The Hancock County Board of Education heard a plea from the Hancock County Education Association  at Monday’s meeting to increase dental and optical benefits to teachers and retired teachers.

      “While the cost of charges from health providers for these services has risen, our coverage has remained stagnant,” said Melanie Donofe, co-president of the HCEA.

“We’ve made this presentation in the past and were told for various reasons, now is not the time,” she said “We’ve done that twice now.  Then we were told now is not a good time because we were in the middle of a levy rate, then again because we are at the end of a levy rate.  When is a good time to ask?  Since the levy is in the process of being decided, we want to present the issue again.”

      The HCEA is proposing raising the benefit by $25 for  optical office visits.  Donofe noted the Board had recently given service personnel $500 for early retirement which indicated sufficient funds were in place to do that.    A recent financial report also showed more than over 65.44% of collection of taxes had been received and the county may be over budget by more in June.

     Erica Sauer, director of Special Services, gave a presentation of the Dyslexia Screening currently offered and introduced the 15 teachers who have completed the 12-month training and who are  certified to offer the screening.  She said private diagnostic services cost $1,200 with tutoring ranging from $50 to $100 per hour.  Parent support group meetings are scheduled from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 12 at New Manchester Elementary and May 17 at Allison Elementary.

In other business, the Board:

**Approved an unpaid leave of absence for Kayla Warrick;

**Approved an administrative release for substitute school nurse Jenna Mason;

**Approved the resignations of Steve Shannon, carpentry teacher, JDR Career Center; Jeff Hardy, automotive teacher, JDR Career Center; Catherine Barnabei, science teacher, Weir High; Judith Compton, kindergarten teacher, Allison Elementary; Kathy Dray, practical nurse coordinator, JDR Career Center; and Jody Shenton, school nurse, Oak Glen High;

**Transferred Angela Myers, Grade 3 teacher, Weirton Elementary to Multi-Categorical/Autism, Weirton Elementary; and Matthew DeAngelis, Multi-Categorical/Autism to Multi-Categorical/Autism, New Manchester Elementary;

**Assigned Britney Reed reached as school nurse, Weir Middle;

**Accepted resignations from Travis Simpson, head coach Cross Country,  Oak Glen; Timothy Miller, assistant coach, Football, Oak Glen High; and Matthew Kopp, head coach Boys’ Soccer, Weir High;

**Transferred Rod Rosnick from unpaid assistant coach Baseball, Weir High, to paid assistant coach Baseball, Weir High;

**Assigned Dan Mastrantoni as assistant Girls’ Track, Weir High, and Erin Malcomb assistant Boys’ Track, Oak Glen;

**Approved a leave of absence for Karen Virden;

**Approve unpaid days were approved  for Christina Schrich, Robert Brew and Christal Cowden;

**Accepted resignations for Linda Heiserman, Clerk II/Mail, Maintenance; Patricia Biesecker, Secretary III, Board Office; Mary Leah Clark, Supervisory Aide, Transportation Department; Karen Crane, Supervisory Aide/AM, Weirton Elementary; Mary Ann Taylor, Supervisory Aide/ AM/ECCAT, Weirton Elementary; and S. Renee Barber, Custodian II, Weirton Elementary;

**Transferred David Dalton from Custodian II, Oak Glen Middle, to Custodian II, Weir Middle and Charles Klar from Custodian II, Weirton Elementary to Custodian III/GM, Weirton Elementary;

**Approved Edward C. Mick as a Substitute Custodian’

**Approved overnight trips for Weir High School Key Club to Crystal City, VA for the District Convention on March 25-26 and JDR IV Career Center Skills USA to Fairmont for the Skills USA competition March 25-26.