By Michael Shipma

Banks School has a new interim principal.

The Pike County Board of Education on Tuesday named Tracy Arnold the interim principal, temporarily filling the void left by principal Lee Scott’s medical leave.

“Tracy is an experienced administrator in our system who has been working as an assistant principal,” said Dr. Mark Bazzell, superintendent. “It looks as if Mrs. Scott will be out a little bit longer, and we felt like we needed to make Tracy interim until she gets better.

“We hope and pray that Mrs. Scott will get better soon, allowing her and Mrs. Arnold to go back to their previous positions.”

Bazzell also introduced a new and improved high school course catalog, which he said will help clarify previous course descriptions as well as eliminate certain specialty programs.

Bazzell also introduced the board’s 2016 Comprehensive Plan, which is a complete assembly of all the plans for the different aspects of the county’s education, something that is unique to Pike County. Topics such as nutrition, special education, and transportation were all addressed in the plan. Bazzell said the plan was similar to the 2015 plan.

The board concluded the meeting with an approval to delay a request for catastrophic leave from Valarle Thomas, who is a secretary at Pike County Elementary School. While Bazzell said he could not reveal the details of the request, he stated that the board will need to carefully review the guidelines for accepting such a request before it can be approved.

The board’s next meeting will be held on Monday, Jan. 18 at 5:30 p.m.