By Robby Robertson Staff Writer

Athens Independent School District Chief Financial Officer Randy Jones presented the school board with the requirements of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) waiver for low attendance days. The presentation was conducted at the AISD monthly school board meeting Thursday.

With the early September waive of flu outbreak around the state, many schools were having to close because of low attendance. Athens ISD did not have to close its doors, but did get down to 84 percent capacity.

TEA has developed a procedure by which a district may exclude low attendance days from their ADA (average daily attendance) calculation.

“This is very beneficial to the district,” Jones said Friday. “It allows us the recognition to not loose our status, as well as state and federal funding.”

The procedure helps maintain the planned level of state funding, and mitigates the financial impact of low attendance.

The district must submit the application no later than June 25, 2010.

Jones informed the board that attendance will be monitored for the remainder of the school year, with the application being submitted for approval prior to the TEA deadline.

Assistant Superintendent Mike Green provided the board with a revision to local policy DEC, previously approved, regarding Reimbursement of Leave Upon Separation.

The deletion of the statement, “The employee has at least 20 days of available state and local leave,” was approved as presented.

Green further presented a request to revise the approved amount of reimbursement of leave upon separation.

The amount of $150 per day, or the employee’s daily rate of pay, whichever is higher, was recommended for accumulated state/local sick leave for those employees who qualify.

This amount would be effective until June 30, 2010. The policy and amount will be reviewed for the 2010 – 2011 fiscal year.

“We want to make this fair for everyone,” Human Resources Director Annette Faulk said. “We know they have days that they can take, and we want them to use those days where they see fit.”

Local Policy DEC, Reimbursement of Leave Upon Separation, begins with the statement that the “leave provisions shall apply to state and local leave earned beginning on the original effective date of the program.”

Previous communication to district employees indicated that accumulated teacher days could be “grandfathered” in.

The Attorney’s General opinion prevents the district from awarding reimbursement for days prior to the board’s approval of this policy.

This means that for the 2009–2010 school year, the maximum number of days that could be reimbursed would be 10, because the policy was not approved by the board, prior to this school year and the maximum number of days that may be accrued in a year is 10, including five state and five local.

Faulk also showed how the district would have 100 percent of the teachers in core academic areas highly-qualified, if not for a determination by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) released in mid-October regarding, teachers who have passed subject-area exams.

Under previous guidelines, a teacher in grades 4 through 8 could teach math, with a 4 to 8 certification in math. The new USDE determination requires that newly-hired teachers for the 2009-2010 school year would also need to hold the certification for 4 to 8 generalist.

The district will work with assisting teachers with this new compliance requirement. The district has continued to increase the percentage of teachers in core academic areas over the past three years.

Taylor Fitzgerald, Athens High School Senior, was honored as being an “Advanced Placement Scholar with Distinction” recipient. He took five AP exams last year, and scored a “3” or better.

This also earned him $1,000 for this achievement by receiving $200 for each exam.

From the 2006-2007 school year to last year (2008-2009) the number of exams taken at AHS rose from 54 to 197. More than $8,000 has been distributed to AHS students, and an additional $8,000 to teachers of AP classes for excellent instruction and testing results.

Taylor’s goal for this school year is to take six AP exams, and score “3” or better on each.

He will be interviewing with Harvard University in December, and would like to study Biology.

Teaching is definitely something he is considering for his future.

The November Staff of the Month were honored by Board President Steve McElhany. The honorees were: Carla Hawkins, Athens Early Childhood Center; Emily Wilken, South Athens Elementary; Amanda House, Bel Air Elementary; Cherry Sumrall, Athens Intermediate School; Shannon Pursley, Athens Middle School; Rita Curington, Athens High School; and Nell Feagins, Cafeteria Manager at AHS.

Director of Human Resources Annette Faulk contributed to this story.