Superintendent reports vendor fee change, metal detectors and scholarships at DeSoto school board meeting
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Summary
Superintendent Dr. Bobby Bennett told the board Accenture will shift to a per‑employee, per‑month billing model expected to save the district; he announced metal detectors for DeSoto High School to arrive after Christmas, scheduled a closed session on school safety for Dec. 17, and referenced scholarship funding tied to South Florida State College (amounts unclear in the transcript).
During the DeSoto County School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Bobby Bennett updated members on operational items and safety preparations.
Bennett said the district’s vendor, Accenture, will change its billing from a flat percentage fee to a per‑employee, per‑month model. "Accenture will be moving to a per employee per, per month," he said, adding that the change should remove incentives for the vendor to charge more based on higher dollar volume and should result in savings for the district.
Bennett also said the district expects metal detectors for DeSoto High School after the Christmas break and that the devices will be ordered promptly. The transcript includes a numeric fragment ('12.19') adjacent to that discussion that appears to be a transcription artifact; the procurement price was not specified in the meeting record.
To allow detailed conversation about safety policy, the superintendent asked for a closed executive session on school safety; the board agreed to meet Wednesday afternoon, December 17 at 4:00 p.m. (the chair corrected an earlier reference to November to confirm December).
Bennett reported progress at the DeSoto High School (DHS) construction site and workforce‑housing efforts and said the district had secured scholarship funding tied to South Florida State College. The meeting transcript contains inconsistent numeric descriptions of the scholarship support (mentions of $50,000 and other figures); the precise total and distribution were not clearly stated in the recorded remarks.
The board accepted the reports with no further action in the meeting minutes; staff follow‑up was planned for procurement and to advertise the field‑naming proposal per statute.