A group of Hattiesburg Public School District stakeholders to provide feedback on the $22.5 million in renovation and remodeling funds will be established in the next few weeks after Tuesday’s landslide passage of the bond renewal.
HPSD Superintendent Dr. Robert Williams said the group will be valuable in getting input and feedback from the district’s residents.
“For the next few weeks, we will be rolling out part of our Share the Decision Making Council that we are very excited about to get more input from our stakeholders,” he said at a post-election celebration Tuesday night. “It will be a sounding board for the superintendent and also make sure that we are receiving positive constructive feedback from constituents. It will also make sure that we are communicating with the community.”
The renewal of a 4.84-mill bond required a 60 percent approval rating from the school district’s electors. Of the 2,653 ballots that were counted in preliminary voting, 93.97 percent (2,493) favored passage. Only about 10 percent of the registered voters in the district cast ballots.
For the City of Hattiesburg and the school district, both leaders stressed that the process would be open to those district residents.
“From this point moving forward, we are going to be very transparent in the process,” Williams said. “We will make sure that we are involved with our stakeholders and make sure that we have a mechanism in place where we will be very transparent with the expenditures. We will be doing some renovations to our website so that we can be very transparent in that process.”
Hattiesburg Mayor Toby Barker, who championed the city’s campaign to pass the bond issue, said the city will remain involved in how the renovations are progressing.
“I believe what we’ve shown in the first 10 months at City Hall is transparency,” he said. “I think the new School Board does as well. So, I think the community needs to be involved with this process and work with these projects until fruition.”
The financial standing of the Hattiesburg Public School District is solid, Barker said.
“You’ve seen just in the last 18 months how far we’ve come financially,” he said. “We’ve seen our fund balance is better than it has been in some time. People can have confidence in the fiscal responsibility of the School Board.”
Barker said the bond passage is important in joining the city government and the school system as one entity.
“Each small victory – whether it’s a state championship in baseball or track and field to a parade to a bond issue – each victory strengthens the fabric and bonds in the steps of faith that we can take together,” he said Tuesday night. “So, tonight we take a huge step of faith together, and I believe in the coming months we are going to be taking more of those. I look forward to where we’re going.”
