Hamilton Schools close due to COVID-19 staffing shortages
One of the area’s largest school systems is closing down schools citing COVID-19-caused staffing shortages.
The 10,000-student Hamilton Schools will close its school buildings Wednesday due to a lack of teachers and classroom instructional assistants, said district officials today.
In a notice sent this morning to school families, Hamilton Superintendent Mike Holbrook announced the closings, which will remain in place until Tuesday, Jan. 18.
First meeting of Lakota school board sees new member take quick opposition
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Newly elected, politically conservative members joined others on the Lakota Local School District’s school board Monday evening in unanimously choosing a board veteran as president.
Lynda O’Connor — who first won a seat on the Lakota board in 2008 — will lead the board for the next year.
O’Connor is joined for the first time on the board by two fellow members — both conservative newcomers — who share some of her long-standing philosophies on how best to govern Butler County’s largest school system.
Mother: Missing Hamilton woman’s bag of clothes found in woods
A 23-year-old woman last seen on Grand Boulevard early last month is still missing, despite a plea last week from the family and Hamilton Police for information.
On Monday, Hamilton Police announced the department is offering a $500 reward to anyone with information leading to the location of Kara Hyde.
Hyde went missing on Dec. 5 after leaving her home in the 2200 block of Grand at about 2 p.m. that day according to the Hamilton police report.
$540,000 in raises will go to Butler County employees
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Butler County’s pay-for-performance plan really is based on merit, commissioners said Monday as they approved nearly $540,000 to reward 137 non-union employees.
The commissioners for several years have operated with a two-part performance pay formula that calls for pay hikes in the 1% to 3% range added to an employee’s base pay which they refer to as part A and another 1% to 3% percent available in lump sum payments they call part B.
Traditionally the commissioners set a 2% pool of money from a given department’s total payroll for eligible, non-union employees for the base increases and an equal amount for the lump sum incentive bonuses. This year they increased the pools of money to 3%.
Fairfield hires Scott Timmer to fill city manager role
Credit: Priovide
Credit: Priovide
Fairfield City Council got the city manager candidate many last year wanted all along.
Butler County Assistant Administrator Scott Timmer, the city’s former assistant city manager who left for the county job last summer, was hired to lead Fairfield’s administration. City Council, after a rare mid-meeting executive session, agreed to a three-year contract for Timmer, offering him $165,000 a year.
He will rejoin the city on Feb. 7.
AND, for an extra sixth story of the day ...
Area’s first female stock broker dies at 101; ‘What a life she lived,’ son says
Jane Robinson was “a special person that enjoyed life and never got cheated,” said her son, Lenny Robinson.
“We should all be so lucky,” he said.
Robinson died Jan. 6. She was 101.
Robinson, who had lived at Ohio Living Mount Pleasant in Monroe for 19 years, took a neighbor some cookies and while walking to the mailbox, accidentally fell and broke her elbow and hip. She never fully recovered from surgery, her son said.