History of Lauderdale County School District | Page 94

Meridian Star, February 9, 1960

Board Also Talks Basketball – Discussion Conducted on Middleton School
High operating costs at the Middleton School and this weekend’s basketball tournament
were the main topic of discussion at the county school board meeting Tuesday. County school
will close early Friday to give students the opportunity to attend the North half-regional
basketball tournament at Decatur. The board granted permission to close the schools at 1 p.m.
County teams involved in the tournament will be Center Hill girls, Vimville boys, Collinsville
girls, Collinsville boys and Center High boys.
Planned Executive Session – The board attended to a number of routine matters in the
open session Tuesday morning before declaring a secret executive session for Tuesday
afternoon. At that time they are expected to discuss teacher and principal assignment for next
year. On other matters, the board discussed means of cutting operation costs at the Middleton
School, which the board described as overly high. For example, the Middleton School busses
used $1687 worth of gasoline last month, as compared to $1545 for all the white schools,
although the Middleton busses cover less mileage. County School Superintendent Dan Johnson
said this indicated some “misuse of gas”. Other utility bills also ran high, the board was told,
and plans were made to look into the matter.
Owns 87 Acres – Attorney William Compton told the board that it owned a total of 87
acres made up of 35 pieces of property formerly use for Negro school which no longer operate.
H e said he would look into the titles of the properties to give the board the opportunity to decide
whether to dispose of them. The board turned down five applications for transfers from county
schools to the Meridian School System and deferred action on one involving a child with mental
problems, for which special facilities available only in Meridian will be required. The board
indicated that it would act favorably on the latter application, but held up action to determine
whether transportation costs should be paid by the county.
Lauderdale County School District Minutes, August 18, 1960

County School Board Meeting
A special called meeting of the Lauderdale Count Board of Education, called for the
purposes of discussing the handling any necessary matters concerning the long range program of
the county school system, for asking plans to correct the well situation at Middleton Attendance
Center, and for hiring school personnel for the 1960-61 session, was held in the office of the
County Superintendent of Education at 9:00 A.M. Thursday, August 18, 1960 with Mr.
Covington, Mr. Clayton, Mr. Lackey, Mr. Taylor, Mr. D.B. Johnson, County superintend , and
Mr. William Compton, attorney, present.
Minutes of the August 15, 1960 minutes were read and approved.
Mr. Bill Archer, Architect for the Middleton Attendance Center, was brought before the
Board to discuss the water situation at Middleton. Mr. Archer made recommendation to the
Board for correcting the low pressure on the pump and utilities.