By Sue Moore
Opening day of the 2018-2019 school year saw an enrollment of 2,645 students in Vicksburg Community Schools according to Superintendent Keevin O’Neill at the monthly school board meeting. “For budget purposes we had estimated 2,625 students, so this is a nice addition, but we won’t know for sure until we take the official count,” he said.
Much of the meeting was taken up with reports from various department administrators, with Mike Roy, athletic director pointing out the turf surface at the stadium is in good shape. The life expectancy was estimated to be 8-12 years; it is in its 12th year and getting a huge amount of use. “Lots of effort has gone into repairing it each year, making sure that the turf was within the acceptable limits for impact,” said Steve Goss, assistant superintendent.
“It’s paid off and we’re using it for free now,” said Board President Skip Knowles.
Citing student sport participation, Roy said that 53 percent of the high school student body played one sport during the last school year. Of the senior class, 88 played one sport and 33 participated in two sports with seven out for three sports. “We are trying to de-emphasize kids playing just one sport,” Roy told the board. “We believe that valuable lessons are learned in not specializing in one sport.”
Karen McKinstry, transportation director congratulated bus driver Jerri Gorsline who is now on her 47th year of driving for Vicksburg. She is now realizing that she is picking up some of the grandkids of children she started with many years ago.
Altogether the Vicksburg buses traveled 287,292 miles in 2017-18 with a total of 422,046 riders delivered safely during the school year. The buses have consumed 55,800 gallons of diesel fuel and 789 gallons of regular gas, using the smaller mini-vans largely for athletic contests with 48,378 students on board throughout the year. Special needs transportation totaled 86,376 miles.