By JAMIE PATTERSON
Managing Editor

Tossing millage figures and utility options around, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen remained divided when it came to the city school district’s proposed budget.
An hour after a joint meeting between city and school officials, the city board voted to give the school district free utilities up to $200,000. At that time, the school district would assume responsibility for paying their own utility costs.
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Evelyn Spencer has been on the job here in Yazoo City for almost five months and remains very much in love with her job as “cut man.”By VERNON SIKES
Herald Correspondent

That's right. Your eyes weren't playing tricks on you. That really was a lady lifting those ladders and sawing those timbers.
A female carpenter? In Yazoo City, Miss.? Can it be?
Evelyn Spencer, 36, defines herself as a “cut man” or “saw man,” forsaking the politically correct “cut or saw person” favored by some. The Gluckstadt resident has been in Yazoo City this summer working as an apprentice.
“Lead carpenter is what I'm going for, but I prefer to stay on the ground,” she said recently as she ate lunch at a Yazoo City construction site.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Spencer is one of a very small group of females comprising today's construction workforce. While the BLS reports that females make up 10 percent of the construction workforce, Spencer belongs to the much smaller segment – two or three percent – who actually work in the field. The other eight percent of females are generally those who work in the construction offices as support personnel.
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Yazoo City’s school children hit the books again Wednesday morning with new school jitters held to a minimum. County students reported Friday to begin the new school year. Pictured is teacher assistant Vicki Webster as she places identification material on a student at Webster Elementary School.

By VERNON SIKES
Herald Correspondent

Pending approval by the school board, Yazoo County students will be provided an additional pathway leading to graduation, one that administrators are hoping will cut down on the dropout rate.
In Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Yazoo County School Board, District Test Coordinator Christy Vandevere presented information that would assist students who are, perhaps, in danger of dropping out of school.
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