During the Pearl River County School Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, the Board discussed conflicting policies it has and added a new topic to its agenda; discussing the AdvancED external audit review the district will be participating toward the end of October.

AdvancED is one of the largest communities of education professionals in the world that conduct rigorous, on-site external reviews of school systems to ensure they are performing at their full potential, according to AdvancED’s website.

The external review is “one of the most powerful aspects of accreditation,” the website states. The accreditation performance protocol is a combination of internal and external assessments. Once the district conducts its internal assessment, an external review team will arrive on campus on Oct. 31 to conduct interviews with Board members and also review survey data from students and staff to get an understanding of the positive attributes of the schools district as well as suggestions to improve the quality of learning for students.

An exit report from the review will be held in a Board meeting on Nov. 2 at 4:15 p.m.

The Board also discussed conflicting PRCSD Board policies in reference to the release of the agenda prior to the meeting.

In the code BCBD policy, it states that the Board is required to release the agenda five days prior to the Board meeting. However, in another written policy it states that the Board must release the agenda 72-hours before the meeting. The Mississippi School Boards Association suggested that the Board release the agenda 72 hours prior to its meetings, in which Superintendent Alan Lumpkin and present Board members agreed upon.

“Turning in the agenda a whole business week before the meeting doesn’t make too much sense to me,” Lumpkin said. “There will probably be more additions requested to go on the agenda in a week rather than 72 hours so we would have a more accurate agenda.”