Brookhaven School District will soon charge a fee to access public records.

Superintendent Ben Cox told the school board Tuesday that the district currently has no policy in place to charge when public records requests are made.

Some companies file requests for all purchase orders at the district, and then turn around and sell them to marketing and sales teams of various vendors.

Cox said the requests have increased over the years, and he said it takes time and resources to pull the information together. He pointed out that these companies are selling their information for several thousand dollars.

While the school district must turn over public records or be in violation of the Mississippi Public Records Act, the act allows public entities to charge a reasonable fee associated with the resources used to obtain the records. BSD board attorney Bob Allen is exploring what would be a reasonable fee in this case.

The school board approved the first reading of the Public’s Right to Know policy. A fee will be presented to the board once it has been determined.

In response to several recent requests to use school facilities, Cox recommended the board uphold the current policy, which leaves the decision to the principal of each school.

Cox said they have had requests from the Southern Wildcats, a youth football league, for use of Brookhaven High School’s football field, an individual interested in renting out gyms at each of the schools for a Halloween party and an individual asking to host a scholarship fundraiser at BHS.

Cox said he was hesitant to rent out either BHS or Alexander Junior High’s gyms, since they both recently had their floors redone. He said as far as the scholarship fundraiser, he suggested Lipsey’s gym and both parties seemed happy with that.

Cox said individual principals can make the decision based on the circumstances at each school. The board agreed.

The board also agreed to solicit bids for a timber sale on 16th section land. BSD advertised for bids and received none.

According to the Mississippi Forestry Commission,  loggers are not interested because the trees were planted 13 years ago and the size and height are not ideal. However, from a conservation standpoint, the thinning needs to be done so that the trees remaining can grow bigger and faster.

Because the school district already advertised for bids and no bids were received, the board can solicit bids directly from logging companies to get the job done. The board approved this request.

In other board business:

• The board approved for Lipsey PTA to sell class T-shirts for the 2015-2016 school year.

• The board approved for the Gridiron Club to sell chair-back seats at King Field, to sell reserved parking passes and to sell advertising in the football program for the 2015-2016 school year.

• The board accepted a donation from the BHS girls’ softball booster club in the amount of $793.80 to purchase banquet gifts for softball.

• The board accepted a donation from the BHS cheerleader booster club in the amount of $5,570.40 for cheer camp/clothes.

• The board approved for BHS boys’ basketball to travel to Louisiana to attend a basketball team camp in June.

• The board approved draft copies of the employee handbook, the elementary handbook and the secondary handbook for the 2015-2016 school year.

• The board approved for BHS varsity cheerleaders to attend cheer camp in Alabama on June 7.

• The board approved the request to advertise for hunting/fishing leases on 16th section land.