By JOYANNA LOVE/Senior Staff Writer

The Chilton County Schools Board of Education approved personnel changes during its meeting this week.

A nurse, a CNP assistant for Jemison High School and a certified elementary teacher for Clanton Intermediate were approved. School Superintendent Tommy Glasscock explained that the nurse position was being filled to serve at whichever school needed one. The nurse will be placed at Jemison Elementary to start.

Two resignations were approved. One was for the bookkeeper at Clanton Intermediate effective Feb. 1. The other was from Thorsby High School principal Russ Bryan who is retiring effective Dec. 31.

Council member Pam Price expressed concern over a phone message that had been sent to parents from Bryan stating he would not be returning to the school after Christmas break.

Price said if the assistant principal is designated as acting principal during that time, then the school would be in violation of the state nepotism laws because the assistant principal’s wife and mother-in-law work at the school.

“We are going through the process of posting the job. I don’t anticipate getting that done over the holidays,” Glasscock said.

Glasscock said Bryan will be principal until his retirement date, so the assistant principal’s job title would not change.  Bryan will be using unused vacation time to fill some of his remaining days.

Attorney John Hollis Jackson said he would have to look into the specific situation further before he could determine if it would create a nepotism concern from a legal standpoint or not.

There were 13 people approved to be substitutes for the school systems.

Two catastrophic leave requests were also approved. Council member Joe Mims asked if the school system had the medical paperwork to support the catastrophic leave request.

“Usually, we would have some kind of letter from a physician,” Mims said.

Glasscock said copies could be provided to the board at a later date.

Both requests were approved.

The board also approved a request from the special education coordinator’s request for a contract for independent psychometry services. The hope is to save the school system some money with the contract versus hiring someone full-time.

Offering Saturday credit recovery for $75 was also approved. Glasscock said this covered as many sessions as the student needed to catch up. The funds are used to pay the teachers who work on those days.

Policy changes were approved to implement the suicide prevention classes required by the Jason Flatt Act and delete Section 5.2 Self-Reporting Arrest or Conviction from the policy to bring it in line with federal law.

The school system’s cell phone policy was amended, so that on the first offense a student would be out of school for a day rather than being sent to PASS Academy for a day. Glasscock said the new curriculum used at PASS requires a student to be there at least three days.

A plan to adopt the Boy Scout’s Learning for Life Character Education program for the school system died for lack of a motion.