Students at the Academy of Innovation are set to have new lab materials to use at the school.

The school board voted Thursday to approve a contract with Pitsco Inc.

The contract allows the AOI to use the company’s interactive instructional lab materials while the company observes how the materials impact the students’ learning through data like test scores, demographics and surveys.

“We’re part of a pilot so they can see how this new product will work, and they chose (principal) Jason (McKellar) to offer it to so that was pretty great,” superintendent Chad Shealy said.

A Pitsco lab has already been in place at the academy, but because the student body has grown, a second lab is being implemented into the school.

“As our clientele increased,  obviously the resources need to also. He’s (McKellar) got a matching lab for the other eighth grade team now that we have so many children over there. He needed more lab space,” Shealy said.

The district is getting a $10,152.92 discount on the program because of their involvement in the pilot and is only paying a total of $22,146.38 of the $32,299.30 full retail value.

Shealy said some of the materials the lab offers are laser physics, genetics and biochemical stations with an online version of the content, and those are just some of its benefits for the students.

“Throughout the year they rotate through all of those labs,” Shealy said. “It’s really impressive.”

During the meeting the board also formally approved a contract with Hinds Community College for use of facilities between the two academic institutions.

The paperwork approved classrooms on Hinds Vicksburg campus to house River City Early College High School.

“We wanted our Early College High School to be on campus and so did (Dean Marvin) Moak,” Shealy said. “The problem was they didn’t really have space so we tried to work that out.”

In return the Vicksburg Warren School District offered temporary use of a building just next door to the Vicksburg campus of Hinds, which the district had used as offices, for the community college’s adult basic education and general education program.

“That particular space is something we built in a flexible mindset because when the building is built on Hinds’ campus, we’ll begin to feed back in there and the district will retain that property that we have some creative ideas for,” Shealy said. “I’ll keep those under wraps until the time comes.”

A two-story, 40,000 square foot building is in the works on the Hinds Vicksburg campus to aid with the campus’ swift growth, Shealy said. Once it is completed, the adult basic education and general education program will move out of the district’s building.

In other business, a P-16 Council of community members and educators was enacted for Warren Central Intermediate School to recommend policies for the school based on data from the school.

“All schools in the state that are rated ‘D’ or ‘F’ are required by state law to have a P-16 community engagement council begun for the school,” president Mike Doyle said.

The council has a goal to improve the school to better represent the community. The group’s mission statement is “to assist the school district in building a school that is safe and academically focused on preparing students to become college and/or career ready. The council will collaborate with the Warren Central Intermediate representatives to assist with initiating policy formation.”