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By JOYANNA LOVE / Senior Staff Writer

The Chilton County Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution to petition the Chilton County Commission for a special election for voters to approve renewal of ad valorem taxes for education.

The resolution is asking that the tax of 30 cents per 100 dollars of assessed value of taxable property (also known as three mills on the dollar) be continued for another 30 years.

The resolution was approved as a part of the consent agenda.

School board members had collected signatures in support of the special election. This would be a renewal of ad valorem taxes the school system has received for the past 20 years.

Board member Brian Jackson thanked board members for getting the signatures.

“For the record, this board is unified, and we are all in favor of this,” Jackson said

“As superintendent, I am 100% for it,” CCS Superintendent Jason Griffin said.

This referendum has to be held with approval from the Chilton County Commission. The Commission has heard from the school board attorney about the need for a special election and is expected to vote on something at a later date.

The referendum is expected to be held no later than February 2020.

Other items approved on the consent agenda included travel out of state for professional development, permission for the child nutrition department to seek needed bids, the technology plan, seeking bids for the demolition of an unused bus barn and each of the policies that had been under 30 day review, except the paid sick leave policy.

During a work session before the voting session, the board discussed changing the wording of the policy to state that an immediate supervisor, the personnel director or the school superintendent “shall request” documentation if there was “probable cause” to think that an employee had “misused or abused” sick leave. An example of using sick days to go to Disney World had been given as a misuse of days at a previous meeting.

The wording will be updated and is expected to be reviewed for a vote again in the near future.

The BOE elected Angie Sanderson to serve as the next board president and Pam Price to serve as vice president.

“Thank you fellow board members for trusting me with this,” Sanderson said. “It’s an honor.”

Under personnel, the board approved a science teacher for Verbena High School and a special education teacher assistant for Clanton Elementary School. Six catastrophic leave requests were also approved.