Retirees honored at school board meeting

The Board of Education recognized ten newly-retired employees during Tuesday’s special called meeting.
Tim Burkhart, principal of the Middle School, said good-bye to four staff members, including Debbie Smith who was an employee at the Estill County Middle School for 29 years where she finished up her career as kitchen manager.
Math and computer science teacher Tim Freeman, also coach of several sports, retired after 28 years of teaching, 26 of which were at the middle school.
Leslie Cornett, language arts teacher, began her teaching career as a music teacher at Ravenna and Hargett Elementary schools. In recent years, Cornett led local academic teams to many successful seasons.
Beverly Flynn worked on the clerical and secretarial staff at ECMS since 1987 and was employed by the school district for 29 years total.  Burkhart said she was the one to call on if “you wanted something done efficiently.”
Estill Springs had two lunchroom staff members to retire, Shirley Frazier and Dolly Witt.  Principal Jessica Dennis said they served “a warm meal with love for a lot of years.”
South Irvine Principal Lisa Reese commended Charlotte Brinegar and Sherrie Freeman for their many years of teaching.  Freeman started her career teaching at South Irvine, and she ended it there.  She was a student at South Irvine Elementary also.
Robert “Skip” Johnson, Director of Pupil Personnel, retired after 30 years with the district, 16 of which he was a history teacher, and 9 of which he served as Director of Pupil of Personnel under Superintendent Bert Hensley.
Hensley said when Johnson was hired as DPP, the attendance rate was at 90 percent or below, but now it is at 94 percent, an increase which he says has saved the school about a half a million dollars.
Randall Christopher also retired after 30 years with the school system.  In recent years, he has served as assistant superintendent. Superintendent Hensley commended Christopher for bringing food service out of the red, and for the good work he’s done supervising buildings and grounds.
To conclude the employee recognition part of the meeting, Hensley said he wanted to say thanks to the spouses and families.  “We take them away from you a lot.”
Other recent retirees from the school system include Peggy Bailey, bus driver; Brenda Norman, bus driver; Ronnie Rice, custodian, Donna White, librarian, and Mark Witt, district maintenance. They were not present at the meeting.
Several consent items were approved following the recognition ceremony.
Among them was the Student Resource Officer contract with the city of Ravenna to pay $25,000 of Ravenna police officer Ken White’s salary and his fuel costs.
The board agreed to pay for $25,000 for new band equipment per a proposal by Band Director Jason Crowe.  He said the instruments were a “once in a lifetime or career investment,” which are greatly needed because of growing interest in the band.  The instruments will also be used in classroom instruction.
A geotechnical exploration survey was approved to be conducted before the South Irvine roofing project begins.
A “Bond of Depository” was approved for the amount of $6,753,722,52, undersigned by the Citizens Guaranty bank. Also approved were the treasurer’s bond, the treasurer’s  report, a second reading of 2014 Policy and Procedure updates, district assurances, a food service disclosure agreement, and an amendment of the  2014-15 salary schedule.
A lengthy list of personnel actions was approved.  Richard Arthur was hired as Director of Pupil Personnel, Mona Arvin, Virse Collins, and Andrea Cox were hired as cooks, Sarah Marcum was hired as an itinerant speech teacher, Mary Mays, Donna Puckett, Melissa Puckett, Jennie Walters, and Marsha Webb were also hired as cooks, and Melissa Neal was hired as librarian at the High School.
Resignations were accepted from Jackie Griffin, bus assistant, E.Dessa-Lena Kerby, para-educator at Estill Springs, Mark Mckinley as teacher and head volleyball and basketball coach at the high school, and Shonda Thomas as assistant girls soccer coach at the middle school.