The Pearl River County School District hired more than 10 new staff members during their recessed meeting held Monday morning.

The board approved hiring two special education teachers, a special education assistant, a substitute teacher, a high school art teacher, a high school English teacher, a head basketball coach, a secretary for the Center for Alternative Education, one special needs bus aid, three substitute cafeteria workers and one teacher assistant for the lower elementary.

The board also accepted four resignations.

During the superintendent’s report, assistant superintendent Nina Gutherie updated the board on a series of upcoming training the district’s teachers will undergo prior to the start of the coming school year.

The training will involve ensuring teachers are familiar with the requirements outlined in common core.

Instructional days will be held beginning August 1, and continue until the day before students start school on Aug. 7.

The sessions will focus on a number of topics, such as vertical alignment with common core state standards in the subjects of math, history, English and language arts, and science.

As with all schools in the state of Mississippi, Pearl River County schools will implement new testing standards this school year as outlined in the common core.

Those changes will specifically affect the areas of math and English language arts.

A “meet the teachers” event will be held on Aug. 5 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. for teachers in the grades of kindergarten through fifth, and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. for teachers in grades 6 through 12.

The next regular meeting of the school board will be Aug. 4 at 6:30 p.m.