Tuesday, the Opelika City school board allocated 20 percent of the state at-risk community service collaboration funds made available to the school district, with three organizations sharing more than $30,000 worth of grant funds.
$21,065 will go to the Opelika unit of the Boys and Girls club of Greater Lee County, Greater Peace Baptist Church will receive $6,000 and Youth for Christ-Teen Parents will receive a first-time grant of $3,000 for their support of teenage mothers
The board also voted to renew the system’s contract with James B. Leonard to provide dentistry services through the Opelika City Schools Dental Clinic; board member Katy Leonard abstained on the vote.
The board approved the resignations and retirements of nine employees system-wide, as many left to avoid changes in retirement benefits soon coming from the state.
Opelika city council president pro tem Patsy Jones took time during the meeting to announce her Nov. 1 retirement from her role as UNISERV director for District 19. Jones spoke on her 37 years of educational service and board members and Superintendent Mark Neighbors thanked her for her dedication to all children.
OHS principal Farrell Seymore and OMS principal Keith York both presented their continuous improvement plans to the board for approval during the meeting.
Seymore spoke about his transition from principal of the middle school to principal of the high school, and spoke about the successes he had seen from teacher meetings he conducted earlier in his transition to help him gauge what problems he would face.
Efforts to develop a potential early graduation system for high-functioning academic students or highly- skilled technical school applicants were mentioned as a part of the high school’s ongoing plans.
Both plans were approved unanimously by the board.