The Killeen Independent School District School Board declared their intent to construct the Career Academy on district-owned property adjacent to the Charles Patterson Middle School, located at the corner of West Trimmier and Stagecoach Road during a workshop Tuesday morning. 

The board also authorized the administration to proceed with the steps necessary to plan for the design and construction of the facility.

Another topic covered at the workshop were the problems the district is having retaining auxiliary personnel. According to information submitted to the board from the Professional and Auxiliary Personnel Departments, the district had some personnel issues as far as staffing.

There has been a shortage in staffing and while fingerprinting was named as a source at the beginning of the year, both departments told the board that they felt that was no longer the case. Currently, the district has 52 openings for custodians, 43 for cooks, and 30 for bus drivers.

Some of the recommendations to help increase retainment for current employees is to extend flexible spending account benefits to all employees. Currently, only employees working more than 30 hours a week are eligible for this benefit.

Another option is to offer a 34-cent pay differential for evening custodians. This option closely mirrors the policy of the Copperas Cove Independent School District. There are currently 261 employees working this shift and its implementation is set to cost the district $184,579.

The final option is to convert all four-hour bus driver shifts and monitor positions to six-hour. This will allow the district to advertise full-time positions as well as guarantee drivers six-hour shifts.

The total cost for all these changes are estimated to be at $489,672. The board will vote on this issue during the November 18 regular board meeting.

Other workshop news included the board looking over the application for a modified schedule during Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) testing. The waiver allows the district to modify the schedule of classes for the TAKS testing days.

The board also discussed a request to upgrade their Nortel Call Pilot Server to replace the current system, which is seven years old. The upgrade will allow the district to replace an aging system that provides voicemail as well as the interactive voice response system.

Both the waiver and the upgrade will be voted on during the next regular board meeting.