Thursday evening, Jan. 16, the Carroll County School District Board of Education held their regularly scheduled meeting. Prior to the meeting, new Board member, Meridith Cobbins, was sworn into her position as representative of District 4, the seat recently vacated by former Board President John Phillips. The current meeting was officiated by Board Member Kenneth DeLoach. Board Member William Downs was absent from the meeting.
As the first matter of business, Board Member Stella Washington Bell was nominated to be Board President on a motion made by Board Member DeLoach and seconded by Board Member Teresa Vanlandingham with all in favor. Following this, Board Member DeLoach was nominated as Vice President of the Board on a motion made by Board Member Washington Bell and seconded by Board Member Vanlandingham with all in favor. Subsequently, Board Member Vanlandingham was appointed Secretary of the Board on a unanimous vote.
For the next matter of business, the Board was to make a judgment on who to appoint to the vacant District 3 seat. This position, formerly held by William Downs in the last term, was currently vacant due to a lack of qualifying candidates at election time. At this time in the meeting, the Board reviewed a letter submitted by Downs regarding the vacant position. The contents of the letter were not addressed by the Board during the meeting. After each member had time to review the letter, Board Member Vanlandingham motioned to appoint William Downs to the District 3 position. This motion was seconded by Board Member Washington Bell and passed unanimously. William Downs will hold the District 3 position on the School Board until the next general election at which time, candidates will need to qualify to be elected to the position. Following this, Attorney Lori Bell was reappointed the Board Attorney on a unanimous vote.
The next major topic of discussion for the evening was regarding a grant which was awarded to the school district.
The topic was introduced by Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Prestridge, “A few meetings ago I told you that MEMA reached out to us and told us that they had set aside a hundred-thousand dollars for four different counties that we could claim for expenses.”
The expenses referenced were incurred due to damage done by the 2023 March tornado. CFO Prestridge explained that due to the tornado, the district lost a school bus as well as sixteenth section timber revenue (as a result of damaged timber).
“We had a significant loss in revenue to our sixteenth section timber. Because in one of our sixteenth sections, we lost a significant section of our timber - a little over one hundred and ninety acres of our timber was lost,” CFO Prestridge stated.
She explained that with the help of Forester Blake Jones, they were able to tally the damages to the timber at roughly one hundred and seventy-seven thousand dollars. As a result of this work, the school district was awarded the full one hundred thousand dollar MEMA grant.
“Because a portion of that money was awarded to us for timber, a portion of that money has to go to our forestry escrow account so the Forestry Commission can use it to replenish the timber,” CFO Prestridge explained.
She stated that replanting efforts have already begun in the sixteenth section land. An estimated $53,000 would be allotted to the district’s maintenance account.
