Picayune School District entered into a lease agreement with Mississippi Power Company to have lights at three sports stadiums maintained.

The cost to the district annually to have the power company maintain those lights will be $2,750 for the baseball field, $1,350 for the softball field and $2,850 for the football field.

The agreement was needed because bulbs for some of those light fixtures are becoming harder to find each year and the new agreement is expected to provide a savings on electricity costs.

Mississippi Power Company will own and conduct all maintenance on the lights. Prior to this lease agreement, Mississippi Power conducted maintenance on the baseball and football field at an annual expense to the district of $3,000, said Assistant Superintendent Walt Esslinger. District employees were conducting the maintenance on the lights at the football field.

Under this new agreement, if a bulb goes out Mississippi Power will be called out to replace it.

A motion was also approved to approve the budget for the coming fiscal year. Finance Director Lisa Persick said she asked for an additional $131,000 to help pay for new programs coming to the district, but does not expect to see an increase to tax payers since the district is already capped at 55 mills plus one mill for the GED program and assessments on property went up this year.

The Board also approved a motion for property insurance to cover the district’s estimated $75 million in assets.

Discussion about the need for ransom ware protection occurred briefly during Tuesday’s meeting. Board member David Mooneyhan said the Board needs to get as much information as possible about the potential of a ransom ware attack and how to protect the district as soon as possible. More discussion on that topic is expected to take place during the next meeting of the Board, set for July 13, at 5:30 p.m.