PRC School Board recognizes Reading Fair winners; hears of joint teacher program
Student Representative Doc Herrin
During Monday's meeting of the Pearl River County School District Board of Trustees, Student Representative Doc Herrin introduced winners of the recent reading fair at the PRC Middle School. Herrin introduced non-fiction winner Olivia Broome, a 8th grader, who did her project on "Who was Mark Twain?" and fiction winner Olivia Carroll, a 6th grader, who did her project on a concept entitled "The Westing Game".
Olivia Broome
Olivia Carroll
Herrin also gave the Board an update on the many activities in motion inside the school district with this week's homecoming games on Thursday (Jr. High) and Friday (High School) as the highlights. Herrin asked the board to consider bringing back a tee-shirt and jean day that was in place in the past. He also reported to the board about the need to repaint lines in the senior parking lot to have them face in a different which would allow students to park in an easier manner by coming into the spaces in a more circular motion instead of the current two way traffic pattern that creates problems each morning as students arrive.
Pearl River County School Superintendent Alan Lumpkin provided the board a preview of a joint partnership program that is in the works between the Pearl River Community College (PRCC), William Carey University (WCU), and the three school districts in Pearl River County that is focused on the teacher shortages in Pearl River County.
Lumpkin referenced a report from the Hattiesburg American newspaper that showed the decline in the number of teaching licenses stating that in the year 2007 the state issued 7,602 compared to 603 in 2017. Lumpkin noted that these
numbers support the current teacher shortage that plagues education across the state and especially in Pearl River County where enrollment numbers continue to rise.
The program, which has not yet been named, will focus on partnering with PRCC and WCU to have students, wishing to become teachers, enroll at PRCC in Poplarville and be able to receive a four year teaching degree while never having to leave Pearl River County. Lumpkin said that he has conversations with some organizations that have a passion for education to provide funding to make the program tuition free for the students.
