Winston County Journal

It takes good teachers to produce good students, and the Louisville Municipal School District is full of them.

At the LMSD Board of Trustees meeting Feb. 15, the district recognized its Teachers of the Year for the 2004-2005 school year.

Those named for the honor were Carol Higginbotham, Louisville High School; Lavorn McQueen, Eiland Middle School; Re-C Carter, Louisville Elementary School; Mark Goldbeck, Fair Elementary School; Sandra Holdiness, Nanih Waiya Attendance Center; Elizabeth Summer, Noxapater Attendance Center; and Ed Faurot, Winston-Louisville Vocational Center. Faurot also earned the honor of District Teacher of the Year.

In addition to honoring the Teachers of the Year, the board recognized Leann Boswell of Noxapater Attendance Center. Boswell, an elementary school teacher at Noxapater, was recognized for achieving National Board Certification.

The citizens of Winston County will now have an opportunity to voice questions or concerns at LMSD Board of Trustees meetings - the board a public forum format for future meeting, giving citizens a chance to become more informed of the operations and policies of the district.

The guidelines for holding and participating in the forum, passed during the Feb. 15 meeting, have been set as follows:

€ The public forum will be held as the last agenda item, but before any potential executive session, and will last for no more than 15 minutes;

€ The questions covered during the forum will be submitted to the superintendent no later than 24 hours prior to the regularly-scheduled board meeting, and must be accompanied by the signatures of the individuals asking the questions;

€ The superintendent and the board president have the discretion, because of legal and personnel reasons, to withdraw any questions - they may also withdraw questions that are inflammatory, character attacks or, in general, not in good taste, although a citizen can personally ask the superintendent or any board member questions outside any meeting;

€ The person submitting the question must be present at the meeting and the public forum for the question to be valid and, therefore, answered. Before the beginning of the meeting, the person with the question must sign a sign-in sheet, with the signature matching the signature of the person who submitted the question. During the public forum, the superintendent or the board president will state the name of the person asking the question, ask the person to stand up, then read the question. The question will be answered, or comment made, which will last no longer than two minutes.

€ Unless allowed by the board president, there will be no discussion after the question has been answered by the board president or superintendent.

€ There may be multiple questions submitted that are related to the same subject or are very similar in nature. In this case, the board president or the superintendent may ask to stand and be recognized all the presenters of the questions related to the same subject.

€ Each person who submits a question will receive a copy of the guidelines for the public forum.

The board will institute the public forum, for a six-month trial period, during its regularly-scheduled March meeting. The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. March 10.

Essie Jackson of the Coalition for a Better Winston County appeared before the board to address concerns the organization has regarding some practices and policies in the district. Jackson indicated she was also speaking on behalf of the boards of the NAACP and the Winston County Voters League.

The Coalition for a Better Winston County, Jackson said, would like LMSD to aggressively pursue the employment of African-Americans in all areas. They would like to see the elimination of all dual elections by race, including that of Homecoming courts and queens.

Jackson said the Coalition would also like the board to implement school uniforms as the dress code for the 2005-2006 school year, along with utilizing stakeholders in the development and revision of school policies and procedures as identified in the student handbook.

Finally, Jackson said, the organization would like for the board to regularly communicate to parents and other stakeholders what the district is doing to raise accreditation levels at all schools.

In other business, the board:

€ Heard a report from Janie Tarlton on test data for the school district;

€ Approved the docket of claims, the December 2004 and January 2005 financial reports and the amendment of the FY 2005 budget;

€ Approved the entrance into an agreement with Quad County Alternative School of Starkville for the 2005-2006 school session;

€ Heard a request from the Winston County Sheriff's Department to use the gym at Nanih Waiya Attendance Center for physical training;

€ Discussed the Family Leave Medical Act;

€ Covered Sixteenth Section items; and

€ Heard employment recommendations and approved the hiring of two bus drivers;

€ Approved the re-hire of principals for the 2005-2006 school year: Norma Jackson at Fair Elementary School, Charlotte Nabers at Louisville Elementary School, Leevel Yarbrough at Eiland Middle School, Ken McMullen at Nanih Waiya Attendance Center and James Brooks at Noxapater Attendance Center - Principal Ricky Bane has already announced he will not serve as principal at Louisville High School during the next school year, and the board is currently seeking a qualified replacement.