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During a called meeting of the Linden Board of Education, Superintendent Dr. Timothy Thurman announced that the remainder of the school system’s ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds have been approved for use in building a multipurpose room at Linden Elementary School.

The Linden City School district has been trying to establish a multipurpose room at the elementary school since 2022, but high bid prices stalled the project. Now that funding has finally been approved, Thurman said he has contacted an architect to draw up a plan for the multipurpose building and will bring it before the Board at either its regular August meeting or the September meeting.

“I am excited about this. We don’t have a gym at the elementary school other than a regular classroom. We sometimes end up with around 40 kids in one room for P.E.,” said Thurman.

All funding will be provided through ESSER funds and will not be taken from the district’s general funds.

Under New Business, Thurman reported that the first week of school has gotten off to a “tremendous start” and that everything is “working like clockwork.”

Thurman said the school system has a very good staff across the board and that staff and faculty members seem to be very motivated for the new school year. During the district’s in-service training last Friday, August 4, Thurman remarked on the positive energy and optimism for the upcoming semester.

“It was probably the best in-service that I can recall. Everyone was motivated and ready to go. It was absolutely awesome,” said Thurman.

During the in-service, Thurman and teachers looked at testing scores and was impressed with the gains that Linden students made on state testing. Thurman said the gains for Linden were “tremendous” and the results from this year compared to last year saw a “huge jump.”

Thurman said he challenged his teachers to increase student proficiency and encouraged them to use the gains on testing to motivate them in improving student proficiency for the 2023-2024 school year.

“I am very pleased with the growth from last year. I think I will be equally as pleased this time next year,” said Thurman.

Action Items:

• The Board hired Ms. Crystal Rogers as Pre-K aide at Linden Elementary school
• The Board approved Ms. Melissa Charley to be the district’s gifted testing coordinator with a stipend of $2,500