New officers for MPSD board, stadium upgrades
Mar. 27—The Meridian school board approved new officers during its regular monthly meeting on Monday, while also taking action to get planned upgrades at Ray Stadium kicked off so they will be finished in time for football season in the fall.
During the Meridian Public School District Board of Trustees' regular monthly meeting on Monday, Beverly Pennington was elected by fellow board members to serve as president. Pennington, a retired school administrator with the district, had been serving as the board's vice president. Ron Turner Sr. was elected to serve as vice president, and Gwendolyn Hardaway was named board secretary.
Also at the meeting, several community residents were honored as Parents of the Year for their dedication and support of their children's respective schools.
Adrian Cross-Phillips, the district's parent and community engagement specialist, recognized the parents and lauded their work to make city schools better for all of the students in attendance.
Named Parents of the Year were Shatagia Bell, representing Carver Elementary; Leigh Ann Lewis, of Crestwood Elementary; Yolanda Rush, of Parkview Elementary; Nancy Walton, of Poplar Springs Elementary; Dorothy Richards, of West Hills Elementary; Lavise Brewster of Magnolia Middle; Veronica Lake, of Northwest Middle; and Victoria Liddell, of Meridian High School.
The district and school board presented the Meridian First Ladies Civitan Club with a Community Partner Certificate at the meeting. School board member Kim Houston, a member of the club, said the organization had asked the district's Exceptional Education Department what it could do to assist with meeting students' needs, and the department requested they partner in presenting an upcoming Sneaker Ball for the students.
"They wanted us to be a part of that," Houston said in presenting a donation from the club. "So, tonight we have a presentation from our club. We would like to present you all with $1,000 to sponsor that event."
In action taken by the school board, upgrades to Meridian High's Ray Stadium should begin soon, the district's Director of Operations Clay Sims, told board members as they approved a contract with Mitchell Signs to install a new state-of-the-art, LED scoreboard with a giant video board. The scoreboard will be similar to those found at other 7A school campuses in the state.
The board had accepted Mitchell's low bid of $536,500 at a meeting earlier this year, but a contract had not been approved. The project is being funded through district monies.
Turner asked if the new scoreboard would be ready for the upcoming football season, and Sims reassured him that the project should be completed over the summer.
"This is year number eight for me, and we have been working on this eight years," Superintendent Amy Carter said of the district finally being able to fund a new video scoreboard. "It is a long time coming, and the one out there won't last much longer."
In other action taken for Ray Stadium, the school board approved the architect's recommendation for a project to replace the artificial turf on the football field.
"The turf currently on the football field outside is eight-plus years old. It is just at the end of its life," Sims said.
He said the district received four competitive bids for the project.
"The low bid was Act Global. Their price to remove the existing turf and install the new turf was $350,213," he said. "They offered an upgrade to a higher level turf as well as a 10-year warranty instead of a standard 8-year warranty. Again, they offered that for free," Sims said.
The board voted to accept the bid to replace the turf with the district financially responsible for the annual upkeep of the surface.
Sims said the project will begin immediately after Meridian High's graduation in May so the field will be ready for football season.
In another action, the board accepted the low bid of $388,000 from McLain Plumbing & Electrical Service Inc. to replace the cooling tower for the HVAC system at Carver Elementary School. The project is being funded by federal pandemic relief funds.
"That is a water cool system, and the cooling tower currently is in a bad location and it is worn out. So, we accepted bids to replace that cooling tower with an unused one that we have on the campus here at Meridian High," Sims said. "That realized a possibility of savings to the district."
Contact Glenda Sanders at gsanders@themeridianstar.com.
