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By JOYANNA LOVE/ Managing Editor

Having additional nurses available when school starts in September is a concern for Chilton County Schools.

During a meeting on Aug. 18, the Chilton County Board of Education approved contracting with three nurses for the school year to allow the lead nurse to stay at Central Office and coordinate COVID-19 related issues.

“We are going to use the COVID funds, the CARES Act,” Griffin said. “My request is to have the lead nurse at Central Office to help me with all of the COVID issues we are dealing with every day, so one of the positions would replace her at Clanton Intermediate School because I’m doing a disservice to them because I am taking up a lot of her time helping me.”

One of the nurses would be for LeCroy Career Technical Center, which has not had a nurse. The final contract position would be for a nurse that would fill in when nurses are out.

“It will only be for this school year because those funds are only available for this school year,” Griffin said.

The funds actually have to be spent by mid-December, but the school system will be shifting some expenses to make sure all of the funds are used. CARES funds will be used to pay several nurses through December. This will free up money from the usual funding source for nurses’ salaries to pay for the new contract positions for the rest of the school year.

The board also approved moving the lead nurse to Central Office for the 2020-2021 school year.

“I have been on the phone with the lead nurse multiple times a day talking about these issues,” Griffin said.

Griffin said he also hopes to later request an aide for each of the nurses.

Also during the meeting, the board approved:

• A stipend for an employee to handle secretary/ bookkeeping for the Special Education Department until a new person is hired. These duties would be in addition to being the secretary at Jemison Middle School and would be “after hours” work.
• A contract for psychometric services for special education.
• A behavior specialist job description.
• School volunteers for Clanton Middle School, Verbena and Isabella High School.
• Hiring a teacher for Clanton Elementary, two special education paraprofessionals, one teacher for Verbena High School, two CNP assistants and an OSR Pre-K auxiliary teacher for Thorsby.
• Contracting a custodian for two hours a day at PASS Academy.
• Allowing the Swedish Festival to use the Thorsby High School auditorium.
• A contract for a special education collaborative teacher.