PELL CITY — The Board of Education approved a list of trailers, once used for classrooms, as surplus at its Tuesday night meeting.“We’re just about out of that business,” Superintendent Dr. Bobby Hathcock said. “I was very proud to make that recommendation.”
Gary Mozingo, the School System’s facilities supervisor, said the surplus list includes 10 trailers, also known as “moveable buildings or classrooms.”
Mozingo said there are six trailers now being used by the School System, and just one of those is used as a classroom.
The trailer used as a classroom is at Iola Roberts Elementary School, where it is used for music classes.
Mozingo said there are two other trailers at Iola Roberts, but these are used for storage.
He said two trailers at Duran South are used for testing, and one at Walter M. Kennedy Elementary School is used for storage.
“When I got here in 1999, we had 52 (trailers),” Mozingo said. “We had 12 at Coosa Valley, 12 more at Eden, six at the Pell City High School and we had a lot more at Iola Roberts.”
Hathcock said the moveable classrooms are not needed because of the construction of the Williams Intermediate School and the ninth-grade addition planned for the high school.
He said Duran North will only have eighth-graders next year, not seventh- and eighth-grade classes.
“That’s going to free up a lot of space,” Hathcock said, adding that he is pleased to eliminate 10 more moveable classrooms. “This is big. We’ll get some of those moved out this summer.”
In other matters Tuesday night, several students and groups were recognized and commended by the superintendent and board.
Those recognized at the meeting included Coosa Valley Elementary School student Lane Baltzer, who represented St. Clair County in the Alabama State Spelling Bee. Coosa Valley Elementary School students have represented the county for the past two years in the state spelling bee contest. Denise Reynolds, a fifth-grade teacher at Coosa Valley Elementary, is spelling bee sponsor at the school.
Hathcock said 15 students attended the Regional Science Fair at Talladega College Feb. 21-22. At the fair, Susan Williams placed second in Zoology and Andrew Jennert placed second in the Behavioral and Social Sciences.
Hathcock also commended the Pell City High School Junior ROTC, Show Stoppers and the high school concert and jazz bands.
He announced that the Pell City High School Concert Band performed at the Alabama Bandmaster’s Association District Concert Assessment last month and received an All Superior rating. The concert band was invited to perform at the state level assessment, where the group again received an All Superior rating.
The concert and jazz bands will travel to Virginia and perform in the North American Music Festival in May, Hathcock said.
He announced that the Junior ROTC participated in the Alabama State Drill Competition, where the Color Guard Team finished second and the Drill Team finished ninth out of 32 teams. The Junior ROTC academic team also grabbed a fourth place finish, while the Pell City High School Junior ROTC cadets finished ninth overall in the competition.
Hathcock said the Pell City High School Show Stoppers competed in several competitions this year, collecting a second place division mark and a fifth place overall performance at a competition in Picayune, Miss. The group will travel to Orlando, Fla., in April to compete in the Dynamic Music Festival.
