Although the city school district continues to make technological advancements within its schools, a large portion of its upcoming budget will be dedicated to traditional learning tools.
The Yazoo City Municipal School District will spend close to $155,000 in purchasing textbooks for each of the four schools within its district in the 2018 fiscal year.
During a special meeting Monday, Alderman Aubry Brent Jr. said he remembers hearing that many of the students didn’t even have textbooks last year.
Superintendent Dr. Darron Edwards said he has tackled that concern since assuming his position a little over a year ago. In the next fiscal year, Webster Elementary School will receive $50,000 in new textbooks; $40,000 at McCoy Elementary School; $25,000 at Woolfolk Middle School; and $40,000 at Yazoo City High School.
“We did increase our budget as it related to books at all of our schools,” Edwards said. “We are going to adjust and make some amendments to add even more books. Even though technology is something that is taking the lead, we think some of those books are still needed.”
But Edwards said the district will continue to move forward when it comes to technology. When he joined the district, he said the school did not even have Internet access.
“We are catching up,” he said. “A year ago, we did not even have the capability to access the Internet. That gives you a scope of just a year ago where we were.”
Edwards admits the district was not even prepared to assess its students online.
“We were behind,” he added. “But we are making sure we are no longer behind.”
Internet access is now available within the district. And students are being instructed in a number of computer-based curriculum. Edwards said that has proven beneficial because so many assessment tests are now online-based.
“We will be moving towards eBooks because we are increasing our technology,” Edwards said. “We are going to have more laptops and access to our computer labs for our students. But we still don’t want to take away from their traditional method of having textbooks.”
Edwards said through his research, Yazoo school are actually ahead of many school districts when it comes to its technological advancements. But he said he plans to keep pushing ahead in the next fiscal year.
