Rick Patrick
rick@greenepublishing.com
During their regular meeting on Tuesday, June 20, the Madison County District School Board passed a resolution adopting new district lines for school board members. This brings the school district in line with the Madison County Board of County Commissioners, who approved the same changes in their previous meeting.
The approval follows several weeks of examination to redraw the district lines as required by law to more evenly divide the population of the county, while keeping two minority-majority districts. Madison County Supervisor of Elections Heath Driggers said he would be sending notices to those Madison County citizens who now find themselves in a different district, and therefore, with different school board and county commission representatives.
The board voted down a request for a change in the district’s staffing allocation plan. At the suggestion of the Board of School Improvement (BSI), it was requested to change Madison County Central School from having two school principals, one for the elementary grades and one for sixth through eighth grades, to one principal for the entire school. With that, it was requested that the school have two assistant principals for the elementary school grades and two assistant principals for the sixth through eighth grades. This would keep the same number of administrators at the school as it presently has. The motion was defeated on a 1-4 vote, with Carol Gibson being the only affirmative vote. Board attorney Tom Reeves suggested contacting the BSI to determine their reasoning for the suggestion and possibly reconsidering the decision. Not taking the BSI recommendation could result in a loss of funding from the BSI.
The board approved the financial report as presented by the district Chief Financial Officer, Rose Raynak. Raynak said the district is currently operating with an 18.53 percent fund balance, but legislative events could cause this figure to dip a bit.
The board approved a renewed contract with the Madison County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) for school resource officers (SROs) at each school. The contract also calls for the appointment by the sheriff of guardians at James Madison Preparatory High School, Madison Creative Arts Academy, Waypoint Charter School and at the district’s public schools. The guardians are school employees who volunteer and undergo extensive training by the MCSO and are appointed by the sheriff. One of the duties specified in the contract is the teaching of the DARE curriculum to all fifth grade students. In addition to the DARE curriculum, the SROs will conduct training in areas including, but not limited to: human trafficking, bullying, social media safety, harassment, gun violence and topics regarding discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. This extra instruction will be made available to all the schools. School Board member VeEtta Hagan expressed concern over the work being done by the SROs. “We also need to see that these people, these School Resource Officers, these classes that they are supposed to have, that they do have these classes, instead of sitting in the office, they’re not supposed to be sitting in the office,” said Hagan. “There are so many things that are implemented that they need to do.” School Board Chairperson Carol Gibson said these officers are supposed to document and report on their activities. “Well, they hadn’t been doing it,” said Hagan.
The board approved a new public address (PA) system for Madison County Central School. The price tag for the equipment was $43,345. The board also approved the cost of installation of the equipment, not to exceed $30,000.
The next regular meeting of the Madison County District School Board is set to take place on Monday, July 3, at 6 p.m. The meeting will take place in the district meeting room located at 210 NE Duval Ave., in Madison.