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NATCHEZ — The Natchez Adams School District Board of Trustees on Tuesday approved the use of a few school facilities for activities for young people in the community.

“The NBA is asking to use one of our facilities,” NASD Public Engagement Coordinator Tony Fields announced Tuesday. By “NBA,” Fields meant the Natchez Basketball Association, not to be confused with the National Basketball Association.

School Board Vice President Phillip West jokingly asked, “Will Shaq be there?”

“No, but with this, we can create our own Shaq,” Fields said. “We haven’t had a youth league since the city shut down their program that was going on at Margaret Martin. I will say that it is desperately needed.”

Organizing the Natchez Basketball League is Duane Hickombottom, who aims to start the league early next year for both girls and boys between ages 6 to 14 years using the Natchez Middle School gymnasium.

“I’m looking to start around January and maybe running two and a half to three months,” Hickombottom said. “And we’re just going to use the gym on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and maybe Saturdays.”

The school board also agreed on Tuesday to lease a portion of the Robert Lewis Middle School for a new Boys and Girls Club. The lease is for $1 per year for three years beginning Jan. 23, 2025, though the date may change depending on when the program is ready to start.

Superintendent Zandra McDonald said it could be at least another month before the program officially starts following approval from the regional Boys and Girls Club Board of Directors.

Natchez resident Greg West has championed efforts to reestablish a Natchez-based Boys and Girls Club to create education, workforce and character development opportunities for area youth. Also involved is Marcus Pittman, who heads the nearest chapter in McComb.

Local officials have voiced their support of the endeavor to bring back the Boys and Girls Club, which more than a decade ago serviced over 200 area youth at the former Margaret Martin School.

“I have long been a believer in what Boys and Girls Clubs can do to enrich the lives of our children,” Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson has said. “I applaud the efforts of everyone working to make this a reality here in Natchez. I look forward to enthusiastically supporting this endeavor, and I encourage everyone who longs to see more opportunities and resources for our children to get behind them.”

In other matters during Tuesday’s meeting of the Natchez Adams School District Board of Trustees, the school board reviewed school-level accountability data based on Mississippi Department of Education standards and voiced their goals for the next benchmark assessments.

Each school aims to have at least a B accountability rating this school year with the exception of McLaurin Elementary, which is currently a B school and is looking for an A rating.

Some school board members expressed concern about the amount of federal funding that the school district must share with the new charter school, Instant Impact Global Prep.

With 159 students currently enrolled at IIGP, the school board must give $900,383.61 of its federal allocation to the charter school, officials said.

West asked whether there were any steps the school board could take to verify that all 159 students enrolled in the charter school live within the school district.

“The charter school goes through the same process of loading their student rosters to their authorizing board, their charter board,” McDonald said. “The district received a list of students who are enrolled at the charter school, and it was our task to verify that those addresses were within the boundaries of Natchez Adam School District. We were able to do that.”

However, West noted that the only way to verify if the students are living at those addresses would be to go knocking on doors.

“We’d have to have another employee or two in order to do that, which would only cost us more money,” he said.