Keith Stuckey will again serve as president of the Marion County school board and Richard Culliver will serve as secretary for the 2019 term.
The two were chosen during Monday night’s meeting at the district offices on Mississippi 13 North. Stuckey, a 1973 graduate of East Marion High School who represents District 2, has served on the board since 2002. Culliver, who represents District 1, has served since his election in 2016.
The board held one of its shortest meetings of the year, with business taking less than 25 minutes.
During the Superintendent’s Report, Superintendent Wendy Bracey highlighted the district’s big attendance push during the past few months.
“As you know, October and November are the months that our ADA (average daily attendance) is determined,” she said. “I want to say thank you to all of our principals. They’ve worked hard on attendance and had a lot of incentives to bring our students in. We’ll continue to work hard. They worked really hard to keep rates about 95 percent and that’s excellent.”
State funding for public schools is determined in part by the average daily attendance.
Bracey also reported that there were no dropouts during the month, a figure she said was “very good.”
In other action, the board approved the recommendations to employ Chatara Maxwell as a part-time literacy tutor for the Save the Children program, Sissy Wilks as child nutrition director and Kelsey Sumrall as a K-3 teacher at West Marion Primary School.
The board also approved seven school fundraisers, approved second readings of more than a dozen board policies, approved donations of reeds and instruments to the East Marion High School Band and approved athletic schedules for winter and spring.
The board also approved a three-acre 16th Section land lease to Vernell Armstrong.
