The Dollarway School District Board of Directors was informed by superintendent Bettye Dunn-Wright at the board’s regular monthly meeting Thursday night that the district was the recipient of a $50,000 grant to assist Dollarway High School and Robert F. Morehead Middle School in meeting their annual progress goals.
“The district was invited to apply for a $7,000 Title I Department of Education Grant,” Dunn-Wright said. “Other districts that could have applied didn’t and we were awarded an additional $43,000 for a total of $50,000.”
Water heaters
In other business Dunn-Wright informed the board that water heater issues at Townsend Park Elementary and James Matthews Elementary schools will take $14,000 to resolve.
“A bit of a crisis developed and the Department of Health cited the district because of problems with the hot water heaters,” Dunn-Wright said. “When there is an emergency the district does not have to go through the bid process so we started making the needed repairs immediately. We are working with TNT Plumbing. They have replaced the water heater in the cafeteria at Matthews and have installed a new water heater in the conference room at Townsend. The work will cost $14,000 which is much cheaper than the $21,000 it would take just to replace the second heater at Townsend. That price for replacing the heater does not include the installation cost. We were assured that as long as the door was kept closed the heater would not hurt anyone.”
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Dunn-Wright said that the water heater work would be paid for with funds left over from last year’s construction projects at the two elementary schools.
Zone redistricting
The board approved the second of three options for school board zone redistricting as required by state law, with the choice of the board reflecting existing boundary changes as prepared by EFS Geotechnology.
Version one was most like the most recent map, reflecting only minimal changes, while version two which was selected by the board reflects more boundary changes and version three showed the biggest difference from the most recent map.
Accreditation
“The state informed us that all schools in the district are accredited except for Dollarway High School which is on probation,” Dunn-Wright said.
Dunn-Wright updated the board on the visit of the AdvancED accreditation body to schools in the school district.
“Robert F. Morehead Middle School went through its AdvancED visit and the school was found to be operational which is next to the top level which is perfect,” Dunn-Wright said. “The visit to Dollarway High School started today and ends tomorrow. We are hoping for a good rating.”
Summer school
The board heard from principals on their summer school plans.
Altheimer-Martin Elementary will host Camp Cardinals for the three week period between June 11 and June 29.
“Our theme will be Dream Big-Read,” said Altheimer principal Brenda J. Barnes. “We will bus in 30 first graders from James Matthews.”
Townsend Park will have an Olympic Games theme, with students preparing reports on a country participating in the games.
Robert F. Morehead Middle School will have the theme E=MC2, which stands for engagement, mastery and collaboration, according to principal Yolanda Prim.
“All activities will be tied into state standards and Common Core,” Dunn-Wright said.
Director Gene Stewart said that he was anxious to hear how the programs go.
“I am eagerly waiting to see how they function and operate,” Stewart said. “This is pretty close to a math camp. We need it to be rigorous and demanding. I want a way to reward the students to show them that we want them to improve.”
Financial report
The board approved the March financial report presented by district treasurer Dora Sergeant.
Sergeant reported that the adjusted balance shown on ledger was $4,240,789 with the adjusted bank balance shown on the bank statement of $4,222,816.
Personnel action
The board approved a series of personnel recommendations from Dunn-Wright including the acceptance of the resignation of Asia Robinson, a para-professional at Townsend Park; the Reduction in Force call-back of cafeteria employee Sharon Purdue due to a resignation; the hiring of Sheila Jones as a special education data entry clerk and Amber Robinson as a speech language pathologist; and the rehiring of all classified staff.
Miscellaneous
Dunn-Wright said that the high school band trip to Panama City, Florida, was a success and that the students were well-behaved throughout the trip.
Dunn-Wright recognized Dollarway High School students who had won awards for their work at the Jefferson Area Technical Career Center at a May 3 banquet.
The board approved the ROTC program’s May 28-30 trip to New Orleans.