The Madison County School Board voted Monday night to approve expenses above those normally allowed for travel so members can be reimbursed if they attend the American Association of School Administrators in Phoenix, Ariz., in mid-February.

The vote was 3-1 with board member John Lackey voting “no,” while members Betsy Bohannon and Glyn Green joined chair Becky Coyle in the affirmative. Doug Whitlock was absent.

The issue had been included in the board’s 16-item “consent agenda,” but was voted on separately at Lackey’s request.

School Superintendent Tommy Floyd said the AASA had invited district officials to attend and talk about recently implemented programs that have increased students’ academic performance while reducing absenteeism and behavior problems.

District officials already have shared those stories at a state conference in Louisville, the superintendent said, and a state education official had nominated them to speak at the AASA conference.

Many of the programs responsible for their students’ improved learning stem from ideas that board members and district administrators picked up at earlier such national meetings, Floyd said.

In addition to sharing their success stories with others, he said those who attend the Phoenix conference from Madison County will come back with new ideas.

As six site-based school councils met with the board before the regular meeting, “You heard how much they praised our MAP software (implemented this year) that tracks student progress,” Floyd said.

“As the Waco principal said, MAP gives us this year’s data on this year’s kids and shows teachers immediately when and where a student is struggling,” he said. “We learned about MAP and its usefulness at an educators’ conference.”

Floyd said the state would cover his expenses for the two-day conference, but funds budgeted for their training and travel would be used to reimburse the expenses of board members who attend.

According to Assistant Superintendent Paul Baker, board members normally are reimbursed no more than $7 for breakfasts, $8 for lunches and $15 for dinners when traveling on school business.

The allowable lodging expense is usually based on the average hotel prices of the city were a conference is conducted, Baker said.

The AASA Web site lists rates for attendees at hotels within “walking distance” of the conference center between $109 and $210 per night.

Lackey said he thought it would be “fine” for the superintendent and board chair to attend and receive recognition on the district’s behalf, while sharing its success story with their colleagues. However, he said attendance by other board members at taxpayer expense was unjustified.

“I’m sure a lot of people would like to visit Phoenix in mid-February,” Lackey said. “We’ll be criticized by the community if we pay for trips that look like vacations.”

Coyle said she thought Lackey, who has been on the board for less than one year, would appreciate the value of education conferences if he attended one.

“When (board members) came back from a conference last year, we were alive with new ideas, many of which have already been implemented to the advantage of our students,” she said.

Lackey also voted against trips to Orlando, Fla., by two Madison Central High School extra-curricular groups.

The MCHS Dance Team will miss three days of school in February to attend a national competition in the central Florida city, after the board approved the trip in a 3-1 vote.

“How do we justify a dance team trip to Florida as an academic activity” without losing state funds for the days student miss school? Lackey asked.

The state does not count students absences against a school if the board approves a trip, Floyd said.

Lackey also objected to the trip’s cost, about $25,000, for which $13,000 has been raised, according to the team’s faculty sponsor.

Lackey was the lone vote against a February trip by the MCHS cheerleaders to a national competition in Orlando. The cost for each member would be $470 with much of that covered by fundraisers, said Karen Feldhaus, the faculty sponsor.

Lackey said a constituent of his who had two daughters on a middle school cheerleading team in recent years reported the family’s associated cost of one year of cheerleading totaled $5,000.

He voted in favor of the cheer team’s less-expensive trips to Sevierville, Tenn., and Cincinnati in December, for which no school will be missed.

Lackey told Feldhaus that he had attended an MCHS football game this year and noticed the cheerleading team had no black members.

He asked, “Is that because their families cannot afford for them to participate in cheerleading?”

Feldhaus said for the first time in 16 years, no black students tried out for the team. She was not sure why, but said she did not think the reason was economic.

The Madison Central FFA’s trip to their national convention in Indianapolis, a Madison Middle School girls soccer team’s trip to Columbus, Ohio, both later this month and an MCHS Junior Classical League trip to Italy in June all received unanimous approval.

The board voted to take the first steps toward building a new, $23 million middle school in Berea by conducting a building and grounds study and advertising for an architect.

If approved by the state, Floyd said the new school could be ready as early as the fall of 2011. It would alleviate crowding at Foley Middle School in Berea where 800 students currently are enrolled, and also made space available to Madison Southern High School, adjacent to the Foley building.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.