SCPS board to hold special meeting on ’24-’25 year

The Southampton County School Board agreed by consensus on Monday, Aug. 12, to hold a special meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 21, for discussion of important details pertaining to the 2024-25 school year, including organizational structure and projected class sizes.

Deborah Goodwyn

The meeting, which will feature open and closed sessions, is set for 6 p.m. and will be held in the Southampton High School library.

Setting the date for this special August board meeting was one of the action items on the agenda for the school board’s regular monthly meeting held Aug. 12.

“We do need to have a second meeting this month before the start of school,” Board Chair Dr. Deborah Goodwyn said during the Aug. 12 meeting. “The purpose of our special meeting will be to discuss the organizational structure for the ’24-’25 school year, to talk about position vacancies, teacher reassignments, projected class size by grade and/or subject, the SOL scores and school accreditation, plans for addressing areas of concern based on SOL assessments. So we do need to meet.”

Gwendolyn P. Shannon

In a board meeting earlier this year, Southampton County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Gwendolyn P. Shannon stated that cuts in local funding would cause the division to have to increase class sizes.

She also provided some insight into the potential organizational structure of the school division for 2024-25 during a July 15 special work session.

Among her comments on the subject, she said, “The chief academic officer position will be vacant for this year. I don’t plan to fill that position right now. Because of the budget cuts, we’re going to need that money, so I’m trying to save as much money as I can, and a lot of the savings is going to come from attrition, so that’s where we are.”

In the Aug. 12 board meeting, Goodwyn noted that the board clerk would arrange for the necessary announcements regarding the special Aug. 21 meeting.

“Part of (the meeting) will be a closed session since we will be talking about individual reassignments and assignments,” Goodwyn said. “Part of it will be open, but we will go into closed session also.”

The first day of school for SCPS is set for Tuesday, Sept. 3.

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