By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

The Chilton County Board of Education approved two assistant principals on Aug. 2, just in time for the new school year.

Mark Cleckler will be the assistant principal at Verbena High School, and Crystal Sabat will be the assistant principal at Maplesville High School.

“I felt like I could make a change, make a difference at Verbena,” Cleckler said. “I felt like Verbena needed someone who loved the community, and I definitely love the community. I am excited to take on this new role.”

Cleckler has been teaching for 12 years and most recently taught high school history, government and economics at VHS.

He is also a graduate of VHS.

He holds a master’s degree in elementary education and a certification in administration.

“I hope to get the community involved in everything that we do, and make them shareholders in some of the decisions that we make,” Cleckler said.

Sabat said she is looking forward to working in school administration to impact more students.

“I am interested in working at Maplesville because Maplesville is a great school,” Sabat said. “They have wonderful teachers that care about their students. They care about their school, and they care about their community.”

Sabat holds a master’s degree in elementary education and a certification in instructional leadership.

She said she hopes to “continue their traditions. I hope to continue their hard work, and just be a support system for teachers” at MHS.

Sabat was most recently a teacher at Clanton Intermediate School.

Also during the meeting, the school board hired three teachers for VHS, three teachers for CIS, a teacher for CCHS, a teacher for Thorsby High School, a teacher for Isabella High School and two teachers for Maplesville High School.

Three of these positions were contingent on the applicant receiving her certification.

Board President Lori Patterson, Vice President Joe Mims and board members Jim Shannon, Linda Hand, Curtis Smith and Pam Price voted in favor. Board member Keith Moore voted against.

Moore said he opposed the new hires vote because “I didn’t have sufficient time to look at every one of them.”

A motion on supplements, including coaching supplements, was tabled. However, the board did approve the list of voluntary coaches, since they do not receive monetary compensation.

Board Member Jim Shannon had pointed out a typo in one of the supplement amounts.

Price also expressed concerns that some schools had supplements for positions that they did not have.

Changes to the Student/ Parent handbook were also approved. Price said the discipline policy needs to be revised because students who have a minor or intermediate offense are suspended and receive zeros on the work they miss, but those with more serious offenses are sent to PASS Academy where they do their school work.

“I just feel like we are not fair to our students,” Price said.

Superintendent of Schools Jason Griffin said it does need to be addressed, but not right before school starts.

The subject of valedictorian and salutatorians was also discussed. Ashlie Harrison, department of teaching and learning director, said everyone with a 4.25 would be a valedictorian for the school, then the next highest GPA is salutatorian.

“Everyone with a 4.0 or higher is considered an honor graduate,” Harrison said.

Chilton County Schools start the new school year on Aug. 9.

The board also approved the CNP salary schedule, permission to post for additional needed positions and a memorandum of understanding with Concordia University to allow its students to complete their student teaching with CCS.