Limestone County school board members agreed to rehire 69 recently fired employees Monday and will rehire fewer than 10 more this summer.

The board is nearly finished rehiring the bulk of the 179 employees it had to fire in May in order to cut $1.87 million from its budget. Lower-than-expected state tax collections have forced schools in Limestone County and throughout the state to cut their budgets.

In May, they fired all first- and second-year contract employees (teachers), all first- and second-year non-contract employees and all year-only employees. Between 30 and 35 of those 179 pink-slipped employees will not be rehired.

They approached the problem in the fire-and-rehire manner in the spirit of fairness.

Also Monday, board members named Dr. Casey Lewis as the new principal at Johnson Elementary School. The former Reid Elementary School principal replaces Joan Austin who retired. Reid closed at the end of this school year.

Board members approved three-year contracts for Lewis, Ardmore High School Principal Tommy Hunter, Creekside Elementary School Principal Matt Scott and Owens Elementary School Principal Cleo Miller. They also amended contracts with Piney Chapel Elementary School Principal Bill Hardyman and Cedar Hill Elementary School Principal Harold Johns.

In other action, board members approved a $1.1 million bid for 10 standard school buses and three school buses for special-education students who may need a wheelchair lift or other equipment in order to ride. Cost of the standard buses is $83,634, or a total of $836,340, and cost of the special-education buses is $89,602, or a total of $268,806, according to Assistant Superintendent Mike Owens. The schools have applied for federal economic-stimulus fund through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for the special-education buses but have not learned if the request has been accepted.