Leadership Marengo held its third program of the year for its Class XV, the 15th class for the leadership enhancement program, on Thursday.

The program began at the Alabama Southern Community College Demopolis University Center, where Demopolis City Schools chief financial officer Linda Agee and the DCS director of secondary curriculum and federal programs spoke to the class members about how the finances work in a school system and the importance of federal and state testing.

Leadership Marengo’s class then went to Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hop]spital to conclude the day’s session.

Marengo County extension office director Kathryn Friday introduced the morning discussions. Friday is on the steering committee for Leadership Marengo.

“Each member of the steering committee is responsible for one or two segments of the program,” she said. “Tony Speegle and I drew education, because we have background there.”

Thursday’s program centered on economic development and local government.

“We’re trying to give an overview of the issues that schools are facing with funding, with proration and testing,” she said. “We’re also going to talk about technology.

“We had (ASCC Demopolis director) Angelia Mance come here and talk about what they have available here, and later, we’ve invited the independent schools to present their options. We will also talk about the extension service because we are educators. When people have a problem, we want to teach people to solve it.”

Leadership Marengo class members had positive things to say about the program.

“This is an outstanding program,” said Rob Fleming of Fleming Photography. “This is our third session. We go throughout the county, and for our fourth session, we’ll go to Montgomery. The course is made up of five sessions, and we hear great speakers. It is just an outstanding learning experience. Anybody who has the opportunity should go through it.”

Fleming said that one of the more important benefits he got from the program was the contacts that he has made.

“I’ve been getting a lot out of it, because these classes coincide with the classes we had to go through to have our training,” said Shandra Washington, a trainer at New Era Caps Co. “I just came out of training down in Jackson, and this program really helps teach us to communicate better.”

“It has helped me in the leadership role,” said Mary Jones-Fitts of the Marengo Historical Society. “Topics like how to be a leader, how to deal with people, how to communicate with people and how to network. That has helped me with my role with the Historical Society.”