By Nathan Prewett, For the Tribune
LEEDS – The Leeds Board of Education accepted a check from the Jefferson County Commission to be used for the upcoming project to renovate and renew the alethic facilities at Leeds Middle School.
The project seeks to build a new concession stand, new ticket box, upgrade the restrooms and locker room among other changes.
Superintendent John Moore explained that help has come from outside, with funding secured namely by Rep. Susan Dubose, Sen. Dan Roberts and former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Mike Bolin now commissioner for District 5.
Moore said that the district received $1,000,500 from the Lt. Governor’s capital grant program for the field house project. The Jefferson County Commission granted $500,000.
“We’re just so excited,” said Moore. “That’s just money off the top that we don’t have to borrow and Sen. Roberts and Rep. Dubose were instrumental in helping us get those funds. Very thankful for their leadership and their help in securing funding.”
Chief Financial Officer Ryan Miller gave the report for the month of October, saying that the district received 7.49% of the general fund revenue and 6.85% of the local revenues, up 351% from this time in 2022.
Accounts payable were $784,000 and gross payroll was at $1.3 million. The month was ended with unreserved fund balance of $4.6 million.
Later in the meeting, Moore said in his comments that state report cards will be issued to schools on Thursday and spoke at length about chronic absenteeism, reporting that it has become a problem in the district after receiving a previous score of 7.8 points out of 10.
“And we do everything we know to do,” said Moore. “We use the local attorney to meet with parents. We try to find out what problems are, but chronic absenteeism – it’s a problem.”
Andrew Jackson, who is the supervisor of instructional technology, remarked that there is an issue with how the state counts students as chronically absent.
“One thing we’ve discovered after looking at the data – and this shocked me – is that the state doesn’t care why your kids were out,” he said. “So if they’ve missed 18 days – all doctors excused – it doesn’t matter, they are counted as chronically absent. So just because our local policy says you’re good with a doctor’s notes, once we’re getting to 18 no matter what, and now that they’ve taken COVID out, so if you’ve missed school there’s no way to mark a student as present like we did with COVID.”
Moore clarified that the score is “not terrible” but that the issue would still need to be addressed. Dubose added that this is a statewide problem.
A student is considered chronically absent if they’ve missed 18 days.
In other business, the board:
- Approved an agreement with Lathan Associates for the athletic facility design,
- Purchased a special needs bus for $145,000,
- Passed a preliminary resolution for the sale of school warrants, and
- Set the school calendar for 2024-2025.
The board meets every second Monday at 10 a.m. at the Leeds Board of Education Building located on 1517 Hurst Avenue.
Nathan Prewett can be reached at nthomasp6@gmail.com.