by Hunter Dawkins

Following the early approval of a couple of business items, the Harrison County Board of Trustees were addressed Monday night by the county school district athletic director Averie Bush about the introduction back into the prep athletics because of the three month quarantine from the global pandemic of COVID-19 (coronavirus).

“We have the hierarchy of athletics for schools in the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) and then the state association in the Mississippi High Schools Activities Association (MHSAA),” explained Bush.  “They have given guidelines to be the safest, which is not transferring anything from one person to another.”

Bush described the plan for the Harrison County Schools starting this week to the school board with designating the first 14 days, as having no contact in the high school athletics.  The middle schools of Harrison County will follow these guidelines next week and Bush stated that discussion of the future will continue towards the end of the timeline.

In other actions, the school board unanimously authorized payments of $1250 to the Mississippi Association of School Administrators for the 2020-21 district membership, $1,917,762.60 to Wharton-Smith, Inc. for the West Harrison Middle School project, $296,979.02 to SprinTurf, LLC for the West Harrison High School stadium turf replacement, $33,350.91 to Hardy & Associates for services of the West Harrison Middle School project and $10,130 to the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) for participation in group purchasing cooperation for food and supplies.

Additionally, an auditing firm; St. Clair, PLLC, was approved for upcoming final reviews in the three year term.

Finally, a parent spoke towards the end of the meeting concerning a change in school policy for students based on grading.  Retired law enforcement officer and parent; Aldon Helmert, expressed problems with the grading requirements for high school students in AP classes versus regular classes.  Due to the weight of the AP class, grades are affecting how students finish among their class.

The board took no action and scheduled their next meeting for 5:30pm on June 15 at the Henry Arledge Administration Building in Gulfport.