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By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

With a week until school starts, the Chilton Country Board of Education held a special called meeting on July 30 to approve new hires to fill some needed positions.

However, Superintendent Jason Griffin said there were still teaching positions that had not been filled.

Two teaching positions approved during the meeting were pending certification. One of these will be applying for a provisional certification.

“We are to a point where … the candidate pool for teachers is limited,” Griffin said. “There are many of them who do not have certification because they are just not out there.”

Board Vice President Jacqueline Sullivan expressed concern that the person hired for a provisional certification may not achieve the certification.

Director of Teaching and Learning Ashlie Harrison explained that in order to qualify for a provisional certification someone has to be hired by a school system before applying.

Board member Pam Price expressed concern that the board was not given any paperwork about the proposed employees college degrees or educational background.

Harrison said a proposed employee would have to have at least a bachelor’s degree in order to apply.

“You’re going to start seeing more and more of these,” Griffin said.

For the other pending certification, Griffin said the candidate had a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry.

Griffin also requested approval to hire teachers on a contract basis to fill high need positions on short-term basis.

Board member Chris Smith asked Griffin if he would check backgrounds for each of these teachers. Griffin said yes. He said they would mostly be retired teachers. However, some may not be retired.

“This is a very common practice in other school systems,” Griffin said.

He said he knew of at least two positions this would be helpful for.

The request was approved 6 to 1. Board President Brian Jackson, Sullivan, Smith, Lori Patterson, Keith Moore and Angie Sanderson voted in favor. Price voted against.

Price said she was voting against the measure because it would not be used exclusively for contracting with retired teachers.

A new elementary teacher each was approved for Jemison Elementary, Jemison Intermediate, Thorsby and Maplesville. A counselor for PASS Academy, an English/ language arts teacher for Jemison Middle, and a math teacher for Jemison High were also approved.

Under rehires, Janice Maddox was approved to be the counselor at Maplesville High School. Stacey Adams was approved for a Social Science teacher at Chilton County High School. Sara Brown and Joseph Barclay were approved as teachers for Clanton Elementary. Sharon Anderson was approved to be a science teacher at Clanton Middle.

The counselor at PASS Academy is being funded through a grant of Title IV funds. Harrison said the grant is being used to see if this early intervention by a counselor for elementary school students means fewer are required to attend PASS.

Price asked how many students have been seen by the counselor and have not had to attend PASS. Harrison said this is information she will be gathering this year because it will be the first full school year with this counselor in place.

Also during the meeting, resignations were accepted from teacher Dana Bolding at Maplesville, special education teachers Donna Nelson and Summer Ard  as well as special education paraprofessional Crystal Roberson at Clanton Elementary and family and consumer science teacher Sara Fox at Chilton County High. Aimee Dobbs will be moving from Clanton Middle to fill the family and consumer science teacher position at CCHS. A new hire was approved to fill the vacant Special Education paraprofessional position at Clanton Elementary. Two preschool assistant teachers, two CNP assistants as well as a special education bus driver and assistant were also approved.

The supplement grid with supplements ranging from $720 -$7,000 was approved.

New to the grid this year is a supplement for esports at $1,500. The two teachers leading this program will coach two season each year for as many teams as participate. The goal is to have a team for each school.

The district reading intervention leader and head football coaches receive the highest supplements, in addition to their regular pay, at $7,000.

Assistant principals are paid a salary base on the teacher pay scale and an additional $5,700 supplement.

Griffin said he plans on increasing the supplement the assistant principals are paid as a part of changes to the schedule in the coming school year. A committee will be formed to work on this in the fall.