With almost unbridled excitement, Dr. Robert Sanders, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for the Simpson County School District, has informed the school board of improved graduation rates for the county.
Information from the 2017-18 school year reports showed Magee High at an 80.3 percent graduation rate with Mendenhall at 82 percent. District scores were 81.1. The state average was 83 percent and national graduation rates are at 84 percent.
In the 2018-19 school year Magee’s graduation rate was 80.9 percent, Mendenhall’s was 89.18 percent, the district rose to an 85.76 percent rate, the state to 83 percent and the national rate to 84 percent.
Fast forward to 2019-20, the current school year. Magee’s graduation rate is projected to be 86.7 percent, Mendenhall 92 percent, the district 89.9 percent. The state will be at 85 percent and national rate is 84.6.
The study prepared by the state Office of Accountability uses the last four grades, 9-12, to create the analysis and tracks those numbers. The results put Simpson County in the top 30 of the state’s school districts based on percentage of students graduating.
A total of 215 students are set to graduate from the district’s two high schools in May. According to Dr. Sanders, the higher percentage of students graduating will go a long way to improving the district’s overall success rating.
In additional business at the last school board meeting, the board approved the following positions for the upcoming school year. Dr. Robert Sanders, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources and Secondary Schools; Debbie Davis, Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction; Misty Hanna, Associate Superintendent of Federal Programs; Jeanie Pigg, Associate Superintendent, Support Services; Duane Fewell, Director of Finance; Joanna Maddox, Director of Child Nutrition; Jeffery Walker, Director of Transportation and Maintenance; and Dr. Kay Berry, Director of Technology, part-time.
Dr. Antionette Woodall will return as principal of Simpson Central, Ronda Berry as principal of Mendenhall Elementary, Sydney Magee as principal of Mendenhall Jr. High, Romonica Feazell as principal of Mendenhall High, Dr. Paul Lawrence as principal of Magee Elementary, Tracye Pierre as principal of Magee Middle and Dr. Bo Huffman as principal of the Career and Technical Center.
Dr. Tom Duncan will be retiring as principal of Magee High School. No names have been reported as candidates for the position.
The board received reports from those schools that are required to report to the school district monthly, which are Magee High, Magee Middle School and Mendenhall Jr. High. There were no significant changes since last month’s report because no additional accountability issues have surfaced.
The FCCLA Family, Careers, Community Leaders of America, under the leadership of Sandra Jager, teacher/sponsor, made a donation of $2,500 to build a ticket booth at the Mendenhall High School football field. The board approved accepting the donation.
The board approved travel for Crystal Brewer to Princeton, New Jersey, for a conference and to Washington, D. C., for Misty Hanna for a conference; travel to a conference in Vicksburg and to Nashville, Tennessee, for Joanna Maddox to attend a conference.
The board approved advertising for bids for hunting and fishing on 16th section property. The bids will be opened on May 14.
The board agreed to allow the Department of Environmental Quality to come in and reclaim property that was originally mined for gravel in the Braxton area.
The board approved billing $350,000 in mitigation cost and $300,000 in reconstruction cost for the bills associated with the fire at the Technical Center during the Christmas holidays. Dr. Huffman applauded the assistance they had received from the City of Mendenhall as well as from Mendenhall High School with displaced students.
The board discussed the ball fields being built at Mendenhall High School and the need to move them farther back from the road to avoid the need for so much field dirt for the new baseball field and the girls softball field.
The moving of the ballfields will require additional acreage. A survey is being conducted to determine how much land would be needed and the associated cost. Rough estimates on the project have ranged from $1.5 million to $3.2 million. A comparable project was built at a nearby school at a cost of $3.2 million. However, it was said that the project should come in “way under that figure.” The board agreed to proceed but has not authorized or approved a bid for the project.
The board also discussed the appropriate times for public comment be allowed at board meetings. Board Chair Danny Cowart wanted to move it to the first of the meeting to allow people not to have to stay at the meetings for extended periods of time. Public Comment is normally the last item on the meeting agenda. Cowart advocated giving up to 10 minutes comment time, rather than the 3 minutes now allowed on the agenda for a member of the public to address the board.
Board member Stan Bulger countered that having the Public Comment at the end of the meeting gave people time to get to the meeting after they got off work. The vote was two for changing and two against changing. Cowart and Herring voted in favor of the change and Bulger and Boykin voted against.
In the matter of realigning the grades taught at elementary and middle schools, board members disagreed over whether the schools were ready to change grades at the existing school facilities.
Bailey Consulting, which was brought in to suggest improvements to the current facilities, suggested keeping grades K-5 on the elementary campuses in Magee and Mendenhall. In the current grade structure, Mendenhall and Magee elementary students move on to middle school after fourth grade.
The confusion is over whether Mendenhall was ready to make such a transition because no matter what the final plan is, the board has decided that Mendenhall Junior High needs to be closed.
The board questioned whether Mendenhall Elementary was capable of serving the needs of an additional grade, but it was determined that it could do so if a building was renovated to serve the additional 136 students.
The board agreed to move on plans to expand the Magee Elementary facility to include fifth grade, making it K-5.
The board also made the decision to have public meetings to discuss two of the options that were on the facilities use plan, option 4.1 and option 5. Initially option 5 was to create a consolidated high school in the former Pioneer facility in Magee. The board also discussed acquiring the buildings for Magee. Option 4.1 included no gymnasiums and expanding existing campuses and renovating existing campuses with the closure of Mendenhall Junior High. The dates of the public meetings were not announced.
The next meeting of the school board is set for March 19 because the regular meeting date conflicted with Spring Break.
