James Clemens High School has a basketball coach from a rival school.

Luther Tiggs from Sparkman High School has been hired as basketball coach and was introduced to the Madison Board of Education at its Feb. 9 meeting.

Tiggs has coached in Alabama for 25 years. His teams have won area championships 9 out of 10 years. “I want to build a culture of doing things the right way,” Tiggs said. Superintendent Dr. Dee Fowler said Tiggs runs an exemplary program at Sparkman.

Instructional coaches reported on Challenge Day, with students and teachers in interactive exercises to develop tolerance. “Challenge Day was intended to make students feel safe and loved every day,” Jacqueline Flowers said.

Board member Dr. Terry Johnson said her son attended Challenge Day and later said, “I didn’t realize popular kids have problems, too.”

For this topic, the audience watched “I Am Human,” a video with Liberty Middle School students and teachers admitting a personal fact. After Challenge Day, students have joined “Be the Change” teams.

For National School Counselors Week, elementary school counselors were recognized. Today’s counselors reach out with character building exercises, bully resistance, ‘power lunches’ and a knitting club.

For the “We Care” initiative, schools are helping student families facing hardships. “We want to reach beyond classroom to show families that we care and reach out in the community to bring in resources,” students services coordinator Dennis James said.

“We’ve been behind on revenues up to $1 million and were concerned,” board member Phil Schmidt said. “The good news is that money is coming to us, just slower – both on national and state levels. We’ll be back on budget in about one month.”

Johnson said Gov. Robert Bentley again is considering transferring money from the education fund to the general fund. “We as board members are telling our legislators we can’t afford any cuts,” Johnson said.

Stacey Donaldson with United Way acknowledged the district’s support.

After regular business, the board entered executive session to discuss pending litigation by Towanda Moore, mother of Todd Brown who was fatally shot at Discovery Middle School.