ABERDEEN – As counties and cities across Mississippi have been faced with decisions to opt out of the state’s medical marijuana legislation or not, the Aberdeen School Board was presented with its first review of potential trickle down policies for the district May 16.
Superintendent Jeff Clay said there are three policy options – the district is allowed to administer medical marijuana in the same manner as any other prescription, it can be administered to students by school personnel only or it’s not allowed at all.
“Once you make the changes, we’ll bring a copy of our expulsion policy. We’ll allow you to review and realize there are certain areas of the law that deal directly with possession of marijuana on campus. We’ll have to make some decisions at that time to see if any modifications of that law will need to be done to our expulsion policy,” said board attorney Nathaniel Armistead.
The Aberdeen Board of Aldermen did not address the state medical marijuana legislation ahead of the early May deadline to opt out of the program.
As far as last week’s school board meeting, no action was taken on the matter, and the issue is anticipated to be revisited in June.
Another initial policy read dealt with vocational/career technical education. A policy was derived through recent legislation requiring school districts to provide notice to incoming middle school students about career and technical education options for students.
“We do go to the career and technical center, and you are moving forward with the recording arts pathway at the high school. We talked about the aerospace academy,” Clay said, adding the policy would introduce younger students of available opportunities.
JROTC needs
Later during the meeting, Aberdeen High School JROTC instructor Maj. Allen Williams and school board members discussed needs in order to officially certify his unit.
“Our last formal inspection from headquarters was in 2016. We are well beyond being hot for the unit evaluation next school year, which is why it’s important to address these deficiencies we need to address,” he said. “Right now, there’s nothing that designates us as our own department. We’re just like any other elective.”
Needs include a drill pad, department status and an enlisted officer to be an instructor. School board member Patrick Lockett, who joined last week’s meeting via Facetime, motioned to pursue the needs, which was approved.
Williams asked about the status of moving forward with the proposed aerospace academy.
“We are just days away from naming a new superintendent, and I would like to bring him or her into this discussion because they are going to be the driver for whatever comes out of this. We can’t have aerospace without STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and we can’t have STEM without math teachers so we have to fill the basic building blocks to get that ground to support aerospace,” said school board president Jim Edwards.
Williams said moving forward in hiring the right person into an aerospace academy position could help with STEM needs.
“I think the longer we delay, the more we get behind that power curve to effectively launch this initiative this fall,” he said.
While Clay endorsed the aerospace academy, Edwards said he hopes the incoming superintendent shares the same thoughts.
Williams added during his time that six students recently took their first orientation flights with members of the Civil Air Patrol.
“Each students gets to fly for an hour with a certified flight instructor. Once they’re actually up in altitude, they get control of the plane,” he said.
Academics matters
In an attempt to attract and retain math instructors, the school board approved an incentive package, including a $2,500 signing bonus for new teachers at the high school and $1,500 stipends for three consecutive years for new hires and current certified teachers who add a math endorsement and teach math courses at the high school and Belle-Shivers Middle School.
Edwards said there are currently three openings at AHS for math instructors.
Aberdeen Elementary School Principal Kristen Fondren presented results from the third-grade reading assessment, which indicated a little more than a 60 percent passage rate for the first attempt. She expected to receive retesting results this week.
“Last year with the first turnaround, our passing rate was 37.2 percent so to go from 37.2 percent to 60.4 – hats off to the teachers because they did a wonderful job,” said district chief academics officer Temeka Shannon.
Shannon also explained the school district’s summer school plan, which will be for remediation purposes rather than enrichment this year. Due to scheduled repairs at the high school, the school’s summer school will be held online.
A couple of recognitions were made during last week’s school board meeting, including honoring this year’s group of retirees – Rachel Howard, Karen Howard, Letha Jones, Mary Anderson, Cindy Bell and Kenneth Clay.
Teachers recognized for continuing education by completing degrees included Jennifer Sykes, Terrie Walls, Dr. Shanika McKinney, Katelyn Matthews, Precious Miles, Michelle Cheney and Monica McMillian.
Contracts and agreements
The school board took action on a number of contracts and agreements, including an annual contract with EJSCS totaling $318,000 for janitorial services, another with Easy Lawn for $42,000 for landscaping services and a voiceover IP service agreement with VOXO for $2,700.
Others pertained to professional services, such as technical assistance for federal programs; science teacher effectiveness; curriculum mapping and teacher support; upkeep of the district’s data system; continuation of bravEd; and technology coordinator, network engineer and E-rate coordinator agreements.
School board members also approved for the $36,109 purchase of a Ford Edge for the district’s checkout fleet. District chief operations officer Willie Brandon said current vehicles in the fleet are having maintenance issues.
School board members discussed an agenda item regarding a request for proposals to pave Aberdeen High School’s parking lot, but Tonny Oliver’s motion to move forward died due to lack of a second.
