The Scott County School District 2 Board of Trustees held a special board meeting on Friday, July 14, with Board Vice-President Josh Mays calling the meeting to order, minus Board President Jason Kendall.

Scott County School District 2

The board discussed the administrative re-alignment for Scottsburg Elementary School with Superintendent Marc Slaton presenting Deb Yost's letter of intent to retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year. Dr. Slaton proposed that Mrs. Yost be named full time Assistant Principal at SES in order to allow for posting of the SES principal position, stating that this will allow Mrs. Yost to be on hand this year to make for a smooth transition. He also proposed that Mr. Warner be re-assigned as a Coordinator/Director where he would do the following district wide elementary tasks of:

Elementary e-Learning Coordinator

District WIDA Coordinator (English Language Learner Students)

District Attendance Officer

Data Analysis Coordinator (Data and RTI meetings).

Assistant District Testing Coordinator

Dr. Slaton added that this is a new way to package these tasks so this will be looked at as a one year assignment to see how it works out. Mrs. Yost and Mr. Warner will keep the same number of days, salary and benefit packages that they currently have. Mrs. Soloe made a motion to approve, seconded by Christy Roberts.

Dr. Slaton stated that when the bleachers at the Scottsburg Middle School football field were installed and the sidewalk poured, the fence had to be removed to keep it from being in the middle of the concrete. He asked permission to put the fence back so that all of the concrete would be behind the fence. (They will reuse the existing fencing at another site in the District.) He estimated that there would need to be about 210-220 feet of fence at approximately $10 per foot and that it would cost about $350 to drill the needed holes. Andrea Soloe made a motion to approve, seconded by Mr. Moore. Motion carried 4-0.

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A restructuring of the Scott County Area Plan Commission (APC) is apparently being considered by Commissioners.

At their meeting on July 19, Commissioners Kelley Robbins and Bob Tobias listened as a Madison attorney who specializes in area planning, Pat McGrath, made a presentation on doing away with the current APC and restructuring it as an advisory board which may only serve the county.

Commissioner Mike Jones was unable to attend the meeting because of job obligations.

Currently the APC office is county-operated with a county-paid staff officed at the Courthouse in downtown Scottsburg. However, the City of Scottsburg is also served by the APC, which issues permits of various kinds as well as making decisions over zonings, reviewing development plans and approving subdivisions. The City of Austin has had its own APC since the early 1980s.

A Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) is also part of the APC. Its members determine requests for variances from current Zoning Ordinance standards.

The county and city have shared the APC since the early 1970s.

McGrath explained to the Commissioners that there would be a delay in dissolving the current APC and establishing an advisory board but that the current Zoning Ordinance (ZO) can be left in place and continue to be implemented. “Generally, once you establish a new (Advisory) Board, you look immediately at redrafting your Zoning Ordinance,” he said. The current ZO has been in effect since 2004.

Several companies are available that could assist the county with that task, and McGrath submitted a quote on the work from a New Albany firm. The amount of that quote is not known.

The new Advisory Board would then review the proposed ZO and send it on to Commissioners for their approval.

In going through this exercise, McGrath said the Commissioners would gain more control over who is named to the Advisory Board and the ordinance they would enforce.

McGrath also said the City of Scottsburg “…will have to make some changes…” if the Commissioners vote to dissolve the current APC. “They (city officials) will have to decide how they want to proceed. Your current (APC) would assume responsibility for any on-going issues you might have so nothing is lost in the shuffle,” McGrath added.

April Ramoni, Executive Director of the current APC, said she was not aware that any discussion about dissolving the APC and replacing it was scheduled for the July 19 meeting because she had been unable to obtain an agenda for this meeting.

“There is a lot of information you should get before you make this decision, and it’s all in my office. Our doors are always open,” she told the Commissioners.

Commissioners went on to ask McGrath and his senior partner, Merritt Alcorn, several questions about who is required to serve on an Area Plan Advisory Board and who would be making those appointments.

Robbins and Tobias also considered what to do with the information the attorneys had provided. County attorney Robert L. Houston suggested they table the issue so that Commissioner Jones would have a chance to look over the material.

They agreed to table it. “The ball’s now in your court, and we’ll wait to hear from you,” Alcorn stated.

The subject may have been put to temporary rest by Commissioners, but the Scottsburg Board of Works (BOW) and Public Safety had a discussion about the possible problems that could occur if the county agency is dissolved.

“We’ve got several proposed developments on the table, and we sure don’t want to throw any monkey wrenches in the works,” commented a surprised Mayor Bill Graham. “You don’t try to get someone to come up for a meeting and then tell them, oh hey, there’s going to be a delay with all your permitting.”

City Council President Bill Hoagland, who serves on the BOW, emphatically agreed as did new member Stanley Allen. “We need to protect the city,” Hoagland said.

Mayor Graham asked Director Ramoni, who was present at the BOW meeting, to work with city attorney Kerry Thompson and decide what could be done if the county decides to form an Advisory Board. A public meeting over the issue needs to be held, it was determined.

“We’ve got to be serious about this and make sure we can function because this (change) will affect future generations,” stated Mayor Graham.

Commissioners will meet again at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 2. The City Council’s next business meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Monday, August 7.

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