The status of a Vicksburg Warren School District principal remains in limbo but is expected to be decided before students and staff begin their Christmas vacation with early dismissal Tuesday, Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Duran Swinford said.

Rodney Smith, principal of Warren Central High School who has been on leave since Nov. 10, has been working in the district office since returning Dec. 6, Swinford said Thursday.

“He is working on professional learning communities and developing a Power Point presentation,” she said. “We have kept him busy.”

Smith’s status — whether he will return to Warren Central or be assigned to some other role or site — was to have been decided by the school board, but based on an agenda item withdrawn from consideration at the board’s monthly business meeting Thursday night, a trustee hearing is no longer needed.

Swinford, who has remained mum on the nature of Smith’s leave from Warren Central, said this morning that she will make a decision about his long-term placement by Tuesday. Trustees can accept, reject or modify her recommendation, she said.

Reached by phone, Smith has declined to comment on the nature of his leave and the reasons for it.

Meanwhile, a Vicksburg Intermediate School math teacher who lacks Mississippi Board of Education certification has been replaced, the superintendent said. The Department of Education had knocked the district’s accreditation rating down a notch, to Advised, citing two teachers who lacked required certifications. One had already been replaced.

Swinford called the VIS move “a heartbreaker,” saying student math scores in the teacher’s classes proved her ability despite lack of “the piece of paper.”

“Here we are in this time when everyone is looking at accountability and test results and I have to replace this teacher,” Swinford said. “When you have the data to support it, she should still be in there teaching math.”

Swinford said she has retained the teacher as a tutor and will put her back in the classroom as soon as she has completed the requirements for certification.

At Thursday’s meeting, which District 5 Trustee Sally Bullard did not attend, the board approved removing two capital assets from district inventories. The items, a $600 to $700 video camera and a $200 cell phone, had been reported lost — the cell phone by a member of the district’s special education department and the camera by a teacher at Beechwood Elementary School, said Mike Ouzts, the district’s property manager.

Trustees voted unanimously to delete the items, but board president Zelmarine Murphy and District 1 Trustee Bryan Pratt said the board needs to look at revising policy and issued stern admonishments about staff members exercising care with such items and reporting losses promptly.

“If you check out equipment and take it home, that’s OK, but bring the school’s equipment back,” Murphy said. “We cannot continue to replace equipment. Times are hard now.”

Ouzts said the policy mandates a lost or stolen form be completed for any missing item, and said reports, which include model and serial numbers, are filed with either the Warren County Sheriff’s Office or the Vicksburg Police Department, depending on the location of the school or office in question. Sometimes the items are recovered, he said.

“Each school has a designated responsible party, which is the principal,” he added. “Bottom line, if the board said they wanted a lost item paid for, the principal would have to do it.”

In addition to schools maintaining checkout lists, all capital assets are checked twice a year, Ouzts said.

The board’s next meeting will be Jan. 26. Swinford said she expects to present a completed, revised policy on letter jackets — to include the district’s providing jackets for students lettering in music and the arts in addition to athletics — for board approval at that time.

Swinford said the jackets, considered gifts, cannot be purchased from the general fund. The money comes primarily from ticket sales and gate fees, she said.