The Murphysboro School Board held its monthly meeting on Tuesday, and the biggest item on the agenda was the 2009-10 seniority list.
"The main item of business was the seniority list,'' said superintendent Chris Grode. "With the state of the state financial issues, the seniority list is something that we discussed.
"We had a lot of corrections, and the staff looked it over very closely because of the cuts that are going to have to be made due to the state's financial woes. The list was approved and will posted on Feb. 1 with all of the corrections that were made."
The corrections were, basically minor.
"Looking at the seniority list, there were a lot of technicalities,'' Grode said. "Were they hired after this date? Did they get a full year? Before this date, they didn't get a full year? If they were part time, did they continue to get seniority?
"There's a lot of those things they ask and we make the correction if needed, or we don't and tell them why. It's just a matter of making sure everybody understands where they are at."
During the meeting, the Board also approved the Jackson County-Murphysboro-Carbondale Enterprise Zone.
"That is basically an area of Jackson County that encourages businesses to build,'' Grode said. "And as businesses build in southern Illinois people move here. So it's good for the community, and it's good for the schools."
Another item of new business was exit interviews.
"When people leave our district, we give them an exit interview,'' Grode said. "They have a sheet of paper they can fill out, and then they are invited to come into closed session.
"Basically it's a way for employees to tell us what they think. They've retired, or are leaving the district, and they are no longer an employee and we're hoping they are going to be honest. It's allows us information so that we can try to make improvements.
"What this was is that we talked about doing that for the coaching staff. It's all areas that we are trying to improve. It's a tool that would be used by me to look and get their feedback so that we can make the necessary adjustments."
The final new business was insurance renewal.
"We're going to go one more year, and then next year I think we're going to bid out for insurance,'' Grode said. "We do that about every three years or so. We might stay with the same company. We put it out for bids and the competition gets you the lowest price then you do a multi-year contract and every year there is an increment increase."