Lincoln County School DistrictSuperintendent Terry Brister reported smooth progress for gymnasiumprojects throughout the district to school board members atMonday’s board meeting.

    Brister said the final touches are being put on gyms at BogueChitto and Enterprise. Once those are complete, efforts to move onto Loyd Star and West Lincoln will commence.

    “We’re going to get quotes on the gym over at Loyd Star,” he said.”We’ll dress it up first class.

    “At West Lincoln,” he continued, “we’re finishing up stands forsoftball, and we’re waiting on the gyms to finish up (at otherplaces).”

    Brister described in detail the basic layout of the gyms that arein progress and the ones that will begin once the otherscomplete.

    He said each gym will have two classrooms apiece as a part of thelayout. Two dressing rooms will be located on each side of one endwith a weight room in the middle.

    “We’re going to build,” he said. “We’re going to update ourcampuses, and we’re not going to let academics do without.”

    He explained once projects to upgrade gymnasiums at schools werecomplete, the next thing is to replace bleachers that areoutdated.

    “We’ll be replacing bad ones and getting rid of all the woodenones,” he said.

    The board members heard from Business Manager Cheryl Shelby Mondayto approve the previous year’s budget.

    “A year from now, I want y’all to be able to see what the originalbudget was and then see what was spent,” Shelby said.

    As opposed to just amending the budget to reflect what was spent,Shelby said she likes to do a little extra work so that money canstill be tracked as far as what was projected.

    “I use the budget as a management tool,” Shelby said, “not just tosee what numbers were spent.”

    Shelby reported the district spent $1.6 million less than what wasprojected to be spent in the last year.

    The board also heard a report from Patrick Lowery, who does the taxaudits for the district, to approve the audit for the fiscal year2010.

    “You can see you had no unqualified expenditures, no realweaknesses and no deficiencies,” Lowery said.

    “You took in $1.5 million more than you spent,” he continued. “Nowmost of that is in Sixteenth Section and other funds for projects,but with that said, you’re in good shape.”

    In other district matters, the board approved student transfers,teacher recommendations and revised salaries for teachers whoseteaching licenses upgraded.

    The board also went into executive session to hear from a parent.The parent would not comment or give his name after coming out ofthe meeting with board members.

    The school board members will have their next meeting Monday, Oct.17, at 5 p.m. in the boardroom at the Lincoln County SchoolDistrict Office.