During Monday’s Poplarville School Board of Trustees meeting, the Board approved a tutoring program.

The Board approved to contract with MDE+Paper, an online tutoring program that will be offered to nearly all students in the Poplarville School District. Through the Paper and Mississippi Department of Education partnership, students in grades 3 through 12 will have free access to a 24/7 online tutoring. The service will be available across the state of Mississippi.

In other business, Superintendent John Will provided the Board with results from the 2021-22 course testing. Compared to pre-COVID results from 2019 to now, Poplarville High School has seen an increase in reading, math and U.S history proficiency, with equal proficiency in biology. PHS has also kept a 90 percent graduation rate.

“Really grateful for your support and the work of our staff and students,” said Will.

Will also asked for input about the 2022-23 school year theme, and said he is looking for wording that that will clarify the district’s purpose.

“What’s one word that will sum up what we would want for our students and our staff for PSD, and the one word that came to my mind was the word thrive.”

The theme for the 2022-23 school year will be “Thrive” meaning to grow and prosper. Will said the theme aligns with what the staff and Board desires for everyone who attends the district.

“We want our students to grow academically, we also want our staff to prosper as professionals, the better we do at that and developing them as people and as instructors, the more success our students will have in return,” said Will.

In other business the Board approved its claims docket in the amount of $350,202.