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Jennings County School Board elects officers, approves personnel, handbooks, MOUs and accepts donations
Summary
At its organizational meeting the board elected officers, kept existing board compensation levels, approved an addendum to the K–12 handbook on false reporting, accepted staff recommendations and a slate of donations, and approved multiple university MOUs. Most votes were unanimous.
The Jennings County School Board completed its organizational agenda, electing officers, approving committee appointments and taking a series of routine actions that included personnel approvals, a handbook addendum, memoranda of understanding with universities and acceptance of donations.
Amy Pettit (referred to in the record as Amy Perez/Pettit/Pitt during nominations) was nominated and the presiding officer handed the meeting over to the newly seated president. Cheryl Miller was approved as vice president and Pat Sullivan as secretary. The board also appointed Philip Marsh as treasurer and Myra Fishfoot as deputy treasurer, and approved Deb Johnson as executive secretary. The board voted to maintain its current compensation package for board members — an annual stipend of $2,000 and per diems of $130 for regular meetings and $70 for special meetings — rather than adopt the higher amounts permitted by a recent state change.
Under new business the board approved an addendum to the K–12 student handbook addressing false reporting, which will be shared with parents immediately and added to physical handbooks next school year. The board approved several professional-staff recommendations, including career increment master teacher stipends for Casey Ernesus and Sarah Prince; employment of David Sheppard III as Jennings County High School family and consumer sciences/culinary arts teacher; and Kendall Wildey as assistant softball coach. The board also read and accepted a list of donations to district schools and programs, including $4,000 from Ed and Lisa Bealey for student lunches and multiple smaller gifts to student assistance funds and PBIS programs.
The board approved memoranda of understanding with several universities to support internships, student teaching and counseling placements in district schools. In closing, the presiding official publicly recognized the high school staff, students and parents for continued improvement in graduation rates, citing a rate the speaker placed near 95.6% and praising sustained progress despite regional poverty.
Most votes on organizational and routine items were recorded as unanimous or 7-0.
