Board hears superintendent search update, approves emergency declaration for storm damage

The Christian County School Board heard from the representative who will help them through the superintendent selection process at Thursday’s meeting and approved an emergency declaration for damage caused during severe storms Saturday.

Phil Eason is with the Kentucky Association of School Administrators, which was chosen to by the board to help them with the process, and he gave board members a rundown of the plan.  He says everything starts with seating a screening committee, which will have six members, including a parent from the community.

Other members include a school board member, a principal, two teachers and a school system classified employee. After that applicants—who will remain confidential until a time the board chooses to identify them—will be reviewed by the screening committee, who will then make their recommendations to the board itself.  Eason says his plan is to have a new superintendent selected by the start of April.

In other action, the board approved a declaration labeling the damage caused at Christian County High School, the bus garage and Freedom Elementary a state of emergency.  Chief Operations Officer Brad Hawkins says the move allows them to get started on necessary repairs, which will mostly be covered by insurance, immediately.

The board heard a presentation for a $90 million draft budget, with Director of Business Jessica Darnell saying that right now there’s too much unknown in the way of state funding and grants to predict what a final budget will look like.  A draft budget is the start of a three phase budget cycle, followed by the tentative budget in May and a final budget in September.