The Marked Tree School Board agreed to allow an extra week for three local banks to submit their bids for the school district's banking business when it met in regular session recently.

Superintendent Gary Masters reported that one bank had asked for additional time to submit its bid. Masters extended the bid process an extra week. The banks are submitting bids to handle the district's fund for two years (08-09).

The board tabled the issue and may call for a special called meeting to discuss the bids.

All members of the board were present for the meeting along with Superintendent Masters. Board members Mike Dabney, Robert Boxley, Ira Lee Whitfield, Dale Smith and Carolyn Wages were present.

The school board also considered changes to the Marked Tree School District's grant writing policy. Betty Shaw of Jonesboro made a presentation to the board about her company's grant writing business.

The company, Shaw-Willoughby, has been writing grants for 29 years. Shaw and her partner, Miki Willoughby of Marked Tree, were exploring the possibility of working with the Marked Tree School District in finding funding possibilities for Marked Tree Schools.

The two charge a 10% fee for completing grant paperwork. Their 10% fee would be paid when the grant was received and would be written into the grant proposal. There would be a possibility, according to Shaw, that the 10% fee would be lowered on larger grant proposals or when Marked Tree Schools began receiving multiple grants.

The company has written major grant proposals for Jonesboro High School and has also done grant writing for smaller schools in the past.

Superintendent Masters said he would agree to doing business with the company with some guidelines. The first stipulation was the administration would determine if possible grants were in line with district goals. A second stipulation was that grant writing fees must be included in the grant and paid with grant funds, only.

A third stipulation was that the board would approve grants on a case by case basis. The final stipulation was that Shaw-Willoughby would not be the exclusive grant writer for the school district.

The company, he said, should notify the district if it found a grant the district might be interested in. The school district would also notify the company if it found a grant it was interested in.

Masters told the board that writing grants fell under the terms of professional services and the board did not have to let bids on grant writing.

School Board President Mike Dabney said that most grants take six months or a year for the application to be approved. Shaw told the board that she would need a lot of information about the school district and the grants it would be interested in before she started processing grants.

The board approved a decision to sign a contract with the grant writers when they found a grant the district wished to apply for. The firm will be actively pursuing grants in the next few weeks. Superintendent Masters said he would schedule time for the grant writers to meet with all school principals and himself.

In other business, the board:

*Considered changes to the district's employee handbook for 08-09. They read the proposed changes for the first time. A second reading will take place at the board's June meeting.

*Approved a motion for Superintendent Masters to attend a leadership training class.

*Approved the resignation of Greg Slate, secondary science teacher, Wren Wigginton, junior high English teacher, Latia Hendrix as special education aide and Jean Cook, school nurse.

*Hired Stacy Jones, 7-12 English teacher for the 08-09 school year.