Board Lifts Gun Incident Suspension

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
       A one-year school suspension which would have seen a Grundy High School junior have to sit out his senior year and receive home-bound instruction instead, was lifted Monday night by the Buchanan County School Board after board members determined special circumstances existed in the discovery of a hunting rifle in the youth’s car last month.
       Instead, school board members imposed an alternate punishment on the boy, resulting in the suspension of his privilege to operate a motor vehicle on school property for a period of one year from the date of the gun discovery. Further, school board members placed the youth on probationary status for the duration of the school term.
       The motion to impose the alternate punishment and to lift the suspension -- which has been in place for the past 16 days -- followed a 50-minute closed session with the youth and his parents. A host of supporters of the family were also present, but did not speak publicly on the issue.
       School Board Attorney Tom Scott, who was present at the meeting, explained after the closed session and meeting that the "special circum-stances" which existed correlated to an allowable exception in school board policy and further that in the case at hand, the special circumstance was that the youth had no intent.
        "The gun was found when his car was searched for other reasons unrelated to him," Scott said.
       He added that when a school disciplinary committee met, they had recommended a one year expulsion, however, he said, based on school board policy, that committee had no option to give any lesser punishment, and no option to decide the special circum-stances issue.
        "There was no evidence or suggestion that the gun was on school property with intent," Scott said, adding no one was ever in any danger. School Principal Leslie Horne previously stated the same thing in an interview with the Mountaineer last month immediately following the incident.

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School System Salary Changes Presented

        Proposed changes to the school system salary scale which will allow for raises of some 2.75 percent or more for school employees were presented to members of the Buchanan County School System budget committee, Monday.
        The budget committee met prior to the board’s regularly scheduled meeting and agreed to consider the scales after Garden School Board Chairman Steve Hamro III presented them. The committee will meet again March 13 at 12 noon as it continues its work to develop a school budget for the 2006-2007 school year.
         In presenting the proposed scales to the committee Hamro noted the scales continue to build on what the board had done last year to establish the scales.
        The scales he presented include raises averaging 2.75 percent for all classified employees. The numbers related to a teacher scale are still being adjusted, but Hamro said the raises for teachers average around 3 to 4 percent. The current governor’s budget calls for teacher raises of 4 percent.
         Additionally, Hamro said after the meeting that the proposed scales reward longevity with the school system, calling for supple-ments of $250 for every year beyond 25 for those on 10-month contracts with the school system and $350 for every year beyond 25 for custodians, secretaries, bookkeepers, central office secretaries and bookkeepers, and the school nurse.
        Computer technicians, whose scale now maxes at 20 years, would receive $350 for every year beyond 20 under the proposal.
         None of the proposals have been formally approved by the school board yet and have been submitted for discussion purposes only.

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Board Eyes Twin Valley Property
Central Office to Send Letter to Heirs

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
         School board administrators will exercise the school system’s right to take possession of property adjoining the Twin Valley High School baseball field, due to action at Monday night’s meeting of the Buchanan County School Board.
        School Board members went into a 13-minute closed session to discuss personnel and land acquisition on a motion to close the doors by South Grundy School Board Member David Thornbury and a second by North Grundy School Board Member Don Newberry. The vote was unanimous.
       When board members emerged from closed session, the only action announced involved the referral of the land acquisition issue to administration to handle.
          Garden Chairman Steve Hamro III said after the meeting that it had recently come to light that land adjoining the baseball field was apparently property owned by the school system dating to previous action by a previous board involving land titled then in the name of Stella Ward. Ward, Hamro said, is now deceased.
         Hamro noted he had asked School Board Attorney Tom Scott to review documents related to the property, including a metes and bounds description and an Order of Dismissal Upon Agreement Reached After Pendency of Condemnation. The order directed the then property owner, Stella Ward, be granted a life estate, which allowed her to continue to live on the property throughout her lifetime. However, the life estate terminated at the time of her death, as did any claim to the property by her or her heirs, according to a letter opinion from Scott to School Board Clerk Joyce Presley after his review of the documents.
          Hamro said the discovery that the land in fact apparently belonged to the school system was made by Todd VanMeter in the county mapping office and according to Scott, VanMeter notified Garden Supervisor Buddy Fuller of his findings and recommended that a title examination be conducted on the property.

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