Published: October 15, 2008 09:04 am      

Graduation will remain at home

POPLARVILLE — The 2008-09 Senior class has decided its graduation exercises would remain on campus.

Poplarville Special Municipal Separate School District School board president Curt Stasny told the board Monday night a survey of seniors was polled more than two to one in favor of keeping graduation exercises on-campus and using the gymnasium as the backup site.

Graduation exercises held this year saw some students and parents upset because bad weather forced moving the exercises from the campus football stadium into the gym. The move restricted the number of guests each student was allowed to have at graduation.

Stasny said following that graduation, the board agreed to give the next graduating class the option of having exercises out of town in case of bad weather because local facility options were limited.

Stasny said the initial vote on the matter was 87 for keeping graduation on campus and 43 for allowing exercises to be held out of town. Two students were neutral on the issue and 12 students were absent when the question was asked. In a follow-up vote by the absentees, Stasny said eight voted for the on-campus site and one voted for an away site, an overall vote of 95-44.

In other matters, the board:

— Approved the 2007-08 fiscal year amended budget; in a second motion approved publishing the original budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009.

— Accepted a $1,502 bid for hunting and fishing lease on 260 acres from David Earl Johnson.

— Moved to re-advertise another hunting and fishing lease because no bids were received.

— Recognized payroll clerk Vickie Tyner, who is retiring at the end of the first semester, for 23-1/2 years of service to the district.

— Voted to allow the district to advertise for audit services; acknowledged the vote defeating the recent school bond issue.

— Approved the consent agenda.

— Went into executive session on a student matter.

The next scheduled meeting date is Nov. 10.