Superintendent Dr. Emma Louie presents Board Member Lester Brown with a plaque designating him as a Master School Board Member.

Following a lengthy executive session, the Greene County Board of Education received a financial report from CSFO Shane Martin.

Martin said that the total cash and cash equivalencies amounted to $13.4 million with $9.7 million of that earmarked for the construction of the new high school.

Revenue for the month was $930,000 and expenditures totaled $1.1 million – a difference  of about $212,000. Property taxes totalled $200,000. The General Fund contains $3.9 million of the total funds which amount to $16 million- a net decrease of $500,000 from the prior month.

The following items were approved by the board:

*An Agreement between All About Partners in Education,  Supplemental Education Services (SES) and  the Greene County Board of Education to provide transportation to students enrolled in the AAPIE afternoon SES tutoring program.

*Agreed to wait until the January board meeting to consider the superintendent’s recommendation to terminate the contract between the Greene County Board of Education and Teach for America.  If the school board decides to terminate this contract, it must occur at least 120 days before the end of this current school year. It was also pointed out that if the board terminated the contract this action would not affect the five persons currently engaged as teachers in the system.  The contract termination would only affect the additional 5 persons proposed by Teach for America for the next school year.

*A work order for $540 from the Survey Firm, Sentell Engineering, for additional survey of the geo-technical borings at the new school site was approved. This amount was included in the budget.

Prior to giving her report Superintendent Dr. Emma Louie presented Board member Lester Brown with a plaque declaring that he had earned the title of Master School Board Member. This designation is earned by attending a specified number of training sessions held  by the Alabama Association of School Boards.

She announced that school would close for Christmas Holidays on December 20th at 2 p.m. and resume on January 5, 2012 at the regular time.

She  advised parents and other interested citizens that report cards would go out on January 13, 2012.

Following her report, Brown announced that two members of the School System family had died over the weekend – Sandra Harris and Ebony Carpenter, daughter of  school bus driver Nettie Carpenter and Willie Dean Carpenter.

Personnel items approved included:

*The retirement of Ms. Pinkie Daniels, Special Services Aide at Carver Middle School, December 1, 2011.

*The transfer of Mr. Eugene Foster from Long-term Substitute at Eutaw Primary School to Long-term Substitute at Carver Middle School, effective January 3, 2012.

The employment of Ms. Bernice Hill as Long-term Substitute for Special Services at Carver Middle School.

*The employment of the following individuals for the Greene County High School High Hopes tutoring program:

*A. Ms. Diana Liverman, Reading/Language Arts, Carver Middle

B. Michael Williams, Mathematics

C. Mrs.Kaneeda Cole, Mathematics (after school)

D. Ms. Tarnesha Porter, Reading (after school).

*The voluntary transfer of Ms. Sharon Jennings from Assistant Principal at Carver Middle School to Acting Principal at Eutaw Primary School, effective December 20, 2011.

*The voluntary transfer of Mr. Martinius Everett from Assistant Principal at Greene County High School to half-time Assistant Principal at Greene County High School and half-time Assistant Principal at Eutaw Primary.

In his report, Attorney Hank Sanders advised the Board that the Greene County Commission had voted to retain the voting districts as they currently were drawn.”They are asking the Justice Department to approve this current plan because they could not reach any agreement that would be satisfactory to the Board of Education.”

He also announced that the Alabama Legislature had passed a law limiting what gifts students could give teachers. “Basically they decided on a minimum which was not well explained. We do know that baskets, home-made cakes and cookies are acceptable.”

There being no further business, the board adjourned so that they could attend a retirement party being held for James “Dee” Powell.