Students recognized at MPS Board of Education meeting

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A packed house of students and their families greeted the Madill Board of Education at their March 9 regular meeting as the school district recognized students of the month.

Board members present were president Mike Mathis, vice president Clay Savage, clerk Mark Glenn, Shannon Williams and Jeff Landgraf. The board members posed for photos with the various students of the month.

The Madill High School Rotary March Students of the Month were Alivia Cantrell and Rayne Adams.

The February Madill Middle School Students of the Month were Mikah Gibson, Luke Clement, Logan Rushing, Kye Salazar, Haylee Elkins and Julian Barrientos.

The February Madill Elementary School Students of the Month were Bridgette Camacho, Lorenzo Vasquez, Kaydence Garcia, Cason Sampson, Cassie Lawler, Ivan Moreno, Janelle Mancillas, and Denver Elrod.

The February Madill Early Childhood Center Students of the Month were Cora McGee, Sawyer Macon, Ivanna Quintana, and Quinton Sanders.

The group approved the consent agenda after Landgraf advised that he was absent for the Feb. 10 meeting. A motion to approve the constent agenda was made by Savage and seconded by Glenn. All members voted yes to approve the motion. The next item was a superintendent’s report by Larry Case, MPS superintendent.

Case spend some time advising the board and those remaining in attendance after the student recognition that the thing on everyone’s mind is the coronavirus, which the district is taking seriously.

“We’re encouraging everyone to wash their hands and discussing it like every workplace,” he said.

Case called on district athletic director Bink Stafford to provide an update on construction of the track areas near Blake Smiley Stadium. Case said the construction has been taking a while.

Stafford said the pole vault was moved to the east end of the field

“We’ll have field events except for pole vault on the east end,” he said.

Case said the fine arts building is getting closer to being completed.

MHS principal Jason Ward provided a principal’s report.

“Thursday we’ve got parent teacher conferences,” Ward said. “We [principals] get to play tour guide for the night.”.

MMS principal Gaylynn Pierce then gave her report.

“I can say we successfully we had our spring dance for the school,” she said. “Seventh graders will have HIV/Aids training. Parent teacher conferences on Thursday night.”

Pierce also said they are encouraging sixth graders to finish their immunizations ahead of the upcoming school year.

Then it was MES principal Kristi Birdsong’s turn

“We’re finishing our one school, one book this week,” she said. “The book fair is going on which is always popular. We also have two fifth graders being honored as students of today. Ms. Cox and I are fixing to order Chromebooks to finish off the grant. The O-Circle grant. A couple teachers at each site are going through letter training.”

Cox, the ECC principal, completed the principals’ reports.

“[Students] started their vision screenings today,” she said. “Should finish tomorrow. Several parents visited to check with teachers (ahead of parent teacher conferences.”

Cox said numerous parents of four-year olds have called the ECC about pre-enrollment for Pre-K for the 2020-2021 school year.

After a request by Case, Cox explained that the district recently switched from half-day to full-day Pre-K:

“As with anything there were growing pains,” Cox said. “We’ve seen tremendous growth in our kiddos. Historically, I don’t think we would have seen that growth. Our numbers have stayed the same. We’ve been pretty much at 80, which is capacity the whole year. I’ve not heard anything negative from parents. Only good things. A lot of tired kiddos but they’ve adjusted.”

The board approved Peggy Page as long-term substitute.

Cox said she made the request as there is a kindergarten teacher who is expecting a baby. She added that Page taught kindergarten for 30 years. Glenn made motion to approve while Williams seconded. All five members voted yes.

In the next agenda item, the board accepted a pair of resignations: Jimmy Ward and Todd Vargas.

Case said Ward is having open heart surgery at the end of the month. However, Case added that while Ward wants to return to work, he felt the need to submit his resignation just in case.

Case’s comments about Vargas were brief.

“We know what happened to Mr. Vargas,” he said.

Landgraf made a motion to accept the resignations. The motion was seconded by Glenn. All five voted yes.

The final action item was to reemploy the district’s administrators: Wanda Anderson, Birdsong, Elissa Cox, Jamea Lawson, Pierce

Stafford, Ward and Brett Weiberg.

Case praised the group of administrators.

“I ask that we reemploy the administration team,” he said.

A motion to reemploy the aforementioned administrators was made by Williams and seconded by Savage second. All five members voted yes.