Brookhaven School District Superintendent Ben Cox gave the board of trustees his notice of resignation Tuesday night.

Cox, whose resignation is effective June 30, did not cite a specific reason. However, he praised the district and community during the meeting.

“Brookhaven School District has much to offer this community, and it is often the driving force behind what makes Brookhaven a great town,” he said. “I have enjoyed getting to know and working with the faculty and staff at each school, for these schools are filled with remarkable people.”

Cox said it didn’t take long to notice the quality of students, and many visitors often expressed how lucky they were to have such good students.

“Good teachers and good administrators produce good students,” he said. “BSD does just that.”

He thanked the school board for their support as he has led the district. Cox took over as superintendent in January 2014. Cox previously worked at North Pike School District.

Lipsey School’s student council made a presentation to the board about its projects, which have included recognizing bus drivers during school bus safety month with thank you cards and biscuits, serving as election greeters for those voting at the school, attending Mississippi College’s junior high school student council workshop and making Thanksgiving placemats for the nursing homes.

The group also plans to host a canned food drive for Christmas, make Valentine’s cards for the nursing homes and sell shamrocks to benefit muscular dystrophy.

Lipsey Principal Sonya Foster also presented their use of the data wall, similar to Brookhaven Elementary’s project to help with standardized testing. Teachers took the information from the test at the beginning of the year and wrote student identifications on red, yellow, blue or green sticky notes for urgent intervention, intervention, watch and at or above benchmark, respectively.

When students retook the test, they were able to identify which students did better and which slipped back. Foster said sometimes they were able to see that a student slipped back because they rushed through the test, so they had those students retake.

Foster said they are currently working with the activities teachers to work with the children who need extra help. She said with math, most of the students struggle to know their math facts, such as multiplication tables, which is causing problems as they move forward. In reading, she said students need to read out loud more because they tend to struggle with pronunciation.

Foster also said they have started a new project to help parents with math. She said they are teaching students not that 5 x 5 is 25, but why it’s 25.

“They’re teaching the reasons and the concepts behind it,” she said.

Because of the new method, many parents struggle to help their students with math. Lipsey is now adding videos that shows how the teacher is teaching in class. She said they will keep the videos up throughout the nine-weeks so that students and parents can look back as they prepare for nine-weeks exams.

In other board business:

• The board welcomed Linda Reeves as the new director of finance. She has been in that position for a week and a half.

• The board approved a donation from the Soccer Booster Club to BSD athletics in the amount of $1,582.40 for embroidered bags.

• The board approved a sole source purchase from Realityworks for supplies for the Allied Health program in the amount of $5,789.

• The board approved for the powerlifting team to sell Kripsy Kreme doughtnuts and conduct a Lift-a-Thon.

• The board accepted bids for six agricultural leases: 10.45 acres at $275, 27 acres at $405, 26.25 acres at $393.75, 73 acres at $1,095, 65 acres at $975 and 13.9 at $208.50. Cox said all leases received one bid and all were current leaseholders except the first one.

• The board approved the first reading of a new policy that would prohibit an employee or volunteer driver from sending, receiving or reading a text or reading or posting to social networks while driving. Punishment will range from denial of use of school vehicles to termination.

“It’s a safety issue because you have the responsibility of transporting students and other duties,” Deputy Superintendent Rod Henderson said.