ACS Heads Back to School, Plans Open House for Indoor Facility

ALBERTVILLE – Albertville City Schools are in full swing for the 2023-2024 school year. 

“The start of school this year has been one of the smoothest starts I’ve experienced,” said Interim Superintendent Todd Watkins during Tuesday night’s regular monthly meeting of the Albertville City Schools Board of Education. “I want to extend a special thanks to Mrs. (Beth) Rigsby and her team. They have had a big hand in this.” 

Watkins also updated the board on the status of the system’s 19 new electric buses. Buses should arrive sometime in September. Albertville received $7.5 million in federal funding for the buses thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program. 

The system, along with the Albertville Chamber of Commerce, is planning an open house for the kinesiology and exercise science building, which is almost complete. The open house and ribbon cutting will take place from 5-7 p.m. on Sept. 14. The multipurpose athletic training facility will meet the needs of all athletic programs. 

Located next to the Albertville Fine Arts Center, the building houses a 30-yard turf field, a sports medicine classroom, a rehabilitation lab, nets that drop to create an indoor practice facility for baseball and softball, and a state-of-the-art weight training facility. 

The facility was made possible by state funds set aside by Governor Kay Ivey. The city nor the board of education will be in any debt in regards to the new facility. 

During the meeting, the board also: 

  • Approved the minutes from each of the special called meetings for superintendent interviews, along with the minutes from the July 18, 31, Aug. 4 and 15 meetings.
  • Approved the fundraising revenue for August, and the listing of inventory to be recycled and deleted.  
  • Approved the job description for a migrant auxiliary teacher.
  • Approved the job descriptions for a board certified behavior analyst and system-wide nurse.
  • Approved the following personnel items:
    • Transfers
      • Emily Huntington, Jade Townsend, Donna Tabor, Pamela Fortner, Misty Brogdon and Dana Sanders all transferred from system-wide LPNs to system-wide nurses. Sharon Honea transferred from system-wide RN to system-wide nurse as well. 
    • Employments
      • Kendra Slaton was hired as a 12-month system-wide custodian.
    • Temporary Employments
      • Esmeralda Alvarez, 10-month temporary social worker at ACS to be paid from ARP ESSER funds, effective Aug. 14 – June 5, 2024.
    • Supplement Assignments
      • Bryant Nelson, track assistant at AHS.
    • Volunteers
      • Anthony Burgess, volunteer flag football coach, for the 2023-2024 flag football season.
    • Other
      • Jefforey Morgan, Jr., to drive a bus for extracurricular activities. 
      • Jon Cotten, Daniel Williams, Makenzi Golden, Paul Wilson, Amanda Brandon, Major Deacon, Sherry Little, Kriscenda Aaron, Kristi Scott, Ethan Turbyfill, Holly Moses, Torre Aaron and Justin Price to all work as admission gate workers at AHS/AMS athletic events, to be paid $45 per day for AMS basketball, volleyball, AMS football, flag football, baseball, softball, soccer, $60 for AHS basketball and $90 per day for tournaments, to be paid by AHS.
      • Debra Hardin and Mary Hamby to work as admission gate workers at AHS football events, to be paid $75 per game by AHS. 
    • Independent Contracts
      • Quinton Williams, PA announcer sub for varsity football games, to be paid $100 per game and not to exceed $500 by AHS football.
      • Charles Michael Williamson, scoreboard operator for the varsity football games, to be paid $50 per game and not to exceed $300 by AHS football.
      • Taylor Gwaltney, boys/girls soccer goalkeeper coach at AHS, to be paid and not to exceed $600 by AHS boys/girls soccer funds.
      • Benjamin Andrew Vaughn, show choir/band combo for the 2023-2024 school year, to be paid and not to exceed $2,500 by AHS.
  • Approved the financials and reconciliations for July. In July, the district’s revenue totaled $8,613,263.68 and expenditures totaled $6,426,630.99. 
  • Approved the August fundraising requests.
  • Approved the low bid as submitted by A-Labs After School Labs for after school literacy tutoring.
  • Approved the AHS FFA to travel to Indianapolis, Ind., Oct. 31-Nov. 3 for the 96th National FFA Convention.
  • Approved the request to extend the existing SRO agreement with the City of Albertville and ACS for 60 days at the same terms.

The board held special called meetings on July 31, Aug. 4, and Aug. 15 at 7:15 a.m. Minutes from those meetings can be found online by visiting albertk12.org and clicking Board of Education. 

AKPK student Maci Burgess runs toward her teacher on the first day of school.