The Cherokee County Board of Education has voted to continue participation in the Medicaid Claiming Program, which will mean additional funds for the school system.

“Several years ago, AASB (Alabama Association of School Boards) entered into an agreement with Medicare/Medicaid Agency, the state agency and our board was able to claim some items we were already doing for students,” explained Board Chairman Tommy McDaniel during a recent board meeting. “Many of our central office staff had a big part in that. Over the years that program was in place, it meant almost $250,000 for the school system. That money was unencumbered. We could use it any way we wanted to in the system. That program, as most government programs, dries up when a lot of folks start using them so there’s another program called Fee For Service. It will be reimbursed the same way, probably a little bit lower. That $250,000 over six or seven years came in handy and like I say, we anticipate that this will be even more.”

Statewide, the program brought in more than $46 million, said Brian Johnson, superintendent, Cherokee County Schools.

“They look forward to this continued program through 2008,” Johnson said.



The board approved a consultant contract with JBHM Education Group for an Accountability Program Audit of Cherokee County High School for $6,000 plus expenses to be funded through Title funds.

According to Johnson, this will be an improvement plan as required by the No Child Left Behind Act to meet AYP (Average Yearly Progress) requirements.

“They will come in and do an audit, survey students, teachers, parents, community members and try to see where the needs are and ways to improve the school in general,” said Johnson. “It’s a state-mandated thing we have to do and they suggested an outside agency to do that.”

To date, Johnson said, some 17 students displaced by Hurricane Katrina are now enrolled in the Cherokee County School System.

“We have seven students at Centre Elementary School, three at Sand Rock, four at Cherokee County High School, two at Centre Middle School and one at Spring Garden School,” said Johnson. “There are a total of 12 students from Louisiana and five students from Mississippi for a total of 17.”



The board also approved Resource Officer contracts for Oct. 1, 2005 through Sept. 30, 2006 for $11,448 for both Richard Priebe and Thomas Owens.

In personnel action, the board approved the retirement of Sandy Morgan effective Sept. 1.

In other business, the board:

-approved the Capital Plan for FY06

-approved a Drug-Free Workplace Policy.

-approved consultant contract for the fiscal year Oct. 1, 2005 through Sept. 30, 2006, with the Children’s Advocacy Center for $4,000 and Prevention and Support Services for $3,999 to be funded by Title IV funds. “Those are two of our local agencies form which we are contracting services and they will actually come into our schools and talk about drug prevention, life skills and learning, different programs to hopefully prevent drug use,” said Johnson. “It gives supplemental type services to our children to help deter some of those things we know can happen.”

-approved Gaylesville Advisory Committee members for 2005-2006 school year including Alford Brewster for one year, John Dow VanPelt for two years and Melinda Callan for three years.

-approved bidding eight regular buses and one special needs bus to replace 1996 models out of fleet renewal funds. “We usually wait until later to do this, but Mrs. Robin Cunningham, our custodian of funds, attended a meeting and they suggested that because of the hurricane and the need, there will probably be a lot of people searching for buses,” said Johnson. “They said that we should get ours bid and ordered as soon as possible.”

-approved for Gaylesville School and Spring Garden School to enter into a 60-month lease with Zerox Corporation for copiers.

-accepted bids on Propane-low-fixed bid of $1.45 per gallon from Allgas, Inc.; Lumber-total low bid-Lumber Mart, Inc.; Paint-total low bid-Carpet Shop, Inc.; Electric-total low bid-Rexel/Southern; Garbage Collection-low bid of $3,114.35 per month-Waste Management; Fuel-total low bid-Cedar Bluff Oil Company and five HVAC units at Spring Garden Auditorium-total low bid of $62,438-Modern Heating and Cooling, Inc.

-reviewed and approved bills for payment.

-approved out-of-state travel for Barry Bailey who will attend the National FFA Convention in Louisville, Ky. Oct. 24-29 to be funded by FFA (He will also take FFA String Band and two other students) and Andrew Jones who will attend a national Science Olympiad Coaching Clinic in Hammond Ind. Oct. 7-8. Title II funds will apply $400 toward Jones’ trip

-met in student disciplinary hearings for one Sand Rock School student, four Cherokee County High School students and one Cedar Bluff School student.

The next meeting of the board is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 6 p.m., at the central office