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Many accomplishments of faculty and students of A.L. Johnson High School were shared with the Marengo County Board of Education during K12 Instructional Leader Cathy Seale’s curriculum report during the May 20 meeting.

ALJ was the recipient of a $1,000 award in Alabama Possible: Cash for College for a 100 percent FAFSA completion rate among the seniors, which the school also won last year. The money will be used to fund certificates and gift certificates celebrated completing Dual Enrollment classes.

ALJ teacher Alicia Seale is attending Space Camp in June in Huntsville on a full scholarship.

“She’ll be able to bring those things back to her classroom to help the space education part of her curriculum,” Seale said.

A. Seale assisted students with their own applications to attend the same full week on scholarship, one of which was awarded to ALJ eighth-grader La’Niya.

Five dual enrollment students form ALJ—Unique Jones, Gredrick Agnew, Sha’Tyra Bell, Martivious Kevon and Chelsea Etheridge—will also be attending a three-week camp in Demopolis as an internship opportunity. They will earn $9 an hour during the internship and Seale said the opportunity could lead to scholarships or job opportunities.

“What it leads to is the learning that they get, but it could also lead to more scholarships if they decide to pursue a career or degree or it could lead to a job straight out of high school.”

Sweet Water High School’s principal Becky Williams and five teachers were also invited to present at the state “Closing the Achievement Gap” conference in Bessemer on July 9.

Seale also shared data updates for the ACT WorkKeys assessment, which measures successful workplace skills such as business writing, workplace observation and applied math.

Throughout the school system, 162 seniors took the WorkKeys assessment this school year with 8 earning a platinum certificate, 22 earning gold, 76 earning silver and 42 earning bronze.

The system’s overall reading proficiency level is a 45 percent, resulting in a 59 percent growth from the 2017-2018 school year. Math proficiency is at 51 percent with a 63 percent growth.

Other actions taken by the BOE include:

• Superintendent Luther Hallmark said he will be looking at other school systems for model policies on vaping. Board President Chester Moore also said the current policy manual needs to be reviewed for any outdated or unnecessary material. Hallmark volunteered for the task.
• scheduling whole board training for June 10, with Monitoring Financial Health being the preferred program to participate in.
• approved proposed revised FILE: JGEB (Automated External Defibrillator Policy).
• approved financial reports for April.
• approved bank statement reconciliations for April.
• approved the Financial Improvement Resolution, which is a requirement every time the system has less than one month of operating expenses in the general fund.
• reviewed proposed new FILE: JGK (Supervision of Low Risk Juvenile Sex Offenders). A vote will take place at the next board meeting.
• approved summer janitorial services.
• approved 2019-2020 meal price schedule.
• approved solicitation of bids for 2019-2020,
• approved superintendents’ personnel and student recommendations for April.
• granted second approval to the superintendent’s personnel recommendations for March, including one resignation, one maternity leave and two retirements.
• scheduling the next meeting for June 20. Hallmark said a called meeting may take place if the board needs to approve any new hires.