By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Contributing Writer
The Beaufort County Board of Education on Thursday prepared for the start of the new school year in August by approving several policies that will affect students when they return to the classroom.
The board unanimously approved the Code of Student Conduct and Student/Parent Handbook for the 2012-2013 academic year. It outlines the basic rights and responsibilities of students attending the county’s public schools and the possible consequences for misbehavior.
In conjunction with that handbook, the board also approved a policy for administering medicines to students and a policy governing its health-education program.
Under the policy governing medications, elementary students are not allowed to self-administer medication under any circumstances, but middle- and high-school students may self-administer nonprescribed, over-the-counter medications.
The policy governing health education for the public schools retains the parental right to inspect for 60 days before their use materials that are part of sex education and the right to exclude students from any part or all of that instruction.
But as the board members looked to the coming academic year, they learned they would have to do so without one of the school district’s top officials.
The four-page list of personnel changes approved unanimously by the board included the resignation of Laurie Modlin, finance officer for Beaufort County Schools. Modlin, who has worked for the local public schools for nearly 23 years, has resigned her post effective July 20 to accept a position with Currituck County Schools.
Board Chairman F. Mac Hodges made note of Modlin’s departure and thanked her for her service for the local schools, saying she will be missed and noting the vacancy will be hard to fill.
In other business, the board:
• Approved a $156,012 contract with Image Supply Inc. of Lumberton for custodial supplies, equipment repairs and clean-school inspections. The contract will run from Aug. 1 through July 31, 2015, and is about $16,000 less than the current contract, according to information presented to the board.
• Approved spending $31,972, including $22,747 for installation of a booster-pump system for Washington High School, $6,725 for a well system for the school’s athletic fields and $2,500 in contingencies for the project. The cost of the booster-pump system is about $40,000 less than the original estimate for the project. The well system will result in an annual cost savings of between $5,000 and $7,000, the board was told.
• Voted unanimously to allow the football team at P.S. Jones Middle School to stay in its current football conference for the 2012-2013 school year. Other teams at the county’s middle schools will compete in a conference limited to schools within the county and adjacent counties during the coming school year.
All board members attended the meeting.