NATCHEZ — The Natchez-Adams School District is off to a smooth start this school year, board members said Tuesday during the board’s regular meeting.

“All of our schools are off to a good start this school year,” said NASD Superintendent Fred Butcher.

“Our attendance is up at this point and our suspension rate is really down,” Butcher said. “We attribute that to this board making policies that our administrators can really go through and support.”

Butcher said he had the opportunity to visit classrooms, and even made arrangements to teach a science class at Morgantown Middle School to show his support for the new teachers in the district.

“You can’t just ask other people to do things,” Butcher said. “You have to show them that you can do it or you used to be able to do it at some point in time.”

Board member, Thelma Newsome said she also had made regular visits to the schools to see for herself how the students and teachers were doing and was happy with what she saw.

“I visited Natchez High School (Tuesday),” Newsome said, “and I was very pleased with some of the things that are going on. … There were about three classes that I could’ve stayed in all day. Students were very well-behaved and conducting themselves in an orderly manner, but they were also involved in the instruction.”

The district also is implementing a teacher development program this year, Butcher said, where new teachers can meet after school and during their planning periods to express their needs and concerns.

Another thing that is working for the district is syndicating the instruction at Natchez Early College Academy, Fallin Career and Technology Center, Freshman Academy and Natchez High School so students across campuses are on the same page, Butcher said.

In other matters at Tuesday’s meeting, the board:

• Unanimously approved minutes for August board meetings, including a July 31-Aug. 1 retreat meeting; special-called meetings on Aug. 13, 15 and 30 and the regularly scheduled meeting of Aug. 21.
• Unanimously approved consent items, including travel requests for both students and staff, student activity fees, professional development and instructional management plans, teacher licenses and school facility uses.
• Approved a request from the Mississippi Forestry Commission to extend its contract with Charles Donald Pulpwood Inc. for the summer of 2019.
• Approved a request from the Mississippi Forestry Commission to extend an existing contract with Charles Donald Pulpwood Inc. until the summer of 2019 to harvest trees on 16th section forestland near the Mississippi River. Larnell Ford, district operations manager, said CDP Inc. did not meet the previous contract deadlines created in Dec. 2015 due to uncontrollable flooding in the area and federal wildlife regulations preventing harvest during certain times of the year.