As two new trustees took their seats at the head table Thursday night, Vicksburg Warren School District board members approved on a 4-1 vote an additional $75,000 investment in professional development for teachers at the two junior high schools.

District 1 trustee Bryan Pratt and District 5 trustee Sally Bullard, elected in November, were sworn in by Warren County Circuit Judge M. James Chaney, the board’s former attorney. Pratt and Bullard replaced outgoing trustees Jerry Boland and Tommy Shelton.

Agenda items for their first meeting included a proposal by Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Duran Swinford to extend the district’s agreement with JBHM Education Group of Jackson, with which VWSD contracted in October to provide professional development for teachers at the high schools.

“The teachers feel it has been beneficial,” Swinford said, and those at the junior highs have asked for similar training.

The initial contract, which came with a $174,000 price tag, called for JBHM consultants to review the high school curriculum and work with the secondary teachers to develop more effective instructional strategies with the goal of improving test scores and the ratings of individual schools and the district as a whole.

District 3 trustee James Stirgus Jr. cast the dissenting vote, saying he wants to be able to tell his constituents the initial investment has worked before spending an additional $75,000.

“Right now we don’t know what that $174,000 is worth,” said Stirgus, who also voted against that proposal at the board’s Sept. 30 meeting, citing cost concerns. “We’re just throwing money out right now.”

Board president and District 2 trustee Zelmarine Murphy said that as she has visited schools, she has seen “positive things on the lesson plans that were not there before. That gives me hope.”

“We have two high schools and two junior highs that are at risk of failing,” said Swinford, citing a sense of urgency. “The best investment that we can make is in people, the folks in the classrooms, the first line of defense. As a result of investing in people you get better educated kids. As a result of better educated kids you get better test scores. We need to make this investment up front.”

Pratt said trustees “would be remiss” if they waited for another round of test results before investing in additional teacher training.

The cost of the extended contract will be paid from additional federal school improvement funds received because of the district’s At Risk of Failing label and dedicated to professional development.

The contract provides for developing different teaching strategies, including methods for dealing with different learning abilities within a classroom, and better vertical alignment of curriculum between the junior and senior high schools, Swinford said.

VWSD has received the At Risk of Failing label the past two years, and one of the goals set for Swinford when she was hired in August was to improve student test scores and school and district ratings.