LINDEN-The Linden City School Board discussed several changes in personnel and gas mileage pay at their monthly meeting Monday night.

The personnel change that received the most discussion was that of system technician. The system’s current technician, Andrew S. Lynn recently submitted his resignation effective Oct. 7.

Linden City School Superintendent Walter Davis said filling this position was very important because of the work that is required.

“Basically, that is the person who keeps all the computers running,” Davis said. “It is a very important job and one we hope to fill soon.”

The board accepted Lynn’s resignation and authorized Davis to post the job. The authorization allows Davis to employ a system technician at the close of posting with recommendation from Scott Collier and the Marengo County Board of Education Technology Coordinator.

After discussing the system technician opening, the board approved the employment of two instructors who have been with the system for a while. The board approved the revised contract of Angela Sims as Speech Therapist for the 2005-2006 school year and the contract of Tiny A. Abernathy as gifted teacher.

Davis said both positions have been a part of the school system for some time and they were simply voting to keep these teachers in place.

“These are positions we have had for a while,” Davis said. “We just needed to renew the contracts for our gifted teacher and speech therapist.”

Jennifer Anthony was also approved for employment as a teacher’s aid at Linden Elementary School.

The final business of the school board was an issue that has affected every governing body in the community. Since the arrival of Hurricane Katrina gas prices have been on a steady increase. Davis said they voted to approve and increase in mileage pay from 36 cents per mile to 48 cents per mile to bring their figures up to par with the rest of the state.

“The mileage increase will put us there where we need to be with the rest of the state,” Davis said. “Since gas prices were rising we felt this was something we needed to do.”