Overton BOE To Vote On Additional Full-Time Maintenance Position

The Overton County Board of Education will vote next month to add a full-time maintenance position to its personnel.

The school board held a work session Tuesday night when the item was added to the December agenda. Chair Mike Hayes said the board will have to budget $46,000 for the position.

“As a budgeting aspect, he said he felt comfortable in January hiring one,” Hayes said. “He felt like he could offset and save that money in January and put the second person in the budget in August.”

Hayes said the position would complete in-house projects that the school board recently outlined in a work session. School Board member Jarman Hicks recommended that the position should be offered to current employees before listing to the general public.

As discussion continued, School Board Member Williams Abston brought up the need for new IT positions, as well.

“We’ve got three guys that are handling seven schools right now,” Abston said. “Do we need to look at giving them some help also?”

Director of Schools Donnie Holman said he believes the positions are needed but expressed budget concerns of hiring too many positions.

“Everyone is definitely right, but from where I am sitting, I am just a little concerned about the money,” Holman said. “Our budget is planned out pretty tight.”

Abston said he agreed, but he would rather see an IT position and maintenance worker hired rather than two maintenance workers. Hayes said the school system would create a similar project list for technology and review the need in a future meeting.