School Board Votes To Keep Current Contract With Allied Behavorial Health
Photo by Jeff Depew
Photo by Jeff Depew
Photo by Jeff Depew
Photo by Jeff Depew
Photo by Jeff Depew
The Jefferson County School Board met last week for their regular monthly Work Session and Business Meeting. All School Board Members were in attendance for the lengthy session. Driving the more than four hour meeting was the contract for Allied Behavioral Health which has been a topic of concern for several previous meetings. More than thirty concerned citizens, Allied employees and their supporters and children addressed the School Board to express their varied opinions on keeping the contract with Allied in place through the current school year.
School Board Member Solomon presented a motion that would keep the current contract in place but would charge Director of Schools Tommy Arnold and Central Office Supervisor Carrie Trent with overseeing the service to assure that no LGBTQ+ agendas are presented to students and the “gender unicorn” (gender identity) be removed from Allied Behavioral Health’s social media sites. He was 2nd by Board Member Zander. Solomon’s motion was ruled out of order by School Board Chair Bradley. The Chair informed Solomon that there were too many parts to the motion and that it would have to be separated into two motions. Solomon/Zander offered the first motion to keep the current contract in place until June 30th 2023 (the end of the current contract). School Board Member Ibbetson offered an amendment to the motion to solicit letters of interest/bids for the school year 2023/2024. His amendment was ruled out of order by School Board Chair Bradley. Ibbetson challenged the ruling and ultimately put the item on the agenda for the May School Board Meeting. The Solomon/Zander motion was approved. Later in the meeting Solomon addressed the second part of his original motion (oversight and LGBTQ+ Unicorn) and was informed by the Chair that it wasn’t in order and was not necessary as it was more of a directive.
In other business, purchase of property adjacent to Rush Strong School was approved with a motion from Solomon and 2nd from Martin. The property in question will not exceed the cost of $125,000 and will come from fund balance. The Board also approved math test book adoption for Elementary, Middle and High School. The motions to adopt were unanimously approved. Additionally, the Board approved a handful of budget amendments, transportation surplus and the tenure list. Also finding approval from the Board was the consent agenda.
Recognized in the Work Session were students who scored 30+ on their ACT, Scope students, JCHS Mock Trial Team and 2023 Award of Excellence Community Spotlight.
