McComb school trustees will vote in June whether or not to have one meeting a month instead of two for a six-month trial period.
Trustee Susan Hedges, who is serving her first term on the board, said the move would be a more efficient use of time.
Some community members, as well as trustee Lynn Gilmore, have often cited the conflict with the school board meetings, which meet on the same night as the McComb Board of Mayor and Selectmen.
Trustees this month generally supported the idea, and Superintendent Dr. Cederick Ellis said it was all up to the board to decide.
However, because trustee Maurice Chester was absent, the board agreed to wait until the June meeting to make a decision. If approved, the school board work session and the regular monthly meeting would be held on the second Tuesday of each month, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
In other agenda items in May, trustees:
• Approved the contract with the City of McComb to use the Martin Luther King Center building for one year. The district will pay no rent and will pay 85 percent of the utilities, except water. The city reserves the right to schedule weekend rentals at the facility. The city also will maintain liability insurance. Not included in the contract are the gym, splash pad, tennis court and playground on the property. The school district has the option of renewing the lease for five years and must maintain the interior of the building.
• Approved the following payments for district roofing projects necessary after 2013 hail damage: $91,493 for professional services to NewPath Strategy Consultants for expenses and services, $15,562 to JBM Architects $124,181 to Eddie Pearson Roofing for the MHS gym, $174,047 to Roofing Solutions for the junior high project, $3,800 to E. Cornell Malone Corp. for the field house project and $224,342 to Rowell Roofing for Summit Academy. Trustees also approved change orders of $14,688 more for Eddie Pearson at Summit Academy and canopy work at the same site, with no additional funds required.
The board hired Mississippi-based NewPath last year to negotiate savings for the district when it ran into roadblocks with its insurance coverage, as well as other negotiations with architectural services.
• Approved the transfer of 24 students to North Pike, six from North Pike, one to Lawrence County, seven to South Pike and one from South Pike. The board denied one student transfer to Bogue Chitto, one to North Pike and one to Lincoln County.
• Approved sole-source purchase of the Hatch iStartSmart Learning System for $310,000 for the district’s Early Childhood program. It includes computer hardware, preinstalled software suite, ECLaunch program, professional development and furniture. Other single-source purchases are summer reading books from Scholastic for $28,000 and the Children’s Defense Fund free school program for $11,000.
• Agreed to advertise for bids for a harvest sale of some 85 acres of timber on 16th Section land.
• Contracted with Fortenberry & Ballard of Brandon to conduct the financial audits for the district for the 2013-’14 and 2014-’15 fiscal years for $15,000 each.
• Approved the June travel of Marcus Gatlin to Birmingham, Alabama, for leadership seminar, Charla Johns and Larry Johns to Washington, D.C., for National History Day, Betty Wilson-McSwain to Orlando, Florida, for annual Model Schools Conference, Ruby Husband and Rosetta Barnes to New York for the Improve Student Attendance and Prevent Dropout program, and Robert Lamkin to Dallas for the ASCD Conference on Teaching Excellence.
• Approved overnight travel for the MHS girls basketball camp in Brandon and for the MHS and Denman Junior High School cheerleading camp and summer dance camp at the University of Southern Mississippi.
• Noted the McComb Market donations of $40 to Kennedy Elementary School, $90 to Denman, $100 to Higgins Middle School and $200 for the high school boys basketball team; and a $1,500 donation from Coca-Cola for the MHS track program’s Camellia City Relays.
