NATCHEZ &045; The excitement administrators feel about the coming year and student performance was boiling over and becoming quite contagious by the end of Thursday’s Natchez-Adams School Board meeting.

Maybe it’s the start of the new school year, maybe the reorganization of the schools or the upcoming release of last year’s test scores, but something has the principals at West, Frazier, McLaurin and Morgantown hyped up.

&uot;We had almost a flawless opening of school,&uot; Morgantown Elementary Principal Fred Marsalis said. &uot;And the morale, we are just fired up and ready to go.&uot;

In what have become occasional principal reports before the board, the administrators outlined goals, changes and expectations.

The lower grades are taking part in a new reading program, Reading First. West and Frazier have grants targeting health and nutrition, and McLaurin and Morgantown are focused on new relationships within the buildings and outside.

The key phrase for all the schools was parent support, though.

Several of the schools are offering flexible parent center hours in an effort to encourage working parents to spend time in the school.

Frazier Principal Lorraine Franklin said she encourages her teachers to assign &uot;family homework.&uot;

&uot;If it’s something they spend time doing together they get more of a sense of what you are doing in school,&uot; Franklin said.

McLaurin Principal Karen Tutor said she is still working to stress the importance of attendance and timeliness to parents.

&uot;The parents are working with us to get there on time,&uot; she said. &uot;If he’s an hour late every day, he is missing that time with us.&uot;

Board Chairman Norris Edney said he tends to get more excited about the administrator reports than the principals do and enjoys hearing the success stories.

&uot;Thank you for your, we will be better, we will be tops attitudes,&uot; he said.

In other business:

4 A representative of a new program aiding homeless families, Family Promise, approached the board about using space at Central Alternative School for a day center. The board agreed to take the matter under advisement and get back with the group.

4The board agreed to advertise for bids to add a sidewalk and canopy to four new mobile units at Frazier. The units were moved from Morgantown to accommodate enrollment changes.

4The board authorized Attorney Bruce Kuehnle to look into a land agreement with the Jefferson County School Board. Jefferson County school officials approached the board about using a road to access the Jefferson County schools timber land.