RIPLEY – South Tippah trustees took care of the following items of business during their monthly meeting Monday, June 14. The board:

--Approved a proposal from Ripley Insurance for property, general liability and student accident insurance. The total annual premium was $147,561.

--Approved a summary statement of fixed assets indicating a district value of $27,214,554.52. The summary includes mobile equipment, furniture and equipment, land, buildings, improvements other than buildings, and building improvement. A vocational inventory totaled an additional $492,905.29, according to district records.

--Approved the following donations: $250 from Wal-Mart Distribution Center to Blue Mountain School for boys’ basketball camp; $2,324.85 from Pine Grove Booster Club to Pine Grove School for athletic supplies; $1,198.75 from the Pine Grove PTO to Pine Grove School for the academic banquet; $750 from The Peoples Bank to Ripley High School for a RHS Street Law class trip; $24,213 from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to the South Tippah bus shop for diesel oxidation catalyst mufflers to be installed on 21 buses at $1,153 each.

--Approved the following fund-raisers: Pine Grove cheerleaders operating a food and face painting booth at the Main Street Freedom Festival July 3; Ripley High School cheerleaders camp June 21-23.

--Accepted three resignations: Jamie Russell, a teacher and coach at RHS; district GED teacher Terry Allen, and Fast Track/dropout coordinator Regina Gandy.

--Employed the following extended year teachers: Blue Mountain history teachers Matthew Wallace and Jeff Lollar.

--Employed Jonathan Nabors as a peer tutor with the 21st Century Grant program.

--Employed Glenda Thrasher as a SPED teacher assistant at Blue Mountain.

--Employed Wanda Bryant, Debra Stroupe and Vicki Hatcher as SPED assistants at Pine Grove.

--Employed Pat McBryde, Cora Chills, Liz Cagle, Annie Spight, Stacy Spink and Iva Barkley as teacher assistants at Ripley Elementary.

--Employed the following summer workers: Deanna Medlin at Blue Mountain, and Jeff Palmer as a principal summer worker.

--Agreed to extend Superintendent Frank Campbell’s contract to 2014. His salary remains unchanged at $93,120 annually.

--Approved advertising for a notice of tax increase.

--Approved the district’s long-range plan.

--Approved an application in connection with the district’s consolidated federal programs.

--Approved disposing of obsolete textbooks.

--Approved the district’s 2010-2011 salary schedule.

--Approved a tentative employee electronic communications policy.

--Approved a tentative policy concerning employee conduct with students.

--Employed Jeff Palmer as the new Ripley High School Principal. An article about Palmer’s hiring appeared in the June 16 issue.