NATCHEZ — If an after school program had been put in place, Natchez High School might have had a 100 percent success rate on state tests, Natchez-Adams School District Board of Trustees Secretary Thelma Newsome said.

The board of trustees approved NHS’s request for an after school program aimed at tutoring students who failed the Subject Area Test, but Board Assistant Secretary Benny Wright wondered, “Why is this coming up so late?”

NHS Assistant Principal Roberta Phipps said the school’s administration failed to realize they had money in the budget for after school programs. The money was allocated in August.

“We’ve had the funds available since August? How long are we going to tolerate this?” Wright asked. “Somebody has to put a foot down. This is a travesty.”

Phipps said very few students had failed the tests, and that Natchez High did have many programs in place that were helping students achieve.

“We have to do a better job administrating,” Wright said. “Excuses don’t help.”

Newsome and Wright agreed that perhaps no student would have failed the subject tests had this program been in place since August.

“The bottom line is, our children have not had access to the results of these funds; we waited nine months,” Wright said. “Seems to me, we ought to be a little more efficient.”

The next Subject Area Test is in two weeks, and Phipps said having the program in place during this time would help the students.

In other news:

The board agreed to transfer $48,192.83 from the Carpenter School Fund to the Natchez High Track Fund. The board budgeted $260,000 for the track and its final costs came in at $308,192.83.

The board approved the state’s 2010-2011 salary schedule.

The Parents of the Year were recognized. The District’s Parent of the Year was Morgantown Elementary School’s Arcola Sullivan.

The board approved additional remuneration for Morgantown School’s Mississippi Curriculum Test 2 after school tutoring program.

The district will bid for hunting and fishing licenses on two properties, Township 08 North, Range 03 West for $32.25 an acre and Township 06 North, Range 04 West for $25 an acre.

The board approved student travel to the following:

NHS’s band to “Smokey Mountain Music Festival in Gatlinburg, Tenn., April 21 through April 25.

NHS Students to World War II Museum in New Orleans May 3.

McLaurin Students to Louisiana Arts and Science Center Museum in Baton Rouge.

NHS’s Air Force Junior ROTC Cadets to a competition in Jackson, Tenn., on May 18, and to the Summer Leadership School at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi.