At a March 17 board of education meeting, the Crenshaw County school board and superintendent approved programs to benefit students, including a summer food program and Success Quest field trips. 

For this summer, the board approved a measure for students to participate in a summer food service program, a program that will help provide food for students during summer break. 

“Crenshaw County schools will host summer feeding sites again this summer,” said Ruth Bayman, the Child Nutrition Program Director for Crenshaw County Schools.” The summer program is being revamped to the SUN program. Through this program, families will have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, breakfast and lunch items for up to seven days a week. By providing access to foods through the summer, we will allow them to grow and be prepared for school in the fall.” 

Additionally, two out-of-state field trips and one trip outside of the country were approved by the board.

The first trip was for the Career Academy DECA chapter to attend the DECA national conference in Orlando, Florida in April of this year. The second, a trip to Honolulu, Hawaii is part of the Success Quest series slated for summer 2026. 

Superintendent Ashley Catrett said trips like the one with Success Quest can help students grow their independence. 

“We’re trying to build independence on both parts,” Catrett said. “I’m a mom so I can say we need to help parents become more separated from those children who are going to be grown and gone soon, and we’re trying to build the independence of our students… ” 

For summer 2027, another Success Quest trip is planned for outside of the country. Students will visit Scotland and Ireland, with a back-up location of France and England. The location depends on the number of students attending and the ability to be paired with other schools on the same trip. 

More information on these trips will be provided at a later date, Catrett said, when Crenshaw County Schools will begin to advertise the trips to students and families. 

In other business, the board: 

* approved the contract for the superintendent, Ashley Catrett, outlining the terms of her employment; 

* approved several personnel items, which included resignations, a maternity leave and a hire for Crenshaw County Schools — Amanda Jones, who joins the district as a track coach for Brantley School following Cody Nichols’ resignation; 

* approved two non-employee volunteers with Luverne High School: Charlotte Denardo who will be volunteering with track, and Bryant Rushing who will be volunteering with baseball; 

* reviewed quotes for Uniti Fiber licenses for network switches and access points; and

* Pinnacle Networx’s uninterrupted power supplies for network equipment were approved for the 2025 fiscal year.  

The next regularly scheduled meeting will be April 21 at 5:30 p.m. at the Joe R. Sport Administrative Building.