The Lincoln County School District has a good problem, according to superintendent Terry Brister.

“There are people coming out of the woodwork to get in here,” Brister said.

The superintendent’s statement followed an address to the board by a parent from West Lincoln School District, Randy Little. Little wanted to find out from the board whether there were a large number of transfer students from out of the county at West Lincoln.

Little’s grievances stem from his attempt to get his son into an advanced biology class, but he said he ran into a brick wall when he was told that the class was full.

“He scored advanced in biology, and I’m trying to get him into Biology II,” Little said, “and if there are transfer students flooding the classroom, well, I don’t think it’s fair. I went to a lot of trouble to be in the West Lincoln district. I bought land in the district, and I could have just paid the $600 transfer fee.”

Little asked the board if the transfer students’ numbers were public knowledge.

“I would like to know how many transfer students are in that class,” he said. “And is that public knowledge?”

Brister and board members assured Little they would get a response to him promptly.

“It’s a good problem to have, and a bad problem to have,” Brister said. “There are more transfers than ever. We have to consider how much more we can handle before we need to increased staff and resources,” he said. “We can’t handle a big influx at this time.”

Brister said the board will have to wait for all transfers to be completed and take a look at the numbers before they can give Little an answer.

In other business, board members approved several budget items including the ad valorem resolution which is the amount requested from the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors.

District business manager Cheryl Shelby said they collected more last year than they requested.

“We put that extra money into an escrow account,” Shelby said. “We had to reduce our request this year by the amount in escrow.”

Board members also heard from curriculum director Richelle Ratcliff who explained the new policy for dual enrollment with Copiah-Lincoln Community College.

“Co-Lin received an opinion from the attorney general’s office that said community colleges cannot pay teachers that are already on contract with a school district,” Ratcliff said.

Ratcliff said her team is working on offering more dual credit courses for high school students taking college level courses, but said that Co-Lin is offering high school students a much reduced rate for enrollment at the college.

“The good thing that came out of this is that students will be able to enroll in the dual-enrollment classes at Co-Lin for a lower fee of $100 for a three hour college course – they can take a day or night class.”

In his closing remarks on the beginning of the school year, Brister said in his conversations with teachers, they were all in good spirits.

“The teachers felt like staff and administration are all on the same page with goals and expectations,” Brister said.