimmy Rapp and Tina Ferrebee asked the board for their consideration to re-open the fitness center to the public. The previous management resigned and the fitness center has been closed since June 30th. Jimmy Rapp and a few others in attendance have offered to volunteer their time to be at the fitness center during public hours of operation for supervision. The school board does not have the funds to hire a supervisor and keep up the maintenance and cleaning at the fitness center. The board members will discuss these items and come back at a later date with answers.
After the brief executive session, the board meeting ran quickly. The board members approved the resignation of Candace DeWeese as teacher at Clay County High School, the resignation of Autumn Walker as teacher at Clay Middle School, and the resignation of Thomas Cooper as Multiple Disabilities teacher at Clay Elementary School, all effective immediately. The employment of Erin Thomas as English Teacher (6-8) at Clay Middle School, pending certification, and the employment of Cathy Craddock as Math teacher (6-8) at Clay Middle School was approved. Kaitlyn Thomas was approved as the English Teacher (9-12) at Clay High, pending certification. The transfer of Grayson Hamrick from 4th grade teacher at Clay Elementary School to Math teacher at Clay Middle school was approved, as well as the transfer of Michelle Hamrick from special education teacher at Clay Middle to Math teacher at Clay Middle. Joy Pope was approved as a Mathematics teacher (9-12) at Clay County High School, pending certification. The employment of Michelle Frame as a Science/Biology teacher at Clay High was also approved, pending certification. Chelsie Dorsey was approved as assistant Cheer Coach as Clay Middle. Ronald Starcher was approved as Cross Country Coach at Clay High. Sarah Holcomb and Nada Waddell were approved as substitute teachers for the 2015-2016 school years. John Paul Rogers was approved for transfer from bus #69 to bus #64. Transfer of Mildred Bullard from Cook II to Cook III at Clay Elementary School was approved.
The board also approved the transportation of Clay County 4-H camp students to Camp Shepard in Gandeeville. Those expenses will be paid for by Clay County 4-H. The out of county/overnight stay for the Clay High FFA students to attend State FFA Conference in Ripley July 8 – July 11, 2015 was approved. And finally, the board approved the out-of-state travel for Melinda Isaacs, Principal of Clay High, to Atlanta, Georgia, to attend the National High Schools That Work Conference. All expenses will be paid by a WVDE grant designated for that purpose. The board meeting was then adjourned until the next scheduled meeting on July 27, 2015.
