By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
The St. Francis County Quorum Court Personnel Committee found St. Francis County Judge Carl Cisco was in accordance with the county's Employment Policy and Procedure Manual when he laid off an 11-year county employee last month.
In a letter to Clydie Garmon, presented following an executive session at Monday night's meeting, the committee stated Cisco was in accordance with Article 7, Section B of the employment policy and procedure manual.
According to the manual, "An elected official may lay off an employee whenever it is necessary by reason of shortage of funds or work or by reason of a bona fide abolishment of or change in the duties of a position or when the department is reorganized and the need for the position is eliminated."
According to Cisco, the position that Garmon held as office manager for the county road department was eliminated last month as a budget cutback measure. Garmon had been transferred a few weeks earlier from her secretarial position in Cisco's office at the courthouse to the road department due to other cutbacks in the road department.
"Under the layoff policy, a person can be laid off when a job is eliminated. We felt that we could eliminate this position and save more money. We had already made changes to cut costs by laying off another person with the road department. The only reason that you would not lay her off would be if I had another position available, which I don't. I have two other ladies working under me in the fine collector's position and the 911 coordinator's position," Cisco said.
Garmon questioned the aspects of her job transfer and layoff and suggested that the layoff was in fact a termination.
"If my transfer was done to save the county money, instead of transferring me to the shop you could have transferred the calls to the office here or installed an answering machine at the shop. My $20,000 salary wouldn't have been a dent in the county budget when there is another county employee who is making over $275,000 per year doing contract labor which is illegal and a conflict of interest, and another contract employee of the county is being paid $36,000 a year for a few hours of work per month with the county," Garmon alleged.
"I feel that I should have been brought back into this office when my job was eliminated at the county shop. Before being transferred to the county shop, my title was office manager, and I feel that this office still needs two secretaries to run it smoothly and efficiently," Garmon added.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
People who have been working on their GED -- their second chance to get a high school diploma -- need to finish their tests fairly soon, or they will have to start all over.
Walter Meals, Adult Education coordinator at Crowley's Ridge Technical Institute, confirmed information in a press release from the state Department of Workforce Education.
To earn a GED, a person must pass five tests. However, on Jan. 1, a new test will take effect.
"Beginning Jan. 1, the GED test will be a brand new test," said Meals. "The one they're using now has been used for several years. What has happened, a lot of people have actually taken part of the GED tests. There are five. And if they don't come in and finish it up, they'll have to start all over.
"It's not harder, it's just a different test. It's formatted differently," Meals added.
Although Jan. 1 is the date the new test takes effect, all tests on the existing system must be finished by Dec. 14. This is to give GED staff time to finish grading the papers.
Meals said for some people, getting the test taken by Dec. 14 might be urgent.
"Up until now, if you took and passed four parts of the test and hadn't done the fifth part, you could just carry it over, carry it over," he said. "But you won't be able to carry anything over (after Dec. 14)."
People who have not started or who just started working their GED will not have as much trouble, according to Meals.
He said it is difficult to tell how many people in the area might be in a critical position with their testing.
"It's really hard to say, because we have a lot of people who come in and test, and then for some reason don't come back and finish. Maybe they give up," he said.
In the press release, Janice Hanlon, Arkansas GED Test Administrator, said as many as 7,000 students in Arkansas have been in the program since 1995 but have not passed all the tests.
"Many students have passed three or four of the tests, but for different reasons -- such as work and/or family obligations -- they have not returned to finish," said Hanlon. "Others may have put off finishing the tests because they are in a subject that is difficult for them. If that is the case, our adult education teachers are ready to do whatever it takes to help them pass these tests by Dec. 14."
The current GED test series was released in 1988. The new series will continue to have tests in math, social studies, science, language arts/writing and language arts/reading.
"I know there are a lot of people out there who need their GEDs," said Meals. "And that notice is targeted at people who have taken some of the tests and who did not finish. It will be a shame if somebody misses out and has to start all over again."
The NFL really did a number on the Professor Pigskin Football Contest entrants last week.
The upsets through the high school ranks didn't help either.
But whatever help Adam Hillis of Forrest City used in making his picks worked far better than anyone else.
Hillis missed four of the selected games to win the $50 cash prize.
Several readers missed six and several seven but that was as close to Hillis as anyone would get.
This week's Pigskin picks can be found inside today's edition
of the Times-Herald.
Students in the Forrest City School District have a couple of breaks coming up this week and next.
There will be no classes on Thursday, Oct. 25, to allow for Parent-Teacher conferences. Classes will resume on Friday.
Another break is set for Thursday and Friday next week, Nov. 1 and 2. Thursday is a curriculum development day in the district, and on Friday school is out to allow teachers an opportunity to attend the AEA Conference.
The Times-Herald is one of two newspapers in Arkansas to be recognized for its contributions to the Associated Press news report.
For the third time, the newspaper has been awarded a citation from the Associated Press Managing Editor's Association for outstanding contributions to the Associated Press news report.
The Times-Herald also received this award in 1999 and 2000.
The Banner News of Magnolia was the other newspaper also recognized for its news contribution.
The awards were recently announced at the annual APME conference. There are 1,550 newspaper members of the AP.