The Choctaw Plaindealer

The month of June proved to be a busy one for the Choctaw County Board of Education and neither the month nor the work is quite over with yet.

The School Board's fiscal year will begin on the first of July and before the new fiscal year can begin the budget for 2006-2007 must be approved.

In an effort to prepare for the upcoming new year the Board of Education has met a total of three times during the month of June.

The first board meeting of the month covered business as usual, with the majority of the items on the agenda seeking approval pertaining to hiring or transferring teachers.

Glen Beard, Weir Attendance Center Principal requested the following personnel for the 2006-07 school year: Sharon Mitchell- Assistant Teacher, Trey Gant- Assistant Teacher, Paul Courtney-Teacher, Karla Raines-Teacher, and Patsy L. Hawkins-Teacher. Each of Beard's requests were approved by the board.

A new Head Baseball Coach will take over at Ackerman High School for the new school year, after Ronda Huffman's request to hire Brad Mitchell for the position as well as a teaching position.

Huffman also requested Sheila Cagle as a Science Teacher to replace Misty Black, and Richard Booker to replace Donna Nail as a Science Teacher.

Moving from the position of Science Teacher to Librarian, Misty Black's transfer from AHS to FCE gained approval from the board along with former football coach Steve Denson's transfer from AHS to AES as Physical Education Teacher.

The board approved Glen Blaine's, AES Principal, recommendation to hire Kasie Dean as a second grade assistant teacher.

Also approved were the recommendations made to the board by Ginger Threadgill, special education coordinator, which include: hiring Jennifer Riddell as Special Education Teacher at AHS to replace Meredith Woodard, whose resignation was approved during the meeting, hiring Robin Cumming as a Special Education Teacher at AES, hiring Sam Griffin as a Special Education Teacher at AES, and hiring Jennie Morgan as a Gifted Teacher at AES and FCE.

The second board meeting for June, which took place on Monday, June 19, brought up the topic of the 2006-2007 budget. After the call to order the board went straight into the Budget Hearing. The budget hearing precedes the approval or disapproval of the budget, which took place at the third meeting for the month on Monday, June 26.

Also on the agenda for the June 19 meeting was the approval of Choctaw County School Handbook changes. The majority of the changes made to the handbook were made in order to clarify statements or rather make it more reader friendly. However, there were a few modifications made to the dress code section of the handbook. The dress code section in its entirety, with modifications is will be published next week.

Below is the approved calendar for the upcoming school year: