The Columbus Municipal School District had an average daily attendance of 94.88 percent at its schools in March, just slightly below the district goal of 95 percent.
During Monday night’s board meeting, in response to requests made by board president Angela Verdell, the board was presented with numbers regarding chronic absenteeism, which is defined as missing ten or more days of school a year. CMSD has 849 students who are chronically absent — 337 of those are at the high school.
Six students dropped out of Columbus High School in March. Superintendent Philip Hickman said many of these students are over-aged freshman, and once they turn 17 and are legally eligible, many drop out.
Personnel, salary debates
Hickman made a request to hire a director of academic support services. The board denied the proposed hire.
The job would have focused on administrative leadership in, among other things, after-school enrichment programs. Board member Jason Spears proposed the board not approve the position. A substitute motion from Currie Fisher was made to approve the position, and was seconded by Verdell.
“Reviewing past years, it seems to me there is a great deal of overlap between this role and the role of the assistant superintendent,” Spears said.
The motion failed to pass with Fisher and Verdell voting for it, and Jones, Spears and Glenn Lautzenhiser opposed.
Salary scales for the 2015-2106 school year were also a point of contention Monday night.
Spears argued that several salary increases were made with “no rhyme or reason” and that too many of the raises went to top-tier employees instead of being spread around.
Spears additionally stated the large increase in teacher supplements proposed by the district to operate out-of-school programs was too much. There are 45 more supplemented positions on next year’s budget, something Hickman said is intended to provide more extra-curricular programs. Spears pointed to the $22,500 cost of these new supplements, something he believes is not needed. Hickman said teachers need incentives to lead these programs.
“We added 45 more supplements because we have no after school programs that are not athletics,” Hickman said. “We need to provide a variety of programs for our children, and I won’t back away from that as a superintendent.”
The salary scale proposals by the district would see an additional $81,000 on it’s payroll budget, according to district business manager Tammie McGarr. Teacher salaries are increasing $580,536 and other personnel salary increases are worth $293,971. Additional funds received this year by the Mississippi Adequate Education Program Act can be used to offset those costs. McGarr said the district had been given an additional $759,613 by MAEP for the 2015-2016 school year. That will leave the district underfunded by $1,789,608 by MAEP next school year.
Spears made a motion to not approve 21 of the 36 salary scales proposed for next year. Lautzenhiser made a subsequent motion that the 21 scales Spears had questioned be tabled for approval until next meeting. The board approved Lautzenhiser’s motion.
The additional 15 salary scales were unanimously approved by the board.
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