Russellville City Schools board members heard from three of their technology employees Thursday as part of a new feature at monthly board meetings.
J.J McCormick, Monica Moon and Cassie Goodwin shared their job duties with board members in what will become a regular interaction between faculty and the board.
“We've determined the board needs to be more informed on what's going on in our schools,” Superintendent Heath Grimes said. “In an effort to focus on that, I've asked our instructional and technology coaches to address us at today's meeting.”
McCormick, a technology assistant and broadcasting sponsor at Russellville High School, takes care of day-to-day technology issues in classrooms. Moon serves as the instructional technology facilitator at West Elementary and Goodwin fills the same position at Russellville Elementary.
“Sometimes, teachers can be overwhelmed with technology-related issues. We have high expectations here and we're fortunate that our board supports them with these staff members,” Grimes said. “As a result, our teachers' morale increases and we end up with better instruction.”
During the meeting, Grimes updated board members on the start of the school year at Russellville City Schools.
“We've had a very smooth start to the new year. We've received many positive comments from principals and the community. We're still dealing with traffic issues, though,” Grimes said.
The board approved several personnel moves, including leave of absence for Aleah Harris, RMS teacher and Tiffany Warhurst, RHS counselor. Bradley Bohannon was approved to be hired as custodian at RES, effective October 3, 2016. And Chase Fretwell was approved as a volunteer for the athletic program.
In other action, the board:
--approved revised salary structures for technology assistants, coaching supplements and schedules for extended contracts, supplements and other pay for the 2017 fiscal year.
--approved contracts with Bridges Behavior Therapy & Consulting for behavioral analytic services; Bragwell Services, LLC, for mental health professional services; Counseling, Evaluation and Consultation Services for psychometric services; Leslie Murphy for therapy services and Stepping Stone Pediatric Therapy for occupational therapy services, for the 2016-17 school year.
--approved facility use requests for: RHS softball facility for use on August 27 by RHS softball team; West Elementary gym on August 29-31 for RHS Cheerleaders Mini Cheer Clinic; RHS track on October 15 for RCS Education Foundation 5k run; RHS and RMS gyms on Nov. 12, Dec. 17 and Jan. 14, 28 and Feb. 4, 2017, for basketball tournaments; RHS Stadium on Aug. 27, Sept. 3, Oct. 8 and 15 for Russellville Youth Football Organization games.
--approved trip requests for RHS Chorus to Montgomery on Jan. 18-21, 2017; RHS Chorus from March 2-4, 2017, to participate in All-State Chorus Festival at Samford University in Birmingham.
