Veteran Teacher Convinces Board to Take Second Look at Retirement Plan

by Scott Wampler
Staff Reporter
        A veteran Buchanan County school teacher made the School Board take a second look at its recently-adopted retirement-incentive plan last week.
       Doug Matney, a Grundy High School teacher, addressed the board and asked that it consider amending its retirement plan to include a financial option.
        The plan already offers an insurance option the board adopted in hopes of cutting costs. Including a financial option, Matney suggested, would save the board even more money than the approximately 28.9 percent of the average salary the board is projected to pay in 2007.
        Considering the low bracket in the financial option included in the former retirement-incentive plan was approximately 18 percent, the board would stand to
save more compared to the current insurance option.
       With the previous plan, retirees selecting the financial option received a payment monthly.
       Matney, whose wife also has taught in Buchanan County for 30 years, explained the board has saved thousands of dollars over the years by not having to
pay insurance benefits to he and his wife.
         “By not offering a financial option, the school board is not getting the full benefit from the incentive program,” Matney read from a prepared statement. “I urge you today, as a board, to amend your original program and include a financial option with an insurance option,” he said.
         Board members, immediately receptive to Matney’s concerns, expressed their approval of an amendment.
          “I agree with Mr. Matney,” South Grundy board member David Thornbury said. “I believe it needs to be offered.”
           But before making any hasty changes, the board agreed the plan needed to be examined more thoroughly to ensure no other loopholes would take the board by surprise.
         “We assumed [the plan] went through a lot of different channels before it got to us,” Knox board member Clarence Brown said. “I believe we need time to
look at it.”

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Newcomer Joins Two Incumbents On Council

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
         One new member will join Grundy’s Town Council as a result of balloting which saw Becky Stevenson unseat incumbent Robert (Bob) Hale in Tuesday’s town election.
         Town voters returned Rebecca Shortridge-Elkins and William (Bill) Stokes Jr. to their seats on council and named Roger Powers as mayor in unofficial results counted Tuesday night.
         According to the Buchanan County Voter Registrar’s office, Powers was the highest vote getter with 162 votes. He was unopposed in his bid for mayor.
        Shortridge-Elkins was the highest vote getter in the council election, collecting 148 votes. Stevenson came in second highest with 136 votes, followed by Stokes at 104.
          Hale tallied 85 votes and as the lowest vote getter lost his seat in the race among four candidates for three posts on council.

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Final Drug Testing Draft Approved
Methadone Revision Calls for Leave

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
       A final draft of a drug testing policy for the Buchanan County Public School System was approved last Wednesday during a meeting of the Buchanan County School Board.
       The policy sailed through with little discussion following a closed-door session during which legal questions related to the policy were discussed behind closed doors.
        The board did not identify specifically what questions there were surrounding the policy proposed.
        Previously, the board had passed a motion asking the policy committee to add language into the policy banning methadone as a recognized treatment.
        Revisions made Tuesday to the policy, however, saw language added which will require any employee undergoing methadone treatment to take a medical leave of absence for up to 12 months until such time as that employee no longer requires such treatment.
        South Grundy Board member David Thornbury made the motion and Prater School Board Member Bill Crigger made the second. The vote was unanimous.
        "I think the public is going to be real responsive to what they see," Crigger said.
        The policy approved will be implemented in the coming school year. It allows for drug testing of all new hires; random testing of 20 percent of all employees and volunteers; and testing based on reasonable suspicion.
         The random tests will be conducted beginning September 1.
        A policy statement at the start of the new policy notes that alcohol and drug abuse in the workplace have become a major concern and it notes "the board is concerned about the detrimental effects which illegal drug use and alcohol abuse have upon the health and safety of its employees, volunteers and students."
        It continues, "the board recognizes that the excessive or habitual use of a alcohol and the non-medical or illegal use of drugs leads to increased accidents in the workplace, increased absenteeism of employees and adversely affects the quality of job performance and are grounds for the dismissal of employees or volunteers. The board also recognizes that teachers and school administrators are intended by parents, citizens and lawmakers to serve as role models for students."

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