Board approves broad personnel package including stipends, reclassifications and coaching positions

The DeSoto County School District Board of Education approved an extensive personnel package covering pages 1 through 67 of the meeting packet and subsequently approved additional items on pages 68 and 69.

Mister Williams, staff member, presented the personnel packet and itemized components. He said the packet included a memo requesting $23,500 in supplements for teachers to sponsor the DCS Future Civic Leaders program; a memo requesting approval of Ready-to-Learn coaching positions for two elementary schools and two middle schools; a $5,000 supplement for SYLC; a $100 stipend for all new teachers who attend New Teacher Academy; reclassification requests (including a request to reclassify a special education financial supervisor to assistant financial manager); and multiple requests for additional paid hours for high school and middle school counselors and teachers (examples in the packet ranged from eight hours to as much as 300 hours for specific development work). He also noted requests for summer program pay for transportation workers and new job descriptions for language intervention coaches.

Mister Williams asked for a vote on pages 1'267, which the board approved by voice vote. The board later approved pages 68 and 69, a job change for Mackenzie Riley from teacher at Lewisburg Middle School and a recommendation for Riley to become a Ready-to-Learn coach.

The transcript records the approval votes by voice; it does not include roll-call tallies or the overall additional annual cost for all supplements and extra-hours requests. The packet references multiple discrete stipends and supplements and several reclassification and job-description items; the board approved the package as presented.