Swinford’s contract extended for one year
~ Reprinted from The Vicksburg Post~
by Manivanh Chanprasith~
August 26, 2011~
Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Duran Swinford’s two-year contract was extended by one year Thursday.
“We told her she has done an excellent job,” said board president and District 2 trustee Zelmarine Murphy, who along with District 3 Trustee Jim Stirgus Jr., voted against hiring Swinford last year.
“We are impressed with (MCT2 and Subject Area Tests) scores,” Murphy said. “We are pleased with the fact that she is selling the district on a positive note.”
All five members of the school board voted Thursday to extend Swinford’s contract through the 2012-13 academic year. Her annual salary of $125,000 was not discussed, Murphy said.
“I think three years is a good measure,” said Swinford. “I think it’s enough time to get something started.”
Swinford’s job performance was evaluated this week for the second time in the year she’s been in Vicksburg. Evaluations will continue informally in December and formally in August 2012, Murphy said.
The evaluation is based on goals Swinford and the board set at her hiring, which included raising state test scores, Murphy said.
“We knew the challenges she faced were not created in a year and weren’t going to be solved in a year,” said District 1 Trustee Bryan Pratt, who also is serving his first year on the board. He replaced Jerry Boland in January.
On the agenda
Meeting Thursday, the Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees:
• Heard a presentation from athletic trainers from Jackson’s St. Dominic Hospital.
• Heard a presentation on Rotary International civic club from local Rotarian Bob Croisdale.
• Recognized Robyn Lea, local insurance agent, for her volunteer effort in the Real People Read program.
• Approved minutes from July 28.
• Accepted a $250 donation from Outlets at Vicksburg.
• Approved amendments to the 2010-11 budget.
• Approved personnel matters for the 2011-12 school year: compensation for extra duties, July; certified retiree recommendations; classified recommendations; classified substitutes; certified recommendations; certified change in status recommendations; and child nutrition personnel request, District 3 Trustee Jim Stirgus Jr. dissented.
• Approved changes to capital assets.
• Approved out-of-state travel for: district behavioral specialist Rhonda Denman to attend the annual Conference for American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy in Fort Worth, Texas, Sept. 22 to 25; Vicksburg High School coaches to scout Richwood High School in Monroe, La., Saturday; VHS football team to play at RHS in Monroe Sept. 2; Warren Central High School coaches to scout Natchez High School in Ferriday, La., Sept. 2; and WCHS NJROTC unit for rifle meet at Rayville High School in Rayville, La., Sept. 15 and at Bogalusa High School in Bogalusa, La., Sept. 24, orientation trip to Baton Rouge, La., Sept. 24, drill meet at Ouachita Parish High School in Monroe, La., Oct. 22, orienteering camp at Rehobeth High School in Rehobeth, Ala., Dec. 3 to 5, and rifle meet at Anniston, Ala., Dec. 9 to 11.
• Approved athletic department’s request to begin bid process for letter jackets for all varsity athletes and fine arts students for the 2011-12 school year.
• Approved board policies A and B regarding legal regulations. A major change to include a two-day notice instead of a 10-day notice for the public to give in order to speak before the board.
• Approved Project SYNC’s request to buy 22 classroom kits of the Al’s Pal’s Early Childhood Program to be used in pre-kindergarten and early childhood classes. The cost of the kits is $15,070 and cost of training is $10,500, both of which will be paid with the Safe/Healthy Students grant at no cost to the district.
• Approved a ratification to accept donations from the Vicksburg Police Department and the Warren County Sheriff’s Office. The police department donated two radios and the sheriff’s office donated a deputy cruiser, which had been declared a surplus item.
• Approved timber sale on Section 16 land at Eagle Lake.
• Discussed scheduling and reviewing work sessions for board polices C and D.
• Approved a request from Central Mississippi Prevention Services, a nonprofit youth counseling agency, to provide bus service for about 170 students to the Grove Street facility. Also approved was a memorandum of understanding to be drafted between agency director Joe Johnson and the school district, since Johnson is a volunteer counselor and mentor at the schools.
In closed session:
• Approved three student transfers.
Other goals include improving the district’s image to the community, beautifying schools and developing a curriculum department, Pratt said.
Swinford said she plans to concentrate more on improving the dropout and graduation rates as well as balancing the effort of advancing remedial and high-achieving students, which would bring expansions of the honors and GATES, or gifted and talented education, programs.
VWSD’s graduation rate for the class of 2010 was 51.7 percent; of that 34.9 percent were dropouts, according to figures released in May by the Mississippi Board of Education.
In Swinford’s first year at the 8,500-student district, its accountability rating has risen two notches to “Academic Watch” from “At Risk of Failing,” a label it had held for two consecutive years; state test scores saw gains in math and language arts at the elementary and secondary levels; and administrative organization was reshaped with the addition of an assistant superintendent of curriculum, Paula Johnson, and a special education director, Eddie Spann.
For the new academic year, Swinford received board approval to implement a district wide literacy program, extend elementary school hours, apply MCT2 assessments to students in kindergarten through second grade; reshape administration at Grove Street School; and develop STEM schools program, or science, technology, engineering and math, at the elementary and intermediate schools.
Swinford, who previously served as assistant superintendent for human resources in East Baton Rouge Parish School District, is the first woman and the sixth superintendent for the district that was created in 1987 with the consolidation of city and county schools.
In other business, the board voted unanimously to hire former deputy superintendent Dr. John Walls and former Redwood Elementary principal Charles Bubba Hanks as part-time administrative assistants to Johnson. Swinford said the men, both of whom retired last year, will be working with grievances and hearings within the district. Hanks returned part-time this year to head up Grove Street School until September, when new principal Lee Dixon is scheduled to arrive.
