Woodside elected Scotland school chairman, Singletary is vice chair

LAURINBURG — In its first meeting of the new year, the Scotland County Board of Education got right to business electing a new chair and vice chair.

Former board chairman Jeff Byrd nominated Jamie Sutherland to head the board while Raymond Hyatt nominated Summer Woodside.

Woodside was elected chair with five votes from herself, Carolyn Banks, Hyatt, Rick Singletary and Herman Tyson, while Sutherland voted for himself as did Byrd and Wayne Cromartie.

In the race for vice chair, Cromartie and Singletary were nominated. Cromartie received two votes from Byrd and Sutherland while Singletary received the other six votes.

Following the election, Byrd and Woodside switched seats on the board and the newly elected chair addressed the small crowd in attendance.

“I wanted to thank everyone for their support in this position and I look forward to serving our school district and community in this capacity,” Woodside said.

The newly elected vice chair also epressed his gratitude.

“I want to thank the board for their vote of confidence and a special thank you to Dr. Byrd and Mr. (B.J.) Gibson for their service on the board in previous terms,” Singletary said.

In other business, Assistant Superintendent of Auxiliary Services Larry Johnson provided one of the two reports during Monday’s meeting. Johnson updated the board on the progress of consolidation.

“We lost a couple of days at both locations due to the weather, one of the problems is we couldn’t do any masonry work because we have to be above 40 degrees,” he said.

Johnson said the project at Sycamore Lane is still a few weeks behind, but hope to gain those days back over the next few weeks — weather permitting. The contractor hopes to have the floor of Pad B and C poured by next week, which will allow structural work to begin, such as walls and the roof.

Contractors at Laurel Hill did pour cement on Monday to finish the footings and have poured one pad and will finish the other pad by the end of the week. Work on the new gymnasium will begin this week or early next week.

“Laurel Hill is only a couple of days behind, because prior to the weather they were ahead of schedule,” Johnson said.

Public Information Officer Meredith Bounds, along with Valerie Williams, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction; and Corey Satterfield, superintendent for human resources, presented the board with proposed make-up days for students.

One of the days recommended was a half-day on Saturday, Jan. 27 which board members were not in favor of due to low attendance and decreased instructional hours. Singletary made a motion to drop the Saturday make-up day which was unanimously agreed upon by the other board members.

The other proposed make-up days were Monday, Jan. 22, which was an optional work day for teachers, and Friday, Feb. 23, which was slated to be a professional development day for teachers. Tentative make-up days for SEarCH students include Friday, Feb. 23 and Friday, March 9, which will be a half-day for students.

Scotland County Schools will release the official make-up days by the end of the week.

Amber Hatten-Staley can be reached at 910-506-3170 or [email protected].

Amber Hatten-Staley | Laurinburg Exchange Summer Gainey-Woodside was elected chair of the Scotland County Board of Education during the board’s meeting Monday with a 5-to-3 vote. Rick Singletary was elected as the vice chair with a 6-to-2 vote.

https://laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_IMG_9964.jpgAmber Hatten-Staley | Laurinburg Exchange Summer Gainey-Woodside was elected chair of the Scotland County Board of Education during the board’s meeting Monday with a 5-to-3 vote. Rick Singletary was elected as the vice chair with a 6-to-2 vote.