A routine report from Dollarway Superintendent Bettye Dunn-Wright on Tuesday turned into a discussion over the merits of having a mechanic shop for district school buses in Altheimer.
During the Dollarway School Board’s regular meeting, Dunn-Wright said recent rains led to the discovery of damage to the roof of Altheimer-Martin Elementary School. The damage apparently happened during a severe storm in the fall.
“As you know we had some hail damage at Altheimer as well as fencing and tree damage,” Dunn-Wright said. “We have already taken care of repairing that but after the rains began in the fall it was discovered that the building also suffered roof damage. Our insurance should take care of the cost and I spoke with Chad Davis with the state Department of Education who said that we should be able to qualify for catastrophic aid money to pay for the largest part of any left over expense.”
Dunn-Wright said that roof damage had also occurred at the mechanic shop in Altheimer and board member Gene Stewart began to question what the purpose of the shop was.
“Why do we have two separate facilities?” Stewart asked.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
District transportation supervisor Billy Williams said the school district had four school buses that came out of Altheimer every day to transport Altheimer area students to and from school.
Stewart asked if buses were repaired at the Altheimer location and Williams said yes.
“During times like we are having now I don’t know that it is the best use of district resources to maintain duplicate facilities,” Stewart said.
Board president George Stepps said that because the mechanic shop in Altheimer had been in place for some time and the school district had expanded to include Altheimer within its boundaries it made sense to keep things as they were.
The board also approved a recommendation from Dunn-Wright to set the ticket prices for admission to high school and junior high school football and basketball games at $5 for adults, $3 for students ages seven and up and free admission for children ages six and under.
Board member Joe Blanks said that the drop in student ticket prices should raise game attendance.
“The $3 ticket price is an incentive to fill the stadium up,” Blanks said. “With the old price you were turning students away. You have people with limited means so the new price should make a difference.”
The board heard from Dunn-Wright that the heating and cooling systems at Townsend Park Elementary and Robert F. Morehead Middle School would be in need of work in the next year.
“We received a cost estimate of $6,700 for Townsend Park and $10,800 for Morehead,” Dunn-Wright said.
Dunn-Wright said the district was waiting for EFS GeoTechnologies of Monticello, the company contracted to complete the district’s required redistricting process, to determine a district boundary issue where the four Jefferson County school districts are overlapping.
“I have been in touch with Will Fox (election coordinator) at the courthouse and they know that we are working to determine where our district boundaries are located,” Dunn-Wright said.
Dunn-Wright also recognized the Dollarway High School football team and Coach Cortez Lee for a successful season.
“Coach Lee, we commend you and your team for an outstanding season,” Dunn-Wright said.
The board approved the formation of a committee to oversee the implementation of the Closing the Achievement Gap policy.
“This committee will consist of 15 or 16 people and we need to have it,” Dunn-Wright said before the vote.
The board approved the implementation of the district’s Reduction in Force policy upon the recommendation of Dunn-Wright.
“We hope we don’t have to use it but we need to have it in place to be able to look at seniority and certification areas,” Dunn-Wright said.
The board approved a request from the Future Business Leaders of America club at the high school to take a trip to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis on Martin Luther King Jr. Day using a school district bus and driver.
After an executive session, the board approved hiring recommendations by Dunn-Wright.
Tutoring staff include Essie Robertson, Cleollia Robinson, and MaRhonda Williams at Altheimer-Martin Elementary; Marcia Barnes, Cheryl Wade, Vanessa Taylor, Bridget Neal, Antonette Marbley, Beverly Lewis, Jeanne King, Phyllis Branscomb, and Greg Cleveland at Townsend Park Elementary; Shirley Barnes, Vernice Meadows, Chioma Okorie, Rachel Shorter, Faye Wimberly and Shirley Walker at Robert F. Morehead Middle School; and Monica Bones, Darrin Kidd, Vicki Hicks, Matt Walters and Cortez Lee at Dollarway High School.