Louisa East gets new principal
By TONY FYFFE
BSN Editor
LOUISA — A Lawrence County school has a new principal as students return to the classroom today (Wednesday).
Superintendent Dr. Robbie Fletcher announced at a special school board meeting Monday night that Eddie Dixon was selected earlier in the day as the new principal at Louisa East Elementary by the school’s site-based council.
Dixon, who was the school’s vice principal, was among “a number” of applicants for the job and one of two candidates interviewed by the council Monday, according to Fletcher.
Dixon replaces Anna Prince, who was named the school district’s new director of pupil personnel and director of personnel. Prince succeeds long-time administrator Vernon Hall, who has retired.
“I have been very impressed with her work thus far,” Fletcher told board members.
Fletcher also announced at Monday’s meeting that the district’s application for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER III) funds had been approved.
Some of the money, about $500,000, will be used to provide preschool to all 4-year-old children in Lawrence County free of charge this year and next year, Fletcher said.
An additional $125,000 will be used to purchase $50 worth of school supplies for each student in the district, he said.
“For two years, our students will be able to have some help with their school supplies,” Fletcher said.
In action from the meeting, school board members approved the district’s application for $9 million in Local Area Vocational Education Center (LAVEC) funding from the state School Facilities Construction Commission. If awarded, the funding would be used for upgrades to the vocational building, including an addition that would be used by the carpentry department and JROTC, and a new greenhouse.
Board members also discussed a new emergency regulation approved by the Kentucky Board of Education Thursday concerning paid leave for full- and part-time school district staff who are ordered to quarantine due to COVID-19 by a local health department, the Kentucky Department for Public Health or the school district.
Employees must have taken the COVID-19 vaccine or be exempt due to disability or sincerely held religious belief to be eligible for this paid leave. The additional leave prevents employees from having to use their limited personal or sick leave days during quarantine. In order to be effective for the 2021-2022 school year, the current regulation was filed on an emergency basis and has to be signed by Gov. Andy Beshear.
Local school board attorney Jonathan Shaw said the regulation had not been signed by the governor as of Monday.
“The regulation as drafted, it’s mandatory,” Shaw said. “There’s no real action that the board of education even needs to take with the current draft of the regulation.”
Shaw noted that the paid leave is not available to employees who have tested positive for COVID-19. Those employees would have to use their regular sick leave days, he said.
The new paid leave is also not available to employees who can perform their duties remotely from home while under quarantine, he said.
Board members expressed concern over the new regulation, but Shaw said it will carry the weight of law when it goes into effect.
“Vaccinated or unvaccinated, it doesn’t matter to me, if somebody is directed to leave work, and it’s beyond their control, I don’t want to charge them sick days or vacation days or any days,” board chairman Heath Preston said.