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Superintendent highlights awards, $15,000 STEM grant and staff service survey
Summary
Superintendent Tory Holloway recognized staff and student achievements, reported a $15,000 STEM grant for CTE and summarized results from a districtwide service survey conducted with Studer Education showing an overall rating of 3.91 and about 40% participation.
Vicksburg — Superintendent Tory Holloway used the Oct. 24 board meeting to recognize athletic and arts achievements, announce district grants and summarize a new employee-service survey that the district plans to follow up with additional rounds.
Holloway recognized Coach Stevens for earning the 2023–24 John L. Hartman Memorial Award from the Mississippi School Boards Association for board-service training hours and noted that board attorney Briggs Hobson was acknowledged as a friend of the Mississippi Association of School Administrators for his work on behalf of education.
Holloway and staff recognized the Warren Central Junior High eighth-grade football team for winning the 2024 Little 6 championship with an undefeated season and congratulated the Warren Central High School Big Blue Band for awards at two recent marching competitions, including being named grand champion at the Southeast Regional Marching Championship. The board presented certificates to coaches and directors.
Holloway reported that the district’s CTE department received a $15,000 STEM grant from the Mississippi Department of Education, and staff said the district will begin a safety-awareness program with its workers’ compensation representative to try to lower deductibles.
Holloway and district staff described a districtwide employee-service survey administered with Studer Education. The instrument asked employees to rate five areas on a 1–5 scale — accessibility, accuracy, service attitude, operations and timeliness. About 392 employees responded, roughly 40% of the district’s reported ~900 employees; the district’s overall mean score was 3.91 on the 1–5 scale. The “top-box” score (ratings of 5) included about 37 respondents overall, and the highest top-box proportion was in the attitude category (approximately 42% of top-box responses). Staff said the lowest areas were timeliness and operations.
District staff said the survey was sent by email and QR code and that responses were anonymous to Studer; after principals encouraged participation, the district saw a jump in responses. Staff emphasized the survey’s purpose is improvement: they said comments were candid and that the district will use director-level action plans and another survey in the spring to measure progress. Staff also said the second survey will include building-level questions so teachers who mostly interact with a principal can provide building-specific feedback.
Holloway also reported that HVAC preventive maintenance has been completed, including filter changes and unit cleaning, and said STAAR (the vendor/contractor referenced in the meeting) has brought the system up to date so classrooms are not experiencing the prior AC complaints.
Ending — Holloway said the district will continue working with Studer and department directors to translate survey feedback into action plans tied to the strategic plan and will return with updates after the spring follow-up survey.
