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In meetings of the personnel and finance committees of Stanly County Schools last week, both committees approved changes to job duties and practices of who hires and pays for custodians.

Some of the money saved came from the ending of a contract with UNC-Charlotte for beginning teacher support as part of Title II federal money.

In the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Jeff James said North Carolina cut out entry support for new teachers.

“They wonder why we can’t find new teachers,” James said.

The duties will be absorbed by other members of the SCS staff while another person’s job at central office was eliminated. Those job duties will be handled by other employees.

Also, a number of the school’s custodians will no longer be employed by SCS but by an outside school staffing firm, ESS. Those employees are not losing their jobs, James said, but will be able to stay with SCS if they wish or they can retire and go to work for ESS.

James mentioned Green County as an example of a system saving money by doing custodial work through ESS. The six-school system saves $375,000 a year, according to James in the meeting.

Board member Vicky Watson noted ESS is not supplying jobs to people from outside Stanly, but is working with people from Stanly.

“They are our people…nobody is going anywhere,” Watson said.

James said ESS pays a slightly higher wage per hour but does not have the same state retirement benefits as SCS.

The combined changes and reassignment of duties will save $349,000, James said.

In both meetings, the changes were approved but the entire board will also have to vote on the changes at the Tuesday meeting of the Board of Education.