The Attala County School Board approved the 2022-2023 school calendar, payment of special education professional development stipends, math coaching/development days, substitutes for the 2021-2022 school year, and out-of-state travel for employees at its recent Feb. 7 meeting.
Calendar
The 2022-2023 school year will officially begin with a board meeting on Aug. 1. Back-to-school night is set for Aug. 2, taking place at elementary schools from 3:30-5:30 p.m. and high schools from 4:00-6:00 p.m. Students’ first day of classes will begin Aug. 5. There will be 89 student days in the first semester and 91 student days in the second semester, totaling 180 school days for students.
Special education professional development payment
Teachers throughout the district who underwent special education professional development on July 23 during the 2021 summer break will each receive a $200 stipend for their training.
Math coaching/development days
Since 2019 (pre-COVID-19), overall proficiency and growth has decreased for the district in mathematics, primarily in students categorized as “level three” and “level four” who have been struggling. Superintendent Kyle Hammond said the learning loss specifically consists of student setbacks with numbers and operations. He also added that a decline in mathematics is occurring nationwide due to the pandemic. To help solve this problem and improve numbers, the district voted in favor of having Performance Based Education Company, Inc. — a company founded in 2011 by a group of educators to assist schools regardless of the accreditation rating or financial capabilities — come to ACSD for 20 days to directly work with students to improve and regain learning loss in math over the past two years. The four-week program will be funded using ESSER monies the district has received.
“We’ve got to continue progressing through our curriculum, but we've got to make sure those kids cover that and regain that learning loss so they can continue moving forward in their math curriculum,” said Hammond.
2021-2022 substitutes
Approved substitutes for the 2021-2022 school year include Owen Cross as a bus driver; Kim Dotson as a mechanic; Carol McAdams, Jocelyn Tucker, Shirley Malone, and Garrick Alston as cafeteria workers; and LaGreta Branch, T’Shanna Russell, and Traci Greer as teachers.
Out-of-state travel
Out-of-state travel was approved for MTSS coordinator Lorean Kilbert and test coordinator Selena Schuster to attend iReady curriculum training. iReady is an online curriculum aiming to help teachers provide all students a path to proficiency and growth in reading and mathematics, according to i-ready.com. Superintendent Hammond said the training will be useful for the coordinators, enabling them to further guide teachers through the program to assist students more efficiently.
