By Rupert Howell

North Panola seniors will graduate at Batesville Civic Center May 24, 2016 instead of the Northwest Community College Coliseum as in the past following action of the North Panola School District board of trustees during their monthly meeting held Thursday, September 17.

“We wanted to bring it back into the county,” Superintendent Cedric Richardson said while responding to questions about the change of location.

Richardson said some “issues” had arisen with Northwest concerning the previous year’s graduation and then stated, “We want to make it a first class event.”

North Panola had applied to get reduced rate use of the BCC but was denied when the city’s attorney discovered that the law only allowed reduced rate rental for non-profit organizations and schools within the municipality, which only includes schools located in Batesville.

Homecoming week is underway at North Panola and Assistant Superintendent Jamone Edwards listed activities and happenings for the week beginning September 21 through Friday that includes an alumni meet and greet, coronations, parades and a football game.

The assistant superintendent explained that security was also a priority with off-duty law enforcement employed by the school as well as extra assistance from Panola County Sheriff’s Department and Sardis Police Department.

Trustees approved approximately $350,000 in district maintenance and food service expenditures among routine business items on the monthly agenda.

Trustees also approved acceptance of two donations and four grants during the meeting.

District Technical Coordinator Rogers Smith explained that work is underway to have “everything web-based telling trustees, “In five years an Ipad is going to be a lot cheaper than text books.”

He assured the board that the district is 100 percent compliant with lab computers for testing and noted that there are 731 computers in the district.

Smith also explained the importance of keeping service infrastructure updated and said wireless is now district-wide using $117,000 on wireless this year.

He explained that Universal Service charges on phone bills paid 87 percent of that amount with the district responsible for the remaining 13 percent.