Journal-Times (Grayson, KY)

Local News

March 21, 2012

School system to cut $1 million in personnel

By Leeann Akers - Managing Editor Journal-Times

March 21, 2012 —     The Carter County Board of Education will be forced to cut personnel for next year to the tune of $1 million. 

    The school district has been using state funds from the federal stimulus legislation to offset costs for the last few years but that money is no longer available.

    The district has a $40.3 million budget in the current school year. Roughly $15.5 million goes to pay teachers and other certified instructional staff.

    Another $8.5 million is being used to pay classified employees such as classroom aides, bus drivers, cooks, and other support staff. 

    Supt. Ronnie Dotson told the Journal-Times that cuts will be made, but it won't drastically impact classrooms.

    "We will still have more classroom teachers than most of the schools in the surrounding counties but there will be fewer support staff in our schools," Dotson said.

    “For example, we now have two full-time athletic directors at the high schools but next year we are going to pay someone a stipend to do those duties,” he said.  “We have some retired people who have been hired on 100-day contracts that we are doing away with and we will fill those with teachers.”

    Dotson is unsure at this time how many jobs will be affected by the 2.5-percent cut because the district is still crunching the numbers.

    "There are going to be fewer employees but a lot of people have indicated that they are going to retire, Dotson said. "We are expecting the amount of people not working next year that want to be working to be very minimal. It is too early to tell."

    In other board business, construction costs were the main topic of discussion at the monthly meeting on Monday night. 

    The $3.8 million renovation project at Olive Hill Elementary School was discussed. The board approved an agreement with Architectural Planning and Design for schematic design, and construction plans for the building. 

    The board will make a final decision later on whether they will repair or replace all or some of the windows in the building.

    "We don't want to replace junk with junk," said board member Bob Flaugher. "We want to make sure we get it right so we don't have to do this again."

    A tentative plan to repair the football field at West Carter High School also was approved. The project will cost between $55,000 and $62,500, depending on decisions are yet to be made.

    The board also is planning to undertake major remodeling of the gymnasiums at both high schools.

    Four firms submitted letters showing interest in heading the projects. The board unanimously chose to hire Trace Creek for the project.

    Ongoing constructions projects at Tygart Creek Elementary and Carter Elementary are on schedule, the board was told. 

    Leeann Akers can be reached at lakers@journal-times.com or by telephone at 474-5101.

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