SwVCC 'Legend' Dr. Charles King to Retire This Year

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
   Southwest Virginia Community College President Dr. Charles King made it official Tuesday, announcing that after 40 years at the helm as SwVCC's founding and only president, he will retire at the end of the year.
    Virginia Community College System Chancellor Glenn Dubois, who was at the college for the announcement, said King was a legend and told those gathered, "this is where a legend announced his retirement."
    "You blink an eye and it's been 40 years," King, who is now 72, said.
    He noted that he and his wife, Mary, arrived at the college site in 1967 with plans to stay for about three years.
    But once they called southwest Virginia home, King told faculty, staff and others gathered in the community college auditorium Tuesday morning for the announcement, there was no turning back.
    "We're glad we stayed," he continued. "This is God's country. Being a former athlete, a coach and an educator, I know I want to leave at the top of my game and I think I'm at the top. I think I've learned a thing or two and I trust the good Lord will open up a new door."
    King said he and his wife will continue to stay in the community and be active, although he said they may go to Florida once and awhile.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  To subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.

Motion to Increase School Employee Raises Fails 5-2
Board Members Talk 'Fiscal Responsiblity;' 'Smoke and Mirrors'

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
    A motion to increase school employee raises for those not receiving a minimum of 4 percent for the current school year was tried and failed 5-2 after a sometimes heated discussion of the topic during a meeting of the Buchanan County School Board, Monday night.
    Board members previously voted unanimously to adopt the school system budget and a raise schedule for employees based on salary scales implemented last year. The raises given for the current year ranged from 2 percent to 10 percent and were based in part on the raise structure from the prior year.
    On Monday, however, South Grundy School Board Member David Thornbury proposed a motion to bring all employees up to a minimum 4 percent, citing partially funded recommendations contained in the state budget.
    Other school board members, however, expressed concerns about looming construction and repair costs at Grundy High School; the costs associated with the hiring of six new school nurses; and the need to stick with a budget already adopted unanimously by the board during its budget process earlier this year.
    Thornbury passed out a handout with a bar chart and copies of a news release on Governor Tim Kaine’s website which recommended a 4 percent pay raise for teachers. It did not specifically recommend a raise for other school employees; however, the Buchanan school system extended a raise to all school employees -- not just classroom teachers.
    It was unclear on the handout Thornbury distributed how many of the 271 Buchanan school system employees he calculated as receiving less than 4 percent were actually teachers out of a total of 411 employees listed.
    According to central office records, Buchanan County has 576 school employees, 309 of whom are classroom teachers.
    The discrepancy in the numbers he used was not explained.
     Thornbury said when he had looked at the finance committee budget, what he noticed was that two thirds of employees did not get a 4 percent raise.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  To subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.

School Board Attorney Outlines Drug Policy to County Employees

by Scotty Wampler
Staff Reporter
   County school employees expressed little reaction to an outline of the recently-adopted drug policy last Thursday at Grundy High School.
    School Board Attorney Tom Scott addressed the two-thirds full auditorium, detailing the policy and allowing those with questions to express their concerns before the official start of the school year.
    "This policy, to a large extent, is a product of their efforts," Scott said in opening the meeting, referring to members of the School Board and county citizens who worked to make the new policy a reality. "None of us want to be injured as a result of someone being under the influence of drugs or alcohol," he said of the policy's intent to prevent drug-related accidents in the school system.
     Heading off several questions to begin the assembly, Scott touched on the subject of how prescription medication will be dealt with in relation to the drug testing.
     "It's not the intention of the school board to become medicine managers," Scott said.
     Explaining that the proper use of prescription medication will not be attacked by the policy, Scott encouraged those in attendance not to be hesitant about using legal medication.
     "Don't be alarmed about that," he said, adding that if an employee's drug test is positive while prescription medication is in their system, that person should go to the pharmacy where the prescription was filled and obtain the proper paperwork to turn over to the school system's Medical Review Officer (Dr. Clint Sutherland, Buchanan General Hospital). If it is determined that the prescription was being taken properly, Scott said, the MRO will report the test as negative.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  To subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.