Pickens County School Board offered maintenance employees an olive branch last week. Responding to a request from Operations Director Rick Little during a May 30th called meeting, the board voted to allow maintenance employees to drive county vehicles home for a period of six months, at which time the board said it would revisit the arrangement to analyze the cost to the county. The move was a means to retain some of the county’s valuable employees.

“Over the last five or so years, none of our maintenance folks—nobody in the system, really—has gotten raises, except for annual step raises,”

Little said, adding step raises are approximately 50 dollars, which he commented are hardly noticed in the paychecks. He also noted a portion of health insurance costs has been shifted back on employees, a result of the ironically named Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. As a way to help maintenance workers, Little recommended allowing the four employees to take county vehicles home. He said this would save time, so they wouldn’t have to drive to the garage to get their work trucks and then drive to service calls at one of the various schools through out the county. Little also said one his valued employees handed in his resignation due to these circumstances. He went on to say this employee holds certificates in HVAC, plumbing, and waste water treatment. When asked by board member Dan Fincher how much it would cost to replace the employee, Little said he wasn’t sure if that was possible. Board Chair Wendy Lowe asked if the transportation arrangement would keep him in the Pickens County School System. Little said the employee told him it would, but added there are no guarantees.

But, not all members were on board with the idea. Freshman Board Member Mike Cowart did not approve of the plan.

“I don’t think that it’s responsible to do something like this,”

he said,

“knowing that there’s going to be a lot of really hard, tough decisions to be made in the next sixty days.”

Chief Financial Officer Amy Burgess says the health cost increases for FY13 are upward of half a millions dollars, while the system is expected to receive deep cuts in state funding of approximately $2.9 million in the form of QBE (Quality Basic Education) austerity measures. As such, some of these tough decisions include a reduction in force plan for next school year. During a March finance workshop, the board said it plans to eliminate 30 positions. According to the March discussion some of these positions will be eliminated through attrition, while other positions will be moved around or reduced to part-time positions.

In his comment, Cowart emphasized that the board has yet to pass a budget for next year. He said an approval of vehicle-take-homes without a budget or cost analysis would be imprudent.

The board approved the measure voting four to one, Cowart voting against the measure.