VAIDEN — Carroll County Superintendent of Schools Billy Joe Ferguson told the school board Thursday night that he will not repeat an unusual Thanksgiving schedule, after a high number of students were absent on the Monday before Thanksgiving.
This year, the Carroll County School District began its holiday on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and ran it through the next Monday, starting school back on the following Tuesday. Ferguson said he wanted to be able to pay teachers and would have to hold school Monday in order to pay them before the holiday.
“I thought it would be a good idea,” Ferguson said.
He agreed the schedule turned out badly, after board member Donnie Wiltshire pointed out that 450 students were absent that Monday. “We lost a lot of ADA (Average Daily Attendance) money,” Wiltshire said. “I saw some of our students with their parents in Greenwood that Monday.”
“He made a good point. I won’t do it again. We also lost lunch money,” Ferguson said.
Board President Laura Davis asked Wiltshire how he knew that many students were absent. He said he had called both schools to find out.
The board also discussed potential school safety issues after Stella Bell quizzed the superintendent on the subject.
“I know we have crisis plans for weather and fire,” she said. “Is there anything in place for a terrorist attack?”
Ferguson introduced Chris Austin, district security officer, and asked him to answer Bell’s question.
“I’ve looked at the plans. You do have one. It needs some things added to it,” Austin said. “Mr. (Anjuan) Brown and I were talking about it today. We need to incorporate drills, including outside agencies.”
Bell said parents would likely run to the school to pick up children and might endanger them. Austin replied that the plan would need to say where parents would be directed in such a crisis.
Davis asked Austin what agency would be called in case of a bomb.
“In bigger cities, you have those agencies, but to respond here, the state dispatches from Jackson,” he said. “The nearest (site) for bomb disposal would be Tupelo.”
Ferguson said Brown had just returned from state training in security issues.
“With everything going on, safety is a concern,” Davis said.
Also Thursday:
• The board discussed whether to require staff and students to wear identification badges. Ferguson said badges had not been required for several years, and he doesn’t believe they are needed in small schools such as Carroll’s.
“Somebody could easily make a fake badge. It’s time consuming,” he said, adding that a palm print is used in the lunch room.
On a motion by Wiltshire and second by Vest, the board rescinded the district’s identification badge policy. Davis voted against the motion.
• The board also voted on a list of responses to Mississippi Department of Education’s items of concern in a recent accreditation audit.
“We have tried to the best of our ability to answer their questions, answer all standards,” Ferguson said.
He said some issues were in records. Davis suggested he get a committee to check cumulative records to make sure there were no incorrect entries.
• During the superintendent’s report time, Ferguson said that schools have been making up state tests and that personnel had done a good job of getting it accomplished.
“We only have a very small number of third-graders who haven’t passed reading gate,” he said.
Ferguson also said the district had audits from Title I federal programs and also cafeterias and had done well on both audits.
