Nearly 30 different policies were revised and approved during this week’s Washington Court House City Schools (WCHCS) Board of Education meeting, which was just the beginning of the policies discussed.
Per the recommendation of WCHCS Superintendent Tom Bailey, the board approved 36 separate policies covering a wide variety of topics. The policies that saw revision were related to legislative issues, conflict of interest, notice of meetings, special meetings, recess, executive sessions, minutes, public participation at board meetings, non-reemployment of the superintendent, nondiscrimination and equal employment opportunity, termination and resignation, anti-harassment, nondiscrimination and access to equal educational opportunity, and much more.
“We as a school district, all school districts, keep up with changes in the laws by changing our policies. Sometimes it is a change of wording, sometimes it is really updating the policy and receiving board approval,” Bailey said. “We are trying to play catch-up to make sure that from past years our policies are the very most current and that they are in line with legislation that happened or Ohio Revised Code changes. Just like a majority of other schools, we get that guidance from an outside company and they send us a lot of updates and we have to get the board to approve.”
Additionally, the Record-Herald received two concerned calls this week about the “addendum to superintendent and treasurer contracts” item on the agenda. The parties were concerned that the two positions would see a raise before teachers saw an increase in pay. Bailey said Wednesday this addendum is actually nothing new, but a yearly stipend that has been given out the last three years to the superintendent and to the treasurer since 2013.
“The addendum is a stipend that has been historically given to the treasurer and the superintendent for doing work in the district that a lot of other districts either outsource or pay another position to handle,” Bailey said. “This addendum has actually been board-approved since December of 2015, and (former superintendent) Matt McCorkle received this as well for the last two years he was here. This is to run the federal program portion of the district. We receive a lot of money through federal funds and there needs to be a maintenance on the whole system to ensure it continues to function here in the district. Typically, an assistant superintendent or someone other than a superintendent handles this. I know when I go to the meetings, I am the only superintendent in attendance in our region that takes care of this, so this addendum is not new to me. I got it this year and I did get half last year because I was only here for half of the calendar year.”
Also discussed and approved during the meeting were one resignation, nine individuals for employment, a Washington High School band trip to Florida for a performance at Disney over spring break, a request to use the Washington middle and high school gyms for an annual Shoot-Out Tournament in March, five coaching positions, and the maximum rate of compensation for the board of education members as allowed by law for 2019.
Finally, the board members will need to consider and appoint a president pro-tem for the organizational meeting taking place on Jan. 7 at 7 p.m.
Stay with the Record-Herald for more from the Washington Court House City Schools Board of Education.
Reach Martin Graham at (740) 313-0351 or on Twitter @MartiTheNewsGuy.
