The Board of Education for the Warren County R-III School District approved consolidating leadership in speech and debate and redefining a support position. The changes were made at the board’s meeting Aug. 10.The board voted to restructure the leadership of the speech and debate team, which previously had three coaches and a coordinator position. A recommendation was made to collapse the four positions into two positions and merge the stipends.Previously, the coaching stipends were $1,600 and the coordinator received $640. The suggestion was to redistribute the pay to $2,720 per position.“Having two people in charge of all aspects of speech and debate will make a more focused and efficient team,” said Casey Olearnick, in a statement to the board. “Practice scheduling, tournament attendance, and home tournament planning and hosting will be done as a team instead of splitting it into too many parts. Fewer schedules will have to be considered for coaches’ meetings and better communication will yield results.”A change also was made to the food services department as it relates to the driver position. Previously, the driver worked three hours on the road and three hours in the kitchen at two different rates.“We have him leave the kitchen to deliver lunch to Alpha (Academy) on a daily basis as well as run food items from school to school during the time he is working in the kitchen on the cook/server salary,” explained Food Services Director Deb Linke in a statement to the board.It was also suggested for the driver to make a daily deposit at the bank at the end of the day, a role currently handled by the processing clerk.The proposal was for the van driver position to be changed to a seven-hour position. The rate of pay would change from $11.46 for driving and $10.46 for cook and server to $11.46 full time, with a increased cost to the food service department of $14.46 per day.District Changes