Monday, the Poplarville School Board approved the purchase of a new school bus for handicapped students, budgets for Individuals with Disabilities Act and preschool and a summary of requests for ad valorem taxes.
Director of Finance Samantha Sandifer said the district’s current transportation for handicapped students has about 200,000 miles on it.
The board approved the purchase of a replacement for $82,200.
The 2015-2016 budgets for IDEA Part B is $407,000 and the preschool budget is $14,147, Sandifer said. These are federal funds, which are used for special education.
This year, the district requested no more than 57 mills in ad valorem taxes from the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors, Sandifer said. The operational request is $4,700 and three mills for debt service payments.

In other action:
–– The board approved the teacher and principal evaluation system, which is basically a system of checks and balances, Superintendent Carl Merritt said.
–– Wednesday, students returned to school. Merritt said it was a good week and enrollment numbers are up.
“As of Wednesday, there were 1,919 children enrolled,” Merritt said. “We are anticipating more and this year’s kindergarten class is larger.”
Merritt said district teachers, principals and administrators are prepared for another great school year and looking forward to the challenges.
“We have informed all our teachers of the heat advisory and ensured our students have access to water, even on the buses,” Merritt said. “We will also be setting an agenda for the year as well as expectations.”
The next Poplarville School Board meeting will be held September 14 at 6 p.m. in the boardroom on Julia Street.