DOTHAN, Ala. – The Dothan City Schools Board of Education discussed the proposed plan for around $35 million worth of relief funding at Thursday’s meeting which will be focused on improving areas noted during accreditation reviews that took place earlier this year.
In February DCS went under an accreditation review which is conducted every five years by a private, non-governmental accrediting agency that has been created specifically to review education institutions and programs.
This year’s accreditation review noted only a few needed improvements for DCS. One of those included the need for protocol aimed directly at the teachers for the new virtual school opening at the start of next school year.
Another was addressing achievement gaps between subgroups of students, which currently has an equity plan in place that is moving towards the implementation phase and is being led by the Culturally Inspired Expertise committee.
The accreditation board did praise many areas including the communication and transparency that DCS has with parents and the community.
In relation to the needed areas of improvement, the board reviewed a plan regarding the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, which is federal funding provided due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding will be focused on meeting those areas of improvements over the coming years.
“The board and all of our principals met and discussed where our needs are,” DCS Superintendent Dr. Dennis Coe said. “We wanted to strategically plan how to spend these funds.”
Some other areas where the funding is being focused are hiring more staff members, technology and facility updates, and new programs like summer schooling.
The board also discussed the possible purchasing of eight special needs buses. Coe said that the current special needs buses at DCS are around 15 years old.
Coe said the purchase would be covered by supplemental funding from the state. The total for the eight buses is estimated to be a little over $800,000.
