Nola Sizemore

Staff Writer

Cuts were made during a special called meeting of the Harlan Independent Board of Education on Tuesday. Trying to tighten their budget, members of the board hope these cuts will save them money for the upcoming school year.

Superintendent David Johnson recommended the Director of Student Services position be reduced from the present 230 days to 220 days for the upcoming school year on their contract. This action was unanimously approved by the board.

“The Director of Student Services position includes our director of people personnel and our school food services, which are two of the biggest parts of that position,” said Johnson. “This position is currently vacant.”

Johnson also recommended the elimination of a vacant custodial position and an increase to the three custodial positions, which are currently eight hours per day to nine hours per day. He said the net result of that elimination will be a savings to the school district. This recommendation was also unanimously approved.

“What we did tonight on these two actions, we’re estimating it will save anywhere from $10,000 to $12,000 for the upcoming school year,” said Johnson.

Recommended to the board by Johnson was the acceptance of a bid from Taylor Publishing for the district’s yearbook in the amount of $12,975. This bid was unanimously approved by the board.

“This bid, while not the low bid, we will accept it due to the level of comfort with the service to be provided by the Taylor Publishing Company,” said Johnson. “We have previously used Taylor Publishing for the publishing of our yearbooks for a number of years.”

Asking that the board reject all the bids submitted for maintenance equipment and supplies, Johnson said the reason being the bid specifications needed to be changed.

“After a discussion with our lawyer, I feel we ought to have more specific biding specifications, as opposed to the general specifications that we’ve been using in the past,” said Johnson.

Board member Will Miller made a motion to approve this action and board member Kat Stacey seconded that motion. New bids will now be accepted for maintenance equipment and supplies needed for the school district.

Reach Nola Sizemore at 606-573-4510 or at nsizemore@heartlandpublications.com