MADISON, Alabama — Madison City Schools is preparing to kick off a brand new school year next week! District leaders want to build on the momentum of success they already have. FOX54 spoke with the school superintendent about what's in store for the upcoming school year.
Madison City Schools Superintendent Dr. Ed Nichols started off the conversation by discussing the theme for Madison City Schools this year, which is celebrate. He explained that this one word embodies the district's expectation for the upcoming school year. "We've got so many great things going on in our school district and we had so many great things last year that we want our people to take time this year and not just let those pass by."
With this time of celebration, may also come a time of change as Dr. Nichols explained that safety is the district's number one priority. "This year, we're expanding our security staff. Last year, we contracted out extra security beside our SROs (School Resource Officers), and we'll add those this year to the middle school. We'll also add an additional one to both high schools, and we're kind of of securing those parameters of the school. We're going to put up gating for those areas."
There will also be some changes to cell phones in the classroom. "We will not have school cell phones out during the instruction time this year. So when students are in a classroom, their phones will either be in a backpack or have a teacher has a designated place that will be in those. They can have them out in the hallway. They can have them at their lunch time or break time, but they will not have them out during instruction time."
Furthermore, as it relates to starting the new Teachers' Bill of Rights Dr. Nichols said no student should disturb the learning environment. "If you are disruptive, if you cause continual problems, then we will have the opportunity to suspend you [based on] that. We don't have any tolerance on disrupting or bullying or threatening students in the school district. And and we have a new disciplinary software called bloom so we can track when students are sent to the office, we can track how they're handled in the office. we can look at the timeline on that. but it also allows us to give counseling resources."