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Many were in attendance for the Brewton City Schools Board of Education meeting held Mon., Nov. 18.

Conducted in the board meeting room, the main topic of discussion was the consideration of a grievance appeal.

President Mark Manning addressed the board about the grievance.

“Let me walk the board through the sequence of events in regard to the grievance,” said Manning.

“In Aug. a parent notified the superintendent that they wanted to submit a grievance but was uncomfortable submitting it through the normal channels as outlined in the policy,” continued Manning.

After receiving the information, a retired superintendent was designated as the grievance officer.

Manning explained, “To accommodate the parent’s concern, a retired superintendent from another district was designated as a grievance officer who would review these concerns.

In review of the grievance and crafting a response and decision, the grievance officer sought legal guidance from multiple attorneys.”

A response finally surfaced in Sept.

“The grievance officer responded with a decision to the parent on Sept. 20, 2019,” said Manning.

“Some of the parent’s request was granted by the grievance officer and some were denied. The grievance officer provided an explanation to the parent for the decisions. The parent has appealed the decision of the grievance officer to the full board for consideration,” added Manning.

Before the meeting, all board members reviewed the materials associated with the grievance.

During the meeting, the board voted to affirm or amend the decision made by the grievance officer.

“It requires a majority vote of the board to affirm or amend the grievance officer’s decision or to grant an evidentiary hearing. With that being said, I would like to make a motion that we affirm the decision of the grievance officer,” said Manning.

Following this motion, the floor was open for discussion. After no discussion, the board members voted and approved the decision.

Following the action in new business, Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Varner shared his report.

As planned, the code of conduct review will begin within the month. “We have a committee that includes an administrator, teacher, and parent from each campus. The principals on the campus selected these people that will participate,” said Varner. In an effort to thoroughly review the current policy, the committee will conduct meetings that include detailed discussions regarding the current code. “We have a meeting this Thursday to break down the Code of Conduct. We have provided everyone with a three ring binder that includes our code of conduct and 8 other districts’ code of conducts,” explained Varner.

Along with this update, Varner reminded the board of the AASB convention.The AASB Convention will be held in Birmingham on Dec. 5-7, 2019.  The delegate assembly will be on Thurs., Dec. 5 at 6 p.m. The first activity for the other board members will be at 7:30 a.m. on Fri., Dec. 6. The Convention will adjourn at 10:30 a.m. on Sat., Dec. 7, 2019.  Board members will receive 8 hours of training credit for attending. Thirdly, Varner announced a school tour that will be held Fri., Jan. 17 from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. at Brewton Middle School.

Other actions taken by the board included the approval of the financial report for  Sept. and Oct. 2019. Reported at the meeting, excluding the sales tax balance, the general fund balance is $1,541,992.02 which is 1.56 month’s equivalent.

The next regularly scheduled board meeting is on Dec. 16, 2019 at 5 p.m. in the board meeting room.