The Demopolis Board of Education passed a resolution Thursday at a called meeting calling for the appeal of the Alabama Accountability Act of 2013.

The law would allow a $3,500 tax credit to families who move their children from a failing school district to a non-failing district.

“Thankfully, we are not a failing district,” Superintendent Al Griffin said, “but there are failing districts around us and it will put a burden on us when multitudes of families want to come into our system. This is without a doubt the most ludicrous piece of legislation in the state of Alabama since its inception.”

Following the called meeting, the board held a work session in which they discussed replacing the air conditioner units at Demopolis High School as well as several other topics.

The air conditioner units at the high school now are 21 years old, and they are costing the system more money than they are worth. The system has a couple of options in replacing the units. They can replace them with a geothermal system, which will cost more on the front end but save in the long run, or they can replace them with a new air-to-air system, which will cost less initially, but will not save as much on energy costs and will not last as long as the geothermal units. The geothermal units would cost no more than $1.9 million to install, and energy costs are predicted to be cut in half of what is currently being paid.

Also discussed during the work session were school resource officers.

“We are going to wait until the state passes a budget before we make a decision on another school resource officer,” Griffin said.

The board also discussed the following:

• Work hours for the central officer
• Technology upgrades
• Administrators with coaching duties
• Teacher Attendance Incentive Program
• Choral program at DHS