The Alba-Golden School District joined other Wood County school districts protesting the small school penalty which cuts funding to school districts which cover less than 300 square miles. That 300-square mile figure places the penalty on all six school districts located within Wood County.

Holding their regular monthly meeting on Monday, Nov. 14, the Alba-Golden School Board unanimously passed a resolution calling for the repeal of the provision which imposes a penalty on districts of less than 300 square miles. The penalty has been in effect for around 30 years and was originally put in place to pressure smaller districts to consolidate. Obviously Wood County is a prime example of how that did not work since there are six strong and very independent school districts in the county.

A report recently stated that this year had the penalty not been in effect, Wood County schools would have received a total of $3,402,000 more funds to help pay for the educations of their students. Alba-Golden’s share of that pie would have been $810,094.

On a more positive note, elementary students will soon be getting new, and much needed, playground equipment as a result of board action. Back in August the district learned that it would receive $94,299 from Rains County in Permanent School Funds with the money to be spent on some type of construction. One pressing need for Alba-Golden was replacement of old playground equipment that was in very poor condition.

After over two months of study on the project the board voted unanimously to utilize these funds and approve plans from Playwell Playground Group to construct a new, ultra-modern playground for its elementary students.

The Future Farmers of America made a presentation to the board and reported on their trip to the FFA National Convention, from which they brought home a national championship in TTA Quiz competition.

Total Campus Energy Optimization Services-Ideal Impact went over its presentation on the energy audit it did on the A-GISD campus and the board verbally agreed to move forward with the project.

Superintendent Dwaine Ellis reported that locker installation in the sixth grade building had been completed.

An executive session regarding personnel was conducted for about 20 minutes with no action being taken when the board came back into open session.