The Lincoln County School District Board discussed to continue the move to completely implementing Common Core education in the county schools.

Assistant Superintendent Letha Presley said the school district has been partially implementing the curriculum for four years, gradually increasing to full implementation now.

“Whether we agree with it or not, it’s here,” Superintendent Terry Brister said. “The Board put in too much money and work, and we’re not going to trash it until we’re told differently.”

Brister said the books, supplies and other needed materials have already been purchased and schools are ready to commence with teaching the new curriculum.

The common core curriculum is part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative and is a set of educational standards based on the best state standards already in existence, feedback from the public and experience of teachers, content experts, states and leading thinkers. Launched in 2009, Common Core standards have been accepted in all but eight of the states and territories.

Mississippi’s education board decided to opt out of the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers testing consortium and has renamed Common Core within the state as Mississippi’s College and Career Ready Standards. More information about Common Core State Standards can be found at www.corestandards.org.

Other actions taken by the board during the meeting goes as follows:

• Approved of 16-section recommendations to accept a release for a performance fund to Jeff Lee Logging. A performance fund provides protection for the district’s land in case any damage is incurred while harvesting timber.

• Approved to advertise re-bid for kitchen/cafeteria remodel at Enterprise Attendance Center. The one big the board received was too low.

“They need to know we’re not just going to take it because it’s a low bid,” Brister said. “We can do better people.”

• Approved the FY15 Title I Application and FY 15 Title VI Rural and Low Income Application. With money from Title VI the district plans to upgrade the current My Reading Coach program to a My Virtual Reading Coach program. Presley said that My Reading Coach is intervention software offering directed lessons on reading and language. My Virtual Reading Coach is an online version of the software that would make the program more portable for students using it.

• Approved request for West Lincoln FTC Robotic Team to leave early Feb. 20 for the State Competition’s two-day event in Oxford.

The next board meeting is scheduled for Feb. 16, 2015 at 5 p.m. at the Lincoln County School District Central Office.