Oktibbeha County school officials handled two items related directly to academics in a meeting where they also got some answers about energy savings in the district.
All members were present for Monday night”s board meeting.
The first item of business was the board”s adoption of a supplemental District Action Plan from the Mississippi Department of Education. MDE representative Jim Simmons called adoption of the plan “pretty much a formality” because this plan is in addition to the one approved by the district.
“The schools already put together an action for improvement,” Simmons said.
The action plan focuses on three areas at East Oktibbeha County Elementary and East Oktibbeha County High schools that need improvement. Simmons said the schools need to revise the pacing guides for all levels, must work on training teachers to recognize individual differences in student instruction, and enhance principals” skills in evaluating teacher performance.
Simmons said these needs were identified last fall and addressed in the action plan.
“These are all things that we”re currently doing,” Superintendent James Covington said of the items.
The board next approved a districtwide Parent Improvement Policy. Covington said the previous policy failed to meet all the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The new policy spelled out as an official policy what he said the schools are already doing.
“We think this particular policy will increase parental involvement in the district, which will in turn increase student achievement,” Covington said.
The board heard updates on average daily attendance and various aspects of student achievement. These required no action, but were items the board asked the superintendent for regular updates on.
Much of the rest of the meeting was spent in a question and answer time with two representatives of Johnson Control, the company with which the district entered an energy savings plan three years ago.
At previous meetings, the board questioned Johnson”s Controls compliance with the contract and the lack of reimbursed savings coming to the district.
Charles Avant asked the majority of the questions. Among them were complaints that building night-time temperatures were not set for energy savings, thermostats seem inappropriately matched to the units they control, internal clocks were not set correctly with the time change, and the district not receiving any of the $62,000 Johnson Controls indicated it saved the district last year.
The Johnson Controls engineer assured the board that the thermostats were correctly matched to the units they controlled, and lock boxes were installed over the thermostats to limit who could change settings. Johnson Controls programmed the thermostats to operate within an energy efficient window. Individual thermostats can be modified about six degrees within that window to meet the comfort needs of students or teachers.
However, the engineer said in one school that was reporting problems with the heating and cooling system, the program on every thermostat had been changed. He said this explained why the system was heating and cooling inappropriately and not in an energy efficient manner.
The board discussed how the facilities manager and school principal have the only keys to the lock boxes covering the thermostats. Any changes in the programming must be made by someone with access to the lock box keys.
The engineer explained that when the thermostats are allowed to run hotter or colder or longer hours than programmed and agreed upon in the contract, Johnson Controls is not responsible when the district does not meet the energy savings goals. When the energy savings goals are not met because of school district action, the district is not reimbursed the savings.
The board took no formal action on any of this discussion, but did express interest in learning why the thermostats are unlocked and modified so often.
The board handled other matters of mostly routine business before going into closed session to handled personnel issues and a student matter. They will meet again March 7 at 6 p.m. at West Oktibbeha County Elementary School for their next board meeting.
At this meeting, they plan to honor a district high school student who had a poem nationally published in a book of poetry.
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