No quorum, no vote by the school board

The Escambia County (Ala.) School Board meeting scheduled for last Thursday was canceled when four of the seven board members said they would not be able to attend, meaning there was not a quorum to conduct business.

Cindy Jackson was out of town and board members Loumeek White, Mike Hoomes and Sherry Digmon called the central office to say could not attend the meeting.

Board Chairman Danny Benjamin said the next school board meeting would be held at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12 at the central office in Brewton.

In addition to an agenda item to vote on the renewal of Superintendent Michele McClung's contract there were several items Benjamin said needed to be addressed.

One was a Team's contract with the state to be able to pay math and science teachers more and offer bonuses to keep those teachers in the system due to a shortage of qualified math and science teachers across the state.

The board was also set to approve several personnel hires that were delayed.

Benjamin said he plans to put the contract renewal of McClung's contract on the Oct. 12 agenda.

In the August meeting the board voted 4-3 not to renew McClung's contract. The four members who called in absent for last week's meeting, Jackson, White, Hoomes and Digmon voted against renewing the contract. Benjamin, Coleman Wallace and Mike Edwards voted yes.