Paramount students and teachers participating in the robotics contest were front row – Briana Gordon; 2nd row Chiara Washington, Sabrina French, Jeremy Mobley, Michael Winn, Leotis Nickson, Amber French, N’Khala Richardson, Paramount Principal Dr. Harriet Lewis, Verna Nickson, Dorothy Hughes and student guardian Geraldine Sands; 3rd row – Adreonna Summerville and teachers James Kennedy and Janice Jeames.

At the regular meeting of the Greene County School Board on April 18, Superintendent Isaac Atkins honored the middle school students who took part in a recent robotics contest at Wallace Community College Selma.
She said that 25 middle and high schools from 12 Alabama counties were represented in a special workforce development program held recently on robotics.
The students had to construct a robot, write a program and then program the robot.
Both Paramount Jr. High and Carver Middle School students competed in this program,
Greene County took 1st place in presentation. “Mrs. Jeames with Paramount had them to design a robot and prepare a presentation to sell that robot to industries and businesses,” said Atkins. One of their presentations concerned the freight industry and using robots to place coal, lumber and other heavy items on trains or barges.
Another award they won was 2nd place in spirit and enforcement and The Little Robot That Could Award.
Atkins spoke of a student who is now attending UA majoring in robotics coming to Greene County and helping the students.
The March financial report shows that Greene County had a total cash and cash equivalence of $4,400,328 In March, their total revenue was $1,076,074 and total claimes paid amounted to $1,227,781.

Greene County student population is shrinking

In her report, Superintendent Atkins spoke of the declining population in Greene County, saying that according to the 2010 Census, the entire Blackbelt lost population, with a 9.3% drop in the population of Greene County.
Since state funding is based on the numbers of students attending school, this has already hurt the Greene County School System and with the expected further decline will lose even more.
Apparently, a large number of people in Greene are moving seeking jobs. This causes an even further decrease in student population.
“We’ve had 30 students transfer to Tuscaloosa,” said Atkins.
Atkins also reported on the success of the School Cast system in contacting parents and guardians about the early school closing due to the tornadoes on Friday. “This system makes calls to land lines, cell phones, e-mail and text mail. We can also let parents know when their students are missing school or late.”
Another subject of her report was Drop Out Awareness Month and the campaign in which the Greene County System is participating.
The students at Paramount and Carver got to tour the Inside-Outside Bus, which is half school bus, and the other side a realistic replica of a jail complete complete with bars, cots, etc.
This was to show the students how much choosing to drop out of school could affect their future, since the rate of drop-outs ending up in prison is high.
In other business, the Board:
*Approved by a 3-2 vote the Seamless Summer Feeding Program .*Approved Boardman, Carr, Hutchinson &  Bennett, P.C. (through Alabama Risk Management for Schools) to represent Greene County Board of Education in the Cleveland Austin case and coverage of all Board members and Superintendent and subject to investigation and opinion of the Board’s attorney.

Carver teacher, students and principal are L-R Cilla Morrow, LaDarius Brown, Dearron Freeman and Gary Rice. Brown is pictured holding one of the robots created by the students.