Monday 11-14-2016 Regular Board Meeting

The Board held hearing today from 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. and decided to have their November meeting immediately following…

All Board members were present.. Meeting started at 10:45  This meeting’s agenda was fairly pretty short..

Board Attorney Jeff Jernigan reminded Board members that he needed screen shots of any Facebook postings offering cosmetology services by unlicensed individuals…

The Board reviewed a couple special candidates requesting to enroll in the cosmetology program.  You know Special Candidates means ” individuals that have a felony conviction”….

The Board received a Formal Complaint against a Nail Salon located in McComb.  This complaint was assigned to Dot Ennis and area Inspector to investigate and report back to the Board.

On behalf of Department of Human Services, the Board suspended a License holder due to their failure to be current with their child support..

Board President Waylon Garrett told the Board that recently he had the pleasure of meeting Senator Sally Doty who serves on the Public Health and Welfare committee.  Waylon stated that he had a brief conversation letting the Senator know that the Board had a few areas that they would like to update in the upcoming Legislative Session.  Senator Henson told Waylon that she would be more that happy to author the Boards proposed updates.

With this new information, the Board made the discussion to add to their agenda discussion on proposed legislative changes…  The Board took lunch Break from 11:27 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  The Board them resumed at 12:00 p.m. and went into Executive Session to discuss some personal matters…  I think I had something to do with the recent departure of office person Ms. Evelyn Brooks….  Executive session lasted until 12:45 p.m….  The Board then took another 15 minute “SMOKE” break from 12:45 p.m. to 1:06 p.m.

NOW I NEED FOR YOU TO STOP WHAT EVER YOU ARE DOING, THAT IS OTHER THAN READING THIS BLOG, SO THAT YOU CAN PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO WHAT I AM FIXING TO SAY….

When the Board returned at 1:06 p.m. Dr. Clyde Muse, President of Hinds Community College, arrived to discuss with the Board the 1.7 MILLION DOLLARS that is being spent to update the COSMETOLOGY department at its UTICA campus.. Dr. Muse was asking the Board if it was possible for them move the cosmetology department from its current building to the old home economic building. He stated that in order to do this 1.7 MILLION DOLLAR renovation it would be necessary to move the students to a temporary building as the 1.7 MILLION DOLLAR renovation was going to take approximately 3 months to complete. The Board told Dr. Muse that if he moved the students to another building he would be required to have that building licensed as a school.  The Board further asked if the old home economics building would meet the requirements to be licensed as a school.  Dr. Muse stated that they were going to move everything from the current building to the old home economics building and that it should not be any problem.  The Board gave Dr. Muse the necessary paperwork that would have to completed and approved by the Board…  

You all  should have seen my face, my jaw was almost to the floor…  Now, in my 30 years of OPENING and MOVING schools, I have never come close to spending that kind of money and here OUR hard earned TAX dollars to the tune of a whopping 1.7 MILLION DOLLARS, is being spent on a new cosmetology department in Utica, MS!!!!!    I checked the PCS testing records and in 2015 this school sent 2 students to test and as of November 2016 they have only sent 10 students for this year…  AND THEY ARE GETTING a 1.7 MILLION DOLLAR renovation….   I’m not saying that schools don’t need to be updated but this is WAY out of line for this program…  If someone took the time to check the expenses for Hinds Utica to teach this program verses the amount of money being spent to teach the program there is NO WAY its profitable…  They have to know this!!!

The rest of the day the Board spent reviewing the legislative updates it wanting to introduce for the 2017 legislative session…  The Board did a roll call vote for the following statute changes… Statute 73-7-1 “to allow active instructors to serve on the board” all Board members voted yes except Dorothy Ennis voted NO…. Statute 73-7-11 “removing pictures for school and salon licenses” all Board members voted yes…. Statute 73-7-13 ” changing language of accredited school to licensed school” all Board members voted yes… Statue 73-7-14 “requiring licensed cosmetologist, manicurist and estheticians to attend 5 hours of continuing education”  the Board was split.   No action was taken at this time.  Bertha Robinson & Waylon Garrett voted NO, Dorothy Ennis & Glenda Honeycutt voted UNDECIDED and Darlene Smith voted YES… Statute 73-7-15 ” creating a single 1000 hour instructor program” all Board members voted yes…  Statute 73-7-16 “removing a competency or aptitude test as a requirement to enroll in school” all Board members voted yes.. Statute 73-7-18 “increasing the esthetics course from 600 hours to 750 hours”  all Board members voted yes…    Statute 73-7-21 “increasing the manicuring course from 350 hours to 600 hours”  all Board members voted yes….