The Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District board will now have an official policy committee to recommend new or updated policies for the district.
An informal ad hoc policy committee was established in 2019 when board member John Brown served as president. He said he appointed two board members, Debra Prince and Jamilla Taylor, to oversee policymaking in order to reduce the length of general board meetings and bring recommendations of the policies created to the board.
“That’s the reason when I was president, I started the policy committee,” Brown said Tuesday during the board’s regular meeting. “Once the policy committee has reviewed (a policy) and made changes, they could more or less give it as a report or a motion to the board, and if the board wanted to make any changes from there they could.”
The unofficial policy committee created the virtual learning day policy, for example, and presented it to the board at the regular meeting in September. This policy established how the district would execute virtual learning in the event of unplanned or unforeseen circumstances.
The board voted Tuesday to establish an official policy committee, this time with three members instead of two in case a tiebreaker is needed. All appropriate district personnel or administrators would also be in attendance if the policy is related to their particular department.
Taylor suggested the members rotate and be appointed annually by the board president instead of the same members continually serving in that role.
“This way we are giving members the opportunity — who would like to, I’m sure people may want to object — but I do think it should be offered to where others have opportunities to serve if we do keep it,” Taylor said.
Board president Sumner Davis said that because the policy committee is now an official committee, it must post public meeting notices, keep formal minutes, and meetings must be held in a place for the public to attend. Prince questioned why the board must do this when administrative meetings do not have to be open. Davis said because the board consists of elected and appointed officials who are the district’s policymakers, it must follow public meeting rules, something the policy committee has not before done.
“Any committee created by a political body or subdivision of the state whether they be ad hoc or formal is subject to the (public) meetings law,” Davis said. “I don’t have a problem doing this. We just have to understand that minutes have to be taken, notice of the meetings must be posted and the public has to be allowed access if they want.”
Prince also questioned what would happen if one member of the committee was not in attendance for a policy meeting. Board attorney John Hill said the committee can still meet and discuss the agenda at hand because there would be a quorum.
“What happens when you have a quorum, it’s just like any other motion made,” Hill said. “There’s a majority. If it’s a 1-1 vote, the motion fails.”
Early childhood education funds
SOCSD is receiving more than $200,000 to fund early childhood education.
The Mississippi Legislature passed a law in 2013 to establish a limited number of Early Learning Collaborative pre-K programs throughout the state in underserved communities, with SOCSD being one of the districts chosen. The purpose of ELC is to bring high-grade pre-K learning through a collaborative delivery model.
“The early learning collaborative in our school district is at Emerson Family School,” SOCSD Public Information Officer Nicole Thomas said. “It’s for pre-K education. It’s my understanding that the purpose of the early learning collaborative was to expand access to high quality pre-K.”
Businesses or individuals can donate to an ELC for state tax credit through this initiative. Contributors are eligible to receive a 1-to-1 state tax credit for the donated amount up to $1 million.
Donations for the ELC include $125,000 from Richard and Diane Scruggs, $22,000 from Mayor Lynn Spruill and $4,000 from Oktibbeha County Youth Court Judge Lydia Quarles.
The First Bank, located in Hattiesburg, also donated $50,000 to the district, presenting the business’ check to SOCSD at Tuesday’s board of trustees meeting. Executive Vice President and Director of Community Development Jerome Brown said ELCs are important to the bank, and tit is giving to all 18 ELCs throughout the state to increase early childhood learning.
“We do this in all our communities,” Brown said. “Of course, you know there are 18 collaboratives that are approved by the Mississippi Department of Education, and you guys are one of them, so we were happy to see that we were coming to this community.”
Director of Educational Enhancement and Innovative Research and Director of the Discovery Center at Emerson Brandi Burton said the money will provide parent and family education for family members of pre-K students, such as WorkKey assessments. Burton said the donations will also allow the district to buy items that are not always allowable expenses, such as new playground equipment.
“We (can buy) classroom resources, manipulatives, really anything as long as the goal is serving those in the pre-K collaborative,” Burton said.
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