December 2023

Report Card December 2023 www.arsba.org

The Journal of the Arkansas School Boards Association

Three hometowns, one home district How does a consolidated school district composed of three rural communities in the state’s southwest corner produce three “A” schools and two “B” schools?

It helps that Emerson Taylor Bradley has committed educators like 49-year math teacher LaJuan Cannon and Superintendent David Downs. It’s not just in academics that the district excels. Taylor and Bradley played each other in the softball state finals last year in a game won by Taylor. In some sports, like trap shooting, everybody plays on the same team. The rural district may be remote, but it’s growing, and it will soon be growing more if the state’s lithium industry booms.

Thanks for a great year and a half

It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as president of the Arkansas School Boards Association this past year and a half. I have had the pleasure and honor of becoming a board member of a new organization that was created when we pulled away from the NSBA. That organization, known as the Consortium of State School Boards Associations (COSSBA), became a reality after a group of state executive directors got together, started the groundwork, and then brought presidents from their states in to make the final decisions. I am proud to say Arkansas is a charter member, and we have a say in decisions being made nationally.

Next, I’ve had the opportunity to go to our nation’s capital twice and advocate with our senators and representatives on issues in education that are relevant to our state as a whole, as well as issues that are close to home in our areas.

I would like to first thank my local board, the McGehee School Board, and our superintendent, Mrs. Linda Tullos, for their support and encouragement as I sat in this role. Secondly, I would like to thank the ASBA Board of Directors for entrusting me with the responsibilities of serving on their behalf and supporting me through it all. Thirdly, I would like to thank my family and friends for

2 December 2023 Report Card

by William Campbell ASBA President their prayers and encouragements as I sat in this role and traveled across the state and country on behalf of our public schools.

This journey has been an adventure that I will always remember and cherish.

Not only did I represent the children in my district, but I also represented and advocated for the children of the state of Arkansas. This has been a very trying year with the revamping of our education system, but through it all we’ve remained focused on what we feel is best for our kids. I’ve become lifelong friends with associates here and afar, and I will always stay in touch with them.

We all have a common bond, and that bond is wanting the best for the children that we serve.

I’ve received numerous phone calls from people asking for advice on issues, and hopefully the words of encouragement I gave helped. The key was to listen and explain that I am not an expert and then share what I would do if I were in that situation. That advice wasn’t shared as the ASBA president but as a 32-year board member. But again, thanks for thinking enough of me to call and ask for an opinion.

This is not the end of my journey.

I will continue to advocate for public schools and do whatever is necessary to not lose my focus. As a proud product of the public school system, I will always fight the cause. To me, all our schools are important because we hold and are responsible for our most precious jewels of the state – our children. It is our responsibility to make those decisions, both the favorable and unfavorable ones, that impact our youth.

In closing, again I say THANK YOU for your support, and I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year. I will be forever grateful and thankful to each of you for being the board members that you are, and for the stands that we take on educating the children of our state and striving to make them the best that they can be.

Report Card

The Journal of the Arkansas School Boards Association

News and Features 10

14

DESE: Work continues on LEARNS

The Division of Elementary and Secondary Education has adopted new literacy standards aligned with the Science of Reading as part of its implementation of the LEARNS Act. Those efforts were described at ASBA’s Regional Meetings in October.

Fall Leadership Institute: Storms cause insurance rate hike

ASBA’s Risk Management Property Program could pay out $160 million this year after a tornado destroyed most of Wynne High School and other disasters occurred. ASBA paid only $13.4 million in premiums. Storms are causing more damage, while construction costs are rising. Put it all together, and rates are going up.

18

School chiefs talk teacher pay, 75 hours

22

De Queen’s McCastlain Teacher of Year

24

Cover / Three hometowns, one home district

24 Emerson Taylor Bradley educators

like 49-year math teacher LaJuan Cannon and Superintendent David Downs have helped the consolidated district produce three “A” schools and two “B” schools on the state’s report card. Cannon tutors students at Taylor High each morning and has no plans of retiring. Downs serves all three communities who are part of one district.

Departments 2 President’s Column 6 Executive Director’s Letter 8 ASBA News and Notes 8 Calendar 9 Advertisers Index 30 Commercial Affiliates 31 Cody Kees’ Column 36 Marketplace

4 December 2023 Report Card

School districts are increasing teacher salaries, helping students achieve 75 community service hours, and addressing negative social media posts. Educator panels discussed those and other challenges at ASBA’s three Fall Leadership Institutes.

Beau McCastlain, a television production teacher at De Queen High School, is the Arkansas Teacher of the Year. He learned Oct. 9 that he had been selected during a surprise visit to his school studio by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva.

The Emerson Taylor Bradley School District is marked by two qualities. One is its admirable achievement levels. The other is its success in bringing together three southwest Arkansas communities.

32

Executive session with Joe Sheppard

39

Three win Milken Awards

Three Arkansas educators received $25,000 Milken Educator Awards this fall.

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Report Card The Journal of the Arkansas School Boards Association

Letter from the Executive Director ...

by Dr. Tony Prothro

A refreshing round of regionals

The Arkansas School Boards Association just completed regional meetings in the 14 regions of the state as represented by the ASBA Regional Board of Directors. These 14 meetings were conducted throughout the state by the ASBA staff, regional directors, and representatives from the Arkansas Department of Education. It was very refreshing to interact with longstanding board members once again along with some new faces of newly elected board members.

Host districts illustrated obvious pride in their schools by the way they showcased their district. They worked hard to prepare their facilities and provide a comfortable setting and a wonderful meal for their neighboring districts who attended the meeting. It provided a great venue for board members to be able to share personal and professional information with their neighbors. The camaraderie and genuine interactions set the tone for the meetings.

The objective of this round of regional meetings was to familiarize school board members and administrators with new laws that were passed in the 2023 legislative session and the subsequent rules and regulations that are being formulated to carry out those laws.

Participants in most cases were engaged in the professional development, and good dialogue was exchanged during the interactions.

One of the recurring themes coming from the participants revolved around the implementation of new laws. The participants showed support of legislation that was beneficial to the educational process. Board members and administrators also indicated some apprehension about possible unintended consequences of new legislation. Participants at times expressed a concern for the resources needed to fully implement new laws passed.

ASBA urges board members and administrators to accurately define any obstacles that impede the implementation of new rules, regulations, or legislation.

Sometimes a subsequent modification of a law can achieve a desired outcome in solving an unintended consequence.

Also, a general statement of needing more money for implementation is not as helpful as factual, specific accounting of resources and finances. We encourage local board members and administrators to compile any needed information to assist legislators in their desire to support our schools.

This was a successful year for regional meetings. We will again be conducting these meetings in October of 2024. If you would like to host a regional meeting at your school, please contact Tammie Reitenger at the ASBA office. We would love to visit your school district in the future.

Vol. 17, Number 4

December 2023

P.O. Box 165460 / Little Rock, AR 72216 Telephone: 501-372-1415 / 800-482-1212 Fax: 501-375-2454 E-mail: arsba@arsba.org / www.arsba.org

Board of Directors President: William Campbell, McGehee President-elect: Randy Hutchinson, Springdale Vice President: Jeff Lisenby, Sheridan Secretary-Treasurer: Doris Parham, Bearden Past President: Rosa Bowman, Ashdown Region 1: Travis Warren, Farmington Region 2: Mitchell Archer, Bergman Region 3: Joe Sheppard, Jonesboro Region 4: Beth Ulrich, Paris Region 5: Clint Hull, Pottsville Region 6: Nikki King, Pangburn Region 7: Shane Bell, Cross County Region 8: Graham Peterson, Mt. Vernon-Enola Region 9: Donna Dunlap, Barton-Lexa Region 10: Mark Curry, Lake Hamilton Region 11: Carl “Buddy” Puckett, Poyen Region 12: Laura Clark, Blevins Region 13: Renee Skinner, El Dorado Region 14: Jerry Daniels, Warren

Staff

Executive Director: Dr. Tony Prothro Board Development Director: Tammie Reitenger Governmental Relations Director: Dan Jordan Finance Director: Diana Woodward Communications and Technology Director: Sherri Fite Staff Attorney: Kristen Garner Policy Director: Lucas Harder Database Administrator: Kathy Ivy Commercial Affiliates/Board Liaison Manager: Angela Ellis Bookkeeper: Kayla Orr Receptionist: Kimberly Strom TIPS-TAPS Project Manager: Stacey McPherson General Counsel: Jay Bequette Risk Management Program & Workers’ Comp. Program: Shannon Moore, Director Krista Glover Dwayne McAnally Misty Thompson Melody Tipton Linda Collins Lisa Wigginton Kara Quinton Julianne Dobson Tamra Polk

TO CONTACT THE MAGAZINE

Please contact Steve Brawner, Editor 501.847.7743; brawnersteve@mac.com Report Card is published quarterly by the Arkansas School Boards Association. Copyright 2023 by the Arkansas School Boards Association and Steve Brawner Communications. All rights reserved.

6 December 2023 Report Card

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ASBA News and notes Ulrich, Bell named as new ASBA regional directors

ASBA calendar

Two Arkansas school board members have been appointed as ASBA regional directors.

Beth Ulrich, the current vice president of the Paris School Board, is the new Region 4 director.

Ulrich previously served Ullrich as board secretary and has attained 165 hours of board training.

Shane Bell, vice president of the Cross County School Board, was

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appointed as a Region 7 director. Bell has served 18 years as a school board member and has attained 267.5 hours of school board

Generational expert keynotes Annual Conference

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Generational studies expert Chuck Underwood will be the keynote speaker at ASBA’s 70th Annual Conference at the Marriott Hotel/Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock Dec. 6-8.

This year’s theme is “Empowering Education: Navigating Change, Embracing Opportunities.”

Underwood is the founder and principal of generational consulting firm The Generational Imperative, Inc. It provides training programs, consulting, and research to organizations concern-

ing generational workforce strategy, leadership and governance, ethics, marketing and media, campaign and legislative strategy, and other subjects.

He is the Underwood author of “America’s Generations: In the Workplace, Marketplace, and Living Room,” and he was the host of the PBS series “America’s Generations With Chuck Underwood.”

The conference begins with morning and afternoon early bird sessions Dec. 6. That day will also feature the New Board Member Institute for newly elected board members along with others who want to review school board member roles and responsibilities. The annual ASBA Delegate Assembly will begin at 4 p.m. that day in the Marriott Hotel.

A second keynote address will be presented Dec. 7 by Dr. Janel Keating with Solution Tree. Solution Tree provides training and programs for educational practices such as professional learning communities.

Other highlights of the conference include the annual awards luncheon and also addresses by the first, second and third place finishers in ASBA’s Student Speaker contest. The conference will conclude with a legislative panel discussing education issues. The conference will also feature exhibits from ASBA’s Commercial Affiliate Partners.

To register, go to ASBA’s website at www.arsba.org.

Bryant’s Walters is Superintendent of the Year for 2024

Dr. Karen Walters, superintendent of Bryant School District, was presented with the 2024 Arkansas Superintendent of the Year Award Sept. 5.

Dr. Mike Hernandez, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, presented her

with the award at the Bryant School District.

Walters is in her seventh year as superintendent at Bryant and is in her 31st year in education.

The American Association of Walters School Administrators (AASA) National Superintendent of the Year program pays tribute to public school leaders. Candidates are judged on the following criteria: leadership for learning, communication, professionalism, and community involvement.

Each state’s association of school administrators selects a state Superintendent of the Year. These superintendents are then in the running to receive the National Superintendent of the Year award and will be recognized and honored at the AASA National Conference in February.

Benton’s Cummings is Arkansas’ history teacher of the year

Pam Cummings, a teacher at Benton High School, has been named the 2023 Arkansas History Teacher of the Year.

Inaugurated in 2004, the annual award honors one K–12 teacher from each state, the District of Columbia, Department of Defense schools, and U.S. territories. It is presented by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Cummings teaches Advanced Placement United States government, United States history, and world history. She has been with Benton 11 years, Previously, she taught classes in the social sciences at LISA Academy Public Charter School in Little Rock.

She received $1,000, American history books and Gilder Lehrman educational materials. She is one of 53 finalists for the 2023 National History Teacher of the Year Award.

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Fall Regional Meetings

DESE: Work continues on LEARNS Literacy standards are aligned with Science of Reading; educational freedom account rules are being written

The Division of Elementary and Secondary Education has adopted new literacy standards aligned with the Science of Reading as part of its implementation of the LEARNS Act. Passed by legislators earlier this year, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ signature education reform law requires extensive rule-making before it can be fully implemented. Those efforts were described at ASBA’s Regional Meetings in October, including the Region 10 meeting at Lake Hamilton Middle School on Oct. 19.

There, Missy Walley, DESE director of special projects, and Karli Saracini, assistant commissioner, Office of Educator Effectiveness and Licensure, offered an update from the Department of Education’s perspective.

Walley said the new literacy standards are aligned to the Science of Reading, a scientific approach to literacy instruction, and are shorter and more concise than the previous ones. New math standards have been adopted as well. At the time of the presentation, 80 out of 120 literacy coaches had been hired to support schools scoring a “D” or “F” grade on the state’s Report Card.

The state is implementing a single statewide K-3 literacy screener that will be aligned to the third grade test. It will replace the four K-2 screeners it has been using. Also, families will be able to participate in a $500 literacy tutoring grant program.

MISSY WALLEY, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education director of special projects, describes DESE’s efforts to implement the LEARNS Act at the ASBA Region 10 meeting at Lake Hamilton Middle School Oct. 19.

Walley told attendees that six work groups have been meeting to consider what rules and policies will be needed to implement LEARNS. Those groups include the following.

• Career Readiness, which has three subgroups: Career Diploma, Career Ready Pathway, and Early Career Exposure. It has 34 members.

• Teaching & Learning, whose subgroups include Accountability, Assessment, and Literacy. It has 72 members.

• Educator Workforce, whose subgroups include Human Resources, Teacher Effectiveness, and Teacher Preparation. It has 31 members.

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• Parental Empowerment, whose subgroups are Quality Charters and School Choice. It has 24 members.

• School Safety, with 17 members.

• Early Learning, with 16 members.

Among the most noteworthy changes instituted by the LEARNS Act is the Educational Freedom Accounts Program, which will provide up to 90% of state per-pupil foundation funding to families who can use it for private and homeschooling options. The program phases in over three years. To implement it, DESE has established the School Choice and Parent Empowerment Office comprised of the following units: Educational Freedom Accounts; Charter Schools; Home School; Family and Community Engagement; and Military Family Support. As of Aug. 1, 4,890 eligible students had enrolled in the program, with approximately 70% of the state’s private schools participating.

Walley said DESE is working on how participants will be held accountable.

The LEARNS Act’s other highest profile provision was its increase in the statewide minimum teacher salary to $50,000. Also pertaining to teacher pay, DESE is establishing the Merit Teacher Incentive Fund, which will have $10 million allocated to provide annual bonuses of up to $10,000. The state also is creating a model where it will cover half the cost of 12 weeks of maternity leave for teachers, with school districts picking up the other half. Meanwhile, DESE also is creating additional financial incentives through the Teacher Academy Scholarship Program, which will cover tuition and fees for up to four years of college, and it is doubling the amount of loan forgiveness available through the State Teacher Education Program.

Early childhood programs have been unified under the Department of Education’s umbrella. As of Aug. 1, nearly 250 state employees had transitioned to that agency from the Department of Human Services. A statewide audit of child care licensing standards is being conducted.

Pilots begin this school year for a new unified rating system for early care and education centers. Local early childhood lead organizations are being established.

Other changes are occurring in the pathways that students take to earn a diploma. DESE is implementing a new requirement that high school students complete 75 hours of community service in order to graduate. How they earn those hours will be a local decision, Walley said. Also, the state is undertaking an initial statewide audit of its career pathways, with annual audits to occur afterwards. Walley said the question to be answered is, “Are we just offering something because it looks good, or is it meeting the needs of our students and our communities?”

Finally, the two said DESE is working to build the systems that will help students, families and teachers succeed.

Those include clear and concise academic standards, an assessment system aligned to those standards, and an effective accountability system.

“When we started this work, it’s highlighted a lot at the department that we need to change,” Walley said. “I mean,

it’s caused us to have to look in the mirror and go, ‘We’ve kind of messed up some places because, one, we were working in silos.’”

Other ways the system is being changed include a unified application system for federal funds, better broadband access for students, and more support for school safety measures, the two said.

Looking ahead, charter school policies will be revised, and the literacy tutoring grant program will be launched.

This winter, the division plans to review early childhood licensing policies and its definition of kindergarten readiness. It plans to write rules for the second year of the educational freedom accounts, and it will launch transportation grants.

In the spring, it will pilot its K-3 literacy screener, and it will create a policy for screening struggling readers in grades 3-12. It also will create a policy on career ready pathways and on career exploration in middle and high schools.

Next summer will see revisions to early childhood accountability policies.

Education laws reviewed The presentation by the Department of Education officials was followed by a review of the education-related laws other than LEARNS that were passed during the previous legislative session.

Dr. Tony Prothro, ASBA’s executive director, said that of the 1,439 bills filed this session, 196 were related to K-12 education, and 119 of those became law.

Several laws related to school elections were passed. Those include Act 300, which limits special millage elections to the dates of party primaries and general elections during even years, and to the second Tuesdays in May and November during odd years. Act 547 amended the existing process that allowed 10% of a district’s registered voters to petition the county clerk for an item to be placed on the ballot to change

Continued on next page

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Fall Regional Meetings the board’s makeup to be either all single-member zones, atlarge representatives, or a combination of the two. The school board may choose to adopt a resolution to change the makeup of the board at any time. If the ballot question passes, terms would temporarily change from a board’s current length to four years, but then the terms would return to previous lengths after those four years end. Act 305 eliminates the write-in option for all candidates, including school board members.

Act 276 clarifies that the candidate filing period for school districts using the fall election cycle is 90 days before any election, regardless of year.

Prothro also described Act 744, this year’s school funding bill. It increased per-pupil foundation funding by $205, from $7,413 in 2022-23 to $7,618 this year. Foundation funding for 2024-25 increased by another $153 to $7,771.

Only minor changes were made to categorical funding.

Enhanced Student Achievement funding increased by $19 per student, from $1,594 in 2022-23 to $1,613 in 2023-24 in school districts with 90% rates of students receiving free and reduced lunches. For school districts with 70%-90% rates, funding increased by $13, from $1,063 to $1,076. In school districts with rates below 70%, funding increased by $6, from $532 to $538. Funding did not increase in the second year of the biennium at any of the three levels. Likewise, English language learner funding increased $7 to $366 in 2023-24 but did not increase in 2024-25. Professional development funding increased only 20 cents to $41 in 2023-24 and did not increase during the second year of the biennium. Total professional

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GOV. SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS signs the LEARNS Act into law March 8.

learning communities funding increased by $2 million, from $14.5 million to $16.5 million. Alternative learning education was the only category that saw funding increases both years. It went from $4,890 per student in 2022-23 to $4,987 in 202324, a $97 jump, and then it increased another $99 to $5,086 in 2024-25.

Among the other education-related laws covered by Prothro were several related to school transfers as part of the LEARNS Act and other legislation. LEARNS repealed the 3% net maximum on student transfers out of a district. Act 731 requires a transfer petition received by a school district to be placed on the agenda of the next regular board meeting or a specially called meeting. The board cannot delegate its authority to deny a petition for a transfer received, and the parent must be given at least five minutes to present their student’s case. If denied, the parent can appeal the decision to the State Board of Education. Another law, Act 189, allows a student who physically relocates from one district to another to continue being enrolled at their original district.

Other education laws passed this session included several related to personnel. Acts 781 and 782 require school boards to adopt policies for personnel policy committees and classified personnel policy committees. Those policies are related to membership, election processes, and mid-year policy changes.

Traditionally, those committees have not been board responsibilities. Act 780 created a list of criteria to be included in a reduction in force policy that includes merit, performance, attendance and others. Among those that cannot count for more than 50% are seniority, education level and professional development. Act 732 increased the amount of time before a district must use a long-term substitute teacher from 30 days to 60 days – a change brought about by the teacher shortage, Prothro said. Act 548 set a 10-day limit on the amount of time teachers can be required to engage in professional development. They can do more than 10 voluntarily, but they can’t be required to do so.

Act 461 repealed the mandatory consolidation requirement for districts that fall below an average daily membership of 350 students.

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Fall Leadership Institute

Storms cause insurance rate hike ASBA’s Risk Management Property Program could pay out $160 million this year after a tornado destroyed most of Wynne High School and other disasters occurred. At the same time, ASBA paid only $13.4 million in premiums. Storms have been causing more damage, while construction costs are rising. Put it all together, and rates are going up.

Expensive natural disasters and the increasing cost of construction have caused significant increases in school property insurance rates, said Bill Birch with Cadence Insurance.

He discussed the issue at ASBA’s three Fall Leadership Institutes, which were held in Jonesboro, Rogers and Hot Springs in September.

Speaking in Hot Springs Sept. 28, the insurance professional and former Malvern School Board member who grew up around the business said, “This is the worst property market that I’ve experienced in 44 years.”

School districts were surprised this year by skyrocketing property insurance premiums. Two programs write most school districts’ policies: ASBA’s Risk Management Property Program and the Arkansas Public School Insurance Trust, or APSIT, which is operated by the state. ASBA’s program saw a 100% increase, while APSIT’s was larger. Birch said Cadence usually has its program finalized by May 1. This year, it didn’t finalize until June 29 because it was trying to complete the structure and get the best rates.

In response to the increases, the state of Arkansas will cover 30%, or $11 million, between the two programs through an executive order issued by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

The programs have experienced increasing losses in recent years. Until 2019, the biggest loss paid by either program was $10 million or less. That year, the ASBA program ran a loss of less than $4.4 million. But in 2020, that 14 December 2023 Report Card

BILL BIRCH with Cadence Insurance describes the factors causing school property insurance rates to rise during a presentation at ASBA’s Fall Leadership Institute in Hot Springs Sept. 28.

amount more than doubled to $10.5 million, and then it almost doubled again in 2021 to $19.8 million because of a flash freeze and hailstorms. That was a rough year also for APSIT, which had $36.4 million in claims after a Springdale tornado and a fire in Warren.

ASBA’s 2022-23 plan year will be much worse. The tornado that destroyed most of Wynne High School March 31 created a loss of perhaps $122 million, or what Birch called the “largest loss I’ve had in my career and probably the largest loss that we really even have had in Arkansas.” Also occurring this plan year were a tornado in Jessieville, hail storms, a fire loss in Fort Smith, and a flash freeze that cost the plan $4.2 million. In total, the plan had losses of $147 million at the time of the presentation,

an amount that potentially could grow to $160 million.

At the same time, ASBA only paid $13.4 million in premiums – an imbalance the insurance companies must rectify with higher rates.

“The increase you got wasn’t anybody trying to pad pockets or put anything in. It was just pure cost of insurance, and we can’t control weather,” he said.

Birch said weather patterns have become more destructive in recent years.

Convective storms such as hail and tornadoes that previously tended to occur in the western part of Arkansas and in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, since about 2019 have been hitting the entire state and other parts of the southeastern United States. The state previously averaged one hailstorm a year where the stones were 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter or greater. Seven such storms have occurred in the last 12 months, one of them being in Hot Springs in late June.

The last couple of years have seen flash freezes, tornadoes and hail. At the same time, extreme weather events have been occurring elsewhere, including widespread wildfires, one of the latest occurring on the Hawaiian island of Maui, and in the recent hurricane in Florida.

Twelve storms in 12 months have all exceeded $1 billion.

Birch encouraged attendees to check on their schools during winter breaks to ensure that water damage isn’t occurring.

At the same time the weather events have been happening, the cost of construction has increased significantly. The Arkansas Department of Education’s facilities partnership fund sets an average construction price of $200 per square foot, Birch said. Actual costs have risen to $350 to $450, and insurance companies want facilities to be insured to their value. The ASBA program has increased values by 15%, and it’s still not enough.

The extreme weather events and increasing construction costs have led insurers to reduce their exposure, impose loss limits or exit the market, reducing competition and putting further pressure on premiums. Birch said the

rising insurance costs will be reflected in homeowners’ insurance rates as well.

ASBA’s program covers 170 school districts, two open enrollment charter schools and five educational cooperatives with a total insured value of a little more than $16 billion and a loss limit of $700 million. APSIT’s program covers 67 districts, one open enrollment charter school and 10 educational cooperatives with a total insured value of a little less than $9.5 billion and a loss limit of $500 million.

The sudden and steep increases led state legislators to hire a consultant to consider creating one program for K-12 schools and higher education. It will present a report to a legislative subcommittee by March of next year. Potentially, it could replace both ASBA’s and APSIT’s programs.

New school cybersecurity law In other business, Birch described Act 504, a law passed by the General

Assembly earlier this year that requires public entities including schools to create a policy regarding the use of technology and also to create a cybersecurity policy. School districts must have policies in place by 2024 for technology resources along with a training program for all employees. The law also amended the duties of the State Cyber Security Office, which will develop policies to be used by educational institutions.

Another law, Act 846, created the Arkansas Self-Funded Cyber Response Program along with an Arkansas Cyber Response board and a trust fund to respond to incidents. The board will help school districts develop policies and procedures. It will allow the state insurance commissioner to regulate cybersecurity insurance and require coverage for cybersecurity incidents. All school districts will be required to participate and will have 12 months to become compliant. The program will offer coverage of up to $100,000 for hardware

and software damage, but it won’t be enough and won’t cover compensatory and exemplary damages, punitive damages, or ransom demands.

Birch said cyber and ransomware attacks increased starting in 2019 and 2020. Many have come from North Korea, China and Russia.

With the state program so limited in its coverage, Birch encouraged attendees to consider purchasing cyber insurance, which Cadence Insurance sells. Such coverage provides school districts help with legal expenses, negotiation and payment for a ransomware demand, data restoration, a call center and public relations expertise. If there is an interruption in the business network, it will help clients restore that.

Birch said underwriters will be considering school districts’ preparation as they write their policies. They will want to see security policies such as multi-factor authentication practices that

Continued on next page

Report Card December 2023 15

Fall Leadership Institute require users to complete more than one step to access the network.

Legislature: FOIA, bathrooms In other business, Cody Kees and Phil Brick, attorneys with Bequette, Billingsley & Kees, discussed recent happenings with the Arkansas Legislature. Those included the special session where lawmakers passed a law limiting Freedom of Information Act requests related to the security of the governor and other officials. An original bill with more wide-ranging applications failed after a strong public outcry. Kees said the bill wouldn’t have impacted schools much even in that form.

The two also presented an overview of laws passed in the regular legislative session. Among them was Act 317, which requires multiple occupancy restrooms or changing areas to be exclusively for use by the male or female sex.

Kees said the issue had been coming up more often the last couple of years.

Schools must provide a reasonable accommodation for nonbinary students, such as a single-occupancy restroom.

Students on overnight trips must share sleeping quarters with a member of the same sex or be provided single-occupancy sleeping quarters.

Superintendents, principals and teachers who violate the law can face minimum fines of $1,000 and potential additional sanctions after being referred to the Professional Licensure Standards Board, while school districts can be sued by parents.

Kees said that prior to the law’s passage, his firm had been advising schools to offer a single sex bathroom when a student is taking steps to change their gender. There has been a Pennsylvania ruling that private bathrooms ostracize students, but the issue is being handled differently in different parts of the country. He said the Arkansas law seemed consistent with the views of most school boards with which he has visited. He expressed confidence that the law could be defended in federal court.

“Could it be inconsistent with federal law? Maybe. But we do the best we can. I think this is helpful, and I think as lawyers defending the district, I think this provides a really good map of what 16 December 2023 Report Card

PHIL BRICK with Bequette, Billingsley & Kees describes recent legislation pertaining to schools.

we’re to do,” Kees said. “And I’ve been in front of a lot of boards, and this would be the will of most boards.”

Another law, Act 731, requires boardto-board transfer requests to be considered at the next monthly board meeting rather than twice a year. Kees said school boards can delegate the process to the superintendent, unless they plan to deny. Otherwise, the student has a right to a hearing. He noted that students who are denied requests can appeal to the State Board of Education. Kees noted that those State Board meetings can be a lengthy use of a superintendent’s time.

Other laws passed during the session included Act 128, the Pregnant Students Protection Act, which allows at least 10 days of excused absences after the birth of a student’s child – the law also applies to the father – and also provides excused breaks for breastfeeding. The CROWN Act (Act 514), protects students from discrimination for wearing a natural, protective or cultural hairstyle.

Employment law changes In addition, attendees heard a presentation covering subjects such as employee due process rights following passage of the LEARNS Act. The presentation was led by ASBA Policy Director Lucas Harder with an assist by Governmental Relations Director Dan Jordan. Changes to the law have been accompanied by changes to ASBA’s model policies, which Harder manages.

The act repealed the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act and the Public School Employee Fair Hearing Act. Under LEARNS, employee contracts must include a provision indicating a superintendent must give notice of his or her intent to recommend termination. The employee must have an opportunity for a board hearing on the termination, though not on nonrenewal. That hearing must be held in public.

The law does away with automatic renewals, which means many superintendents likely will make recommendations to the board using a list of employees. Jordan, a former superintendent, said that in the past, a name invariably would be left off, so he encouraged superintendents to comb through their lists carefully before presenting them to the board.

Harder and Jordan discussed other laws directly related to personnel. Staff members with direct student contact now must receive mental health training, while teachers cannot be required to spend more than 10 contract days for professional development. Teachers must be given input regarding building principal placements, although their input doesn’t have to be followed.

Districts may opt into a cost-sharing agreement with the state to provide 12 weeks of paid maternity leave after the birth of a child or the placement of an adopted child with an employee.

The state will reimburse the district for half the cost, but only for the mother.

However, Harder warned that school districts could open themselves up to a sex discrimination lawsuit if they don’t provide it for fathers also.

DEA: Meth and fentanyl worst Attendees at the Hot Springs event also heard a presentation from a Drug Enforcement Agency special agent. He said drugs threatening Arkansas include methamphetamine, fentanyl, xylazine and nitazene. All are synthetic drugs produced by Mexican drug cartels. Unlike heroin, they don’t have to be grown in fields. He said the price of meth has dropped from $10,000 per pound in 2019 to $2,500 in 2023, but it’s still profitable. He said it’s the most prolific drug, it’s not particularly expensive,

ASBA’S LUCAS HARDER discusses new legislation related to due process rights and personnel.

and Arkansas has a long history with it. It’s become more difficult to obtain the drug’s ingredients domestically, so manufacturing has shifted south of the border. Liquid meth is being produced there and then converted to the finished product.

Fentanyl, meanwhile, is particularly dangerous. He warned that two milligrams or a single pill can kill; in fact, he had given a talk at a school where a student had died from poisoning. Because of the way the pills are manufactured, the amount of fentanyl in a given pill can vary. He compared it to chocolate chip cookies where one cookie might have a few chips and another might have many. He said fears of an accidental overdose are overblown because it doesn’t absorb easily through the skin, has to be ingested and doesn’t aerosolize very easily. Don’t touch it without gloves, but don’t panic if you accidentally do. Instead, just wash your hands and call 9-1-1.

He expects fentanyl to remain the leading opioid because users are accustomed to it, and it is strong enough to give a high while stronger drugs are even more lethal.

Other drugs showing an increased use include xylazine, a horse tranquilizer and depressant that is not an opioid.

It’s not that rampant in Arkansas, but he believes it is coming. Another, nitazene, is a synthetic opioid that can be stronger than fentanyl. He has not seen it in the state.

He said that as of Jan. 1, 2024, public high schools will be required to have an opioid overdose response kit with NARCAN, the drug that if administered quickly can save someone’s life. He said schools will have to decide how to store the drug because some people will want to steal it, but schools also will want easy access because people will need it. He touted the state’s NARCANsas phone app, which provides information on how to rescue an overdose victim.

Report Card December 2023 17

Fall Leadership Institute

School chiefs talk teacher pay, 75 hours Superintendents and school board member discussed teacher salaries, the new work requirement for students to graduate, and other subjects.

School districts are increasing teacher salaries, helping students achieve their newly required 75 community service hours, and addressing negative social media posts.

Those and other challenges were discussed by educator panels at ASBA’s three Fall Leadership Institutes, which were held in Jonesboro, Rogers and Hot Springs.

The Central Arkansas meeting in Hot Springs was moderated by Dawson Education Cooperative Director Darin Beckwith and featured four superintendents: Dr. Karen Walters of Bryant, Ronnie Kissire of Poyen, Susan Kissire of Bismarck, and Dr. Jonathan Crossley of Hope. Also participating was Hope School Board President Alvis Hamilton.

The LEARNS Act education reform package passed during the 2023 legislative session sets a minimum teacher salary of $50,000 and requires all teachers to receive a $2,000 raise this year. While everyone wants teachers to earn more money, the requirements could lead to budgetary challenges for many school districts. Walters said Bryant did not adopt a true salary schedule this year.

Instead, the district met the minimum required by the law, and then everyone’s salary was frozen with a $2,000 raise. Bryant received $1.9 million from the state to help pay for those salary increases. She asked board members to ask legislators for something more permanent.

“I’m just asking for a formula where we can budget appropriately,” she said.

Crossley said Hope has been trying to have a more competitive salary structure. The district was able to do a 6% increase last year, although he didn’t know if it would be able to repeat it. Its efforts have been made more challenging because the district recently had a failed millage request to pay for sustainability, buildings and salaries.

18 December 2023 Report Card

HOPE SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT Alvis Hamilton, foreground, along with Dawson Education Cooperative Director Darin Beckwith participated in a panel discussion. “If we don’t have good quality teachers, we don’t have good quality students,” Hamilton said.

“If we don’t have good quality teachers, we don’t have good quality students,” Hamilton added.

Kissire: Tout teacher benefits Poyen’s Kissire said schools should better sell the financial benefits of being a teacher. While other professions do make higher salaries, teachers have more days off, receive good benefits and have an excellent retirement plan.

“What I tell my new people is, look, unless you’re planning on dying early, you can’t beat teacher retirement. It’s going to pay you the rest of your life,” he said. “And so we don’t do as good a job as we need to about saying our perks are part of this salary. Don’t just focus on how much money you’re making.”

Bryant has instituted an incentive plan to ensure staff members are present and not treating sick days as personal days. Staff members can earn up to $1,500 in attendance and retention incentives for those who miss one to six

days, but only for employees who plan to return, with smaller amounts available to those who miss more days.

Crossley said Hope tries to focus on school improvement, which requires having high-quality teachers and building leaders. Principals need systems to support them. The district has invested resources in principal and teacher coaching. By the end of the next year, 90 staff members will be trained in the Universal Design for Learning, a model for co-teaching and lesson design. Every principal has an executive coach, and every principal has additional coaching days built around curriculum.

“For me, it’s all about systems of support. I love the quote, ‘You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems,’” he said.

Community service a local call Regarding the 75-hour community service requirement, Walters said Bryant will not be keeping a list of providers. It

doesn’t know all of them, and it could be blamed if something goes wrong with its list. Instead, in keeping with the General Assembly’s parents’ rights focus, it will let parents decide what service activities qualify, including mowing an elderly neighbor’s yard. The district probably will just have a Google form where students will submit their hours at the end of each year.

Bismarck’s Kissire and Poyen’s Kissire, who are married, said opportunities for community service are limited in their small, rural districts. Bismarck will be flexible and will offer community service opportunities at school. Likewise, many of Poyen’s students work and will be challenged to comply, so the district will help them.

“I guess my biggest issue on that is, I’m not going to have a senior in the future that can’t graduate because of volunteer hours, and so we have to have a way for them to get their hours at the school site,” Poyen’s Kissire said.

Bismarck and Poyen in recent years have adopted four-day school weeks, and both superintendents were pleased with the results. Poyen had eight applicants last year for a special education opening. Bismarck, now in its second year, has had only positive experiences.

There’s no less instructional time than in a five-day week, attendance has improved for staff and students, the district has gained 75 new students, and it is a good retention tool for teachers. Fami-

BEFORE

HOPE SUPERINTENDENT Dr. Jonathan Crossley said, “You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

lies have worked out their own childcare issues.

“I can honestly tell you I have not heard any negative feedback on this,” Bismarck’s Kissire said.

What about social media?

Attendees also discussed the challenges of dealing with social media.

Kissire said that even when the Bismarck district has posted clearly positive news on Facebook the past year or two, it sometimes has had to disable the comments because of negative responses.

In one case, the district received federal

funds to purchase new, air-conditioned buses for the first time in her 16 years there. There were many positive comments but also some very negative ones, so it had to disable the comments. She said it’s best not to respond to parents’ negative comments online but instead to contact them directly by phone. Parents who just want to be heard will almost always remove the post.

Walters likewise instructs staff not to respond to parents’ posts on social media. However, Bryant will respond to online falsehoods. At the beginning of last year, a non-parent inaccurately claimed the high school principal had told students they should not call their teachers “sir or “ma’am” because they don’t know with which gender they identify. The district posted a screenshot of the post without the name of the poster, explaining that the incident did not happen and that it instead encourages students to call their teachers by those titles as a sign of respect.

“This person wanted to be a social media influencer, and so she thought she’d pick a hot topic that would get her clicks. If it is just an outright lie, I think you have to address it,” she said. “I don’t think you have to be hateful about it, but you need to address it. … It’s difficult. There’s not a black-and-white guidebook on, this is what you do. I think you have to look at every situation, but I do think it’s time that we stop letting people tell lies about us.”

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Teacher of the Year

De Queen’s McCastlain Teacher of Year Television production teacher, broadcast industry veteran credits ‘Leopard family’ after governor’s surprise visit

Beau McCastlain, a television production teacher at De Queen High School, is the Arkansas Teacher of the Year.

McCastlain learned Oct. 9 that he had been selected out of 34,000 public school teachers statewide during a surprise visit to his school studio by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva. His students responded with enthusiastic applause.

Starting July 1, 2024, he will spend next year out of the classroom traveling the state and promoting teachers, and he will serve as a nonvoting member of the Arkansas State Board of Education.

“I can’t wait to share our story, but more importantly I can’t wait to hear their stories and share their stories across the state of Arkansas,” he told reporters.

Responding to Sanders’ announcement, McCastlain credited his students.

“I’m hard on them, I hammer them, but they know I love them, and I just thank them because they let me teach them the way I teach, and it’s not always easy,” he said. “Everything that we have here, any success I’ve had, any success that our program had is because we have the great students here.”

Sanders noted that McCastlain had responded to the award’s announcement by talking about his students and not himself. After presenting him an oversized $14,000 check sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation, she was treated to a newscast produced by the students.

Asked by a reporter about the awards the three-year-old program has won, McCastlain said, “Awards are nice, but that’s not why we do it. What’s even better, what makes me feel even better is when they leave here, seeing the skills that they picked up within our program, and they’re able to apply those skills in whatever industry they go into, because that’s our number one goal with our program.”

22 December 2023 Report Card

ALL SMILES. Beau McCastlain, a television production teacher at De Queen High School, third from left, reacts after being named the Arkansas Teacher of the Year during a surprise announcement Oct. 9. With him from left are Secretary of Education Joseph Oliva; Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders; McCastlain’s wife, Dedra, a librarian at the primary school; De Queen Superintendent Jason Sanders; and current Arkansas Teacher of the Year Capri Salaam of North Little Rock.

McCastlain also gave credit to his school district, telling reporters, “Any success I have is just because of our Leopard family. All I am, I’m just a byproduct of what we have here and our people. We’ve had folks visit us through the years to see why certain things are working within our school, and it’s not some curriculum you can package up and sell. It’s nothing you can bottle up.

It’s our people.”

He was named the 2022-23 De Queen High School Teacher of the Year and De Queen Public Schools Teacher of the Year. Previously, he had received $1,000 for being an Arkansas Teacher of the Year state semifinalist and, before that, $1,000 for being a regional finalist.

The other three state semifinalists were Jeremy Kennedy, an Advanced Placement language and composition teacher at Greenbrier High School; Kassadi Seidenschnur, a library media specialist at the Bryant School District’s Hurricane Creek Elementary; and Nicole Franklin, an English-language arts and

social studies teacher at Fort Smith’s Orr Elementary School. North Little Rock Middle School’s Capri Salaam is the 2023 Arkansas Teacher of the Year.

McCastlain began teaching 14 years ago and started the television production program more than three years ago. He also serves as the district’s communications director. The studio streams sports and has worked with community groups such as the Chamber of Commerce.

According to a press release from the Arkansas Department of Education, “McCastlain promotes a culture of school pride by empowering students to showcase the many learning opportunities in their classrooms, schools, and communities. He has built partnerships with the local radio station and the Arkansas Broadcasters Association, which have resulted in paid internships and freelance opportunities for his students, and his students have received state and national recognition for their work.”

McCastlain started his career in 2001 as a photojournalist at KTHV Chan-

CONGRATS. Students celebrate with McCastlain after he was named the Arkansas Teacher of the Year

nel 11 in Little Rock and also worked for KARK Channel 4, KLRT Fox 16, KHOG/KHBS 40/29 News, and KATV Channel 7.

In 2009, he became a teacher, head baseball coach and assistant football coach in Foreman. He then moved to De Queen. He earned a Master of Science in Educational Leadership and Administration from Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO COMPLIANCE...

De Queen Superintendent Jason Sanders said the announcement is a great honor for the district.

“Beau’s got a passion for it,” he said. “You could tell that a while ago during the presentation with the governor, and it’s a good day for him but also our students and our school district.”

The announcement in McCastlain’s classroom and studio was a departure from previous years’ announcements that have been held in schoolwide assemblies. The change was made in hopes of creating more of a surprise.

But McCastlain had begun to suspect something might be happening. He knew it was about time for the Teacher of the Year to be named. The Friday before the Monday announcement, his superintendent had told him he needed to have his students in the studio Monday because another school was visiting. Having visitors was not unusual, but the way Sanders phrased the request raised McCastlain’s suspicions. McCastlain also wondered about the way office staff were looking at him that morning shortly before the announcement.

“I went back to my kids,” he said. “I said, ‘All right. Something’s up. I don’t know what’s up. Supposedly somebody’s coming, a school’s coming to see us, but I don’t know, it’s more than that.’

“And then when they walked in, I was like, ‘Oh, wow. Oh, wow.’”

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Cover / Emerson Taylor Bradley

CHAMPS. Emerson Taylor Bradley Superintendent David Downs poses in front of a photo taken last year of the Taylor Tigers and Bradley Bears softball teams after they both won their state semifinal games and prepared to face each other in the finals. Downs is in the middle of the photo giving the “thumbs up” sign.

Three hometowns, one home district Emerson Taylor Bradley brings together three communities in one consolidated school district where five of the six schools scored an ‘A’ or a ‘B’ on the state’s report card. Maybe there’s a reason LaJuan Cannon is still teaching math there after 49 years.

You have to make a special trip to visit any of the schools in the Emerson Taylor Bradley School District. But, especially if you have school-age kids, you might want to stay.

The consolidated school district that’s home to those three rural communities stretches halfway across the state’s southern border from the Texas state line to Junction City. How remote is it? Put it this way: It’s farther south than Texarkana and El Dorado.

24 December 2023 Report Card

It also had three “A” schools on last year’s state school report card – Taylor Elementary, Taylor High, and Emerson Elementary. Asked how Taylor High achieved that ranking, principal Ed Grant said the biggest reason is high expectations.

“We talk about it all the time,” he said. “I think it’s a mixture of things.

It’s support for teachers, support for kids, support for parents, support from the community. I think that’s a big deal.

When you get all that support working together, and the goal is to meet those expectations, I think that’s the biggest thing, paired with hard work. So it’s a support system that really, really pushes kids to be their best.”

Meanwhile, Emerson Elementary gained 6.79 points on its Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief scores even though it was already an A school and last year had been one of

two Arkansas schools named a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. secretary of education.

Among the other schools, Emerson High and Bradley High were both “B” schools. Bradley High was an A school the previous year.

The one school that didn’t score well, Bradley Elementary, fell to a “D” this year, 2.59 points from a “C.” Superintendent David Downs said that school faced some challenges with turnover, retirements and teachers being on maternity leave.

“I’m a coach and I like winning, and I’ve got to get that D off my record,” Downs said. “That’s how I look at it.

That’s how we all look at it. And we will. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

One of Taylor’s math teachers, LaJuan Cannon, has been teaching there 49 years. She arrives before school to tutor students. She said the district has a

great culture with students who want to do well and lots of parental support. She is in no hurry to retire.

“I’d like to go as long as I can. …

I like it,” she said. “I still like it really well. I’m pretty much a workaholic, so I’m not sure what I would do if I didn’t work.”

Posing for pictures, Downs and Cannon playfully teased each other. Downs said she comes across as tough, but she’s tenderhearted. When a student needs discipline, she’s the first one to ask for leniency. At any rate, he’s not going to tell her how to do her job.

“Math is math, and good teaching’s good teaching,” he said. “I’m not going to introduce things into her classroom and say, ‘Hey, you know what? You’ve been doing this [49] years. We think you could do this a lot better.’ She has maintained high grades, high marks, for all of her years. I’m going to protect that teacher from the latest and the greatest thing coming out.

“We’re going to continue what we’re doing because it’s working. And they see us do that. The teachers see the administrators protecting them from several of these things that are coming out.

We value good teaching, and if you can sit in that classroom and you can teach at the level that you’ve been teaching for 40 years, we’re not going to change that.

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”

The district is marked by two qualities. One is its admirable achievement levels. The other is its success in bringing together three southwest Arkansas communities. The schools themselves are separated by 52 miles of roadway east to west from Emerson to Bradley with Taylor in the middle. All told, the district covers roughly 548 square miles.

The district started coming together in 2003 when Emerson and Taylor consolidated because both had fallen below 350 students average daily membership.

Bradley joined the district in 2014 for the same reason.

Now it has about 1,227 students. Taylor is the largest of the three with 590 students, while Emerson has 339 and Bradley has 298. Taylor was the smallest school in the district when Downs first arrived as Taylor High School principal, but it’s grown the fastest. This past year the district had 109 school choice applications, about 90 of which actually ended up on campus. A little over half went to Emerson while the rest went to Taylor. Bradley is the farthest west and most isolated of the three. The previous year, the district had 62 school applications, Downs said. In years past, it was 40 to 55.

Serving three communities can require a little statesmanship. Administrators try to ensure one community isn’t being served better than the others. The principals communicate daily to ensure the rules are the same for everyone.

Downs is housed in Taylor but tries to spend a day at the other schools often.

Continued on next page

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Cover / Emerson Taylor Bradley When he first became superintendent, he felt compelled to do for the other communities what he did for one. If he bought a new lawn mower for one school, he felt like he had to do it for the others. But he soon realized that approach was unnecessary. His stakeholders don’t want him wasting money.

Patrons most notice seeming imbalances when it comes to sports, but most activities and athletics are self-funded.

Rivals on the softball field In some sports, the schools are rivals.

The Taylor Tigers and Bradley Bears softball teams, in fact, played each other in the state championship last year, with Taylor taking its sixth title in a row. Bradley had won two of their three in-season games, but Taylor won the regional and state tournaments. After the state semifinals when both teams had qualified, Downs gathered the players, coaches and high school principals together for a group photo. The district instituted volleyball four years ago. The first year, 55 girls played at Taylor. Emerson, home of the Pirates, picked up the sport. In other sports, athletes compete as one district at one of the schools.

Cross country is at Emerson. The trap shooting team is housed at Bradley.

Downs said the other schools could field a trap team, but he wants to create a cross-district culture.

“It’s funny to me because I’ve got kids on there that may play basketball or they may play baseball against each other, but when they come together on the trap field, now they want to win and they’re supporting each other,” Downs said. “But when they’re bouncing that basketball, they’re wanting to beat each other.”

Downs isn’t quite a hometown boy, but he’s close. He grew up in nearby Stamps and then was employed 12 years at the Lafayette County School District just down the road from there. There, he coached the offensive and defensive lines in football – positions he played as a high school student – and was head junior high football coach one year. He also coached softball and junior high basketball and then eventually became an assistant principal. Gary Hines, the longtime superintendent who shepherd26 December 2023 Report Card

A DAY AT AN “A” SCHOOL. Taylor Elementary, like Taylor High School, scored an “A” on the state’s report card. Pictured at top are Camryn Westfall and Braylee Downs. Like biomimicry engineers, they are mimicking how hummingbirds overcome obstacles to feed themselves in third grade science teacher Hannah Graves’ class. Above, Taylor Elementary Principal Kelli McLelland prepares for Grandparents’ Day.

ed the consolidation of the three schools, brought him to Taylor High in 2014. He has been superintendent four years.

Downs attributed the district’s success to “good, solid teaching.” The district had the equivalent of professional learning communities before those were common. He said that each year, he shows his teachers a stack of

leave forms and encourages them to be in class as often as possible. He stresses to principals the importance of them working with teachers. Teachers have a sense of belonging because they know the administration and school board value them.

“We don’t jump on the newest and the greatest thing coming from any-

where,” he said. “We focus on having a good culture. If you have a good culture, it’s kind of like asking about a person.

Well, if you tell me that person’s got good character, then that pretty much sums up that person. You tell me a school’s got good culture, that sums up that school, and that’s what we strive for. …

“We hold kids accountable. Our community holds us accountable. There’s really no magic bullet. Schools are spending too much time trying to find the magic bullet. The magic bullet’s been fired. We need to be looking at ballistics. We need to be looking at the results of the bullets that have been fired in the past. You can’t look at any one thing and say that’s going to change my school. It’s not. You’ve got to stress your teachers coming to school, your teachers being here, your students being here. While they’re here, you protect that classroom time, that instructional time. You hire good staff. You create an

environment where your staff wants to come to school. You develop a culture in your halls that this is the best place to be. I want to go to school. You create that in your kids as much as possible of school’s a good place to go. It’s clean.

It’s dry. It’s safe. I’m valued there. And if you can get your kids feeling that way, and your staff feeling that way, then you’re setting your culture.”

While the schools excel, the district is isolated, and there aren’t a lot of jobs locally. Many residents work in nearby Magnolia. There’s not much to do besides hunt, fish, and school activities. Downs said the joke around Taylor is that it’s Mayberry. There’s only one place to eat, The Tiger Den, and it’s a gas station and convenience store with a nice little buffet and a few tables. To find teachers, sometimes the district has to grow its own. Downs’ daughter is about to graduate high school and has already asked for a teaching job when she graduates college. One of Taylor’s

current teachers is a recent graduate who wanted to be a teacher when Downs was the high school principal. Downs kept in contact with her during her college career and hired her to teach when she graduated.

Kelli McLelland, Taylor Elementary principal, is a graduate of Taylor High who stayed at home and has spent 26 years at the district, with this her second year as principal. One of her daughters graduated valedictorian while the other is a senior. Taylor Elementary has a small teacher-student ratio, so teachers can get to know the students and can practice differentiated learning to meet students where they are. She said students accept and reach out to new students. One new student on the playground seemed alone and sad, so she told him he would find someone to play with. Sure enough, within 10 minutes about four boys his age had encouraged him to come play with them. Special

Continued on next page

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STMTIRES.COM | 877-786-4681 Report Card December 2023 27

Cover / Emerson Taylor Bradley needs students likewise are treated well.

The school has long practiced inclusive learning where all students learn together.

“You go watch them play, and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a kid who might get pulled out and one that’s in the classroom all the time,” she said. “They just treat them all the same.”

Not just parental involvement She said the community’s support is a key part of the school’s success. On the day Report Card visited the campus, she was on the floor making signs welcoming grandparents to school the next day for Grandparents’ Day. In a school with roughly 335 students, 275 grandparents had confirmed the last time she had checked days earlier that they were coming to have lunch with their grandchildren. She expected to have almost a grandparent for every student, or if not a grandparent, another family member. For some students who don’t have grandparents, a community member might come to sit in their place.

“We’re just one big family,” she said.

“We take care of each other, take care of the kids, teachers take care of each other. Administration is very supportive for our teachers. We have very high expectations of all our kids, and we have found that with those high expectations, they usually meet them.”

Thomas Watson, Emerson High principal, said the same spirit exists in his community. The day Report Card visited, he had returned from buying shoes for lower income track athletes.

“This one I think we’re buying out of our gate money, but I have community members that I’m supposed to call any time somebody can’t afford basketball shoes, softball cleats, practice attire, anything,” he said. “They don’t want to be recognized, though, so I can’t tell you who they are.”

Watson said that Emerson High was a C school when he came to work there, and now it’s a B school. While the community spirit is important, another key is simply good teaching.

“Really, I stole this off the Bradley High School principal, when I was a new principal and I was jumping at the 28 December 2023 Report Card

RECESS. Like Taylor Elementary, Emerson Elementary scored an “A” on the state’s report card. Pictured above, Jamesha Thompson, left, and Addalyn Gass take a break from all of that academic achievement to play during recess.

bit wanting to try a bunch of stuff,” he said. “He goes, what works for him and works for everybody else, what’s worked for me now is, you hire people who are masters of the pedagogy, right?

And so then we support them to teach.

We hand them the standards and go, ‘This is what you’ve got to teach. Now what do you need to teach it?’ And there’s a lot of old-school teaching, I guess is what people would call it here.”

Tonisha Burton has spent 21 years at Emerson Elementary, her entire teaching career, and has two students who have graduated and a 17-year-old junior. This year she is teaching sixth grade English language arts and fifth grade math and science. She likes the small town atmosphere and said the school’s small

classroom sizes are a big advantage. Her largest class this year is 22 students.

“My smallest classroom that I’ve had here is 15, so it allows me to do that one-on-one, small-group, get to know my kids individually, get to know them not just by name, but I can tell you their needs and their ways that they excel, where we need to work,” she said.

The district has a budget of between $10 and $11 million and an operating budget of about $8 million. When a small district is growing but doesn’t have extra money, then administrators must plan carefully. Downs notes he has six principals and three cafeteria and maintenance staffs. He’s bussing students almost from the Texas state line to halfway across the state’s southern

ALWAYS A PIRATE. Thomas Watson, Emerson High principal, poses in front of the baseball jersey he wore playing for the Pirates in high school.

border. The district has a 37.4-mill milage rate that it hasn’t raised. Still, it was able recently to build a new cafeteria at Taylor. Over the summer, Downs, Grant, and maintenance staff with help from hired students split the old cafeteria in half to house art and music classes. It’s looking to build a 10-classroom building at Taylor. To do that, it transferred $1.6 million into the building fund at the end of this past year after transferring $1.4 million the year before. Downs is hoping to wait until 2025 so he can get state

partnership funding. Emerson also will need a new building.

“We don’t see any signs that growth’s going to stop,” he said. “Well, we’ve got to get prepared for that. In a district our size, spread out the way we’re spread out, you’ve got to plan years in advance.

You can’t say, ‘Oh, I see this coming.

Let me fix that.’ It doesn’t work that way. We don’t have the funding for that.

So the last two years, we’ve tried our best to save as much money as we can to put in our building fund, because I know as soon as we can, I need to build that 10-room building. Well, there’s $3 million that we’ve [moved] over in our building fund the last two years. With what I already have, that’s going to be my building.”

Downs is keenly aware that the district could grow a lot bigger in the near future. The district is located in the heart of the Smackover Formation, a lithium-rich area. A key component in batteries, lithium conceivably could be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th. Several large facilities are planned for the area. Exxon Mobil announced Nov. 13 that it is drilling its first lithium well in Arkansas. Earlier the Wall Street Journal had reported that it is planning a huge facility that would be located in the Emerson Taylor Bradley district. It would be capable of producing annually up to 110,000 tons of lithium annually.

That amount would be equal to roughly 15% of the world’s total production last

year. Downs said he thinks about the implications of all this development “every day.” If all this happens as it seems likely to do, the lithium industry will need workers, and those workers will have children who need a place to go to school. He wants them in his district, but he can’t yet budget for them.

“Do I have spots picked out at all three of my campuses where I can build?

Absolutely,” he said. “Absolutely. Do I have things ready if they ask, ‘What do you need?’ Absolutely.”

That potential growth will present a new challenge for the Emerson Taylor Bradley district – how to enjoy and manage growth without losing the joy and charm of being Mayberry. It seems likely that Emerson Taylor Bradley will be able to do both. It still will have a hometown feel. Who knows? Years from now, LaJuan Cannon may still be teaching there.

“See these uniforms here,” Watson said, pointing to framed jerseys from his playing days at Emerson. “Those are mine I wore in high school here. This is where I went to school. This is where my roots are. This is where my family is. This is where my kids attend school.

This is where my grandkids are going to attend school. I was here in the glory days, and I plan on bringing them back.

Like, this is my home.”

Downs technically isn’t a hometown boy, but he might as well be.

Continued on next page

Sports, Wellness and Academics Center, Fayetteville Public Schools werarch.com

Supporting Your Home Team

WER Architects works with educational campuses across Arkansas to design athletic facilities of all types, including the new Sports, Wellness and Academics Center at Fayetteville High School. Working together, we can provide tailored solutions to your district’s needs.

ARCHITECTS

Report Card December 2023 29

Cover / Emerson Taylor Bradley Like Watson, he’s from around there.

Like Watson, there’s still a competitive athlete lurking just below the professional school administrator’s “uniform” he now wears to work every day. And

like Watson, he’s not planning on going anywhere.

“I own land up where I’ve lived all my life,” Downs said. “I moved from where I grew up to where I live now.

Commercial Affiliates

I’ve got four kids, my wife and I, and I’m about four miles from where I grew up. She’s about four miles the other way from where she grew up. This is just home. This is where I want to be.”

ASBA thanks its premier partners and other commercial affiliates for their support.

Premier Partners American Fidelity

Contact Lisa Boone

Phone 800.688.4421

Email lisa.boone@americanfidelity.com

Website americanfidelity.com

Apptegy

Samantha Bentley

501.613.0370

samantha.bentley@apptegy.com

www.apptegy.com

Arkansas Public Safety Solutions

Brianna Davis

501.837.7098

bdavis@motorolaapss.com

www.motorolaapss.com

Baldwin & Shell Construction Company

Bobby Gosser, Jr.

501.374.8677

bgosser@baldwinshell.com

www.baldwinshell.com

Cadence Insurance

Bill Birch

501.614.1170

bill.birch@cadenceinsurance.com

www.cadenceinsurance.com

Coryell Roofing

Chris Coryell

405.392.4800

sales@coryellroofing.com

coryellroofing.com

Entegrity

Michael Parker

800.700.1414

mparker@entegritypartners.com

www.entegritypartners.com

First Security Beardsley

Scott Beardsley

501.978.6392

scott@fsbeardsley.com

fsbeardsley.com

Homeland Safety Systems, Inc.

Mike Elliott

888.909.2261

mike@hssems.com

homelandsafetysystems.com

Jackson Brown Palculict Architects

Randall Palculict

501.664.8700

randy@jbparchitects.com

www.jbparchitects.com

Lumatech

Chad Thornton

888.771.5341

cthornton@lumatechservice.com

www.lumatechservice.com

Nabholz

Andrew Adlong

501.505.5800

adlong@nabholz.com

nabholz.com

Performance Services, Inc.

Will Black

501.353.2299

wblack@performanceservices.com

www.performanceservices.com/ arkansas

Simbli by eBoardsolutions

Charlie Rigby

770.962.6844

crigby@eboardsolutions.com

eboardsolutions.com

Stephens Inc.

Jason Holsclaw

501.377.2474

jason.holsclaw@stephens.com

www.stephens.com

The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS)

Stacey McPherson

866.839.8477

conferences@tips-usa.com

www.tips-usa.com

Exhibiting Partners

Contact

Phone

Email

Website

ACE Sports

Mark Bridges

501.909.9173

mark.bridges@acesports.com

www.acesports.com

All-Clean USA Restoration Services

Danny-Joe Crofford

501.646.6500

dcrofford@allcleanusa.com

www.allcleanusa.com

Architecture Plus, Inc.

Craig Boone

479.783.8395

craig@archplusinc.net

archplusinc.net

Bailey Education Group

Dr. Ivy Pfeffer

601.707.5778

ipfeffer@baileyarch.com

www.baileyarch.com

C.R. Crawford Construction, LLC

Becky Gosnell

479.251.1161

bgosnell@crcrawford.com

www.crcrawford.com

Capital Technology Group

Ben Higgs

501.375.1111

bhiggs@captg.com

www.captg.com

Chartwells

Kellye Neal

615.443.4613

kellye.neal@compass-usa.com

www.chartwellsk12.com

Cromwell Architects Engineers, Inc.

Jeff Overton

501.425.9656

joverton@cromwell.com

www.cromwell.com

Curriculum Associates

Valecia Ootsey-Marshall 440.334.3303

VMarshall@cainc.com

www.curriculumassociates.com

ESG

Jonelle Booth

479.422.8302

jbooth@energysystemsgroup.com

www.energysystemsgroup.com

Forefront360, LLC

Jonathan Frazier

888.441.8870

info@forefront360.com

www.forefront360.com

HES Facilities Management

Susanna Hoskins

865.263.1905

susanna.hoskins@hes.com

hes.com

Hight Jackson Associates, P.A.

Liz Cox

479.464.4965

lcox@hjarch.com

www.hjarch.com

Johnson Controls

Rob Branscum

501.295.1050

rob.branscum@jci.com

www.johnsoncontrols.com

JTS

Robert Anderson

501.227.0194

randerson@jtsfs.com

www.jtsfs.com

K-12 Culinary Connection

Justin Mills

580.574.9567

Justin.mills@k-12culinary.com

www.k-12culinaryconnection.com

KLC Video Security

Bill King

903.792.7262

billking.klc@gmail.com

www.klcvideosecurity.net

Mammoth Sports Construction

Blaise Bauer

785.400.6136

info@mammothbuilt.com

mammothbuilt.com

McPherson & Jacobson, LLC

Pam Gaare

888.375.4814

mail@macnjake.com

www.macnjake.com

Modus Studio

Josh Siebert

479.455.5577

contact@modusstudio.com

www.modusstudio.com

Moser Corporation

Matt Rains

479.636.3481

mrains@mosercorporation.com

www.mosercorporation.com

Musco Sports Lighting

Brooke Hermsen

641.676.2388

lighting@musco.com

www.musco.com

National Safety Shelters

Dennis Corrado

886.372.1530

info@nationalsafetyshelters.com

nationalsafetyshelters.com

Progressive Technologies

Rodney Jackson

501.833.9000

rjackson@thinkprogressive.com

www.thinkprogressive.com

SchoolEats

Kellye Neal

615.443.4613

kellye.neal@compass-usa.com

www.schooleatsconsulting.com

SFE - Southwest Foodservice Excellence

Greg Williams

480.551.6550

greg.williams@sfellc.org

sfellc.com

Southern Bleacher Company

Linc Darrow

940.549.0733

darrow@southernbleacher.com

www.southernbleacher.com

Strategos International

Steve Anderson

501.617.4718

sanderson@strategosintl.com

www.strategosintl.com

SYN Lawn

Paul Held

816.886.2747

pheld@synlawn.com

www.synlawn.com

The Playwell Group

Mitchell Wayman

800.726.1816

mitchell@theplaywellgroup.com

www.playwellgroup.com

Trane Technologies

Beau Reynolds

501.392.9362

beau.reynolds@trane.com

www.tranetechnologies.com

Tri-State Floors

Alex Verseman

918.343.2553

akverse@tri-statefloors.com

www.tri-statefloors.com

Van Horn Construction

Chad Weisler

479.968.2514

cweisler@vanhornconstruction.com

www.vanhornconstruction.com

VS America

Scot Morris

402.215.8610

s.morris@vsamerica.com

www.vsamerica.com

WDD Architects

Glen Woodruff

501.376.6681

gwoodruff@wddarchitects.com

www.wddarchitects.com

WER Architects

Russell Fason

501.374.5300

rfason@werarch.com

www.werarch.com

Supporting Partners

Contact

Phone

Email

Website

David H. Frieze Associates, Inc.

Paul Frieze

501.922.974

paulfrieze7@gmail.com

Raymond James

David Fortenberry

877.447.8672

David.fortenberry@raynmondjames.com

30 December 2023 Report Card

www.raymondjames.com

LEARNS: Contract targets required

Superintendent contracts entered into after July 1 of this year must contain performance targets.

As a result of the LEARNS Act, every contract must contain, at a minimum, specific targets for student academic achievement and graduation rates.

Additionally, for any school district with a “C,” “D” or “F” school, a student achievement target must be added that is specific to that school in both of those categories.

If a contract executed after July 1 of this year does not contain performance contracts, then it’s null and void.

The law does not require the superintendent to actually meet the target – only that the targets be included. The targets themselves, and the rewards and penalties for meeting them – are a board decision. School boards can include a bonus for meeting the target if they want.

by Cody Kees Bequette, Billingsley & Kees Boards also may consider a multi-year performance target that is assessed every year and carried forward on the contract.

It does not appear that interim superintendent contracts must have performance targets. By definition, an interim superintendent would not be in the position long enough to assess long-term performance.

For superintendents who executed a multi-year contract in the spring before

July 1, the contract would not need to include performance targets unless the board extended the contract or made other adjustments such as a salary raise. For any superintendent who is not interested in a contract extension but plans to return with the contract in place, performance goals would not need to be added. However, if any modification is made to a superintendent’s contract at this point, performance targets are required.

If you need help, our firm has a model contract where I have added some bare-bones performance target language to comply with the law. Your board is free to use it to help write your own.

Remember, the law doesn’t specify what the targets must be – only that you must have them. But if you neglect to include them, the contract is null and void.

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Arkansas Representative:

Report Card December 2023 31

EXECUTIVE SESSION with

Joe Sheppard

By Steve Brawner Editor

Joe Sheppard is a busy man. For the past 38 years, he’s worked for Hytrol Conveyor Company in Jonesboro, from which he was retiring in November. He also sells cars and car stereos at a small business he has owned during much of that time, and he’s a disc jockey who does weddings and other events on the weekends. He’s been married to the same woman for four decades and has four adult children and nine grandchildren. And somehow in the middle of all of that, he has served as a Jonesboro School Board member since 2016 and now is ASBA’s Region 3 director.

Sheppard has served during a time of both significant student growth and stable leadership, as Dr. Kim Wilbanks has been superintendent for 13 years.

The district has been averaging more than 2% growth per year and has had to both plan for that growth and react to it.

It has five elementary magnet schools: Health, Wellness and Environmental Studies; International Studies; Math and Science; Visual and Performing Arts; and Leadership, which focuses on economics, government, citizenship, and other subjects. From there, students go to one of two junior highs and then converge at The Academies at Jonesboro High School. It has three Academies – BCAL: Business, Communications, Art and Law; HHS: Health and Human Services; and STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

Report Card sat down with Sheppard in the district boardroom to talk about that approach, the district’s growth, and how he has time for it all.

32 December 2023 Report Card

What made you decide to run for school board?

“I was appointed. The local person in my zone was actually a part-time nurse, and she wanted to go full-time. Being that we were actually neighbors, I was asked if I would be interested, so from there I became very interested.”

Had you been interested before?

“No. Never had.”

Why did it interest you?

“It was just something unique that I never thought people would ask me to be involved with. You know, I’ve been a businessman for such a long time, people probably thought I didn’t have time.”

What have been some of the biggest challenges of being on the Jonesboro School Board the past seven years?

“The biggest challenge has been most of our schools have been busting out the seams. Keeping teachers, and having enough teachers to downsize our classrooms, which created another problem because we didn’t have room for classrooms. In the past three years, we’ve expanded, I think, four of the five elementaries, including our pre-K and K, and that’s been our number one goal.

In between that time, we had to come up with the future because it was growing so rapidly that we had no more land.

We’d used it all. So we bought some land right around the corner from Jonesboro High with the thoughts of a new school, another elementary school.

But now that’s transformed actually into, we’re probably going to need it for the high school.”

Jonesboro has become kind of the capital of east Arkansas. Is that what’s happened?

“That’s exactly what’s happened, and everybody’s drawn to it. Most people are really excited because most of the time, there are other family members or people they know, and that’s how we work in Jonesboro. There are people you know there, teachers you know, then normally that’s where your kid goes.”

How have you kept enough teachers employed?

“That’s been a really big challenge here, and especially since the LEARNS

Act. But I’m a firm believer in hiring within the district. If you can hire within the district, they’ll normally stay. Most of our, how do I put it, our inner city teachers that left are coming back now.

We’re able to maintain because of our pay grade. … We already had a plan in place. Then when the LEARNS Act [went into effect], we only lost the teachers that weren’t from here. They all went home to be closer to family, where we were able to actually prosper on that because of our pay raise.”

How do you do that?

“We did that by, you have to really educate your teachers. That was the hardest part with keeping teachers, that our transformation was accelerated at such an accelerated rate that teachers weren’t ready to do that. We kind of put our emphasis about three years ago on the need to have a more diverse teacher so we don’t have to really train them on what’s happening here. … From that format, it’s helped us to retain our teachers.”

The LEARNS Act makes sure that every teacher makes $50,000, which means that outlying schools that weren’t paying that much now can compete with you on starting salary.

Have you raised your salary up past that?

“We haven’t really raised it, but we have a plan, which we already had in place. Our lowest paid teacher before the LEARNS Act was like $46,000. …

We pay by years of education at our school, and if you upgrade your education, your pay does raise.”

How nice has it been having the same superintendent through all this?

“That’s been a great thing. I rank our superintendent with any of them. I’ve been to national conferences. I’m a training guru, myself. When it comes to training, I don’t miss, and I don’t miss meetings. I don’t like virtual anything.

But I’ve been to the national conferences, all of them in the past two years, and I’ve been to all the local and Arkansas conferences, and I can tell you our superintendent is well respected. I tell her all the time when I come back from a conference, you’ve got to start coming with me because I get tired of answering the questions about you.

Yeah, it’s been a great thing.”

How many students do you have now?

“We have, I think our last number was right at 6,500, 6,600.”

And you have made diversity a key part of what you’re doing.

“A key part, very key part.”

Tell me about your academies.

“Our academies approach is probably one of the better things that we have

Continued on next page

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Report Card December 2023 33

Executive Session You have one high school, right?

“We only have one high school, and we’ve been told we can’t upgrade our gymnasium at the high school because it’s been around since the ‘50s. Our goal is to probably use some of the land that we bought. You have to try to do things in a proximity, so when we build a new gymnasium – that’s in the plan in the future – it’s probably going to have to have classrooms also. We’re never going to be able to tear down the old one. But as you can see like we did with the football field, being in the 7A, people didn’t realize that there are demands you have to meet. We had to make the visitors’ side as big as the home side.

You have to have a press box for the visitors. And so we’ve kind of been holding onto our reins in the 6A as long as we could, but now we’ve got an $8 million addition to it, and probably in the near future we’re going to build a new gymnasium so we can host a state tournament.”

“

I just like to stay busy. I was born and raised that way. My dad started me working when I was eight, and from there I never lost track.

”

here in our school district. If it weren’t for that, I don’t know where we would be as far as our learning edge. We’re on an upward spin, so our academies at the high school are probably the best thing that we have, probably better than any school around here. … Our kids out of junior high can come straight out of those elementary schools and know what academy they’re ready for. They don’t have to wait to get there to see. By doing that, it’s made our high school experience probably better than anyone around here.”

You start with magnet schools at the elementary level. Tell me about the different choices the students have.

“We have our elementary level. We have our international studies. We have our math and science. We have our health and wellness. We have our visual and performing arts. We have also our Leadership. Our Leadership school and math and science are in our poorer poverty level. If you haven’t heard, our Leadership school … is recognized this year in the state as one of the most positive schools that we’ve ever had.

And they used to be one of our lowest.”

What does it mean by “Leadership”?

“We’ve taken the initiative to put the teachers in place and the administration in place to make them strive. We don’t like a school being labeled, ‘No one wants to go there.’ You’d be amazed how the kids that have come out of that school and got to the junior high level have really prospered because that area is really, really poverty ridden. But most of those kids now are above the norm.”

The schools are sort of based on geography, but also you can go to any one that you want?

“You can go to any one you want.”

34 December 2023 Report Card

I would assume that the health and wellness school at the elementary level would have classes tailored toward the medical profession. Do you worry about that being kind of early to ask students to make that kind of decision?

“Oh, no, not with today’s students.

These students are so advanced, a lot more than you think. When you can give a first grader to second grader a computer and orchestrate them – really, they orchestrate you how to use it – but you have to orchestrate them to not use things more than to use things. It’s kind of amazing because I never would have imagined that we would be able to get out of the book era. But I can see in the future, we’ll be actually computer-generated probably in the kindergarten age.”

What do you see happening in the future?

“Our number one goal right now, we’ve got some things in place, but the LEARNS Act has kind of slowed that down. But we can see in the future, we’re going to probably have to expand a couple, high school probably first, and then from there probably another elementary school.”

Can you do that with your current millage?

“No. We’re probably going to have to ask for a millage. I say that. I don’t think we can get enough donations.”

The cost is skyrocketing.

“Skyrocketing. …. I work in an industrial park, and I can tell you I get asked about that all the time. They think because we’re building, well, the millage is going up. But no, we’ve been able to maintain. We’ve been able to restructure some bonds and do some of the things that we’ve done. But we’ll never be able to do that to build a new school.”

I’ve covered school elections for a long time, and I can tell you that if you’re building just an academic facility, you’ve got a shot. But when it’s a gym or performing arts center, those often don’t make it.

“That’s correct.”

Have you been thinking about what you need to do that?

“Yeah, what we’re going to probably try to do is the school level, classrooms are going to always have to be first.

Before you can build anything, you’ve got to figure out, is there room for classrooms? There’s no such thing as an auditorium. You know, we’ve kind of done most of that already at our high school level. We don’t think we can expand. We’re three floors now. We can’t go much higher now because of what it cost us in the past. So you can imagine in the future that would never happen, but our next goal is going to probably be an elementary, I’m going to say. And my thinking, and the way things are going now, unless a drastic change happens, we’re going to have to have an elementary school.”

Can you see combining the gym and elementary school into one millage request?

“Probably. We might have to do it at once.”

What do you do for a living?

“I work at Hytrol Conveyor. I’m the receiving manager at Hytrol Conveyor.”

What do you do?

“I control everything that’s brought into Hytrol and paid for. Everything.

And my job is to make sure it’s right.

When we receive it, it’s my job to manage that.”

You make conveyors.

“We make conveyors. The third largest in the country.”

Are you headquartered here?

“Yes. We’ve been here since 1961.”

came along, it’s a little bit more expensive than your kids.”

But that’s not your only job. What else do you do for a living?

“I have a business across town, which I started probably about the time I came here to work, which was 38 years ago.

I’m the owner of Performance Car Audio and Auto Sales.”

Are you a workaholic, or do you just like to stay busy?

“I just like to stay busy. I was born and raised that way. My dad started me working when I was eight, and from there I never lost track. I worked my high school years. … I had work study class. . … Instead of taking home economics, I was able to go to work every day of my high school career as a class.”

How do you do that and work full time?

“Carefully. [Laughs.] I’m open every day, and I’m open when I get off my regular job till 7:30, 8 o’clock at night, and the weekends I’m there all day.”

And because you don’t sleep, apparently …

“I sleep, but not very long.”

Because after 7:30, you go somewhere else.

“Most of the time on weekends, Friday, Saturday, sometimes Thursday, I’m a disc jockey for weddings, reunions, and private parties.”

How do you have time to do all this?

“You make time. I’ve been married for 40 years. I have four grown kids, and actually I have nine grandkids who are all in school. I try to help out as much as I can, and I learned through the years of my own kids that when the grandkids

You’re an entrepreneur. How does that influence your school board decision-making?

“My decision-making at the school board level is that you always have to listen. I heard in my early board training that it’s best to listen before you make decisions, which has helped me, which I always did in my businesses. I always have to listen to the customer to decide what they need. I use that on the school board to help guide our new school board members – which we’ve had a big turnover since I’ve been on it – in decision making. Don’t always think all kids are the smartest. Don’t always think they don’t know just because they’re not learning. They’re willing to learn. It’s just that you have to find the way for them to learn it.”

Note: Executive Session is edited for length, style and clarity.

Report Card December 2023 35

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VS America discusses learning environments

Ackers

VS America Director of Education Jill Ackers led a workshop on The Science of Gathering at the international conference of the Association for Learning Environ-

ments (A4LE).

Participants explored the critical factors that contribute to creating successful transformational learning environments such as proxemics, cultural relevance, and the role of agile spaces.

This interactive workshop provided educators from Arkansas and around the world insights into the impact of physical distance and cultural relevance on creativity, innovation, and teamwork in collaborative spaces.

“I hope to bring this workshop and conversation into Arkansas schools very soon,” Ackers said.

Scot Morris, regional manager for VS America, added that “School leaders are facing extreme challenges trying to execute 21st century, project-based, student-centered learning strategies in learning spaces that were simply designed for another time. This workshop will be a valuable tool for Arkansas educators working to align their goals, the needs of teachers and students, with their physical spaces.”

To learn more about VS America, visit www.vsamerica.com. To inquire about bringing a workshop to your district, contact VS at https://vsamerica. com/contact.

Architecture Plus designs Enola safe room

Architecture Plus, Inc. designed a hallway/safe area for the Enola Elementary School that connects three buildings. It not only provides a safe 36 December 2023 Report Card

and secure passage for the students, but it also provides a safe room space for more than 300 people during a tornado event. Constructed of reinforced concrete block walls with a concrete slab roof, the structure and all doors and windows meet FEMA 361 requirements.

The project also had to account for three different floor levels, so it has ADAaccessible ramps. With the guidance of the school board and superintendent, this school district will now have a FEMA safe room at both campus locations.

To learn more, visit archplusinc.net.

M3 Services helps clients save $800K

M3 Services helped clients save more than $800,000, or 7.5 million kilowatthours, in 2023.

School districts served included Texarkana, Lakeside, Sheridan, Ouachita and Louisiana’s Caddo Parish.

The company’s services are funded through energy efficiency incentive dollars from utility companies such as Entergy, SWEPCO, and CLECO. Through HVAC cleanings, maintenance, and testing, and by installing smart thermostats for some clients, M3 reduced energy bills at low to no cost to districts.

M3 also offers a training plan that can lead students to be licensed HVAC technicians in a few years. In October, Lake Hamilton Class of ‘23 grads Haydn Yancey, Westin Maddox, and Hunter Wells obtained their EPA Clean Air Section 608 certification cards.

For more information, go to www. m3svs.com or call 501.991.4822.

C.R. Crawford manages Elkins gymnasium build

Construction on Elkins’ two-story, 42,000-square-foot gymnasium recently wrapped up. C.R. Crawford served as construction manager for the project, which was designed by BiLD Architects.

The gymnasium includes weight and

training rooms, coaches’ offices, locker rooms, and other amenities.

“Hiring a construction manager for a public school construction project is essential for ensuring that the project is completed successfully, on time, and within budget, while also maintaining high-quality standards and complying with all relevant regulations,” said Senior Site Superintendent David Sparks. “C.R. Crawford’s expertise and oversight contributed to a smooth and efficient construction process, ultimately benefiting Elkins High School and the community.”

This is CRCC’s third Elkins project.

For questions about K-12 construction, contact Leigh Ann Showalter at lshowalter@crcrawford.com or Jordan Ligon at jligon@crcrawford.com. To learn more, go to www.crawford.com.

Students get look at Nabholz pros’ work

A kindergarten class at Greene County Tech Primary School recently visited a school district construction site where students learned about the ins and outs of construction. Nabholz takes pride in not only helping schools build and repair facilities, but also in helping to teach the next generation.

The kindergartners observed the operation from a safe distance, asked questions, and watched as a crane driver operated the crane from the ground using a remote control. The students also made connections between what they were learning and what they experience in their everyday lives. To them, the remote-controlled crane was just like a video game.

School districts can get these unique experiences – either for a site or class-

room visit – for students by coordinating with project managers and school leaders. Not only can hands-on opportunities like this increase student interest in STEM, but they can also get students involved with their community’s growth.

To learn more, visit nabholz.com.

financial planning expert. They can help employees build their skills regarding debt management, emergency savings planning, tax guidance and preparation, identity protection and more. Employers should measure the outcomes and adjust their program when necessary.

To learn more, go to americanfidelity. com/blog/strategy/financial-wellnessretirement/. For more information about American Fidelity, go to americanfidelity.com or call 800.688.4421.

Hight Jackson designs for Farmington

National Safety Shelters installs mini safe rooms National Safety Shelters has installed mini safe rooms at Quitman, Lawrence County, Danville, Pangburn and White County school districts and has ongoing projects at Concord and Ouachita River.

Several additional districts are planning projects in 2024.

The mini safe rooms are a preferable alternative to large FEMA safe rooms because, located in each classroom, they offer immediate protection from both tornadoes and active shooters at about one-third the cost. Plus, they take up less than 5% of classroom space, require no construction and can be installed over 3-4 weekends.

Enrollment at Quitman, pictured above, has increased more than 30% since project completion in 2019. Superintendent Dennis Truxler said, “The increase is largely due to parents wanting to send their children to schools that offer the best protection available from tornadoes and active shooters.”

More information can be found at www.nationalsafetyshelters.com or by calling 772.672.3331.

French Architects designs Hot Springs gym French Architects designed a new physical education gym for the Hot Springs School District Phase II. This new gym addition also will be used as the new campus safe room and will provide safe room space for all students and staff on the Hot Springs Junior Academy and Hot Springs High School campus. The school district will use the multipurpose spaces as the restrooms and concession area for the new tennis courts and new turf soccer field, which are Phase III projects. The new gym addition will provide adequate P.E. spaces and complete the new high school requirements for the district.

For more information about French Architects, email David French at david@frencharchitects.net, or check out the firm’s Facebook page.

American Fidelity helps with financial wellness

Employee benefits expert American Fidelity says a financial wellness program could help organizations make more attractive offers to new employees and prevent existing staff from leaving.

Employers also can help employees develop and implement financial plans by offering periodic coaching from a

architects from modus studio and the general contractor Nabholz Corporation.

Architects with modus studio designed the 25,000-square-foot facility to provide a more optimal learning environment. It features 10 classrooms, a fine arts room, a music room, a science lab, and various administrative spaces. Construction is scheduled to be complete in late 2024.

For more information, go to modusstudio.com or call 479.455.5577.

modus studio designs White County facility The White County Central School District recently celebrated the groundbreaking of a new 7th and 8th grade classroom facility and dining hall with

Hight Jackson Associates of Rogers designed two separate additions to the existing Farmington Junior High School facility. The two-story West Building consists of standard classrooms and one science lab. The one-story East Building consists of an auditorium and stage, art room, and a vocal classroom. Construction was completed in May, and the building opened to students this fall.

For more information, call 479.464.4965 or go to www.hjarch.com.

Johnson Controls helps Bryant save energy Johnson Controls completed the agreements on a $7.1 million energy performance contract with the Bryant School District this spring and is now in the project’s construction phase.

Energy performance contracts are a mechanism where a school district can finance the full cost of a project by using the expected energy savings.

Bryant’s project features lighting, energy controls, and renovating and re-

Continued on next page

Report Card December 2023 37

Marketplace placing outdated HVAC equipment. Rob Branscum, an Arkansas-based director of business development with Johnson Controls, said the construction phase could be completed in October 2024.

Branscum noted that while Bryant is a large district, it still was served by Johnson Controls’ expertise.

“Just like they are a bigger school district, they still had a lot of needs that would just be a lot of heavy lifting and burden on their own existing budget to tackle what this project accomplished,” he said.

To learn more, contact Branscum at 501.295.1050, or go to www.johnsoncontrols.com.

McPherson & Jacobson does 1,000 searches

McPherson & Jacobson, L.L.C. has conducted more than 1,000 national superintendent searches for school boards since 1991. In Arkansas, McPherson & Jacobson’s Arkansas-based consultants have conducted more than 75 superintendent searches for districts ranging from 400 to 26,000 students. The Arkansas consultants will personalize the search for the board.

Contact McPherson & Jacobson at mail@macnjake.com, go to macnjake. com, or 888.375.4814 to learn more.

ally and more than $6 million over its lifetime. Superintendent Jon Laffoon stated, “This project will bring positive outcomes to our school district and our community for decades to come.”

The project was funded by a variety of sources, including federal relief funds and a second lien bond, creating maximum, budget-neutral savings.

To learn more, contact Entegrity at info@entegritypartners.com or visit www.entegritypartners.com.

Stephens helps with school finance training

Stephens can assist school board members with obtaining their required professional development hours.

Arkansas law generally requires that board members obtain up to six hours of certified professional development on topics related to school operations.

The Arkansas School Boards Association has deemed Stephens’ financial advisors as certified ASBA trainers who are able to provide up to four hours of school finance training annually toward ASBA’s Boardsmanship Awards Program. Normally held in the evening or on a weekend, this free training workshop will address topics ranging from state and local funding revenue sources to debt financing of capital projects.

This type of workshop can be particularly useful for boards considering how to finance future capital projects.

To learn how Stephens Public Finance can help your district, contact Michael McBryde at 501.377.2641, or go to www.stephens.com.

Farmington saves $6 million with Entegrity

In 2021, Farmington School District utilized the Arkansas Energy Office’s Energy Performance Contracting program to implement an energy savings project. It chose Entegrity Energy Partners to audit its facilities and implement work that included LED lighting, water conservation, new HVAC equipment, HVAC tune-ups, controls upgrades, and emergency power generation. Solar arrays were linked to education initiatives.

Entegrity guarantees the project will save approximately $280,000 annu38 December 2023 Report Card

Strategos, Secret Service check Monticello security

Strategos International Director of School Safety & Security Solutions Steve Anderson this past October was joined by four recently retired Secret Service agents to conduct physical security assessments for the Monticello

School District. The Strategos team traveled to four campuses and multiple athletic facilities to conduct these assessments over three days. Along with Monticello, Strategos has recently conducted the same type of physical security assessments for the Hope and Barton School Districts.

In August, Strategos International teams provided active shooter intruder response training for school personnel for the Nashville, Watson Chapel, Hope, El Dorado and Greenbrier School Districts as well as the Arkansas Arts Academy Schools in Rogers.

For more information about Strategos, go to www.strategosintl.com or contact Anderson at 501.617.4718.

Baldwin & Shell finishes Lisa Academy

Baldwin & Shell recently completed its second LISA Academy in Northwest Arkansas. Since 2004, LISA Academy has earned the reputation of providing a distinct, high-quality education to students across Arkansas. This campus is just off Interstate 49 at the intersection of Van Asche and McGuire in Fayetteville.

For more information about Baldwin & Shell, go to www.baldwinshell.com.

WER designs Fayetteville facilities

WER Architects designed Fayetteville High School’s Sports, Wellness and Academic Center and an expansion to the indoor practice facility that opened in August.

The indoor practice facility supports the soccer, football, track, and cross country teams and includes a weight room, laundry and equipment rooms, training space, administration offices, and academic space. The indoor practice facility houses baseball, cheer and dance spaces, a remote training space, remote

Three win Milken Awards

exercise space, and a band storage space. WER also designed renovations to the press box and locker rooms. The Sports, Wellness and Academic Center features a clinic to serve the student population and staff, a sports broadcasting academic space, and a sports medicine/career technical training program.

For more information about WER Architects, go to www.werarch.com.

Arkansas Public Safety installs weapons detectors

Arkansas Public Safety Solutions has completed its installation of Motorola Avigilon Concealed Weapons Detection technology powered by Evolv at the Hot Springs School District.

The touchless screening technology uses advanced digital sensors and artificial intelligence to quickly screen individuals for weapons. Greenbrier was the first Arkansas district to install it.

Arkansas Public Safety Solutions, a Little Rock-based system integrator, is focused on the K-12 market and has 85 years of public safety system design, integration, and service experience.

For more information, go to www. motorolaapss.com.

TIPS Marketplace available for schools The new TIPS Marketplace eProcurement system is easy for schools to utilize for their purchasing needs. Powered by EqualLevel, it electronically facilitates the ordering process between schools and TIPS Awarded Vendors, making it easy to compliantly purchase products and services needed.

The marketplace is available at shop. tips-usa.com/tips/login. To learn more about TIPS, go to www.tips-usa.com.

Three Arkansas educators received $25,000 Milken Educator Awards this fall.

Those winners were Michael Tapee, a Hellstern Middle School mathematics teacher with the Springdale School District; Ashley Anderson, a sixth grade English language arts teacher at Greenbrier Middle School; and Andrew Harrison, a social studies teacher and athletics coach at Mayflower High School.

Up to 75 recipients will be named this year. Press releases from the Milken Educator Awards explained why the three were chosen.

Tapee ties instruction to real-world solutions through lessons that involve building rockets, designing apartment floor plans, and speaking with NASA scientists. He helps lead and co-created the school’s Herobotics robotics program. His students consistently score high average yearly growth on the Measures of Academic Progress assessment.

Anderson works with special education teachers to ensure the curriculum is accessible for all levels of learners. Her inclusive strategies are used throughout Greenbrier Middle School. She mentors first-year teachers and is part of Greenbrier’s leadership team, curriculum com-

mittee, and literacy professional learning community. She also helps coordinate school and community events.

Harrison, a Mayflower alumnus, takes a coaching approach to teaching.

He is involved in the school’s instructional leadership team and leads a professional learning community for physical education, health and social studies teachers and athletics coaches. He organizes volunteer events and sponsors the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

The awards were presented in surprise assemblies by Lowell Milken, the philanthropist who created the award in 1987, as well as by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Education Secretary Jacob Oliva. Tapee received the first Milken Award presented this year.

The awards provide recognition and financial awards to early and mid-career teachers, principals and specialists.

Honorees attend a forum in Los Angeles in June 2024. Winners become part of the Milken Educator Network, which includes more than 2,900 education professionals.

This year, the Milken Awards will reach $75 million in individual financial prizes awarded and more than $144 million invested in the network overall.

FRENCH ARCHITECTS ARCHITECTS I DESIGNERS I INTERIORS 827 CENTRAl AvE ST. B I HOT SpRINGS I AR I 71901 DAVID@FRENCHARCHITECTS.NET

FRENCHARCHITECTS

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CO N ST RU C T ION

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IN DUST R IA L

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ENVIRONMENTAL

WE BUILD PLACES TO PLAY BALL

When the Greene County Tech School District wanted to create a new baseball and softball complex, we helped them turn their dream into a reality. GCT High now has two state-of-the-art turf fields complete with stadium sports lighting and two-story press boxes. The space also includes a new entry booth, concessions, and shaded seating for fans. Now when the Golden Eagles want to play ball, it will be on their own field of dreams.

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