NORTH CARROLLTON — The new norm for the Carroll County School District will be accountability.
Beat 2 board member Donnie Wiltshire took the floor early in Thursday night’s school board meeting and made a motion that Superintendent of Education Billy Joe Ferguson present a written plan at the board’s December meeting for upgrading the schools’ status from a C to a B rating and increasing the graduation rate to 75 percent by 2019.
This led to lengthy discussion before Beat 5’s Stella Bell replied that the Mississippi School Board Association has five identified standards for 2016 through 2021. They are that every student be proficient in areas of study, every student graduate from high school, every student have access to early childhood education, every school have effective teachers and leaders and every school district have access to a world- class data system.
Bell said the district should have a plan in place to measure whether it has accomplished this strategic plan.
Ferguson replied that the district’s purchase of Compass Learning software for both Marshall Elementary School and J.Z. George Middle and High schools has helped identify areas that need work.
“Standards change so fast that they are hard to keep up with. Tests are hardly over and scores in before a new one comes along. It is like trying to compare apples to oranges,” Ferguson said.
“The graduation rate has been 76 and 72 percent in the last two years. We won’t know until Oct. 18 what our kids scored on the most recent test.”
After board President Laura Davis suggested that “perhaps we need someone from the state level to meet with us at staff development meetings and explain to us what we need to do,” the motion to improve on the strategic plan was approved.
In other action, the board:
• Approved the Pretty in Pink dance troupe’s request to use the gym at Marshall Elementary.
• Agreed to use corporal punishment as a last resort.
• Increased employee salaries by $1 an hour.
• Increased board travel reimbursement to 54 cents per mile.
• Hired Shelby Whitten as assistant at the central office.
• Hired Timothy Bailey as custodian at Marshall Elementary.
• Accepted hunting leases from the highest and best bids on three 16th Section parcels.
Mimi Alldread, assistant to the superintendent, informed the board that county Tax Assessor/Collector Wilton Neal notified her that there are delinquent taxes on 16th section parcels, with four being three years behind. Being 16th Section land, they cannot be sold for taxes, but the lessees can lose the lease if they are not paid. The board agreed to send letters informing individuals and/or hunting clubs of this fact.
