Principals report attendance, sports and literacy plans at Clay County meeting

At the Jan. 9, 2025 Clay County Board of Education meeting, principals reported student engagement, athletics scheduling and school improvement work across district campuses.

Hermitage Springs reported that Beth McMurchin’s class won a perfect-attendance reward for the second nine weeks; the seventh-grade class recorded 20 consecutive days of perfect attendance in that grading period. The school said teachers and students will receive small rewards and that tutoring, an accelerated-reading program and a literacy incentive called "lollipop literacy" are active.

Administrators reported athletic updates: conference tournaments for boys and girls were starting, and the varsity and junior varsity girls will compete in the James C. Hill tournament in Murfreesboro beginning in January. The Belton campus reported successful seasons for sixth-grade teams and upcoming seventh- and eighth-grade home games.

Facility and community items included newly installed lights at one campus that are receiving finishing touches, PTO preparations for a junior pro basketball event with planning for scheduling, security and cleaning, and early-stage planning for a districtwide literacy and math night involving teachers, PTO, the SRO and community members. School staff said they were aiming for a March date for the literacy event; a specific date was not given in the transcript.

Board members noted Jan. 0 on agenda materials as National School Board Recognition Month and reminded members to file annual disclosure-of-interest forms with the state by the end of January (the transcript listed a January deadline but did not provide a specific calendar date beyond that month).

Ending: Principals' updates were received as informational; no formal board action was recorded on the school-improvement items in the portion of the transcript provided.