A new elementary school is in the works for the Lafayette County School District.

LCSD Superintendent Adam Pugh says that while a bond referendum will eventually be necessary, it’s still too far out to tell exactly when it will happen.

“We’ve been talking about it for about a year,” Pugh said. “We don’t have a definitive timeline to do a referendum. What we’re trying to do is find a place to build it because we don’t have any more room at our current location. We’re talking with some people about some land that’s in close proximity to us. Once we get that in mind, we’re going to move forward. We need a school right now, but we’re just not in the position where we can move forward with a referendum.”

On Monday evening, the LCSD Board of Education held a public hearing for next year’s budget. The board will vote on the budget on Aug. 7. As it currently stands, the new budget will be $2 million more than it was this past year.

Yesterday, educators and administrators from both the Lafayette County School District and the Oxford School District kicked off their year yesterday before any students showed up at the schools.

For the first time ever, the districts had a day-long joint meeting in the Gertrude Ford Center on the Ole Miss campus to hear from motivational speaker Todd Whitaker.

Whitaker is considered a leading presenter in the education field and one of the nation’s best on staff motivation, teacher leadership and principal effectiveness.

Pugh and Oxford School District Superintendent Brian Harvey were both in attendance, along with the staff from each district’s schools filling the Ford Center.

Whitaker’s message was clear to all the educators: “a great teacher has high expectations for their students, but even higher expectations for themselves.”