The Demopolis Board of Education appointed Jim Stanford to be president of the board for the 2013-2014 school year during Monday’s meeting

Linda Russell, the current board president, was voted to be the vice chairman for next year.

The board also approved the use of funds for technology upgrades with annual installments.

Stanford said the board can afford the upgrades without any problems.

“We are in good shape,” he said. “It’s not out of reach. We have money in reserves that will pay for these upgrades.”

The total cost of the upgrades will be around $3.4 million. The school system’s technology director Jeremiah Dial said Demopolis Middle School and Demopolis High School will receive the same interactive white boards that the two elementary schools currently have, and there will also be upgrades to security and communication in all of the schools.

“We will be replacing all of the camera systems in the schools as well as all of the phone systems,” he said. “All of the schools will also receive new intercom systems. We really waited too long for these upgrades, and that’s why the cost seems high, but it really is necessary in the 21st century.”

The University of West Alabama will play a football game at Demopolis High School this fall on Sept. 26 against Concordia College after the board approved their use of the stadium.

“They did this in 2010, and it brought in a lot of money for the city,” Superintendent Al Griffin said. “This is a good thing for the schools and the city of Demopolis.”

With the new technology upgrades, Demopolis Middle School will have the PLATO learning system, and they will have to hire a facilitator for the program. This will dissolve the relationship between the Demopolis school system and the alternative school in Linden.

The board also approved the Teacher Incentive Program, which will give teachers $400 for perfect attendance, $300 for two absent days and $180 for three or four absent days.

The board also approved the following personnel recommendations:

•Resignation of Michael Shenk

•Retirement of Loretta Moore

•Resignation of Kyle Williams

•Employment of Patrick Atkins as DHS Special Education Instructional Aide

•Post DHS Spanish, DHS Physical Education, DHS Precision Machining, Westside Pre-K, DMS Special Education Teacher and the DMS SAP facilitator position until filled

•Consider family and medical leave requests for Dion Pritchett

•Resignation of Ben Ramer as head baseball coach at DHS

•Employment of Brad Daniels at eighth-grade English and language arts teacher

•Employment of Jarret Williamson as seventh-grade science teacher

In other business, the board also did the following:

•Approved overnight travel to Anniston for the DHS JROTC program

•Approved overnight travel for the DMS Beta Club to Mobile for the Junior Beta Conference

•Approved early dismissal from all schools on May 22, 23 and 24

•Approved payroll and expenditures for the month of April

•Approved FY 2013 budget amendment regarding reclassification of expenditures, reclassification of general ledger coding and amending revenue based on actual receipts

The next meeting will be a called meeting Wednesday, May 22 at 8:15 a.m.