The Columbus Municipal School District Board of Trustees welcomed a new board member, received updates on numerous programs and honored student achievements during Monday’s regular board meeting.
Fredrick Sparks was sworn in as member of the five-person board at the start of the meeting. Sparks was chosen to replace Stephen Jones, who resigned after being elected to the Columbus City Council.
Sparks’ first board meeting was an opportunity to acquaint himself with a wide range of district matters during the two-and-a-half hour meeting.
A representative from “Smiles to Go,” a state- and federally supported mobile dental clinic that services 28 Mississippi school districts, updated the board on its work in Columbus this year.
Smiles To Go services children in school districts with high rates of uninsured or Medicaid reliance.
According to Smiles To Go data, only 27 of the 764 children the group examined during its visits to the district had dental insurance, with 556 relying on Medicaid and another 181 with no insurance.
Smiles To Go makes regular visits to the districts it serves throughout the year, providing some services while making referrals for more extensive procedures.
Deputy Superintendent Craig Shannon updated the board on a variety of matters, including third-grade assessment testing, the attendance report and athletic facilities.
Third-grade assessments, which require students to meet standard of proficiency in reading before being promoted to the fourth grade, were held on April 8, Shannon said.
“The results have been embargoed, and we’re waiting for the Mississippi Department of Education to tell us when we can release those results,” Shannon said. “The individual results have been released to parents, though.”
Shannon said the district’s goals for both dropout prevention and attendance are close to being attained.
“Our goal in the dropout area is 95 percent, and we’re just under 94 percent, districtwide,” he said. “At Columbus High, we’re a little off, at 89 percent, which is something we’ll continue to work on.”
Shannon said the primary reason for the higher dropout rate at the high school was state law, which allows students who have reached the age of 17 to leave school, which factors in to overall attendance if the student drops out after starting classes in the fall
Shannon also informed the board that a handful of new additions or renovations to the district’s athletic facilities are finished or near completion, including the expanded weight room at Columbus High (complete); a new indoor baseball facility (finished); a new softball press box, concession stands and restrooms; and the new track at the football stadium. The latter two projects should be complete next month, he said.
Donna Jones, director the district’s special education services, updated the board on efforts to bring the district into compliance after an October finding by MDE’s Office of Special Education found numerous deficiencies in its programs.
In October, six OSE representatives conducted the monitoring over two days, examining 30 files selected randomly from among the district’s more than 600 students enrolled in special education programs in the district. CMSD was one of 21 school districts monitored during the current school year.
Prior to the monitoring, CMSD performed a self-review of its programs.
MDE presented its findings from the monitoring to CMSD Superintendent Philip Hickman on Nov. 6, noting that the monitoring supported findings in the CMSD’s self-review of deficits in the areas of Child Find and discipline. In addition, the monitoring also revealed deficiencies in the areas of delivery of services and policies and procedures, citing 13 specific examples.
The files monitored were from the 2013-14 school year, but complaints of poor services have persisted. A group of 19 parents of special education students attended the CMSD’s March 10 board meeting wearing T-shirts printed with the message, “Our kids matter.”
On Monday, Jones said the district had met all deadlines, including updating and revising policies cited in the OSE report and completing all IEP documentation found to have been incomplete in the OSE report. Jones said ongoing training for special education instructors had been implemented and are held twice monthly.
In other business, the board recognized winners from the recent regional science fair, the LINK’s Outstanding Senior of the Year, a pair of Gates Millennium Scholarship recipients and the Columbus High Boys basketball team.
Science fair winners from the district include: Best of Fair, LaRencia Ham (kindergarten), Cook Elementary; Alexandria Magee, first place (third Grade), Cook Elementary; Lani Carter, first place (1st grade), Fairview Elementary; Aaliyah Williams, first place (second Grade) Fairview Elementary; Railyn Smith, first place (fourth grade), Stokes-Beard Elementary; and Janiya Rowan, first place (fifth grade), Franklin Academy.
Michael Bailey was recognized for being chosen as the LINK Lowndes County Outstanding Senior of the Year, while Taylor Carter and Shelby Jones were honored for being selected as recipients of the prestigious Gates scholarships.
The CHS boys basketball team was recognized for winning the 2016 Class 6-A state champions, the school’s first state title in boys basketball.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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