Thursday, July 17, 2025 the Carroll County School District Board of Education held their regularly scheduled monthly meeting. Much business was discussed and covered over the approximate hour duration of this meeting. The highlights of the meeting are as follows.
Within the Business section of the agenda, the Board discussed the matter of a proposal for physical and occupational therapy services which are to be provided by the district for special needs students.
“This is to provide services for our Special Education students as needed, required by their IEPs (Individualized Education Programs). And it’s not for every student, it’s only for the students who need it for educational purposes. So it’s only for if [something] impedes their education,” Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Prestridge introduced the topic of discussion.
“So not every child that has a physical disability or an occupational disability gets [these] services. It’s only if [something] impedes their educational experience. And it has to be written in their IEP before they receive the services,” CFO Prestridge explained.
She further explained that this proposal is what allows the school staff to provide these services to the students in need. The Board was provided with two quotes for therapy services. Hometown Therapy and Fitness provided a quote for services in the amount of $100 per hour and JWM Pediatric Therapy provided a quote for services in the amount of $85 per hour. It was noted that while the lesser quote is with JWM, the Board was recommended to go with Hometown due to a previously established business relationship, as the district has utilized services from Hometown before. In addition, due to this, Hometown staff is familiar with the students receiving services and their specific needs.
The Proposal for Physical and Occupational Therapy Services for the 2025-26 school year was approved on a motion by District 2 Board Member Teresa Vanlandingham and seconded by District 4 Board Member Meridith Cobbins with all in favor. With this, the Board accepted the quote for services from Hometown Therapy and Fitness.
For the next matter of business, the Board discussed three Kid’s First Proposals for Professional Development programs. The first proposal for a one-day program was quoted in the amount of $1,475.
“They’re actually coming to do professional development during our back to school training. They’re gonna train some of our administrators and lead teachers on the new accountability model from the state for our test scores. That’s what this one is for,” CFO Prestridge explained the purpose of the one-day program.
The Kid’s First Proposal for the one-day professional development program at the cost of $1,475 was approved on a motion by Board Member Vanlandingham and seconded by District 3 Board Member William Downs, with all in favor.
In addition to the one-day proposal, the Board also received proposals for an eight day program and a ten day program. The eight day professional development program from Kid’s First was quoted in the amount of $11,800, and the ten day program was quoted in the amount of $14,750.
“The first one, the eight day one, is for biology, English, and math. It is two days biology, three days English, and three days math. And that one is $11,800. The second one is leadership support for ten days. That one is for $14,750. And that is supposed to be support for our principals. Since we are looking at hiring a new principal at our elementary school, we are going to go ahead - This is just a quote, we are not committing ourselves to the full ten days. We do not have to do the full ten days,” Financial Officer Prestridge explained the issue.
She further explained that if it is discovered that the full ten days of professional development is not needed, the Board can choose to participate in only as many days as necessary. The Board approved the quote for the eight day proposal on a motion by Board Member Vanlandingham and seconded by Board Member Downs with all in favor. In addition, the quote for the ten day proposal was approved on a motion made by Board Member Vanlandingham and seconded by District 5 Board Member Stella Washington Bell with all in favor.
The final major matter of business discussed at length in this meeting was regarding the request for purchase of a refurbished Basketball Shooting/Rebound Machine for the district. This request was brought before the Board by Superintendent Joey Carpenter and district Athletic Director Cory Blaylock. To introduce the item requested, Athletic Director Blaylock presented the Board with a short video of the machine in action. In addition, he explained the potential of utilizing a machine like this in routine practice.
“Alright, so, we’ve got about 50 students that play boys and girls basketball between junior high and high school. That’s about twenty percent of our kids at our school, at the high school. And, so, this shooting machine is basically the equivalent of a pitching machine for baseball or softball, or a sled for the football team. So this is something that they all could use, it helps out with shooting drills. We’ve got some young kids, especially on the girls’ team, that - I feel like - they could be really good in the next couple years,” Director Blaylock explained the need for the equipment.
“Every college in the United States, probably, has these machines. Most high schools have these machines,” he added.
After this introduction, he played a demonstration video of the use of a shooting/rebound machine. Following the video, Director Blaylock further explained the multitude of uses for the machine, stating that an array of drills can be performed by utilizing it.
“It’s all about repetition. The more shots you shoot, the better you’re gonna get at shooting. You can design a multitude of different drills that you can do with it. [There’s] a hundred different ways you can set it up. You can set it up to where it can shoot out to eighteen different spots on the court if you want to, all in one drill. And it’s all about getting more shots up per kid, and it tracks that,” Blaylock stated.
He went on to explain that the machine is capable of tracking the progress of players and their shooting percentages across a period of time. In addition, he stated that the machine being requested is a refurbished machine, which is expected to come at a discounted price compared to a newly released machine. At this point, Board Member Washington Bell requested clarification on the data collection aspect of the machine. She explained that she was interested in receiving reports on the progress of the players and their areas of proficiency.
“What you’re saying - it’s taking away the skill of rebounding. And rebounding was very important in basketball when I played,” District 1 Board Member Kenneth DeLoach interjected.
“It’s not taking away, it’s allowing you to get more shots up,” Athletic Director Blaylock reiterated.
“What - shots - what’s [the point in] shots if you can’t rebound it - shot’s ain’t no good, if somebody else gets the ball. Rebounding is as important as shooting. You’ve gotta have the ball to be able to shoot it. If the other team gets it, they’re gonna shoot it,” Board Member DeLoach responded.
“This could be a source of pride for the students. If they have better equipment, they’ll have a sense of pride in what they’re doing,” Board Attorney Lori Bell added to the discussion.
“I appreciate you listening to this again, listening to Mr. Blaylock. It’s just that we buy items like this for softball, for baseball, football… I just think it would help our kids,” Superintendent Carpenter stated.
“The kids deserve it,” Board Member Vanlandingham added.
“And we budgeted for it. So, it’s in the budget to purchase it,” CFO Prestridge interjected into the discussion.
“There’s a five year warranty on it. If anything breaks, it’s fully replaceable. And, if we decide that we want to upgrade our machine at any time we can trade that machine in and they’ll give us trade-in value on [another one].”
Following this discussion, Board Member Vanlandingham motioned for the approval of the request to purchase a basketball shooting/rebounding machine. This motion was seconded by Board Member Washington Bell. Upon voting, Board Members Cobbins, Downs, and DeLoach all opposed the motion to purchase the equipment. There was no further discussion or comments from the opposing members on the matter. Ultimately, the request to purchase the equipment for the basketball teams was denied.
In other news the Board:
• Approved the agenda for the July 17, 2025 Board meeting.
• Accepted the minutes for the following meetings: June 12, June 20, June 30, and July 7, 2025.
• Approved Overtime and Extra Pay for June 2025, the JZ George Wellness Policy for school year 2025-26, the Marshall Elementary School Instructional Plan and Crisis Management Plan for school year 2025-26, the Fluency Plus Proposal, and the Accelerate MS Career Coach Grant Memorandum of Understanding.
• Approved the following business: the Region VI Community Mental Health Center MOU, the Collaborative Agreement with Millcreek of Pontotoc Schools for the school year 2025-26, MS Action for Progress partnership agreement, Credit Cards and Line of Credit for fiscal year 2026.
• Approved the financial statements, claims, request for levy of Ad Valorem Taxes, and request for transfer of sixteenth section interest.
• Accepted two bids for hunting and fishing leases for the sixteenth section land, one for 75 acres in the amount of $900 and one for 375.8 acres in the amount of $4,509.60.
• Approved the following personnel matters: CCSD Personnel Handbook, hiring Recommended Certified Employees, hiring Recommended At-Will Employees, and 3 Bus Aide Substitutes.
• Accepted one Employee Resignation.
