In order to do this, the school district has conceded on a couple of issues.
The superintendent announced two ways the district will be trying to make amends.
“The Shaw School District requested a .66 millage rate increase,” said Superintendent Dr. Cederick Ellis. “To provide relief, we are only going to request a .06 millage rate increase.”
This increase will affect ad valorem taxes in the community and will bring in approximately $1,022,334 for the school district.
“The county administrator said that the Shaw School District requested less than other districts in the county,” Ellis said.
The tax increase has been a big point of concern for citizens in the Shaw School District.
In other board meetings this summer, citizens expressed disbelief at seeing a tax increase this year, especially after baseball and track were nearly canceled for spring 2010 and many classrooms went without books last year.
After discussing the drop in the tax increase, Ellis moved on to another point of concern brought to his attention.
“A community member came by my office concerned about absences,” Ellis said.
Many students were absent from school Aug. 9, 10 and 11 as part of a protest initiated by parents.
“In order to provide relief to the community and students, I am requesting that the board make absences from August 9-11 excused due to extenuating circumstances,” Ellis said.
The board approved the request, so students who were out of school those three days will be excused.
After the meeting, several citizens voiced their thoughts on the direction of the school district.
“I’m glad they excused the absences,” said Shalandra Robinson. “The kids weren’t boycotting, the parents were.
“I’m also glad the superintendent said he was buying books for kindergarten through eighth grade,” she continued.
There is still one large point of concern for citizens of the district.
“My concern is that the board put public comments back on the agenda,” said Lisa Isler. “How will they know about our problems if they don’t recognize us?
“We should be able to address them,” she continued. “They are here to represent us.”
The school board changed its public comments policy during the spring.
The public comments section was removed from the agenda, though the board began using a policy for citizens to be placed on the agenda to voice their concerns.
Copies of the new policy with directions on how to get on a meeting’s agenda were handed out at several board meetings before school ended in May.
Many citizens expressed their determination in continuing to protest until more changes are made.
“We’re going to continue protesting,” said Isler. “We’ve been out there every day this week and will continue until we get justice.”
A group of concerned citizens has been stationed across the street from Shaw High School for the last two weeks.