NATCHEZ — The Natchez-Adams School District’s Board of Trustees approved Tuesday a school calendar and day schedule for the Natchez Early College Academy, but officials admitted one of the key players in the plan is still not on board.

The school district has plans to move the academy from the Natchez High School campus to Alcorn State University’s Natchez campus. NECA students take dual-enrollment classes at Copiah-Lincoln Community College, which is adjacent to the Alcorn campus, and the goal of the move was to have students educated solely at the Alcorn and Co-Lin campuses.

But Interim Superintendent Fred Butcher said the school district has not been able to get in contact with the appropriate people at Alcorn to get the agreement approved.

“We are seeing how we can facilitate and encourage them to come on board,” Butcher said.

NECA Principal Kesha Broady-Campbell said at one point Alcorn had indicated it was waiting for the appointment of a permanent superintendent of schools before moving forward.

Butcher was appointed interim superintendent in April after the board voted to terminate former superintendent Frederick Hill’s contract. The NECA move started under Hill’s tenure.

Butcher said the school district could still bus students to Co-Lin for classes. Co-Lin’s board has tentatively approved the plan pending approval from its attorney and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

While the board members acknowledged that all of the pieces were not yet set, they voted to set the school day for NECA to start at 8 a.m. and end at 3:40 p.m., and to have some of the logistics of its calendar to work along with the college calendars.

Trustee Benny Wright abstained from the vote.

In other news:

-The board voted to renew until 2020 its contract with Durham School Services for student transportation.

The renewed contract will save the district approximately $60,000, Butcher said.

-The board voted to renew its existing memorandum of understanding with the Mississippi State Department of Health to continue the Abstinence Plus sex education program.

The difference in the renewed MOU is that it extends the program down to the sixth grade instead of starting it in the 10th grade.

Butcher said research has shown students in the grades included in the new MOU could benefit from the program.

-The board voted pending legal review to develop and enter into a memorandum of understanding with Mississippi Children’s Home Services to provide mental health services at schools.

Detra West with the Children’s Home Services said the program would be hosted after school hours in a school classroom, and would come at no cost to the school district. Students who use the services would be billed through their insurance or through an arrangement with their guardians.

The program would be similar to the former Adolescent Opportunity Program operated by the county youth court, West said, in teaching stress and depression coping skills, self esteem, anger management and other life skills.

-The board voted to allow Tracy Collins with the Natchez Adams County Career Development Program to use space at the Ninth Grade Academy for the program, which Collins said will focus on GED preparation for students who have dropped out and tutoring for students who need it.

Participants will not have to be considered at-risk, he said.

Collins said the program will have three phases, the first focusing on instruction, the second on workforce development — things such as work ethic and teamwork —and the third on placing participants with vocational professionals so they can get experience with work.

“The motivation for this program is you are going to be able to get a job when you are through,” he said.

-The board tabled a request made by Coach Wilbert Whittley to name the Natchez High School track after the late coach Henry “Doc” Woods.

Board member Philip West said he wanted to table the discussion so board members could think of other people they might want to name a facility after, or think if a facility should have a joint-name in honor of other past employees or coaches.

West said he did not object to naming the track after Woods, but “Everything that we have that is named after somebody has been after people who are from a certain era, and who did a great job. Other eras need to be recognized.”

-The board instructed Butcher to find out what could be done to video the board’s meetings for members of the public who could not attend.