Pearl River Central School District Administrative Intern and Chemistry teacher Stephanie Morris gave an update on the continued focus on school attendance at the Pearl River Central School Board’s monthly meeting on Monday night.

Through the first two months of this school year, the average daily attendance of all schools in the district showed an increase for the first time since the 2011-2012 school year.

Pearl River Central High School showed the greatest individual improvement, with an almost one percent increase in average daily attendance through this same time last year.

Morris said that according to the Department of Education and Skills, if a school can increase attendance by one percent, they will see a 5-6 percent increase in achievement.

District incentives, such as free tickets to football games, have been used to motivate the students to compete for perfect attendance.

“District-wide we awarded 598 tickets to the football game,” Morris said, “so that’s exciting that 598 students in our district had perfect attendance through the months of August and September.”

PRC High School is currently participating in a friendly competition with Picayune, Hancock and Poplarville High Schools to see who will have the highest average daily attendance for the combined months of October and November.

In other business, the school board:

— Approved the resignation of English teacher Michael Pearson from PRC Middle School.

— Approved Emily Pigott as English teacher at PRC Middle School for the remainder of the school year.

— Approved a date for the annual school board inspection, which will take place on Nov. 19.

— Approved the purchase of a vehicle through the Mississippi Community Oriented Policing Services grant.

The PRC School Board will meet again on Monday, Dec. 1 at 6:30 p.m.