CROTHERSVILLE
In the second week of the new school year, Crothersville Community School Corp. is still hiring staff members.
During Monday’s board of trustees meeting at the central administration building, Marinda Deaton was hired as a junior-senior high school English teacher working three periods of the day on a teaching contract. For the rest of the day, she will be paid as a substitute teacher.
The board also unanimously approved the following elementary teachers as eLearning personnel: Cassondra Kelly, kindergarten; Ashley Spicer, first grade; Tara Bedwell and Tina Kilgore, second grade; Sara Salas, third grade; and Olivia Cain, fourth and fifth grades.
They will spend part of their day teaching students in their classroom and also set aside time to instruct the students doing eLearning at home.
They will be paid a $1,200 stipend and an additional $200 per student with a cap of $1,000.
Superintendent Terry Goodin said two teachers were chosen for second grade because as of Monday’s meeting, there were 15 students doing eLearning. The other grades had less than 10.
In other personnel matters, the board approved the retirement of cafeteria employee Sherry Harris effective at the end of the 2020-21 school year, extracurricular assignments of Whitney Scott as the Class of 2027 co-sponsor and Jacob Dunn as golf coach and resignation of Wesley Money as the eighth grade volleyball coach.
Also during the meeting, trustees approved the continuation of additional service agreement with the Jackson County Health Department for providing nursing services in the new school year.
Trustee Linda Luedeman asked about the procedure if the school district was to reach a certain number of positive COVID-19 cases. Goodin said if 0.05%, or 25, of the corporation’s nearly 500 students become infected, the health department would require a shutdown and all students would shift to eLearning.
He said the health department will keep school officials posted on the number of students who test positive and if there’s a surge.
Goodin asks people to have patience with school officials because the health department guidelines change on occasion.
"We want to guarantee, we want to put people’s mind at ease that we’re not making up any rules," he said. "We’re following the guidelines that are handed down to us, and we’re going to follow them pretty strictly."
Luedeman also thanked the corporation’s bus drivers for their efforts so far.
"I know it has been a little tedious to figure out who to pick up and how to do those routes and making sure that they are masked and ready for the day. It’s a tough job," she said.
"The bus drivers are very important," Goodin said. "They are the first people to see (students) and the last people to see them in the day."