News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The White County Board of Education is considering changing Presidents’ Day to be a paid holiday for the whole district.
The district currently does not hold school that day but Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger said it is only a paid holiday for teachers. Chairperson Bob Young said that paying everyone else for the day off would cost some additional $26,000.
“It more impacts support staff such as assistants, secretaries, nurses, drivers, bus driver, custodians, maintenance, and mechanics,” Young said. “So it’s non-licensed personnel.”
Young said that approving the change would further increase the deficit that was approved for this year’s budget. The board agreed to table the subject until their October meeting so they would have more time to consider the impact of the decision.
“It’s a very eye-opening number to see put out in front of you,” Board Member Jayson McDonald said. “When you realize how many employees you have and how much money goes out each day through our county.”
Finance Director Chad Marcum said the deficit is not a point of concern for him because the district has historically finished each year in a much better condition then what was projected in their budget.
“I’m going to say we’re not, but I would be very surprised if we were in a very large deficit,” Marcum said.
Dronebarger said the idea for this change came up during the process the board went through to add Juneteenth as a holiday.
“Juneteenth just was an opportunity for us to look at our calendar overall,” Dronebarger said. “And Presidents’ Day came up and we thought it would be a good opportunity to provide that benefit to our staff as well. It’s already a day off for kids so why not make it a full day off for staff as well?”
In other business, the board elected Board Member Terri Douglas to be its Tennessee Legislative Network representative and Board Member John Smith to be its budget representative.
