School board discusses pay for snow days, recognizes students

White County School Board had their regularly scheduled Nov. 6, and some of the most talented young artists in the school system got recognition during a brief presentation.

Chairman Bob Young said the theme for the year is “Artist of the Year.” To that end, Marti Hedgecoth and Katherine Wylie from BonDeCroft Elementary gave their presentation and awards to the children that earned their Artist of the Year.

Not only were a handful of students awarded and recognized but also School Resource Officer Lewis Carrick. He was given the award because, on top of his service toward keeping the students and building safe, he always finds time to draw pictures for the students. Sometimes, students even request from him directly. The recipients then all took a picture together to honor the success and creativity of those students.

Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger then spoke to the way the School Board will handle snow days and payment on those days. In the past, staff that missed hours due to snow days would be given a chance to recuperate some of that lost time after the fact.

“What we’ve done at this point was just to have a more sound financial practice,” Dronebarger said. “We’re paying everybody right now for the time that they’re working. So that a lot of our aids, our educational assistants, are working each day. They’re staying after school and helping with dismissal, and so we’re paying them for that time right now.”

He finished his statement on the matter with, “But just know that if we miss, say, 10 days of snow, all 10 of those days will come off their paycheck at the end of the year. So that could be a whole paycheck that people won’t see.”

For the district report, Dronebarger said, “We’ve had a few changes in recent days, but I’m glad to say that we have all of our classes covered, all of our bus routes are covered, and that’s significant.”

Health and safety teams have also begun working with the school board to force a new tiered structure, hoping to take on the vaping problem in public schools. Dronebarger said it is likely “one of the biggest problems we have in our schools,” but he is glad that it is not anything worse. White County Sheriff’s Office will also be hiring an additional SRO on top of the existing eight.

The next school board meeting will be 6 p.m., Dec. 11, 2025.