School board makes a deal with sheriff’s office for use of old Central View School building

White County School Board and White County Sheriff’s Office have entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), regarding the old Central View Elementary School.

During the Sept. 11 meeting of White County Board of Education,  it was decided to share the facility with the sheriff’s office for the purpose of training and storage.

The agreement will be an annually renewed MOU so the school board can revisit the arrangement each year to assure it is still something they wish to continue. In addition, the school board must give a 90-day notice to the sheriff’s office if, in the event, they wished to repurpose the property for their own means again.

It was asked if the sheriff’s office would be responsible for some of the damage to the property, or if the school board would still be responsible for getting those items repaired. Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger clarified a section in the MOU.

“The sheriff’s department shall be solely responsible for all maintenance, repairs, utility, upkeep, or other financial obligations associated with its portion of the property during the term of the MOU,” Dronebarger said.

The school board also approved to proceed with a plan to deed over the property on which the BonDeCroft Volunteer Fire Department is located to the department. The process would give 1.08 acres to the fire department.

“The reason that this is coming about is that the BonDeCroft Fire Department wants to enhance their property, apply for some grants,” Dronebarger said. “They want to just make that a better facility for the safety of the community, and they can’t do that as long as the property is in the school board’s name.”

The school board approved the agenda item, which now must go to a Steering Committee with the county commission. If the county committee approves the item, it would then return to the school board for final approval.

Director Dronebarger had a request under new business for the school board to approve payment for him to attend a conference with the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. Dronebarger felt it would be a good opportunity for him after the county acquired an associated grant with NAEHCY, and he also personally wants to accompany his wife, who was asked to attend. Dronebarger would only miss one school day, as it is at the start of November, so he was requesting the school board pick up the travel fees for the trip. He would be working during the trip remotely, so it is not a vacation.

There were multiple discussions in regard to old business, such as the bonuses to teachers back in May and changes to snow day payments. For the snow day payments, Dronebarger wanted to assure faculty were aware of the new 15 minutes added to their payroll every day. Instead of letting support staff make up for missed work on snow days, the added 15 minutes, which Dronebarger said most faculty already work a bit over each time, is meant to cover for potential snow days. In return, faculty cannot make up missed time from snow days after the fact. If there were nine snow days, those days would be subtracted from pay, but the added 15 minutes each day means that faculty will not actually lose money just from snow.

The next school board meeting will be 6 p.m., Oct. 9, at the White County Board of Education office, on Hale Street.  All meetings are open to the public as well as livestreamed on the White County School Board’s YouTube page.