The Monroe County School Board voted to add $230,000 to its already strapped budget for the 2008-09 school year.

That puts the budget at $1.13 million more in expenses than last year. No one knows for sure what next year’s revenue will look like but one thing’s for sure, the money will not come out of the system’s fund balance.

“I guess my question is where are we going to get this money?” asked board member Doris Davis. There was no answer, other than Director of Schools Mike Lowry telling the board that because it raided its fund balance last year, there was no extra money in it to pay for extras or even necessities this year.

Most of the increase, $205,000, would go toward a major increase in the mileage rate paid to bus contractors. The remaining $25,000 would be used to hire a part-time bus driver to transport high school seniors who are at risk of not graduating to the newly created Monroe Academy, which will be located at the Central Office.

Both increases were recommended to the full board by the Transportation Committee, Regan Dalton, Sonya Lynn and Dean Williams. Committee member Rusty Vineyard did not attend the committee meeting or the School Board meeting that followed.

Policies

In addition to its budget, the School Board reviewed the following policies:

The Enrollment in College Level Courses policy could be changed at the board’s July meeting to state that students can attend college their senior year in high school in order to complete any required courses for graduation.

The board will continue to look at creating a policy for the Use of Personal Communications Devices at its July meeting. It was agreed that the “cell phone” policy should not include suspensions, should set uniform punishments and should also apply to faculty and staff. Board Chairman Regan Dalton appointed Doris Davis, Sonya Lynn and Dewitt Upton to a committee to draft a new policy. That committee is supposed to meet prior to the board’s July meeting.

The board changed its Interscholastic Athletics policy to state that non-faculty, or volunteer coaches are no longer allowed to coach immediate family. Immediate family was defined as children, stepchildren, grandchildren and step-grandchildren.

The board changed its Expenses and Reimbursements policy to state that employees would be reimbursed on a per diem basis following state guidelines. Line nine, which says personnel “will be reimbursed upon submission of an approved voucher and supporting receipts” will be removed from the policy.

The board voted to use a Tennessee School Board Association generic evaluation form to review Lowry’s performance for the 2007-08 school year because the Board failed to develop a set of standards and objectives for its director, as required by the Evaluation of the Director of Schools policy.

The board voted to turn in the generic forms to TSBA and then work with the association to set those standards and objectives and on Lowry’s review next year.

Other business

In other business, the board voted to:

issue programmable, pre-set access key cards to schools, at the discretion of the schools’ principals, so that things like basketball practice can go on in county schools without an employee present

approve its five-year plan

approve Russell and Holly Austin’s request for their daughter to enroll in college classes while she’s a senior at Sweetwater High School

an overnight, out of state trip to Washington D. C. April 4-14, 2009 made by Jeff Anderson, Sweetwater High School

various budget amendments

a request to use the Sweetwater High School parking lot for fireman driver trainer on June 17 made by the Sweetwater Fire Department

a request to use the Tellico Plains High School baseball field June 13 through August 10 for Summer League Baseball made by Darrell Atkins

a request for an overnight trip to Track Team State Tournament in Murfreesboro made by Mitchell Witt for the Tellico Plains High School Track Team

a request to use the Vonore Elementary School parking lot for a Vonore Youth Sports yard sale made by Jodie Ramsey

a request to use Sweetwater High School for an arts celebration made by Linda McAmis for Sweetwater Valley Citizens for the Arts

a request to use Sweetwater High School for video ministry made by Macy Small for Fairview Student Ministry

a request to use Tellico Plains High School cafeteria to hold a Republican party rally made by Betty Latham

The board denied a request to enroll a student at Madisonville Middle School and then transfer that student to Vonore Middle School. The request was denied because VMS principal Debi Tipton said that grade was overcrowded. Lowry agreed saying the school was on the edge of needing to add one more teacher, which would tip the system’s budget scale even further out of whack.

The next regular Monroe County School Board meeting will be Thursday, July 10 at 7 p.m. The board will likely hold committee and/or budget meetings before then. Watch for public notices regarding those meetings in future editions of The Advocate & Democrat.

melissa.kinton@advocateand democrat.com | 337-7101