Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Autauga County Board of Education met for their regular meeting Tuesday night with standing room only to recognize the Teachers of the Year and to recognize and thank Senators and State Representatives for landing a $3 million one-time- funding grant for Autauga County Schools.
After the excitement and well-deserved accolades were given, it was business as usual for the ACBOE where the Board passed and is moving forward with centralized and online registration for the following 2024 school year.
Principal of Prattville Primary School, Holly McNider gave a presentation to the Board and public regarding the academic strategic plan for Autauga County Schools and their state report card. Autauga County Schools received a B on the state report card.
The strategic plan can be viewed on the Autauga County School’s website and will show the five-year-plan.
McNider covered one specific “priority area” of academic advancement, and in McNider’s presentation she compared where the district did well and highlighted room for improvement. One area for improvement that McNider stressed was attendance and chronic absences throughout the district and between all grade levels.
A few minor changes to policy number 5.07 were made in order to reflect the role that the Centralized Registration department will have in handling enrollments and withdrawals across the district. The policy also clarifies the proof of residency that will be accepted and provides written guidance on how the residency affidavit process will be executed.
Policy 5.56 also had a minor change in regard to details in how the district plans to implement in-district transfers for students for the 2024-2025 school year. As the Board narrows down the minor details, final decision should be made by April when the online registration process starts for Autauga County, Superintendent Lyman Woodfin confirms.
Another item approved by the Board goes to help the 2024 summer learning camp and the 2024-2025 afterschool program. Tutoring and summer camps are required by the legislature in relation to Literacy and Numeracy Acts. This program would allow teachers to be paid weekly during the summer within these programs.
It was also approved by the Board and in collaboration with the Prattville YMCA that extended learning services for the 2024 summer learning program will be offered. Woodfin confirmed that ARP Esser 3 funds will be used to fund this program for the summer of 2024.
The Board also put two employees of Autauga County schools on administrative leave for 20 days without pay for an incident that happened on Dec. 11th, 2023.
Woodfin stated that a bag of candy with some decorative shavings was passed out from employee B in an administrative meeting that morning. According to Woodfin’s recount of the incident after interviewing everyone in attendance, a member of the meeting allegedly stated ‘don’t open the bags’ it will be an HR issue as there were mini bottles of liquor in the gifts. Employee B took back the bags and left the room.
“Given all this information, I asked for employee b to come to my office. I interviewed employee b and everyone in attendance that morning,” Woodfin said.
The interaction was about one minute long, according to Woodfin who was in attendance at that meeting.
Woodfin then asked employee A to write a statement in regard to the meeting that morning where there was allegedly a mini bottle of alcohol in the gift bags.
Employee A apparently re-received the gift after the meeting and brought the gift to Woodfin’s office. Employee A confirmed with Woodfin that they felt the bag and confirmed without opening the gift it was a small bottle of alcohol with a bag of candy and decorative shavings.
“ACBOE policy 4.48 states the possession, use, transfer, sell or distribution of alcoholic beverages by any employee while on the job or on school premises or off campuses in connection with or affiliation any school related activities is strictly prohibited. Violation of this policy will result in disciplinary action,” Woodfin said.
While employee A did not use the alcohol they violated policy 4.48 and Woodfin’s recommendation was 20 days of unpaid leave for both employee A and B for knowingly possessing alcohol on ACBOE property.
