DeSoto County schools are seeing an expensive side effect of rapid enrollment growth in recent years.

The Commercial Appeal reports the district spent more than one million dollars for lawyers' work between 2009 and 2011.

Superintendent Milton Kuykendall says large districts are big

targets and must spend money defending themselves from lawsuits.

Right now the district is facing down one lawsuit about prayer at football games and another about new policies to fight gangs that some call discriminatory.

SBEC's band will take part in the Bandmasters Championship, an annual contest hosted by the University of Memphis Band Alumni Chapter, on Saturday, October 29.

Proceeds from the contest benefit scholarships for the University of Memphis Band, "The Mighty Sound of the South.” The contest is held at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

Originally known as The Mid-South Invitational, the Bandmasters Championship began in 1963. In the 1990's the Band Alumni Chapter took on the responsibility of the event, which has hosted marching bands from all over the Mid-South. This year’s competition will feature 37 high school bands including the 2010 Grand Champion Munford High School from Munford. The 37 registered bands are the most ever to appear in the Bandmasters Championship.

Our friends at The DeSoto Times-Tribune recently reported on the distribution of over $80,000 through our partner agency, the DeSoto County Foundation for Excellence in Education. The Foundation held a Salute to Education event on Monday, September 26th where the announcements were made.

Earlier this year, the United Way volunteer network decided to distribute over $27,000 to the organization. The distributions are a mixture of volunteer-led allocations decisions, Combined Federal Campaign contributions, and donor-directed gifts.

Reporter J.B. Clark shares some of the highlights of the Salute to Education event in this story at The DeSoto Times-Tribune website.

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