Employees placed on leave

FLORENCE - Three Florence city schools employees accused of misusing school property are on administrative leave and must decide if they want to appear before the school board in an Oct. 15 conference.

Florence Superintendent Kendy Behrends said Alabama's fair dismissal laws preclude her from releasing names of the three individuals or the grounds on which they were placed on leave.

The TimesDaily learned from sources close to the investigation that money and school property were involved.

Behrends said none of the three as of Tuesday had requested conferences. That step is part of the employee's due process rights under Alabama school law. All three incidences of misuse were discovered within the past two weeks, the TimesDaily has learned.

All three of the employees were support personnel and had worked in their positions longer than three years, which is the probationary period for both support and certified employees in Alabama.

One of the employees worked at Weeden Elementary and the other two at Florence Middle School/Freshman Center.

Each employee is entitled to a conference with the board of education. If the conferences are requested, the employees have the right to determine if it will be open or closed to the public and there will be a called meeting of the board of education immediately afterward.

If the school board votes to terminate employment of any or all three, the employees may request arbitration. If termination is overturned, their pay will be reinstated, according to the law.

Behrends said each of the three positions is being filled in the interim.

"It's an unfortunate situation, but at this point, all I can say is there are rules and laws we all must follow, and they will be followed," Behrends said.

Behrends would not confirm that the incidents involved the misuse of school funds and property.

Lisa Singleton-Rickman can be reached at 740-5735 or lisa.singleton-rickman@TimesDaily.com