In its last meeting of the school year, the Copiah-Lincoln Community College Board of Trustees voted to once again pursue the development of an early college high school program in the Natchez-Adams School District.

Board member Darryl Grennell provided an update on progress made on Co-Lin’s plans of partnering with the NASD, the Mississippi Department of Education and the curriculum unit at Alcorn State University to create the program.

The board voted at its March meeting to table and defer the agreement between Co-Lin and the NASD for a year, Grennell said.

“The rational for that action was that there was a change in administrative leadership in the Natchez-Adams public schools,” Grennell said. “Since then, several board of trustees of the Natchez public schools, along with the superintendent of the Natchez public schools, contacted me. They are on board and are on track to move forward toward this endeavor.”

The NASD board unanimously approved the memorandum of understanding Co-Lin presented them with earlier this year, Grennell said.

Co-Lin President Ronnie Nettles said he’s mentioned over several months that this is something the college has been working toward. He was previously concerned about moving forward because the leadership changed in the school district.

“One of my concerns was, we didn’t really know how the Natchez school board felt about the program,” he said. “We had not heard from them. We’d only heard from the superintendent at that time. I think this effort is a clear effort to say that they are behind the program and are in support of the program.

“We are prepared to move forward with it, with one little caveat — we need to make sure we get this properly approved through our SAKS accreditation. We do not believe that is a problem.”

After much discussion, the board voted to approve the partnership and then voted to approve its original memorandum of understanding with the NASD, pending attorney and the SAKS accreditation approvals.

The early college program would essentially move a group of ninth through 12th graders from their high school onto Co-Lin and Alcorn’s campus, Nettles said.

One of these schools is already in existence at East Mississippi Community College, but a different model is being proposed for the program in Natchez, he said.

“In the early college model, students literally start taking classes as early as the ninth grade,” Nettles said. “Now typically those college classes are things like orientation or study skills, but as they advance through the ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th grade, the number of hours that they take at the college level increases.”

In other board business:

• The board received a report on the 2015 fiscal year audit by auditor Brent Ballard of Fortenberry & Ballard PC. Ballard noted new requirements the board must take pertaining to its financial report, but deemed that the college had no deficiencies to note this year.

• The board approved the motion to allow Chief of Police Alvin Starkey to travel to and from campus in the college police car.

• The board received a report on the Adult Basic Education 2015-2016 enrollment. The total Adult Basic Education enrollment for Copiah, Adams, Simpson, Lincoln, Jefferson, Lawrence and Franklin Counties decreased slightly. The number of students taking and passing their GED test has increased.

• The board approved Peterbilt Truck Center’s bid of $128,000 for a new tractor (diesel truck) for the commercial truck driving program.