With expansions coming to three Overton County elementary schools, School Board Members concerned about the potential need for more maintenance-custodians.
School Board Member Ricky Dodson said the growth at Rickman Elementary, in particular, has been noticeable with a current student population of 717. Dodson said with this growth, the board should consider hiring a full time maintenance employee.
“Our man is split half and half,” Dodson said. “He’s half custodian and half maintenance. And I’d like to see if we could make him full-time maintenance and we could try to hire maybe a four-hour custodian to fill in the rest of the day. I know the high school is the biggest school in the county, and I think somebody else is doing maintenance there all day long.”
Director of Schools Kim Dillon said the Livingston Academy maintenance employee was hired in a split role, but his duties now are strictly maintenance. At the other schools, maintenance-custodians tend to split their duties half and half. The split roles are designed as such because other county schools have less square footage than Livingston Academy.
Board Member William Abston asked the board if the current maintenance-custodian could made full time like at the high school given the square footage at Rickman.
Board Member Mike Hayes said if square footage is a factor, the board needs to consider potential needs at the other schools getting expansions. Each new classroom will add 800 square feet to the buildings.
“I’d almost say if we’re going to hire a maintenance full time, then go ahead and hire a half a person now and then move it to full time because it’s going to be a year and a half before that one’s done at Rickman,” Hayes said.” Go ahead and hire a half now to compensate for that maintenance, but we need to look at Allons and Hilham too.”
Abston said the board needs to decide on a concrete number to hire a full time maintenance person if they choose to base hiring on square footage.
“Because is there a certain square footage and we go above that, we’re going to need a dedicated full-time maintenance person or how we want to divide that up, too,” Abston said. “So as we go into the future, if we have to do any other projects or anything, we can see and be prepared for what we need.”
Dillon said she has heard about the need for a full time maintenance employee at Rickman. Dillon said there are lots of continual issues at Rickman that may need a more attention because of the building’s age.
Abston said the Board will need more information before a decision is made. He sad the budget for next year is looking tight, so adding more people could make it even tighter.
