After much preparation over the summer months, the first week of school ended successfully in the Pearl River County School District, Superintendent Alan Lumpkin said.

At the monthly Pearl River County School Board meeting held Thursday, Lumpkin gave a report to the Board of Trustees in regard to the first week of school. He said that this was the first year they started classes on a Monday, so many staff members were exhausted.

“It’s been a great first week, but we have some weary people walking around,” Lumpkin said.

Lumpkin said there have been learning curves, such as locals getting used to the increased traffic in the mornings and afternoons. He said he wanted to thank the campus police for being outside school entrances each day to direct traffic.

Enrollment has increased by 100 students from the previous year to a total of 3,347 district-wide, Lumpkin said.

“It’s exciting that people are continuing to choose our school District for their children’s education,” Lumpkin said.

Before ending his report, Lumpkin reminded the Board that the Meet the Devils event will be held Saturday at 6 p.m.

Business Administrator T.J. Burleson gave an update on campus construction. He said developers finished plans for the Carriere campus. The McNeill campus plans are close to being finished. He said sometime next week he plans to gather school facilitators to present and finalize the plans.

Demolition for the old upper elementary administration building has been put on hold but will hopefully move forward soon, Burleson said. Due to the year in which it was built, the District has to wait for final demolition approval from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Lumpkin added that once the architects finish finalizing the plans they will go out for bid, which is a 45-day process. He said he hopes developers will be chosen in December and construction will begin at the beginning of 2019.

Board President Elaine Voss asked Lumpkin and Burleson when the Intru-Door safety locks were going to be installed on classroom doors. Burleson said he was advised to speak to County Fire Marshal Albert Lee before moving forward with installation. Burleson said he contacted Lee and after showing him the plans was given approval to move forward. The safety features are currently in the construction process and will be installed soon.

Before going into executive session, the Board passed a motion to allow a special election to be held in November, 2018 to elect board members in districts one and two to serve the remaining five years of the unexpired term.