Decatur school board votes to revamp tech department

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

— School board members voted to revamp Decatur’s technology department and hire two employees - a technology coordinator and a technology technician - at Monday’s meeting.

The motion, made by Kevin Smith, included a provision that the combined salaries of the two positions be under $80,000 per year and that two school board members would be involved in the hiring process.

It will allow Decatur superintendent Larry Ben to begin negotiating with the school’s Personnel Policy Committee for the tech position’s salary schedule and number of days each year.

The school’s current technology coordinator is paid $42,000 annually and has a one-year contract, according to the employee contractsposted on the school website.

Ben originally suggested adding the tech position to help ease the current coordinator’s workload. The tech could take care of everyday maintenance and focus on fixing electronic devices, computer systems and machines, allowing the technology coordinator more time for administrative tasks, Ben said.

School board members considered Ben’s recommendation for several minutes without any discussion and no motions were made. The board members then went into a 20 minute executive session, without Ben present, to discuss “personnel matters.” When they returned Smith made the motion to hire both a technology coordinator and a technician, and the four board members voted in favor of the motion. Board president Ike Owens was not present.

When asked after the meeting what the decision meant for the future of the current technology coordinator, Smith replied, “I don’t know.” He explained that he didn’t know whether the current coordinator or another person would be hired for the position.

Ben said the current technology coordinator is under a one-year contract. He also said he planned to obtain PPC approval for the tech position as soon as possible.

In other business, the school board held its annual election of officers. The same board members were appointed to the positions as held last year. Ike Owens was appointed president, Darleen Holly was appointed vice-president, Terry Burden was appointed secretary, Ike Owens was appointed primary disbursing officer and Kevin Smith was appointed secondary disbursing officer.

News, Pages 3 on 10/17/2012