The Greenwood Public School District is poised to make health a priority for the upcoming school year.
The board voted Tuesday to put up $2,500 for a Food Corps service member for the 2013-2014 school year. Greenwood-Leflore Recycling Coordinator Anne Marie Kornelis said during the meeting that the Food Corps member will be another employee for the district for a relatively small sum and will work with students to build gardens at schools, teach students about nutrition and organize projects focusing on healthy lifestyles.
A local match of $5,000 will pay the service member’s salary for a year. Kornelis asked that that fee be split between the district and the city, which drafted a contract for the new employee at its last board meeting.
Dr. Montrell Greene, superintendent of the district, said Greenwood public schools are already on their way to better integrating environmental and health initiatives in the classroom. Davis Elementary, he noted, already recycles, and the district’s central office will begin recycling soon.
Kornelis said the Food Corps member will be a college graduate and will function in much the same way as a Teach for America corps member.
“They’ll work with farmers and work with kids,” she explained.
Kornelis will serve as the new employee’s supervisor and will attend training with Food Corps to understand how to best implement the employee’s skills.
Kornelis said she applied for the employee for the 2014-2015 school year, but Food Corps had a member available to start this upcoming term. This will be the first service member in the Delta, though five are already serving in the Jackson area.
The school board talked about how it would use the employee. Greene said he thought it would be best for the corps member to be engaged in several projects at all of the schools, as opposed to one big project at one school.
“Maybe we could be a model program for other districts,” said Greene. The City Council will vote on its half of the match at its June 18 meeting.
Also Tuesday, the board:
nReceived a tutorial from Denotris Jackson, a representative of the Mississippi School Board Association, regarding its online policy database. Though the board has access to all of its governing materials online, Jackson said it hardly ever uses them.
“And I know you don’t use them, because I can see when you’ve logged on,” she said.
Jackson explained that the district’s online access to its policies and guidelines can be useful when problems arise or when it wants to review changes to existing rules. She used cellphones in classrooms as an example.
“It’s something we can’t fight anymore,” said Jackson. “So if you want to update that policy, you can search the cellphone policies that the other districts have adopted.”
Jackson also said many districts have chosen to make their meeting agendas and minutes public.
“I’m not sure it’s the case in Greenwood, but in other districts, people think the board is not being transparent enough,” she said. “This way you can say, ‘It’s all online.’”
On her iPad, which she projected onto the wall behind the board, Jackson went to the Ocean Springs School District’s website, which makes agendas, minutes and even board packets public.
“They put everything on here,” she said.
Greene said he would like the board to start being more technologically savvy, since “integrating technology across all platforms” is a goal of the district, as outlined by the 2013-2014 strategic plan.
nApproved a motion to allow 2003 Greenwood High School graduate Porshia Haymon to conduct research for her doctorate in the district. Haymon is getting her degree in clinical psychiatry from Jackson State University, and she is concentrating her studies on bullying and resiliency in children.
Haymon said she has conducted some research in the Hinds County School District, but she wants to get a perspective on children in the Delta. When she is finished with her studies, she plans to develop a program on bullying to increase resiliency in students.
“I’d like to come back in a few years to Greenwood and pilot the program,” Haymon said. “But first I hope the district will allow me to do the research that will help get me there.”
nApproved a $23 million budget for the 2013-2014 school year.
nApproved increasing the cost of school lunch from $2 to $2.10.
nHired Interim Board Attorney Carlos Palmer to serve as the permanent board attorney.
• Contact Jeanie Riess at 581-7235 or jriess@gwcommonwealth.com.
