Bids sought to purchase computers for FC students

by Sean Dunlap

The Franklin County School District voted unanimously on Tuesday, March 21 to upgrade traditional outdoor lighting to cost-efficient LED illumination on its elementary campus on U.S. Highway 98.

“In the past, we got with Entergy Mississippi and updated lighting in the high school’s parking lot areas – and if you saw the before and after in making those changes, this really lit things up,” Kent said. “As far as I’m concerned, this was a step in the right direction in terms of making better lighting available at night.

“Our goal now is to do the same thing on the elementary school campus with new exterior lights. The plan is to replace a number of poles and add lights where we presently don’t have them, which will be good from an overall security standpoint and will be beneficial when we have programs in the evening.”

Kent characterized the monthly maintenance fee change for the lighting upgrade as minimal, but noted the district would benefit from lower energy costs when it comes to new LED lighting versus the old mercury vapor lights that consume a lot of electricity.

Two local towns have also converted some of their outdoor street fixtures to LED lighting — with Meadville improving illumination along Main Street between Union Church and McNair roads and Bude doing so on its Main Street between Mississippi Highway 184 and Railroad Avenue.

In other business, the school board voted by a 5-0 margin to amend its spending plan for federal ESSER II pre-kindergarten funding and to seek a new round of school improvement grant funding for Franklin County Upper Elementary School.

In the FCSD’s initial budget for ESSER II expenses, the system had planned to use some of the funds for tutors, fringe benefits, equipment, supplies, professional development and indirect costs, according to Business Manager Tremel Young.

“With ESSER II ending soon, we are working to expend those funds as quickly as possible while benefitting the district and its students,” Young said. “Anything we have not already spent would be amended to help cover the salaries and fringe benefits to offset some of our pre-kindergarten teacher expenses.”

Young went on to say the state’s educational leadership has approved Franklin County’s proposed amendment to the second round of ESSER — an acronym for the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief — funding. She asked the school board to amend the district’s budget to match the state’s approved alterations for the funds.

In regards to the FCUE improvement grant, Kent and Young said the district will seek $47,613 through the program, which has been used in the past for interventionists, teacher assistants and other initiatives to assist students on the academic front.

Kent asked the board to approve seeking the grant money for FCUE and to add it to the district’s budget should the funds be approved in the near future.

In another major move involving finances, the school board approved the advertisement for bids to allow the district to purchase up to 900 Chromebooks as a means of continuing efforts to keep student technology moving forward.

“As part of our ESSER funding, we set aside money to purchase Chromebooks,” Kent told the panel. “The Chromebooks we have now are still hanging pretty good as we’re in our third year with them, and our hope was that they would last four to five years.

“But, as we’ve already discussed, ESSER funds are running out and we’re ready to purchase a new round of computers. We might not have them for August, but we still have sufficient numbers of Chromebooks to get by until the new ones arrive.”

Kent said he had spoken with district principals and there was no desire to waste the federal coronavirus funding — particularly in trying to determine who needs the computers the most.

“The lower elementary told us that they are fine so the focus will be on replacing Chromebooks at the upper elementary, middle and high schools,” he continued. “Those computers we have out there now that are still good and usable will be used at the lower elementary to replace any they might have that are not working.

“The lower elementary just doesn’t use the computers as much as the other campuses, so this means they will have stand-bys that can be put into place as needed. The new proposal where we would get 900 Chromebooks will have the maintenance warranty with them — similar to what we did the first time in buying computers for students.”

Kent said the purchase will have to be conducted in line with Mississippi bid laws, and there will likely be a little ESSER money left over from buying the computers. That will require the board to authorize a budget amendment for any ESSER funds not spent on the computers in a soon-to-be held meeting as those federal dollars must be obligated locally by Sept. 30.

“Our goal is not to buy Chromebooks just to buy Chromebooks,” he continued. “But we also want to stay on top of our technology needs while we have the funds available to do so and make sure we don’t fall behind.”

Kent said he was only asking the board to authorize the advertisement for bids related to the computers, and the panel voted unanimously to allow Kent to begin the process.

In other action, the Franklin County Board of Education considered the following pieces of business during the group’s March meeting:

• The panel unanimously approved the school district’s fiscal year 2022 audit report. Kent said he had received a letter from the state auditor’s office, and noted no financial irregularities had been reported in the mandated review.

“That good news is attributed to (FCSD Business Manager Tremel) Young and her staff, who do an outstanding job in making sure our books are in order,” Kent went on to say. “Their work does not go unnoticed by myself and this board.”

State officials will soon mail to each board member a copy of the final audit report that was conducted earlier this calendar year.

• In a separate piece of business, Young reported the district maintenance statement of fund balance as of Feb. 28 stood at $1,115,366.47 with 58 percent of the current school year completed.

Additionally, Young said the district maintenance cash flow report at the end of the previous month was calculated at $2,540,790.20.

She also noted the school district had taken in 57 percent of its anticipated revenues for the current budget cycle while 55 percent of expected expenses have been made as of the end of February.

• Considered a bid from Good Hope Timber Co., related to the pay-as-you-go thinning of a timber tract on 200 acres in Section 16, Township 6 North and Range 1 East. Good Hope’s winning bid was for pine pulp ($1.05); pine chips ($11.05); pine saw logs ($17.05); and hardwood pulpwood ($1).

No bids were received for a proposed thinning of 113 acres on Section 16, Township 6 North and Range 5 East.

The next meeting for the school board is set for 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 18 in the school district’s central offices on First Street in downtown Meadville.



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