Marion County School District board honors PREPS award winners, approves personnel, pay scales and program updates

At a board meeting at East Marion High School, the Marion County School District Board recognized school and teacher achievement through PREPS awards and approved a slate of personnel, pay-scale and program items, including a state-approved driver's education program and several timber and lease actions. Vote tallies were not specified in the meeting transcript.

The meeting opened with adoption of the agenda, including an added recommendation to item 10.8. The board then approved the Feb. 9 work-session and regular-meeting minutes before moving into a presentation of PREPS awards. A presenter said, "Preps is an organization that's in South Mississippi that we're a member of," and described two PREPS honors: an achievement award (for a scale-score increase at least twice the state average) and a growth award (top 10% growth in reading/ELA and math). Principals and teachers from East Marion Elementary, East Marion Middle, East Marion High, West Marion High, Westman Middle and Westman Primary were called up to receive certificates.

In his superintendent's report, Mr. Foster addressed monthly data including average daily attendance around 91 percent and elevated absenteeism in February and March. He reported federal monitoring clearance for ESSER II and said the district is transitioning to ARP ESSER (ESSER III) monitoring: "So we are cleared for ESSER II and they're moving on to ARP ESSER," he said. Foster also described recent state changes to the accountability model that reduced district points when 2025 data were applied; he said those changes removed U.S. history from the model and altered how advanced placement and CTC (career/technical) credits are weighted, producing an immediate 20-point drop for the district under the new calculation.

Mr. Foster told the board the state (MDE) approved the district's driver's education program. He said the program will use one teacher split across the two high schools and that the district is working to secure a vehicle. On likely class capacity he described quarter-length classes with a regulatory cap per class (discussed in the meeting as 10 to 15), which he estimated could translate to roughly 56 students per site in a rotation and up to about 120 students districtwide across multiple blocks. Board members discussed age eligibility (the transcript references eligibility at ages 14, 15 and 16 and that a student must hold a permit for a calendar year before licensure).

On routine business the board approved itemized actions including student transfers (9.1), out-of-state travel for West Marion High School to attend the Buff State Classic (March 15'19), athletic schedules for East Marion and West Marion High for 2025'26, discipline hearing outcomes for February 2026, resignations (10.1), exception payroll (10.4), and recommendation items for 2025'26 and 2026'27 (10.2, 10.3). The board also approved pay scales for principals/assistant principals (10.5), CTC and operations staff (10.6), and the certified teacher pay scale for 2026'27 (10.7); a board member cautioned that the state had not yet approved a teacher pay raise and the district would revisit local scales if the state changes its pay schedule.

Financial reports and budget items (11.1'11.5) were presented by district staff (identified in the transcript as Jessica). The board received monthly reconciliation and fund-balance reporting, noted one fixed-asset deletion and a contract renewal, and approved a reallocation in the child nutrition budget to move funds from salaries to food and supplies to address an underbudgeted line item.

In the business and facilities portion of the meeting staff recommended two timber sales (a 251-acre second thinning and a 67-acre clear cut) and a 1.25-acre residential lease for Lola Annie Brown (12.3); the board approved the recommendations. The transcript records motions and that motions "passed" for each item, but does not record numerical vote counts or named vote tallies for the motions.

Votes at a glance (transcript-recorded outcomes; tallies not specified): All motions listed below were moved, seconded and recorded as passing in the transcript: approval of agenda (with addition to 10.8); approval of minutes (Feb. 9); consent agenda (6.1'6.13); student transfers (9.1); out-of-state travel for West Marion High golf; athletic schedules for East and West Marion Highs (2025'26); discipline hearings (Feb. 2026); personnel resignations (10.1); recommendation items (10.2, 10.3); exception payroll (10.4); pay scales (10.5, 10.6, 10.7); certified staff reemployment (10.8); financial items 11.1'11.5; timber sales and residential lease 12.1'12.3.

What follows: the board discussed a site visit and work session schedule (a proposed March 26 site walk beginning at CTC and a noon work session), and the superintendent indicated staff would proceed with program startup tasks (securing a vehicle and finalizing teacher assignment) for driver's education.

The meeting transcript does not list full vote tallies or roll-call votes for the motions; where the record lacks counts or named votes the article reports the recorded outcome as "motion passed" or "approved" rather than asserting unanimity.