By Andrew Edwards
Elmore/Autauga News Staff Writer
Big plans for Marbury High School were announced at Thursday’s Autauga County Board of Education Meeting.
Board members unanimously accepted a $3.7 Million bid that will allow for the “immediate construction” of an agricultural technology wing to include eight new classes such as welding, wiring, general construction and more.
“It’s very, very exciting news,” said Autauga County Superintendent Timothy Tidmore.
Tidmore explained that the new classes available to Marbury students will serve as introductory courses. Subsequently, if students find themselves interested in that particular field after they complete the class, they will be welcomed to further explore the subject at the Autauga County Technology Center, Tidmore said.
“This addition of a career technology wing will allow students to target a particular field in which they are interested. For students, getting a jumpstart and learning professions such as these at a young age will greatly benefit their workforce knowledge as they exit high school and begin the next stage of their life. It’s really going to allow our students to explore and learn important, necessary skills at a deeper level,” Tidmore explained.
The superintendent said that ground will be broken on the campus “as soon as possible” and that the wing should “hopefully be up and operational at the start of the 2022-2023 school year.”
Marbury Principal Lyman Woodfin is equally ecstatic about the new development, explaining that the classes will benefit the students in the long run.
“Anytime you can give kids an opportunity to learn skills and traits for jobs outside of high school, it’s a special thing. Marbury really is a growing community and I just can’t thank our board enough for helping us to acquire this,” Woodfin said.
Tidmore also addressed two other key issues at Thursday’s board meeting, the first surrounding the new web-based student information system – PowerSchool.
It’s been a rough start for the state of Alabama, which started using the new system this school year after the company absorbed the majority of the state’s predecessor, iNOW.
Tidmore said that issues such as students’ names being duplicated, being put in the wrong classroom and the inability for teachers to enter grades into the system have all bled into the school year. It’s not just an Autauga County problem – it’s a statewide issue, Tidmore explained.
“We’re hopeful that the issues will be resolved soon. As of today, teachers should be able to start marking the attendance of their students into PowerSchool, but we want everyone to know that representatives with the company, as well as the board, are doing everything in their power to get everything running smoothly,” Tidmore said.
Tidmore also addressed Covid concerns across the Autauga County School System, and numbers seem to be low at the moment.
He said that, countywide, there are 15 staff members currently out who tested positive for the virus, as well as 74 students.
“You have to keep in mind, we have nearly 8,900 students countywide. This is well below what we’re seeing across the state, but we’re continuing to watch it carefully and closely and are ready to do what we need to in case we see those numbers increase. Our goal is, and will continue to be, to keep our students in classroom and to encourage all parents to get their children vaccinated who are 12 and up,” Tidmore said.
