Published: May 14, 2008 02:48 pm         

Picayune school board hears from neighborhood watch on truancy

PICAYUNE — Pearl River County Neighborhood Watch Members former school board member Reese Moody and Eugene Craddock addressed the Picayune school board last night about children who appear to be truants.

Moody told the board that the watch group wants to help the Picayune Municipal Separate School District deal with an apparent problem of children not being in school.

Craddock said that he sees children that he believes should be in school wandering the streets and roads of Pearl River County every day.

Asked on average how many children he sees on a daily basis, he said, “... two to 20? It depends, I don’t have an average I can give you.”

He and Moody said they were concerned that the school district has little control over truancy officers and that there are not enough truancy officers in the county.

Craddock also is concerned about “home-schooled students.” He said he believes that all of the children who are signed up as students who are being taught at home instead attending school, as allowed under Mississippi state law, are not actually being receiving any real education. Some, he believes, are just out of school, running around loose with little or no supervision and no schooling and often turning to crime as a means of support. He pointed out that there is no testing procedure in Mississippi to ensure children who are supposed to be being home schooled are being taught anything.

After school board members pointed out that their hands are tied in many respects by state law in regards to home schooling and the truancy officers, Craddock said his group is prepared to try to help get state law changed.

Craddock and Moody said that they hope to have members of the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors and the sheriff’s department at the board’s next meeting to address some of the problems. The two men, and their group, many of whom were present at the board meeting, want to have control of the truancy officers moved from the board of supervisors to the school board or the sheriff’s department where they believe that control would be more effective. The group also wants to get the sheriff’s department more active in truancy law enforcement.

The school board also recognized four students from Nicholson Elementary School who placed in the regional science fair; South Side Upper Elementary School teacher Kristen Wheat who won the Leo Seal Award this year, and the Picayune Memorial High School basketball team, which advanced to the Division 4A state championship game only to lose to New Hope in overtime.

The four students recognized for their science fair achievements were Wylie Fredrick, 1st place in chemistry; Jaden Hendrix, 2nd in zoology; Walker Hendrix, 3rd in microbiology, and Brittany Bigott, 6th in mathematics.

Of the seven graduating seniors on the Tide basketball team, five have signed college scholarships, and a sixth, Ben Daley, Division 4A scholar-athlete, turned down two scholarship offers.

The school board also approved summer school for junior high and high school students needing to retake courses they didn’t pass during the regular school year. Registration is 8 a.m.-12 noon Tuesday, May 27 and Wednesday, May 28. Tuition is $200 for one class and $300 for two classes. The summer school begins Monday, June 2 and concludes Friday, June 20. Hours are 8 a.m.-12 noon. Students will be removed without a refund if they have more than one tardy, are absent more than one day or have more than one discipline referral.

Among other matters, the board:

— Approved donations from Wheat’s Roofing, Inc.; Roseland Park PTO; Troy Foster of The Loft & Market Place; Mississippi Power Education Foundation, Inc., and Keesler Federal Credit Union.

— Accepted a grant award of $218.68 for Roseland Park Elementary teacher Marsha Moore.

— Announced a retirement reception for six district employees 3:30-4:30 p.m. tomorrow at Crosby Memorial Library reception room.

— Approved several requests to use district facilities or equipment.

— Approved constructing a fence at Nicholson Elementary at a cost of $10,920.

— Approved the first reading of several policy revisions.

— Approved the security services agreement with the Picayune Police Dept., the behavior modification, alternative school and vocational school agreements, and the swim team schedule.

— Went into executive session on student discipline and personnel matters.

Adjourned.