By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

Personnel was a highlight of discussion for the Chilton County Board of Education at a special-called meeting on June 7.

Board member Keith Moore asked that hiring a secretary for the Verbena Annex be considered.

One had been previously employed, but the position has not been funded for the coming school year.

“It’s an awkward situation because the school is off to itself,” Moore said. “I would like to see if it was at all possible that we could get that secretary because we have an office there for a secretary, but we are not going to have any one in that office. When someone comes up and knocks on that door, a teacher is going to have to leave their classroom to check and see who it is … and that’s not good.”

Superintendent Tommy Glasscock said this school was only one of three where a secretary position had been cut. He said the positions were funded through local funds, rather than state or federal funds.

He said he would want to make a recommendation for all three positions to be reinstated in order to be fair to the other schools.

The other schools were LeCroy Career Technical Center and Maplesville High School.

Board member Linda Hand said there had been a teacher’s assistant that had been doing the work of a secretary.

“Our letter of appointment had one position and that person was functioning in something totally different and the pay did not match, so we had to non-renew that and start over,” Assistant Superintendent Adriane Dennis said. “Certain schools have certain paraprofessionals and it all runs through special education; that school did not have a special education paraprofessional. I don’t know how that happened, but it was being funded out of central office.”

After the employee was non-renewed, the person applied for a custodian position at the school.

“I kind of understand that this person is going to be secretarial and custodial, and I don’t think that will work,” Hand said.

Dennis said that was not the job description, and the person would be solely a custodian.

Board member Pam Price said some of the names of the people on the new hire list did not match the name on the copy of their certification.

Dennis said some of the new hires’ names had changed since when they received their certification, but were verified through their Social Security number.

Also during the meeting the board approved:

— A contract with YMCA of Chilton County to allow use of the school system’s buses for summer program field trips.

— Hiring three teachers for Chilton County High School, three teachers for Isabella High School, three teachers for Thorsby High School, a Spanish language teacher, a preschool teacher for Verbena High School, a counselor for Verbena High School, four preschool auxiliary teachers and a special education paraprofessional.