Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Demopolis City Schools Board of Education called a meeting on Friday that was all about contracts.

Leading off the morning meeting was a proposal to give Smith, Stegall & Associates, PC the contract to design the new HVAC system for Demopolis High School. 

According to those in attendance, the contract to design and oversee the project has already been in the hands of two different engineering firms, the most recent beginning in September 2024. However, since no representative of the firm appeared on site by January, the contract to oversee the estimated $1.2 million project will change hands to yet a third firm.

Smith, Stegall & Associates is already doing work at Demopolis Middle School, and their quoted price is lower than the previous firm. The decision to award the contract was unanimous.

The next contract of attention was that of Interim Superintendent Dr. Bobby Hathcock. Superintendent Dr. Adam Pugh requested to extend Dr. Hathcock’s contract, which expires in May, so that the final and set-aside 12 days of availability could be used up through July. This would allow Dr. Hathcock to oversee the transitional phase of the HVAC project, which he is the most familiar with, according to Dr. Pugh. 

Board member Dr. Aliquippa Allen said she “would rather extra money be spent on workers instead of oversight,” but doesn’t mind giving the extra days for Dr. Hathcock. The contract extension was approved unanimously.

A contract extension and expansion was passed for River City Lawn Services. Dr. Pugh stated that he has asked RCLS for a quote to expand their service area to cover grass that is currently going uncut as well.

“People are really pleased,” Board Vice Chair Betsy Stephens said, “They’re doing a good job.”

River City’s contract expired March 31, and is on a three-year term. The new contract extension was approved.

Two high school maintenance workers for the summer were unanimously approved after a brief discussion of the applicants’ character. Dr. Pugh is excited to put them to work on a “clean up and clean out” mission, citing the condition of the maintenance shop.

“We’ve got a lot of stuff,” Pugh said, “We’re going to get a dumpster and start throwing a lot of that stuff away. We’ve got an old hot tub that was out there for some reason.”

“Nobody knows where that came from,” joked Stephens.

The contract with Wallace Community College Selma to allow DCS students dual enrollment was also extended, though discussion was made that the stipulations of the contract should be scrutinized and negotiated before it renews again, as Dr. Allen pointed out that tech program students are not given as much leeway before being automatically removed from dual enrollment than are academic program students.

In addition to contracts, the board also approved the DHS tennis team to attend a sectional tournament, and the DHS student council to attend a team building event.

Discussed but not voted on was Dr. Allen’s request to implement a searchable database of DCS policies that would be publicly available online. The project would be outsourced to a software company that specializes in such things, and after a $1,575 one time setup fee would cost $2,300 per year to maintain. After extensive discussion, it was decided that the policies would be reviewed and updated in a strategic process to promote expediency, so that as Dr. Pugh urged, the system can get the policies “out there as quick as we can.”

One last issue discussed, brought up by board member Olen Kerby, was the now antiquated time clock system the teachers and employees use in the Demopolis system. It came to light that the system was already slated for replacement, and the contract for completion is already two years overdue.

The next regular DCS Board of Education meeting will be held April 21.