As the new school year begins, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) Office of Compulsory School Attendance Enforcement would like to remind parents about the law governing school attendance and about the deadline for notifying school districts of home school decisions. The compulsory school attendance law requires a parent, legal guardian or custodian who has legal control or charge of a child age 6 to 17 to enroll him or her in an education program (public, private or home school). Based on the compulsory school attendance law, a compulsory-school-age child means a child who has reached the age of 6 years on or before September 1 of the calendar year and who has not reached the age of 17 years on or before September 1 of the calendar year. The law also includes any child who will be age 5 on or before September 1 and has enrolled in a full-day public school kindergarten program. Parents interested in providing educational services to their child/children at home are required to complete a certificate of enrollment, which includes a simple description of the educational services. The certificate of enrollment must be submitted to the school attendance officer by September 15 of each year the child home schools. This is in accordance with the compulsory school attendance law. Parents should keep a copy of the enrollment form for their records. For additional information, please contact the local school district or the school attendance officer in your county. Families may also visit https://mdek12.org/OCSA.

The Mississippi Lottery Corporation (MLC) will introduce its third draw-style game, Cash 3, on Tuesday, September 1. Tickets for the highly anticipated game will be available for purchase in approved lottery retailers starting at 5 a.m. (hours of operation may vary by retailers). “Many players have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this game,” said MLC President Tom Shaheen. “While a large number of Mississippi players are already familiar with this daily draw game popular in surrounding states, it will be new to others.” Players may choose a favorite three-digit number (from 000-999), such as 123, or choose the quick-pick option, which permits the terminal to randomly select their numbers. Players also have the choice of eight different play types including a unique “1-OFF” option where players can win a prize if any one digit in their number is off by one number up or one number down. For example, if 476 is drawn and the player has selected the “1-OFF” option, they can win a prize if their number is 376, 576, 466, 486, 475 or 477. A step-by-step video of how-to-play can be found on the MLC website at https://www.mslotteryhome.com/games/cash-3/. “Players enjoy this game because of so many ways to play and win,” said Shaheen. “Regardless of how many people play or how many people win, the set prize amounts are the same.” Ticket prices are $.50 to $1. Players also have the multi-draw option, similar to Powerball® and Mega Millions®. Depending on play-type, prizes range from $36 to $500. The highest prize for a $1 play is $500. Winning numbers are posted at mslotteryhome.com at approximately 9:50 p.m. Central Standard Time. Additionally, television stations WCBI-Columbus, WXXV-Gulfport, WJTV-Jackson, WMDN-Meridian and WGBC-Meridian will also post results from the drawings (times may vary based on station schedules). Players may redeem winning tickets at approved retailers or the MLC headquarters.

HATTIESBURG, MISS. – As the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast prepares for two tropical systems heading toward the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) urges residents to get a plan in place before a hurricane threatens. “Katrina is a hurricane Mississippi will never forget. It serves as a reminder of why it’s so important to have your evacuation plan in place before a tropical storm threatens,” said Commissioner Tom King, Southern Transportation District. “As we keep a close eye on the developing tropics, we urge residents to act quickly and get their plans in place now.” Katrina made landfall as a category three hurricane on August 29, 2005, along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, leaving behind enormous destruction and significant loss of life. According to the National Weather Service, Katrina is one of the five deadliest hurricanes to ever hit the United States. The hurricane was responsible for 1,833 fatalities and approximately $108 billion in damage. Within six hours of landfall, MDOT first responders opened all structurally safe roadways to emergency response teams. Within 16 hours all state-maintained highway lanes had been cleared and opened for the public to access. However, major reconstruction was necessary, including two bridges on U.S. Highway 90. “MDOT stays prepared for any tropical system that threatens Mississippi,” King said. “Our first responders are stationed and ready to get highways back open as soon as possible for emergency responders.” To help residents prepare their evacuation plans, MDOT provides free resources including the MDOT Traffic mobile app, a hurricane evacuation kit checklist and the 2020 MDOT Hurricane Evacuation Guide in English, Spanish or Vietnamese. The Hurricane Evacuation Guide features information to assist in developing a preparedness plan such as evacuation routes, contraflow information, radio coverage areas through Mississippi Public Broadcasting and important contact information from the Mississippi Highway Patrol, American Red Cross, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and bordering state DOTs and highway patrols. Individuals and families will find vital information about shelters, pet care, lodging and travel resources. To download the Hurricane Evacuation Guide and the full hurricane evacuation kit checklist, and for more hurricane safety tips, visit GoMDOT.com/hurricanes. As MDOT monitors the tropics you can follow @MississippiDOT on Facebook and Twitter along with the hashtag #HurricaneStrong to stay up to date.

JACKSON, Miss. – The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) will be hosting drive-through COVID-19 testing sites for Mississippi teachers and staff at various county health departments over the next few weeks. Any K-12 teacher, staff or administrator can be tested for free at the county health department locations below. Testing hours are noon to 7 p.m., and no appointment is necessary. Visit the MSDH website at www.HealthyMS.com/locations for addresses of the county health departments. MONDAY, AUGUST 24 Tallahatchie – Charleston Alcorn Attala Chickasaw – Houston Copiah Newton Adams George TUESDAY, AUGUST 25 Tunica Holmes Choctaw Yazoo Clarke Lauderdale Amite Pontotoc WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26 Grenada Lafayette Sunflower – Indianola Noxubee Rankin Wilkinson Greene Hancock THURSDAY, AUGUST 27 Yalobusha Marshall Leflore Oktibbeha Warren Scott Franklin Lamar FRIDAY, AUGUST 28 Tate Union Montgomery Lowndes Claiborne Smith Franklin Lamar Additionally, daily testing is offered for teachers, staff, and school administrators at the West Street Farmer’s Market in Jackson or any pop-up testing site sponsored by MSDH, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and the Mississippi National Guard. Appointments are required for the pop-up sites and the Farmer’s Market, and testing hours are 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. To make an appointment, visit https://umc.edu/CoronaVirus/COVID-19-Testing/Home.html. Follow MSDH by email and social media at HealthyMS.com/connect.

JACKSON — Governor Tate Reeves issued social distancing measures for college and university outdoor stadiums and game day events to ensure the safety of participants and limit transmission in the continued fight against COVID-19. Working closely with college and university leadership and consulting with state health experts, Governor Reeves signed a new executive order to establish social distancing measures for campus outdoor stadiums that are in effect until Monday, August 31 at 8:00 AM. "I know it’s a topic that we constantly get questions about. It’s something that’s been polarizing around the country—some conferences have opted not to make any effort to play. Some states have not yet put out their plans," said Governor Tate Reeves. "This is an effort, which we worked closely with the universities on, to set a floor. We took their joint recommendations, and with a little work we put this plan together. This is the minimum that each school is required to do this fall, to keep players and spectators safe while allowing college football to occur." The Governor made the announcement at today's press briefing, which you can view on our Facebook page here. Under Executive Order No. 1519, bowl seating is limited to no more than 25% of seating capacity while maintaining six feet distance between households, with limits on club areas and suites as well. Additional social distancing measures include: Everyone over the age of 6 must wear masks as they enter/exit and throughout the stadium, unless they are seated. Masks are strongly encouraged while seated. Game day events such as tailgating and rallies outside the stadiums are prohibited. Individuals allowed on the sidelines are limited to those essential for the game. Concession stands are open, though grab-n-go food and drink options are strongly encouraged. All transactions should be contactless and touchless, such as mobile ticketing and cashless concessions. You can view the full list of measures in the text version of Executive Order No. 1519 here. Signed versions of all executive orders related to COVID-19 can be found on our website at governorreeves.ms.gov/covid-19.

Wesson Attendance Center (WAC) begins a two-week distance learning plan (8-17-20) encompassing all K-12 students. Packets can be picked up throughout the day until 6 p.m. Students will be counted as present for the first day of school if their packet is picked up. WAC will check attendance of all students daily. Students need to follow instructions for signing in to make sure they are counted as present. During the distance learning period, breakfast and lunch will be delivered to students who complete the application on the Copiah County School web site HERE.

Today, Governor Tate Reeves launched new COVID-19 initiatives to ensure the health and well-being of students and teachers as they return to school. Understanding the concern of many as schools reopen across our state, Governor Reeves is expanding COVID-19 testing for all Mississippi teachers, even for those without symptoms, and emergency telehealth coverage through the Mississippi Division of Medicaid (DOM) to include schools. "Today, as we work to ensure that children can achieve some quality learning in the state of Mississippi, we are announcing two measures to increase access to health care and COVID-19 prevention in schools. First, we are expanding school-based emergency telehealth coverage throughout the state of Mississippi," said Governor Tate Reeves at today's press briefing. "This will allow schools, even those without school nurses or school-based clinics, to access telehealth services. We also know that testing can allow us to prevent the spread of the virus by immediately identifying and isolating known cases. As teachers return to the classroom, we want to make it simple for them to get access to testing." The Governor made the announcements at today's press briefing, which you can view on our Facebook page here. Working closely with the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) to protect our hardworking teachers, the Governor is providing more flexibility for teachers to get tested. This expanded testing for teachers will enable them to get tested at any point, even if they have not exhibited symptoms of COVID-19 or come in close contact with a known case.  Teachers will have three options for testing across Mississippi: at MSDH's Jackson site at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, community sites across the state, as well as by rotating testing teams at their home county health department. Testing teams will rotate every two weeks at county health departments, where teachers can drive up and get tested. As school districts and their communities tailored their plans to reopen schools safely, Governor Reeves worked with Executive Director Drew Snyder to help boost efforts to protect students, enabling schools without school nurses or school-based clinics to access telehealth services. “Extending telehealth coverage has been a key part of ensuring access to care during this public health emergency,” said Executive Director Drew Snyder. “As children return to the classroom, increasing access in school settings is more important now than ever.” Under this expansion of school-based emergency telehealth coverage, schools are approved as temporary telehealth originating site providers on the condition that services are facilitated by a telepresenter acting within their scope of practice and license and/or certification. Telehealth services are traditionally delivered by an enrolled Mississippi Medicaid provider located at a distant site to a beneficiary located at an originating site, such as a clinic. DOM’s telehealth policy already allowed school-based clinics – staffed by a physician, nurse practitioner, or a physician assistant providing well and sick care – to serve as an originating site for a beneficiary in need of services beyond the clinic’s abilities. The amended Emergency Telehealth Policy allows any school to serve as the originating site as long as the distant site provider uses a telepresenter who meets the definition of Miss. Admin. Code Part 225, Rule 1.1.D. Telepresenters can include registered nurses employed by a school/school district or staff employed by a Rural Health Clinic, a Federally Qualified Health Clinic, or private provider.

By Bob Arnold A long list of people is associated with the proud history of the Co-Lin band program, but no one has a longer association with it than Stanley Stewart, who landed at the college in 1970 and stayed on until 2012 -- eleven years after his official retirement. When Stewart came to Co-Lin, its marching band, like others elsewhere, performed line drills. It was a show band focused on musical themes that featured its Collette dancers when he left, evolving through a period when it was influenced by the symmetrical sets and circular formations of drum and bugle corps that carried flags and rifles. Stewart jokes that he "was born one morning when the sun didn't shine" at Kosciusko, Mississippi, the namesake of the Polish American Revolution general, and grew up in Vaiden, Mississippi, where he graduated from high school in 1963. "I came to music under the influence of my mother, who played the piano, which I used to bang on," Stewart recalls. In junior high school, Stewart, of slender build, learned that athletics was not his calling, as a guard on the football team. So he pursued band as a trumpeter. After a year at Holmes Junior College, where he played in the band, Stewart transferred as a sophomore to Mississippi State University (MSU), played in its Maroon marching band, brass choir and concert band, enjoyed trips to LSU, Auburn and Ole Miss and graduated with a degree in instrumental music in 1967. Before taking over the reins of the band program at then Co-Lin Junior College, Stewart directed bands at Eupora (Mississippi) North High School and Coahoma county (Mississippi) High School. He started at Co-Lin as director of the college's marching and concert bands and jazz ensemble and the Wesson Junior High School Red Knight band, and taught instrumental music to college students, all while working on his Master's Degree in music and education at MSU, which he received in 1972. Stewart came to a band program largely known for its dancers -- the Colettes, who numbered about 60 at the time. Classes were taught on the second floor of the Mutton Building and the marching band practiced inside an old structure behind the administration building that has since been torn down and replaced by a parking lot. "We called it the desert," Stewart recalls. "It was a horrible building that featured 12 supporting square pillars, which the band had to maneuver around as it practiced." The Colettes remain an integral part of the Co-Lin band program, but Stewart reduced their numbers by half so they did not dominate the musicians. He also moved the band program across campus to a new fine arts building and marching band practice field in 1973, and became the college's fine arts division chair as well. Stewart retired as director of the Co-Lin band program in 2001, but continued to assist his successors with the marching band, or show band, as it has become known, and leading the jazz ensemble. He continues to live in Wesson with his wife Sheila, who worked in the registration office at Co-Lin when they met. He has a daughter, Angela, 46, by a previous marriage, who is an education administrator at Harding, Texas. What are your hobbies? I enjoy stamp collecting, gardening, cooking -- barbequing particularly, traveling to Orange Beach and in Europe -- Paris, Venice, Spain. I have a small shop, where I do repair work. Are you a reader? I read alot. Newspapers, history books on the Civil War, World War I and World War II with lots of pictures. I am not much into fiction. Do you enjoy movies or theater? I am a Bill Murray fan. I like comedies, dramas, and war movies. My favorite movies are Dr. Strangelove, Where the Buffalo Roam, In Glorious Bastards, a war film. I like opera, too. I enjoyed Rosini on a European trip at the Venice Opera House. How about music? Except for rap and pop 20 music, I enjoy about everything. Whalen Jennings and Willie Nelson country music. Classical -- Bach, Beethoven, Handle, Vivaldi, the Russian composers. Jazz. How would you spend your lottery winnings if you were so lucky. I would tithe to my church -- Beauregard United Methodist, where I serve as a Deacon. I would give to Co-Lin and Mississippi State. Sheila and I would travel. How would you change the world? I would get rid of all the illnesses, find a cure for the coronavirus; stamp out poverty and end religious conflict.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) awarded Copiah County a solid waste assistance grant of $48,917 that will be used by the county for  unauthorized dumpsite cleanup and a solid waste enforcement officer program.  The agency also awarded the county a $75,000 two-year waste tire grant to continue the local waste tire collection program for small quantity generators of waste tires. “The Solid Waste Assistance Grants support a variety of useful solid waste management activities for cities and counties, and these grants will assist Copiah County’s efforts in improving their management of solid waste,” said Chris Wells, MDEQ Interim Executive Director. Cities and counties may apply for Solid Waste Assistance Grants through the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. These grants are used by local communities for programs to prevent and clean up unauthorized dumps; to aid in hiring local solid waste enforcement officers; for public education efforts on solid waste disposal and recycling; and to establish programs for the collection of white goods, bulky wastes and recyclables. Funding for waste tire grants is provided by a waste tire account funded from a fee charged on the wholesale sale of every new motor vehicle tire sold in Mississippi. This fee provides the funds to ensure and encourage the proper management and disposal of waste tires. Information about this grant program and other initiatives is available at www.mdeq.ms.gov/solid-waste-management-programs.

Mississippi SIDS & Infant Safety Alliance and our title sponsor, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi, will host the Little Feet for Safe Sleep Virtual 5K/10K Run/Walk the entire month of August 2020. This virtual walk/run will take place wherever and whenever the participant decides. It can be at home, on a trail, any road, or treadmill, even in another state! You can run your own race, at your own pace, and time yourself. You can run or walk with friends or by yourself. When you finish your race, come back to our website and submit your time, who you are honoring with your race, and your chosen distance. We encourage you to walk or run in memory or honor of a loved one. We also want you to send us pictures of you walking or running, your time, and who you are honoring, and we will share it on our social media sites. Registration is $35.00 and includes a medal. There is no registration deadline. The race runs from August 1, 2020 – August 31, 2020. Medals will be mailed out after August 31st. This event will benefit the Mississippi SIDS & Infant Safety Alliance to help continue our educational programs and outreach. Our mission, even during this Covid-19 pandemic, is to make sure that our babies are sleeping safely, that our families and infant caregivers are receiving the much needed education on SIDS/SUID Risk Reduction, and how to provide a Safe Sleep environment. We also continue to provide bereavement support for families and caregivers that have experienced the loss of an infant. To register and for more information on the Little Feet for Safe Sleep Virtual 5K/10K Run/Walk 2020, please visit our virtual race webpage, Little Feet For Safe Sleep. For more information, news, and tips on how you can help reduce the risk of SIDS & SUID related deaths, please visit our website at www.ms-sids.org. Keep in touch with us on social media through our Facebook page and on Instagram.

Beginning Saturday, August 22nd , the Jackson Zoo will be opening its doors since closing down on September 30, 2019. The sudden outbreak of Covid-19 hindered the facility’s original plan to re-open in the Spring of 2020. There will be new guidelines in place to protect the public and prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Jackson Zoo’s reopening plan also includes a limitation on no more than 500 guests allowed inside daily and limit of no more than 10 guests per group. There will also be a mandatory mask requirement in place. Their initial re-opening hours will be Saturdays from 10am to 4pm, and Sundays from 1pm to 4pm. Dippin’ Dots, Brick Street Pops, and other delicious treats will be available near the café seating area, and Pepsi machines are on grounds. Follow the Jackson Zoo on social media for more updates: - Facebook - Instagram (@JacksonZoo) - Youtube - Twitter You can find more information including COVID-19 guidelines on their website here: https://jacksonzoo.org

Special to Wesson News Stan Foster of Brookhaven has been elected to serve on the Co-Lin Foundation Board. Foster graduated from Mississippi State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in fisheries management and a Master’s Degree in business administration and finance. He has been in banking for more than 25 years, and is currently a community bank president for Trustmark National Bank in Brookhaven. Foster serves on the board of directors and is chairman for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Southwest Mississippi District. He is a member and past president of the Krewe of Ceres, a member and past president of the Brookhaven/Lincoln County Rotary Club, and member and past president of the Brookhaven/Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce. He also serves on the Mississippi School of the Arts advisory board. Foster has previously served on the Brookhaven Public School District planning committee, the Entergy Southern Advisory Council, and the Exchange Club board where he is a past president. Foster has been married to his wife Sarah for 20 years, and they have two children, Will and Meg. Meg will be attending Co-Lin this fall. They are active in First Baptist Church Brookhaven, where he is a Sunday school director and teacher, and a Dave Ramsey course facilitator. Foster is also a coach for Brookhaven Dixie Youth Baseball. The Co-Lin Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which serves as the fundraising arm of the college. The Foundation is governed by a 25-member board of directors whose goal is to raise private monies to support the mission of the college.