School Board accepts $4,693,000 bid for CHS athletic improvements

By Taylor McKay Hathorn

The Clinton Public School District’s Board of Trustees made quick work of a relatively brief agenda, beginning the meeting with an update from Mark Pipper with Bailey Project Management. Pipper told the Board that the extensive renovations at Lovett Elementary School were nearly complete, as the majority of the remaining punchlist items for the Northside Drive edifice had been finished, with the school’s safety features also passing inspection. According to Pipper, the project is expected to be closed out next month, with around $10,000 remaining in the contingency fund. Pipper also informed the Board that one of the two outstanding electrical issues at Clinton Junior High School (CJHS) had been resolved and that he expected the other to be finished soon, which would remove CJHS from the list of ongoing projects in the district.

Ryan Hanson with WBA Architects also addressed the Board, stating that his firm had evaluated the two bids received for phase one of Clinton High School’s athletic improvement project, which involves the turfing of the baseball and softball fields and the demolition and reconstruction of the currently-unusable tennis courts. The lowest of the pair of bids came from Hemphill Construction Company in Florence, Mississippi, who had entered a bid of $4,693,000 to take on the trio of needed improvements.

“We found no errors or omissions, and the contractor is in good standing,” Hanson noted. The Board voted unanimously to accept the bid, though Board President Derek Holmes remarked that he wanted to work with the contractor to ensure that the cost of construction remained stable, saying, “We always want to be conscious of spending taxpayer dollars.”
Superintendent Dr. Andy Schoggin gave his monthly update to the Board, remarking that the district was fully-staffed in advance of the first day of school on August 11, though the district was still actively seeking bus drivers.

Schoggin then brought up two new policies for discussion. The first granted the Board authority to declare a delayed start of school, should inclement weather or other unforeseen circumstances require it, though he noted that the policy would not affect the late-start procedure itself. The other policy change was handed down by the Mississippi School Boards Association, allowing provisions for virtual learning days should COVID-19 cause them to become necessary, thus ensuring that the district could still provide services to students and compensate its teachers. The Board voted 5-0 to accept both policies.

Financial Director Libby Callegan then walked the Board through a number of routine financial matters, reminding the Board that July 1 began the fiscal year for the Clinton Public School District and that software and other contract renewals would dominate the district’s recent expenditures. Callegan also provided the Board with a preliminary report on the previous year’s budget, though she noted that some entries, including some accruals, would not be finalized until October 15.

The district’s financial department had also removed former Superintendent of Education Dr. Tim Martin from a number of district bank accounts, replacing him with new Superintendent Dr. Andy Schoggin. In addition, the district saw the closures of two debt accounts, with the remaining funds in each going to remaining debt accounts within the district, which Callegan said was done to “keep all accounts current.”

Callegan also informed the Board that the district had selected a new auditor for the coming year, as the district is required to use a different auditor every fourth year. Cunningham CPA, a local accounting firm, will spearhead the audit for CPSD at a rate of $19,000, which Callegan said equated to 200 hours at $95 per hour, a rate that Callegan noted was “more than reasonable” in the current market.

Once the Board concluded the business portion of its meeting, Board President Derek Holmes asked if the audience had questions or comments. One parent addressed the Board, asking the members to reconsider its policy requiring masks within the school district, citing “false positives” among the 217 reported positive COVID-19 cases in the district during the 2020-2021 school year, though he did not cite evidence proving that such false positives existed. The parent’s remarks came on the heels of Mississippi’s highest-ever single-day totals for positive COVID infections, and Schoggin and the Board turned down the parent’s suggestion.

In his address to the parent, Schoggin noted that the district was already beginning the school year in a very different place than they had last year, as there were no reported cases of COVID among staff and students that prevented them from beginning the school year in August 2020.

“This year, that’s not the case. We’ve got teachers and students who will be out on the first day,” Schoggin said candidly, though he did conclude by saying that he was encouraged by the vaccination rates among Clinton school district staff, with the vaccinated populations (among staff) at each school ranging from 72% to 93%, well above the state average of 35%.
“We try to learn from the mistakes of others,” Schoggin said, citing the closures in Lamar County School District, where half of the district’s eighteen schools had closed after seven days of face-to-face, maskless instruction that resulted in 1,600 students and staff in quarantine.

Holmes echoed Schoggin’s remarks, saying, “We didn’t make this decision lightly. We learn best in front of a teacher in a classroom, not in front of a computer screen at home, and masking will keep kids in the classroom.”

The next meeting of the Clinton Public School District’s Board of Trustees will be held Tuesday, September 14, at 7 p.m.