The Columbus Municipal School District will receive $159,610 worth of credit for $506,000 worth of textbooks ordered in May.
CMSD board president Angela Verdell, speaking with The Dispatch this morning, said she is pleased to be receiving the credit and to start moving forward from the textbook issue.
In May, then-interim superintendent Edna McGill asked the school board to purchase $506,000 worth of textbooks from School Book Supply Company of Mississippi in Jackson. The board voted to make the purchase. The textbooks were for math, language arts and phonetics.
Shortly after the board in July hired Dr. Philip Hickman to lead the district, the new superintendent implemented a new curriculum and asked the board to purchase approximately $600,000 worth of McGraw Hill textbooks because the School Book Supply Company books did not align with the new curriculum, he said. The board agreed to make the purchase, and Hickman indicated that the books bought in May would be returned to School Book Supply Company.
The books deemed returnable by the company were returned in December. As for the books deemed not returnable, Hickman said the district will be integrating some into the new curriculum. The district plans to use a series of writing workbooks purchased through School Book Supply in the classroom, Hickman said.
Hickman told The Dispatch on Thursday that what the district will do with the credit and unreturned books will be discussed Monday during the school board’s meeting.
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