The Tishomingo County School District held its annual budget meeting on Thursday, July 18, followed by their July monthly meeting.

Before a packed board room that spilled into the lobby and hallway, Board President, Jeff Daniel, called the annual budget meeting to order.

Daniel’s stated in his 12 years of serving on the board this meeting had the largest crowd he has witnessed.

There were approximately 50 attendees including the school board and district personnel. The principals and assistant principals from each school were also in attendance.

Melanie Robinson, Finance Director, presented the projected budget for 2024-2025 school year. She explained all of the numbers, including projected numbers, and showed the formula to project what would be needed.

By using this formula, it can help the district from going into escrow and keep them operating as close to the cost needed.

Robinson concluded the district would not need to ask the Tishomingo County Board of Supervisors to increase their budget which could have caused the ad valorem tax to increase for county residents. Robinson stated she had Peyton Cummings, Chancery Clerk, work the formula, also. He came up with the same number.

Robinson informed those in attendance, the ESSER 1 & 2 funds will not be renewed. Those funds must be depleted at the end of Fiscal Year 24, September 30. The kindergarten assistants, interventionists, and nurses were paid out of these funds. The district made the choice to keep those positions and pay them, rather than eliminating them.

Robinson ended her presentation of the budget.

Fifth District Board Member, Stacy Stepp asked about EEF cards. The EEF cards are funds provided by the Mississippi Department of Education. They are preloaded cards with a spending limit, provided to all certified teaching positions for supplies for the classroom.

Stepp questioned why it takes so long for these cards to get into the hands of the teachers since they are already purchasing items for their room.

MDE distributes these cards to the district, Robinson then has to attach each card to an agreement for the teacher to

sign informing them of the guidelines.

The district has no control over getting these funds any earlier.

The funds are available from July 31, 2024 to March 31, 2025.

The amount per teacher is the same but varies year to year. If the funds are not used by a teacher the remaining balance goes back into the budget for next year. This contributes to the varying balance given year to year.

This year the teachers will receive $740. This money is to be used to purchase authorized commodities for official school purchase only, such as, “classroom supplies, instructional materials and equipment, including computers and computer software and online education subscriptions (must be included in lesson plan).” The list of items to be purchased is also set by MDE.

Stepp then questioned the amount of school breakfast and lunch per student this past school year compared to what it will be for the 2024-25 school year. School lunches will be increasing by $0.25. The full price for a student lunch was $2.75, increasing to $3; breakfast was 1.50, increasing to $1.75.

Stepp questioned what it would take for TCSD to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students in the county.

Tishomingo County needs to meet 25% of Snap benefits for free and reduced lunch.

TCSD is currently at 17% therefore, the district does not meet the threshold.

The increase on groceries impacts the school as much as the individual home.

Mary Beth Sheffield, Food Service Director, compared TCSD food prices to area school districts. Booneville City School, Marshall County Schools, Alcorn County Schools, and Corinth City Schools all have higher breakfast and lunch costs per student than our district.

According to the budget packet:

“Teacher’s & Assistant Teacher’s Salaries & Benefits: Teacher’s and assistant teacher’s salaries and benefits account for more than 72% of the district’s payroll budget.

Maintenance and Operations: Maintenance and operations have the responsibility of lighting, heating, repairing, maintaining and cleaning more than 96 buildings occupying estimated 620,00 square feet. There are custodians, maintenance technicians, and cost of the supplies and equipment they use.

Transportation: The TCSD buses travel over 465,000 miles in a regular school year with 46 bus routes.

Debt Service: Just as most homeowners have a mortgage payment, the district must pay for the 3-mill bond issued in FY17, which financed buses/buildings. This note will be paid off in July 2026, then new fleet of buses are anticipated to be purchased.

Food Service: This deals with activities concerned with providing meals to students and staff in a school. This service includes preparing and serving regular and incidental meals (breakfasts/lunches). For SY2024, TCSD served 143,590 breakfasts and 314,161 lunches. TCSD encourages all families to complete a meal benefit application. Parents/students that qualify may receive additional benefits such as reduced registration fee for the ACT and SAT tests, waived or discounted rate/fees associated with applying for college (at select schools), etc. The School Food Service (Child Nutrition) is funded solely on the number of reimbursable meals served (breakfast/lunch) for the school year."

Teachers and Assistants salaries are funded through Mississippi Student Funding Formula (MSFF) by the State, Director positions are paid through Federal Funds. All district employees are funded through the county maintenance budget.

The district does not set a teacher or teacher assistant salary, rather these are set by MDE. The only increase for teachers and assistants, when legislature does not pass a pay increase, is for the district to provide a supplement. The district increased the supplement to teachers and assistants from $800 to $1000 last year.

The increase by the district must be weighed and considered cautiously. Once a supplement is increased, it cannot be decreased without state legislation.

The school district does not have the authority to raise taxes. They set their projected budget, then based on this amount, the district requests the Board of Supervisors for an increase in the milage. The Board of Supervisors has the authority to deny the district’s request. According to this year’s numbers, ad valorem taxes will not increase based on projections.

As the budget packet states, “It takes many more people besides teachers to make a school run smoothly. TCSD has approximately 467 full-time employees.”

TCSD Employee Numbers: 252 Teachers, 51 Instructional Aids, 24 Administration Staff. 7 Nurses, 1 Superintendent, 16 School Support Specialists, 4 Technology Staff, 21 Clerical, 33 Food Service Workers, 8 SROs, 25 Maintenance Workers/Custodians, and 25 Bus Drivers.

TCSD operates on $39,304,926.95. This total amount is broken down into percentages for expenditures: Instructional is 52.09%, Extra-Curricular Student Activities is 3.26%, Support Services is 10.91%, District Level Administration is 2.46%, School Level Administration is 3.90%, Building Operations and Maintenance is 11.13%, Student Transportation is 4.47%, Food Service is 5.82%, Non-instructional is 0.48%, Technology is 3.04%, Facilities and Construction is 0.77%, and Debt is 1.68%.

The district funding is 55% from the State, 25% from local taxes, 15% Federal, and 5% other.

An attendee asked if the fire alarm system is up to code. Superintendent Holly said Iuka Elementary School fire system was checked, issues were found, and everything is now code compliant.

The district is beginning work at Iuka Middle School and it should be completed soon.

The fire code has not been updated since Malcom Kuykendall was Superintendent.

Each city has its own fire code, and Iuka just recently adopted a new fire code.

The City of Iuka code was used to check IES and IMS. The district is now going through each school making it code compliant using this code.

All the fire extinguishers have been brought up to code including the ones on the buses.

The annual budget meeting was adjourned.

TCSD July Monthly Board Meeting

The regular monthly board meeting was called to order by 4th District Board President Daniels.

The following resignations were accepted: Nancy Archie as Belmont Custodian, effective July 25, 2024; Emily Schallock as Belmont Drama Sponsor for the 2024-25 school year; Candy Norvell as the TCSD Assistant Finance Director/Payroll Clerk for the 2024-25 school year; and Taylor Williams as Burnsville Assistant Principal for the 2024-25 school year.

The following personnel were approved for the 2024-25 school year: Lydia Lambert as a substitute teacher; Melanie Johnson as a substitute SPED bus monitor; Chloe Johnson as a substitute teacher; Betsy “Ann” Elrod as a substitute teacher; Joshua Brown as Collision Repair Instructor at TCCTC; Dana Bittel as kindergarten assistant at IES; Elizabeth Durham as school nurse at Burnsville; Afton Kelly as Belmont School nurse; Beth Wright and Serah Mullins as Burnsville After-School Program teachers; Brian Middleton as Assistant Athletic Director for TCHS; Kayla Wilson, Kristen Ledbetter, Beth Bray, Hannah Henley, and Amelia Rorie as Tishomingo Elementary After-School Program teachers; Rayleigh Guin as a substitute teacher; Zach Glover as TCHS Assistant Principal/Athletic Director; Kim McAfee as TCHS In-School Detention assistant; Charlotte Southward as TCHS Assistant Fast-Pitch Coach; Levi McDonald as a Network Technician; Carrie Johnson as a kindergarten assistant at Burnsville School; Amy Glover as Burnsville Assistant Principal; Kayley Smith as a Substitute Teacher; Chad Woodruff as the 7th/8th grade Social Studies teacher and Assistant Baseball Coach at Burnsville School; Jeneen Brooks as assistant Finance Director/Payroll; Jason Knecht as Custodian at Belmont School; and the following individuals as ATSI ELA and Math tutors for Burnsville School and IMS: Holly Garner, Burnsville; Keterah Hudson, Burnsville; Macie Walker, IMS; and Aiden Cutshall, IMS.

Most items were approved on the agenda without discussion, but there were specific topics separated to discuss in detail.

The TCSD approved all schools to sell PepsiCo products for profit from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. This contract includes all Booster Clubs across the district are bound to sell only Pepsi products.

Jarod Grimes was approved as a volunteer for the Belmont Volleyball team for the 2024-25 school year.

There were multiple approvals for various items without discussion, but are needed to operate successfully.

The Board approved the TCSD contract with Jack Ivy Broadcasting after some discussion brought forth by Stacy Stepp.

The contract is for Jack Ivy Broadcasting to pay the school district $4,000 to livestream the high school athletic events. The Broadcasting sells advertisements to community businesses for his personal business; therefore, this hinders the school district from sponsorships from businesses. The livestream has also made a significant impact on gate sales due to people not attending events. Stepp wanted the district to allow Ivy to broadcast for free. No motion was made to change the contract.

Stepp requested to allow Jack Ivy Broadcasting to livestream the Belmont/Tishomingo County Volleyball match when played at TCHS. Ivy does not livestream TCHS volleyball matches.

TCHS has a PR class, these students’ video, commentate, and produce the livestream of home ballgames on the school website. Stepp argued that grandparents from Belmont are unable to find those games when Ivy is not allowed to broadcast. This passed allowing Jack Ivy to broadcast the matches along with the TCHS PR class.

Next on the agenda was the district cell phone policy. This was split into two separate discussions, students and teachers.

After a lengthy discussion among board members the new policy was adopted.

Students are required to keep their cellphones and smartwatches in their backpack from the time they arrive on campus until the end of the school day.

They are not to have them at break, lunch, or any other time throughout the day.

The following is the list of punishments taken from the new policy for each time the rule is broken: 1st Offense–the device is taken and turned in to the office for the student to retrieve at the end of the day; 2nd Offense–the device is taken and must be retrieved by a parent/guardian or a designee (only due to work constraints); 3rd Offense–the device is taken and must be retrieved by a parent/guardian or designee; 2 days of In-School Detention, and no personal devices allowed at school for the remainder of the semester; 4th Offense–the device is taken and must be retrieved by a parent/guardian or designee, 5 days of ISD, and no personal device is allowed at school for the remainder of the semester; 5th Offense–the device is taken and must be retrieved by a parent/guardian or designee, 3 days of Out-of-School suspension, Alternative School for 15 days, and no personal device allowed for the remainder of the school year; 6th Offense and Beyond–the device is taken and must be retrieved by a parent/guardian or designee, administration will consider additional days to be assigned for Alternative School placement and other discipline options as necessary, and no personal device for the remainder of the school year.

It is included in the policy that the school staff is not responsible for damage or lost/stolen personal devices once they have been taken from the student.

A provision was made for students who need access to their cellphone for medical reasons, such as blood sugar monitoring for diabetics, etc.

The new District policy on cellphones was initiated and drafted by the school board careful consideration and a review of data and the negative effects cellphones have on children.

Policy was addressed but no changes were made for teacher cellphone/smartwatches. This is to be monitored and addressed by administration at each campus.

Transfer of out-of-state students was an issue brought before the board previously.

After lengthy research, contact by the District to MHSAA, MDE, and the Attorney General's Office.

MDE stated TCSD cannot have a student attend school if they reside out-of-state.

The Attorney General's Office issued on Official Opinion on the matter. "With limited exceptions, 'no minor child may enroll in or attend any school except in the school district of his residence' unless he or she lawfully transfers to another school district in accordance with Miss law. Miss Code Ann 37-15-29. Section Miss. Code Ann. Section 37-15-9(2) merely allows a student who moves to MS from out of state to enroll in a MS public school at the same grade level as his or her prior out-of-state enrollment if certain conditions are met. It does not allow an out-of-state student to transfer to a MS public school district while remaining an out-of-state resident."

The only exception to the rule is if a licensed district employee resides out-of-state, their child can attend school in the district they teach.

There are currently 27 students affected by this decision in multiple schools and grades across the district including an upcoming Senior.

It costs the district approximately $10,000 of state and local money (excludes Federal money) to educate one student for one school year. To educate these 27 out-of-state students it costs the district $270,000 a year. This number changes from year to year.

The state specifically told Board Attorney Nate Clark, "you can't educate out-of-state students and you shouldn't grandfather them in."

The AG's office has the authority to require the board members to pay back the costs to educate out-of-state students.

Clark stated the district is audited every year.

Itawamba and Alcorn county do not currently have out-of-state students enrolled.

Now that the AG's office has issued an official opinion on the matter, legislature would have to change the state's constitution.

Second District Board member, Jessica Seaton said she attended a conference and learned the State has the authority to put a lien on a her house in a situation such as this, if the board member votes yes against state law. She then stated if she recused herself from the vote it would protect her. She like other board members were burdened with the possibility of making students transfer schools from the only school they have ever attended.

Seaton recused herself from voting and any further discussion on the matter.

If the Board chose not to take any action at all, law supersedes any board policy and the students would not be allowed to attend school unless they resided in the district. Families will be notified.

Next regular meeting is August 15.