In a regular meeting on June 16, the Madison Parish School Board reviewed its ongoing financial situation and other regular business.
The evening opened with Freddie "Birdman" Carter presenting Superintendent Charlie Butler with a custom birdhouse, saying "I believe that everybody should get their roses."
Xiamora Bell gave a presentation on the Federally-Mandated School Health Advisory Council, saying that the first phase of their current project was to identify bad foods. "Junk food equals brain fog," Bell said. "We are now on phase two, data collection." "In education, data is important and we all know that often times our kids got a headache or they're missing school, so these things impact the way we receive information, so we want to make sure that we have the proper policies and the proper implementation in order to move our district forward," Bell continued.
The board then, with all members present, voted unanimously to approve payment for their current set of bills.
The board voted 7-1 to approve meeting minutes from May 15 and 19, as well as June 5. Paula Hamilton voted no, while Jeff Wilson, Shelly Crawford, Eddie Fountain, Kathy Gultery, Willie Patterson, Lisa Johnson, and Marguerite Hargrove voted yes.
Madison High School Principal Perry Revels gave a presentation on district accomplishments from the Louisiana Department of Education Coherence Cohort Strengths and Needs Report.
According to the report, Intellectual Preparation and Cognitive Engagement in the district improved 54% and 24% respectively. The school district saw an 80% increase in Mastery+ on LEAP 2025 testing, which is an average growth of 3.8%.
"Our Madison Cohort schools improved their percentage of K-3 students at or above benchmark by 30.7% this year, which places us in the TOP 3 school systems across the state for K-3 growth in DIBELS," Revels said.
When board member Hamilton asked what was being done for advanced students, Revels said "We want to make sure that our students are able to compete collegiately locally, nationally and globally," and finished by saying there is work being done to institute advanced classes as well as dual enrollment courses.
The board unanimously approved upcoming regular board meeting dates, keeping their current timing.
Board president Fountain asked that each board member take time in the upcoming school year to visit schools and classrooms. "It's in our duty that board members need to know what's going on in the school system and I don't think [any] principal would mind that," Fountain said.
A resolution was brought forward by the board attorney that would require increased approval to access the bank account or CDs. It would mandate that the superintendent and either the board president or vice president sign to approve it. The resolution passed unanimously.
Georgette Stewart gave an update on the consolidation of Tallulah Elementary into Wright Elementary. She explained that the Title One department would be moving to the Tallulah Elementary building, classrooms would be moved to Wright Elementary along with cafeteria equipment. Stewart informed the board that the move should be complete around July 10.
It was then announced by Superintendent Butler that Kimberly Pittman was chosen to be the principal of Wright Elementary. Butler said "The law says the choice is to 'be based solely upon demand, performance, and effectiveness, as determined by the performance evaluating program.'" This means the decision was made based on performance scores and not from any personal bias. "It's not Dr. Butler, it's not the board, the law says the principal that has the highest rating or effectiveness is chosen for that for that position, and it also goes with all the other staff," said Fountain.
The last item on the agenda concerned the districts financials and position eliminations.
Tim Green, of the Monroe auditing firm Alan, Green, & Williamson, LLP, said that there are "quite a few employees that will need to be reduced." This concerns the over two dozen ESSER employees that were hired during the COVID-19 pandemic. "35 will receive a termination letter," he said, also mentioning that they are looking at cutting $800,000 in expenses.
He explained how his team is working on getting grant reimbursements that the district had fallen behind on. It was said that, for some of the reimbursements, it is too late.
Board member Hargrave asked if the money moved from the child nutrition fund would be replaced by a given deadline of June 30. Green said his team is doing what they can while also ensuring district employees are paid at the end of the month.
Fountain concluded the meeting announcing that individual committees should be meeting regularly, with only the finance committee holding a recent meetings.
