The Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District held its first monthly meeting of the year Tuesday, Jan. 23. The meeting was originally scheduled for Jan. 9, but due to the holiday break and the winter weather last week, it was postponed until the Jan. 23.
The meeting was originally scheduled to include a community recognition, however, it was moved to the February meeting after weather forced its cancelation earlier. Nevertheless, the Board still held the swearing in of new Board member, Dr. Katherine Hughes. The Board also named the new peace officer for the school, retired trooper Michael Peeples.
Superintendent Howard Savage informed the Board that he would not be giving his report this month, but would save it for next month’s meeting.
Vickie Ratliff-Roberts spoke to the Board regarding the “Ole Miss Eight” scholarship, and congratulated the school on having two students to submit for the scholarship. She also briefly discussed the possibility of getting internships for students to do research, which may provide them the ability to get into universities like Vanderbilt and Rutgers.
In other news, the School Board:
- Approved the financials for the month of December 2023. District Business Manager Lynea Watson mentioned how the financials were down at the moment, but would be coming up in the next month once taxes started coming in.
- Approved the Claims Docket, including a more than $6,000 charge from Hometown Fitness for occupational therapy. The funds for this charge come from the Special Education budget.
- Approved the 2023-24 budget amendment. This includes an allocation of $350,000 for the Winona Elementary School roof out of the $1.5 million Esser funds.
- Officially appointed Amber Austin as the assistant test coordinator.
- Voted in favor of buying a new bus out of ARP Esser funds in the amount of $112,000.
- Discussed making up the snow days from the icy weather, but decided not to make up the days because Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency for those days and, by state law, the school is not required to make them up.
- Voted to approve the 2024-25 District calendar.
- Voted to approve the WMCSD salary schedule for 2024-25.
- Voted in favor of the 2023-24 test security plan with the recommended revisions.
