Dr. Martha Liddell will preside Monday night over her first school board meeting since being selected as superintendent of the Columbus Municipal School District.
She plans to update the board on details of her “Believe and Achieve” strategic plan, which she unveiled during her interview last month.
The three-year plan includes goals and objectives Liddell believes will raise academic standards and state test scores. The district has been on academic watch the past two years and was at risk of failing in 2008-2009, according to the Mississippi Department of Education’s tiered accountability scale.
A key component of Liddell’s plan includes “Early Release Wednesdays,” which will dismiss students from school at 12:45 p.m. every Wednesday so teachers can attend professional development and training sessions. Teachers would stay until 3:30 p.m. on Wednesdays.
On the remaining four days of the week, students will be released 45 minutes later than usual to recoup the lost instruction time.
Details of the plan can be found at columbuscityschools.org or on the Dispatch website at cdispatch.com.
Also during Monday night’s meeting, the board will continue contract negotiations with Liddell. Her post as superintendent will not be official until she approves and signs a contract, which has presumably been under negotiation for two weeks as she and the board try to agree upon base salary, supplemental pay and other details.
Liddell earned $135,600 per year as interim superintendent. Former Superintendent Dr. Del Phillips was earning $154,400 after taking a pay cut the year before his departure.
The amount she has been offered by the board has not been disclosed, and all contract negotiations have taken place in closed executive session, as will that portion of Monday’s meeting.
Also on the agenda, the board will approve next school year’s calendar and hear the monthly ad valorem tax report from CMSD Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Hughes.
The meeting will be held Monday at 6 p.m. at Brandon Central Services, located at 2630 McArthur Dr.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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