By John Howell
The South Panola School District is completing two new schools buildings, a $500,000 technology upgrade, renovations inside the Batesville Jr. High building, new exterior lighting at the junior high building and placed six new Chromebooks with ancillary equipment in every elementary classroom.
“All of this has been going on this summer, so we’ve been busy,” Superintendent Tim Wilder told school trustees Tuesday evening at their regular July meeting.
 Wilder said that he had no timetable for the completion of the Batesville Elementary School kindergarten wing under construction to replace the wing destroyed by fire July 10-11, 2015, nor for the new ninth grade building at South Panola High School. “It’s (the ninth grade building) is a little further along as you can tell,” Wilder said.
“Have they gotten to the point that where it costs them money?” one trustee asked, referring to scheduled penalty clauses in the construction contract.
“It’s July 20th,” Wilder said, for the BES kindergarten wing.
The superintendent said that a “substantial completion” meeting was scheduled with contractors Monday, July 25. “I should be able to let you know something definite Monday afternoon,” he said. “There’s no concrete thought on when they’ll move into the elementary.”
The district was hit with last-minute resignations of six certified teachers and six other staff members, Wilder said.
“It’s put us in a bind, just to be honest with you,” he said. “More than likely there will be some teachers hired for the first of August that you will approve at the middle of August,” he told the trustees. “I have 30 days, right Ryan?” Wilder added, directing the question to school board attorney Ryan Revere who agreed that the superintendent has the 30-day leeway.
Trustees unanimously approved Wilder’s recommendation to hire four new teachers and four other new staff members.
During an interview following Tuesday’s meeting, the superintendant said that he will receive student results on standardized testing for the 2015-2016 school year by August 26, allowing principals and teachers to implement plans to build on areas where testing showed improvements and to improve where student performance is shown to have been deficient.
During the July 11 school board meeting, Wilder said that district and school grades on the 2014-2015 Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) test had just become available. (Those scores can be viewed above.)
The long delay between the school year in which students were tested and the release of the PARCC scores compromised school officials’ abilities to adjust teaching emphasis the following (2015-2016) school year, according to the superintendent. The PARCC assessment program was dropped by the Mississippi Department of Education after one year of testing.
In other business:
• trustees voted unanimously to approve a request from Larry Montgomery for a water line easement across school property to Montgomery’s property;
• Approved $6,569 in travel expenses for eight teachers and school employees to attend professional development conferences, one in Raymond, three in Biloxi, on four separate dates from September to December;
• Approved fund-raising projects submitted by the Career and Technical Education Center and FCCLA;
• Approved changes in district employment policy for compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act;
• Approved purchases from single source providers of first grade science materials and English instruction material for Batesville Intermediate School.