The Magee Courier du lieu suivant : Magee, Mississippi • A2

Family Bingo Night in Harrisville, Nov. 18 Harrisville Library will host Family Bingo Night on Thursday, Nov. 18, at 4:30 p.m. Register online at www.cmrls.lib.ms.us or call the library at 601-847-1268. Friday Night Lights Action, Nov.

19 Friday night, Nov. 19, Mendenhall High School plays Poplarville away in the third round of playoffs. Letters to Santa Due Nov. 19 Send your Letters to Santa to be published in the newspaper so Santa will be sure to see them! Deadline is Friday, Nov. 19.

Bring to the Magee Courier or Simpson County News, or email to BOS and Solid Waste Offices to Close, Nov. 25-26 The BOS and Simpson County Solid Waste office will be closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 25 and 26. Nov. 25 garbage route will be run Friday, Nov.

26. Magee Christmas Parade Set for Nov. 30 The Magee Christmas Parade will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 30, at 6 p.m. Deadline to enter a unit is Friday, Nov.

19. Call the Chamber for more info, 601-849-2517. Mendenhall Christmas Parade, Dec. 2 Christmas Parade is Dec. 2 at 6 p.m.

To enter, call the Chamber office at 601-847-1725 or 601-847-2525. The theme is in Toyland. Christmas Parade To Be Dec. 4 The Christmas Parade will be on Saturday, Dec. 4 at 4 p.m.

For more information call 601-847-1721. DYW Meeting to Be Held, Dec. 7 A meeting will be held on Dec. 7, at 6 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Family Life Center for any high school junior girls interested in participating in this Distinguished Young Women program.

For i On Thursday, Jan. 4, at 2 p.m., 4 On Friday, Jan. 5, at 10 a.m., 7 on Saturday, Jan. 13, at 7 p.m. in the Boswell A Tickets are available at the The deadline to enter is Feb.

11. For a MemberFDIC Peoples Bank Saturday, Jan. 13, at Former Simpson pro- SMNJUQTJOPSN VOL. 150, NO 38 BY PAT BROWN PUBLISHER It appears that the Simpson County School decision to move forward with a consolidated high school for the county comes despite the objection of board member Stacey Herrin. At a recent meeting of the board, Herrin, who represents District 5, said that she believed that the board had agreed only to further study of consolidation as a possibility for the district, not to actually moving ahead with the project.

From her comments, her major objection to consolidation seemed to be based on the cost to county taxpayers for a new facility. How- ever, according to the minutes of the meeting, Herrin had not voiced her objections until after the 5-0 vote was taken and recorded. Herrin chastised Board President Danny Cowart for making the issue public before a decision had been made by the board. She was referring to comments about the consolidation project at a recent lunch-and-learn given by the Simpson County Development Foundation. For clarification Herrin was told to refer to the minutes of the October 14 meeting for the actual decision.

The section referred to as Report on that date says, Board voted to pursue a consolidated high school and consider options for fi- After that meeting, this newspaper reported on October 21 that the board had agreed on a five to zero vote to move ahead and explore options with regard to consolidation. Herrin said her vote really did not matter because the others were to go and do what they wanted to do. Board member Lillie Hardy suggested it was an issue of semantics and indicated that the consolidation issue was not final. Cowart said the decision had been made to move ahead. He consulted with Board Attorney Wesla Leech, who confirmed his position that the board had approved moving forward with a consolidated high school.

Cowart explained that he and Superintendent Dr. Toriano Holloway had been invited by the Simpson County Development Foundation to present the program for the Lunch- and-Learn program. Herrin countered that Cowart presented actual drawings for consideration. At that meeting, Cowart did show architectural renderings as potential options as well as suggesting a potential location for the facility. Herrin told the board that they all should be in the when it came to school projects, implying that was not the case.

Cowart said that in fact See School 3 Consolidated high school being planned BY PAT BROWN PUBLISHER A financial audit of the Simpson County School District for 2019 indicated problems with record keeping procedures but no malfeasance on the part of the school former director of finance Dwayne Fewell. The district had not properly balanced their banking records for several years and there was concern that funds could be missing. This prompted an audit of the 2019-2020 school year by accountant Megan St. Claire, which is an annual procedure. Some unacceptable accounting procedures were noted in the audit.

Initially the board had not planned to discuss the findings in public. Board President Danny Cowart said he had read and understood the findings. Board member Lillie Hardy said, however, that the board must remain transparent and the findings should be made public. Board member Stan Bulger commented, were given a pass on this now but it will not be given in the Cowart said, were given misinformation that the bank statements were reconciled and available for public inspection so we were Findings from the audit include the following: 1. Performance bonds for projects that exceeded $25,000 were not in hand for all contracts in excess of $25,000.

2. The district was not notifying PERS (the state retirement system) within five days as required by law when hiring retired Problems surface in school audit, but no malfeasance Simpson County school board, from left, Dr. Toriano Holloway, attorney Wesla Leech, Stacey Herrin, Patrice Boykin, Danny Cowart, Stan Bulger, Lillie Hardy and Fran Bridges. See Audit, 3.