New Elmore County Board of Education member sworn in

It was almost fireworks for Bill Meyers’ first meeting as a member of the Elmore County Board of Education.

Meyers was appointed earlier this month to replace the retiring Col. Dale Bain. When Meyers walked into the boardroom, he saw an unexpected crowd.

“My son was up front with me before I was sworn in,” Meyers said. “He saw all the people and asked why they were all here. I said they were here to protest me. He was all worried.”

Instead, the crowd was Elmore County students and their parents. There were actors, writers, artists and wrestlers all getting recognized by the board.

After Judge Patrick Pinkston swore in Meyers, he joined other board members to congratulate wrestlers who placed in the state championships including from Elmore County’s Tyler Payton and Myles Eyerly; Wetumpka’s Noah Smith, Zach Crosthwait, Christian Preston, Willie Cox and Juliana Eldridge; and Stanhope Elmore’s Kristian Seals.

The Wetumpka Theater Guild was recognized for its accomplishments in the last few months.

Board member Wendell Saxon recognized winners of the Black History Month Essay and Poster Contest. The theme of this year’s contest was African Americans in the Arts.

The elementary school poster contest winners were: first place Bentley C. Macon of Wetumpka Elementary School and second place Haidyn Anderson of Wetumpka Elementary School. There was a tie for third place between Wetumpka Elementary School’s Zoey Medley and Millbrook Middle School’s Jason Strickland.

The middle school essay contest winners were: first place Tervarion Bullock of Wetumpka Middle School, second place Zaiden Mabien of Wetumpka Middle School and third place Wetumpka Middle schooler Chase Washington.

Winners in the high school essay contest were first place James Abrams of Wetumpka, second place was a tie with Stanhope Elmore’s Aysia Jackson and Wetumpka’s Alana Eaves. Third place was Madison Mitchell of Stanhope Elmore.

There were 124 posters submitted, 99 essays in the middle school division and 113 essays in the high school division.

“On the high school essays we had a lot of ties,” Saxon said. “We went to a few decimal places and still couldn’t break them.”

As Dennis was giving the board a status update on happenings in the school system, Meyers and other board members experienced a first — a fire alarm went off. Luckily, there were no more students or parents in the building. Board chair David Jones was content with presiding over the meeting as the alarm blared.

“You are supposed to evacuate,” a central office employee said. “When the fire alarm goes off, jump up and go out.”

It was 55 minutes into the meeting. Everyone evacuated before getting the all clear sign five minutes later. 

On their return the board returned to business by:

• Approving a memorandum of understanding for quality of life projects in Eclectic and Holtville.

• Approving a bid for HVAC renovations at Eclectic Elementary School in the amount of $989,500.00.

• Accepting lawn bids in the amount of $28,500 for the Holtville schools and in the amount of $31,000 for Millbrook schools.

• Renewing the contracts of principles at Wetumpka High School, Redland Middle School, Holtville Middle School, Holtville Elementary, Wetumpka Middle School, Redland Elementary School and Eclectic Middle School

• Approving the transfer of a teacher from Eclectic Middle School to ECAP.

The next meeting of the Elmore County Board of Education is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. April 16.