The Watson Chapel School District Board of Directors unanimously approved a one-year extension of district superintendent Danny Hazelwood’s employment contract at its regular monthly meeting Monday night.
Details of the contract were not immediately available.
In other business the board approved a seven-year facility plan for the school district that was first discussed at the regular December meeting of the board.
The plan includes the construction of a multipurpose/physical education building and the expansion of the media center in 2015 at Watson Chapel High School for $1.5 million and $1 million respectively; the construction of a new roof at Watson Chapel Junior High School in 2017 for $718,025; the installation of a new roof on the fourth-grade building in 2018 and a new heating and cooling system in 2013 at Coleman Elementary School for $343,910 and $250,000 respectively; the installation of a new heating and cooling system in 2014 and a new roof in 2017 at L.L. Owen Elementary School for $750,000 and $714,461 respectively; the construction of a new middle school in 2013 for $9.4 million and the purchase of land for the new school in 2012 at an undetermined cost.
The plan also includes recent improvements in the district, including the installation of a district-wide surveillance system in 2011 using federal stimulus funds; at Watson Chapel High School, the installation of a new roof in 2008 for $231,739, a new heating and cooling system in 2010 for $580,000, expansion of the vocational building in 2010 for $499,280, and improvements to the stadium to be finished in 2012 for $1.6 million; at Watson Chapel Junior High School, the installation of a roof at the gymnasium in 2010 for $291,746 and the installation of a heating and cooling system in 2008 for $960,000; and at Coleman Elementary School the installation of a roof on the fifth grade building in 2010 for $638,711.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The board approved a series of board policy additions and handbook corrections.
“The first week in February we will get a visit from the Board of Standards for a review of our policies,” Hazelwood said. “Some of our policies are not in the handbook and we need to address that.”
The changes and additions included removing the terms “excused and unexcused” from the attendance policy to be in compliance with the provisions of Act 1223 that became law at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year; correcting a paragraph on the grading system to add the word “only” that was accidentally left off; adding the Closing the Achievement Gap Policy to the handbook; adding the Watson Chapel Library Media Centers Collection Development Policy that provides a procedure to allow the public a way to challenge media materials; changing the time schedules for lunch and physical activity periods at Coleman Intermediate School; and adding the Smart Core Policy to clarify the choice that parents and students must make when they enroll in the seventh grade.