June 2023

Report Card

June 2023 www.arsba.org

Wynne-ers

A tornado destroyed the Wynne High School campus March 31 but left the school district’s spirit untouched. Dr. Kenneth Moore, superintendent, center, felt led by God to dismiss school early; no students or staff were killed. Students were back in school after a week thanks to the work of staff members like Assistant Superintendent Stephanie Lyons, left, and the support of Wynne School Board members including the board’s president, Stacie Schlenker, right. Next steps: Finishing the cleanup, constructing a temporary campus, and building the Yellowjackets’ new permanent home.

Also inside:

– A review of the legislative session

– Remembering Dan Farley

COSSBA transparent, engaging

About 200 Arkansas participants, including some presenters, traveled to Tampa, Florida, this spring for COSSBA’s Inaugural National Conference, where we enjoyed the fellowship and welcomed a new state member.

Wisconsin will be joining the Consortium of State School Boards Associations on July 1, 2024, becoming state number 24. We are also in talks with several other states who may be joining us in the upcoming year.

If you attended the conference, you noticed that it was laid back and geared towards issues within our local states, with topics to which we could relate. The Urban Boards Alliance kicked off the national conference with topics of discussions and speakers who kept everyone from all district sizes engaged.

That was a welcome change. In the past when we attended an urban workshop with the National School Boards Association (NSBA), the topics and speakers really didn’t fit every district.

As has been well documented, ASBA’s Delegate Assembly voted to leave the NSBA in December 2021 because of concerns about that organization’s leadership and transparency.

On April 10, 2022, I had the pleasure of becoming one of 22 school board

by William Campbell ASBA President

members from across the nation who signed the Resolution to Form COSSBA in Raleigh, North Carolina. While serving on the Transitional Committee, I was appointed to the board of directors. On Jan. 20, 2023, we held our first official board meeting in Savannah, Georgia.

COSSBA is a non-partisan, national alliance dedicated to supporting, promoting, and strengthening state school boards associations as they serve their local school districts and board members.

It is focused on:

• Supporting the work of state school boards associations through effective staff collaboration, networking, and shared resources

• Networking opportunities for local school board members and association

board members to enhance the effectiveness of their work

• Tracking and advocating for federal education issues and policies impacting local school boards and public education that is aligned with a statement of core values and beliefs of COSSBA

• Federal judicial advocacy impacting local control and public education

I have learned a lot and shared a lot as well with my fellow board members as we’ve grown and worked hard to put this organization together. Board members have input and can make decisions as a whole that will benefit not only the organization but also our state associations. One of the main concerns and topics of discussion from all board members as we formed it was “transparency.” We all agreed that if there wasn’t transparency, we wouldn’t support the organization.

As we prepare for our next national conference in Dallas in 2024, I encourage each of you to embrace the new organization. Be proud that Arkansas was one of the founding states who took a stand and became a part of this team that will be working nationally while still being able to relate to the local needs of our states as well.

Report

Card

T he J ournal of T he a rkansas s chool B oards a ssociaT ion

News and Features

10

ASBA’s Dan Farley remembered

Dan Farley, who led ASBA for 14 years and served it for 34 total, died March 8, but his impact on the association and public education lives on.

12

Cover / Storm breaks buildings, not spirit

On March 31, a tornado destroyed most of Wynne High School. No one was killed, and the district lost five days of school. Here’s the story of what happened, how the district responded, and what happens next.

18

Cover / Wynne plans two schools of thought

When Wynne High School students return to school July 24, it will be on a temporary campus that as of May 21 was an empty field once housing a trailer park. Meanwhile, the district is planning its new permanent high school while asking voters to increase the district’s millage by 4.9 mills.

22

Session a LEARNS experience

One hundred nineteen of the 196 education-related bills tracked by ASBA in the 94th General Assembly became law, but none attracted more attention or will have more of an impact than the LEARNS Act.

28

Policy service updated; more to come

ASBA Policies Director Lucas Harder completed the updates to the Model Policy Service May 1 in order to give districts time to update their own policies, even though much of the LEARNS Act’s provisions must be fleshed out through the rules and regulation process.

Funding could fall for many schools 30

Funding levels could drop significantly in the coming years because of the end of COVID dollars and because of various demographic factors, while schools can use data to better serve students. Those were some of the topics covered at the AAEA and ASBA Joint Leadership Conference May 2.

12 Wynne Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Moore, Assistant Superintendent Stephanie Lyons, left, and School Board President Stacie Schlenker stand amidst the remains of the Wynne High School, most of which was destroyed by a tornado March 31.

The Journal of The arkansas school Boards associaTion

Vol. 17, Number 2 June 2023

by Dr. Tony Prothro

The 94th General Assembly has just ended, and it marks many changes for Arkansas public schools. Change is most often accompanied by a feeling of discomfort, but it is many times a portal to new ideas and opportunities.

Many public school advocates have fought a long battle against taxpayer funding of home schools and private schools. However, the recent legislative session has now greatly blurred the lines between private schools, home schools, and public schools – at least for funding purposes. I believe it is an opportune time for public education leaders to rethink our role and objectives for students’ education. We have to a large extent focused solely on those children who attend our public schools. However, there are many other children in most communities who are receiving an education outside of public schools. We see these children in our parks, our grocery stores, our churches, and in our neighborhoods.

I have experienced and have heard stories of less than favorable home school and private school situations and outcomes. At the same time, you only must look across our state to realize that many of our public schools are not faring so well either. Every time a student does not leave school (regardless of the setting) with the basic skills needed to be a success in life, it affects our com-

munity, our state, and the nation as a whole. This may be a time to not think of our students as only those walking through the doors of our traditional public school facilities, but to also extend our vision and services to all of those students within our communities. We may now have a window to reach out and develop relationships to positively impact students within our communities.

Many parents of home school students may need classes and educational experiences offered in traditional public schools. Dialogues between the various forms of educational institutions might result in a strengthening of relationships that could positively affect many students. Partnerships between private schools, home schools and traditional public schools may be advantageous to everyone. There are already mechanisms in place to allow private and home school students an opportunity to attend classes at public schools. This is a definite advantage financially to the public schools for the classes attended and it is also advantageous to the students to whom those opportunities are afforded.

I encourage board members and administrators to “think outside the box” with the implementation of the outcomes of the legislative session. It starts with conversations and a positive frame of mind with a focus on what is best for all our students.

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: Craig Frost, Clarksville

Region 5: Clint Hull, Pottsville

Region 6: Nikki King, Pangburn

Region 7: Kristain Dedmon, Osceola

Region 8: Jereme Carter, Carlisle

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: Open

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

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.

ASBA News and notes

Registration is open for Southern Leadership Conf.

Mark your calendars and register today to attend the 8th Annual Southern Region Leadership Conference July 16-18 at the Hot Springs Convention Center. Don’t miss this opportunity to network with fellow school board members, superintendents, and educational leaders from Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and other regions around the country.

“Be The Difference,” presented by Sam Glenn, will be the topic for Monday’s keynote address. Glenn has three decades of experience as a motivational speaker. His inspirational and artistic presentation will help you make a positive difference in the lives of the students and families you serve. Being the difference doesn’t happen by accident.

ELEVATING THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE IN EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS.

ASBA calendar

School Laws Annotated update set for pre-ordering

With the close of the 94th Arkansas General Assembly, ASBA has begun producing the 2023-2024 Arkansas School Laws Annotated. Pre-ordering for the publication will begin in June.

The unit cost for each copy will remain $75 with shipping costs included. ASBA will offer an electronic version of the publication at the same unit cost.

With the sweeping educational reforms produced during the session set to be enacted, the book is certain to be a valuable resource at both district and building levels. Here are a few reasons to consider purchasing a copy.

• ASBA Model Policy Service. If your district subscribes to ASBA’s Model Policy Service, the publication is an excellent resource for employees working on policy manuals. While the service provides response guidance, it does not restate laws. The book also provides context and annotation that provides history of the laws over time.

479.455.5577

modusstudio.com

contact@modusstudio.com

It happens with direct intent. It is the example you set, the empathy you share, and the excellence you expect.

An Early Bird Workshop will kick off the event on Sunday, July 16.

Registration is $135 per person. General and breakout sessions start on Monday, July 17.

Registration prior to June 29 is $545 per person (spouses and guests– $199). After June 29, the registration fee will be $565. Registration fees include breakfast on Monday and Tuesday and lunch on Monday.

Register at ASBA’s website at www. arsba.org/article/1039720

• DIY? Oh, my! Using a search engine to gather information on education law and policy seems tempting. Yes, that’s a great way to compare items when planning a purchase for your district, researching professional development opportunities, or reading reviews on service companies.

But ask an attorney if they conduct legal research using this method. The answer is likely to be a solid NO. Legal research needs to be reliable and current. Even one of the best free search engines, Google Scholar, contains a disclaimer about its content not being a substitute for legal advice from a licensed attorney. Sure, there are paid subscription services that attorneys use for legal research, but they are expensive. The ASBA School Laws Annotated is available at a fraction of the cost.

• Regulatory Issues. The publication is also accepted as a common frame of reference used by school administrators, the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, and Arkansas Legislative Audit. During audits, it is always a good idea to be on the same page – literally!

Glenn

ASBA does not order copies beyond those pre-ordered. To guarantee copies for your district, watch for details in your inbox and check ASBA’s website for more information.

ASBA moves to new membership database by July 1

ASBA began transitioning to a new custom database beginning in June. eMembership, the current database, will be phased out by July 1.

Major changes include:

• The addition of a mobile version to view board member records and training.

• Districts can view past and future attendance and registration in one place.

• Prior-year reports for board member training that can be exported to Microsoft Excel.

ASBA has been offering free tutorial webinars for school district staff prior to the discontinuation Board members were receiving login credentials and a tutorial recording in mid-June via email.

Board members without an email address will be unable to log in to the new database. To ensure we have your current email address, check with your district central office or email Kathy Ivy at kivy@arsba.org.

School candidate filing to be in August

Candidate filing for the fall 2023 elections will open Aug. 9 and close at noon Aug. 16. School Election Day is Nov. 14. Early voting begins Nov. 7. Other fall dates worth noting include Sept. 5 being the deadline to notify the county clerk about millage information, and Sept. 15 being the deadline to publish the proposed budget.

ASBA’s Dan Farley remembered

Staff members recall beloved, passionate former executive director

Dan Farley, who led ASBA for 14 years and served it for 34 total, died March 8, but his impact on the association and public education lives on.

Farley died at the age of 73, a little more than a month after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. A memorial service was held in Little Rock March 11.

Born in Bentonville, Farley spent much of his childhood in Heber Springs and also lived several years in Arizona, which began his lifelong love of the American Southwest. After graduating from Hendrix College, he taught school for one year, covered the education beat for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and then became communications director for the Pulaski County Special School District.

Those experiences shaped him for his life’s work. In 1979, he went to work for ASBA under the association’s then-executive director, J.K. Williams, as publications director. He soon took on the added responsibility of organizing ASBA’s conferences. He expanded the Annual Conference by a day, added new sessions, and organized an exhibit hall. He eventually became assistant executive director.

In an interview with Report Card in his office shortly before he retired in 2013, Farley recalled attending a weeklong session with the Arkansas Leadership Academy, which develops education leaders. The experience, he said, “was transformative for me. When I left there, I was thinking differently about everything than I had before I came. ... I remember the day I left there. It started on Sunday. It ended on Friday, Friday afternoon. I was driving back to Little Rock, and I remember having, for the first time, the conscious thought that I needed to lead this organization.”

He became executive director in 1999, and would remain there until his retirement in 2013. He and the staff created three filters through which every question is run. First, is it good for kids?

Second, will it help to build an education ethic? And third, is everyone held appropriately accountable? In 2009, the association moved into a 10,300-squarefoot building in a prime spot in Little Rock with ample space for offices and professional development classes. It paid $1.3 million in cash for the building, owing nothing. When he had first been hired in 1979, ASBA had only a few full-time employees. By the time he left, the staff had grown to 21.

One of his greatest accomplishments occurred on April 4, 2002, when Speak Up, Arkansas! brought almost 6,000 Arkansans to 90 locations, at least one in each county, to talk about the future of education. (A youth group had met earlier.) The idea was Farley’s, and it came about as a result of his work with the Arkansas Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education. Created by the Legislature in 2001, the commission was designed to help lawmakers respond to the Lake View school funding case. Farley wanted to incorporate the study

circles process he had been using while working with an advocacy group called Arkansas Friends for Better Schools. Through study circles, a facilitator guides small groups in a dialogue leading to recommendations. Speak Up, Arkansas! was covered live by both KATV and AETN and resulted in hundreds of recommendations being made to the Blue Ribbon Commission.

In the 2013 interview, Farley said he had “mixed emotions” about his retirement.

“I’m happy that I’m leaving – not that I’m happy to be getting away from

here, but it’s time,” he said. “It’s time for someone else with new ideas and better energy than I have. I feel like I’ve accomplished a great deal while I was here, and I can be proud of that. And it’s taken me a long time to be able to even say that out loud, but I am.”

At Farley’s memorial service, ASBA Staff Attorney Kristen Garner said she had known him for 27 years and that he was able to create relationships with people because of his genuine interest and openness to them. He had a lifelong group of friends who served as his family along with his sister, Carol Farley Helms of Morristown, Tennessee.

“Way, way before it was trendy or even mainstream to talk about these ideas, Dan was deeply committed to valuing everyone and appreciating how people’s differences led to strength in a collaboration effort,” she said, according to her prepared remarks. “He deeply felt that every person was important, and that diversity – not just different chocolates in the chocolate box, but true diver-

DAN FARLEY is shown in his office shortly before he retired in 2013.

sity in every possible sense – created enduring value. I can hear his voice now saying, ‘People support what they help build.’ It was a rock-solid core value for him, and it informed who he was and what he did in life and in his work.”

Garner noted that Farley was gifted at spotting the potential in other people. Among his hires was former Policy Service and Advocacy Director Ron Harder, who previously had served as a school board member in tiny Alread. Harder wrote ASBA’s first model policies, a task now accomplished by his son, Lucas. ASBA staff members communicated with 1,000 school board members and superintendents to create standards that are still used today.

Another early Farley hire was Angela Ellis, who started working with ASBA part-time when she was 19 years old before Farley was executive director, started working there full-time after she finished college, and remains with the association as commercial affiliates/ board liaison manager.

“Dan was more than a boss,” she said. “He had a good heart and believed in helping people. He was there to help me through some of the lows and highs in my life. He mourned with me when I lost my grandparents, nephew and other loved ones. He also celebrated with me when I graduated, got married and gave birth to my son, Joseph. He thought of himself to be like my ‘work father.’ The day my son was born, Dan was at a na-

tional convention and announced to the entire assembly that today he became a grandfather. He had to explain that he was just as proud as if he were my own father.”

Farley also spotted the potential in ASBA’s current executive director, Dr. Tony Prothro. Four years before his retirement, Farley began telling the former superintendent that he should serve as his replacement. Prothro eventually agreed and apprenticed for the organization for a year as assistant executive director before taking the leadership role.

“Dan was very accepting of all people, and he wanted that portrayed among his staff,” Prothro said. “He loved diversity. He liked people from all different venues and walks and ages of life. His focus was always on good communications.”

Dardanelle School Board member Jerry Don Woods said the executive board trusted that Farley could best find the next executive director.

“We had so much confidence in his ability and his leadership that when he came to us and said, ‘Hey, guys, I’m almost finished. I’ve probably got one more year,’ we said, ‘Dan, you need to find your replacement because we have that much confidence in you,’” he said.

Farley was honored at his last Annual Conference in 2012. Past presidents of ASBA and many current and former staff members were there. That night, some of his closest friends and associ-

ates held a surprise reception for him at the Capital Hotel, where the tears flowed a little more freely.

“It was pretty overwhelming to me at the time,” Farley said, “and something I will always treasure. ... I was taken aback by it, for one thing, and then when I looked around the room and saw who was there, I was just dissolved.”

In 2019, Farley began suffering from dementia, prompting friends to begin what Garner called a “conspiracy of care team” to keep him at home. The conspiracy included friends, excellent caregivers, and his sister, a recent widow who came to Arkansas after providing dementia care for her late husband. Farley had also provided dementia care for his mother. While he did have cognitive decline, he remained aware of himself and his surroundings. He and his caregivers went to see a movie shortly before he died, and they were planning on a trip to Wye Mountain to see the daffodils.

The end came quickly after his pancreatic cancer diagnosis, and he was able to enjoy a rich life even in his last days. He did not die alone.

His passing followed a life lived in service to public education, to educators, to students, and to ASBA.

“I think Dan felt a lot of responsibility,” Garner said. “I think he thought that he could make a difference, and he was trying to make a difference. He was deeply and passionately committed to public education.”

Keeping Your Community Safe

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Jacksonville Elementary School Cafeteria & Safe Room werarch.com

Storm breaks buildings, not spirit

On March 31, a tornado destroyed most of Wynne High School. No one was killed, and the district lost five days of school. Here’s the story of what happened, how the district responded, and, on the following pages, what happens next.

By Steve Brawner Editor

March 31 seemed to start like a typical day at the Wynne School District, other than the storm warnings that had been occurring for days beforehand. The superintendent, Dr. Kenneth Moore, did his workout and devotional before school and checked the weather. The storm wasn’t supposed to hit until 6 p.m., well after the buses would be

back in the shop. The protocol was not to take any action if bad weather was forecast for after 5 p.m. He decided not to dismiss classes early and go on with the day’s plans. Those plans included grilling fish caught by Assistant Superintendent Eric Foister for a potluck lunch to thank the staff for preparing for that month’s school board meeting.

As the morning wore on, Moore began having second thoughts. The Weather Channel had said there was a 5 out of 5 threat for severe weather. He called Nathan Morris, the superintendent at the nearby Cross County School District. Like Moore, Morris initially wasn’t planning on dismissing school early – his district has safe rooms – though he later decided to do so because of the threat of severe weather while the buses

were on their routes. Moore started grilling the fish.

By 11:30 a.m., the forecast had the storm hitting Wynne at 5 p.m. instead of 6. Moore decided to dismiss classes at 1:30 p.m.

“Man, the Lord’s just telling me we need to send them home,” he recalled telling Foister. “I know we’re on that edge, and I know the possibilities are slim. I know when we send them home, [they’re] in a lot safer place at this school than some of the homes we would send them to. But for whatever reason, I think it’s the Lord is just saying, ‘Get them out of here.’”

Foister told him he would be criticized and warned him not to check Facebook the rest of the day. They still had their potluck.

THE SUNDAY AFTER. Dr. Kenneth Moore, Wynne superintendent, addresses the media April 2, two days after the tornado destroyed most of the high school behind him. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is at his side. Others shown in the photo are, left, Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva, Wynne School Board member Teresa Dallas, center, state Sen. Ronald Caldwell, second from right, and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, right.

Moore’s decision was criticized by some in the community – for a few hours. He was disrupting the lives of 2,480 students and their families along with 350 staff members, all in response to storm warnings that are not particularly unusual in Arkansas in the spring.

But the decision may have saved untold numbers of lives, including, perhaps, his and three of his children. The National Weather Service later reported that from 4:30 p.m. to 5:54 p.m., an EF-3 tornado traveled 73 miles across eastern Arkansas. The storm reached estimated peak winds of 150 miles per hour and a maximum width of 1,600 yards – almost a mile. It tore through Wynne, killing four, injuring 26, destroying houses, badly damaging the First United Methodist Church and destroying much of Wynne High School.

A camera at Southern Ambulance Service across Falls Boulevard showed the tornado crossing the street at 4:46 p.m. headed straight for the school. It also damaged the intermediate school.

Moore, 41 and a 2000 Wynne High School graduate, was at home when it all happened. He left school at 4:15 p.m. when he learned all the buses had returned from their routes and was sitting on his front porch watching the weather when his wife, Cassie, told him to get inside. Her best friend had texted her pictures of the storm approaching behind her house. Police scanners were sounding the alarm. His family got in

their storm shelter. The storm went behind their house.

Five minutes later, Head Mechanic Bob Morris called Moore using FirstNet, a subscription service offered by AT&T for first responders and public safety personnel, and said, “You need to get down here. It’s bad.”

Moore jumped into his truck and headed to Wynne High School. Most of it was gone. About 170,000 square feet of space – everything except the football fieldhouse, the basketball arena and the high school library – was damaged to the point that it will be replaced. The football turf was ripped off the field. Even though the tornado had just struck, chainsaws were already running nearby. Friends from the south side of town later told him that when they knew the tornado wasn’t going to hit them, they had waited until it cleared, grabbed their chainsaws and headed to the city. He made his way to where his office once stood. It was destroyed. A staff member’s truck was blown against the building, causing a brief moment of panic until they could locate him. It turned out he had left town. Meanwhile, Moore communicated with his team through FirstNet. Without it, he would have been cut off from his people because cell service and electricity were down. Meanwhile, Assistant Superintendent Stephanie Lyons, a 1989 graduate and a former kindergarten teacher in charge of transportation and maintenance, was

trying to get back to Wynne. She was on a plane headed to Denver for a conference when the tornado struck. As soon as she got off the plane, she went to the ticket counter to get a flight home. Wynne School Board President Stacie Schlenker was trying to get home across town from the Cross County Hospital, where she works as the pharmacy director. It took her an hour to make what normally would be a five-minute trip home. Her house had some broken windows and lots of holes in the roof, but it’s not a loss. Meanwhile, her dad’s house, visible from hers, was destroyed. She eventually left her car in a stranger’s driveway so she could hitch a ride in her nephew’s side-by-side utility vehicle.

“It was so insane,” she said. “It was like a movie because everybody was in the streets. … In every neighborhood you went through, people were just everywhere just coming out to see what had just happened.” She later added, “I don’t know that you could talk to anybody in the community that doesn’t have a personal story. It’s almost like 9-11. Everybody’s going to remember where they were, what they were doing, the sounds, the smells. I mean, I just think it’s ingrained in your memory.”

Moore quickly got in touch with Foister and Athletic Director Bryan Mattox. Mattox wife, Alicia, had already opened the junior high, which only lost electricity for 20 minutes. It stayed open

six nights for families left homeless by the storm. The temporary residents included a gentleman with special needs found walking along the road. Early on, the junior high was serving 2,000 meals twice a day. Volunteers from the city and fire station helped. Within three days, the cafeteria had served all its commodities, but others including Jonesboro restaurants sent food. Moore contacted Nabholz, the district’s construction manager, on Saturday and asked for help with the response the next day. Adam Seiter, Nabholz’s executive vice president of operations, said the company sent a dozen staff members that day. Nabholz employees would identify areas with the structural engineer that were safe and unsafe, identify areas with sensitive information and retrieve it, and fence off the site.

“Our big deal was to make sure we built temporary walls that at least kept the honest man from putting himself in a situation where he could get hurt,” he said.

Nabholz built temporary walls inside to create safe zones to allow people back inside. Storage containers were delivered to the property where items could be saved. Ten teachers, including one with 38 years of teaching experience,

could not get to their rooms, meaning they could not retrieve years’ worth of memories and mementos.

“Teachers who have taught for any length of time, that classroom is their home,” Schlenker said. “They have so many personal belongings in there that are really sentimental to them, so it was important for us to try to let them get as much out of their classrooms as they possibly could.”

It could have been much worse What would have happened had Moore not sent everyone home? At the time the school was hit, the only people on campus were two coaches and their families who had left their homes and sought shelter in the dressing room beneath one of the gyms. They were unharmed, but when they left the dressing room they were greeted with daylight. If school had not dismissed early, there would have been afterschool activities occurring there, along with baseball, softball, soccer and track practices. Buses would still have been traveling on routes along where the tornado hit. He likely would have been in his office with his daughter, while his two youngest children would have been in a part of the intermediate school whose roof was

ripped off with everything inside sucked out.

“Even in our quote-unquote safe places, we would have had loss,” he said.

While the disaster response was occurring, the district also had to think about school. The storm struck on a Friday. The next day, school officials met with Arkansas Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva. The transplant from hurricane-prone Florida told him students needed to get back in school. Moore assembled the administration team that afternoon for a debriefing, and they started planning. Intermediate Principal Shirley Taylor had lost her house Friday. She was at school the next day and remained there until Tuesday.

On Sunday, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders visited the Wynne High campus along with Oliva and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell. Sanders had already requested a federal disaster declaration from President Biden’s administration, which would be granted that day. They and local officials walked the campus and then briefly spoke to the media, where Sanders declared, “I’ve been very clear that our perspective is that people are going to come first and the paperwork will come second.”

STORM’S AFTERMATH. From left, Stacie Schlenker, the school board president, Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Moore, and Assistant Superintendent Stephanie Lyons walk through what once was the Wynne High School.

Moore had to decide what to do next. Students had just returned from spring break, which lasts two weeks in Wynne because the school has a year-round schedule. School the next week was out of the question, but the district had a couple of extra days built into its schedule because it already planned to take off for Good Friday and also Monday, the day after Easter.

“Our goal is hopefully we can get our babies back and in these classrooms and in these buildings by April 10,” he said then. They actually would return Wednesday, April 12, with Sanders there to welcome them back.

One of the first activities was contacting staff members and students. Staff members had verbally spoken to every student by Monday except three in the intermediate school. When they were finally found, Taylor, the principal who lost her home but wouldn’t leave the school, finally broke down emotionally. Moore ordered her to leave the school

and go rest. Remarkably, only four community members died. One was a mother with three children who were injured, two of them Wynne students.

Because most of the other school facilities were undamaged or at least usable, school officials were able to get students back in school within five educational days. The roof on one intermediate school wing was torn off, which meant four fourth-grade classrooms and some facilitator rooms were out of commission. Students in those classrooms were moved elsewhere in the school. The state provided portable airconditioning units to replace the cafeteria’s, which were ripped off. The district requested and received a waiver from the State Board of Education to forgive the five days lost. Because the district is on a year-round schedule, classes didn’t end until June 2 and would restart on July 24, so those extra days tacked onto the end wouldn’t leave much of a summer.

For high school students, the district leased the nearby East Arkansas Community College Technology Center. Foister and Wynne High School Principal Dusty Meek worked to get the operation up and running. EACC condensed its own classes so high school students could finish their year. Juniors and seniors attended core classes Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday mornings while freshmen and sophomores had their core classes Tuesdays, Thursdays and Friday afternoons. Fridays were for mental health checks and to let students get extra help if needed. Students were allowed but not required to finish their electives. Unfortunately, career and technical education courses had to stop. The storm destroyed the agriculture building, and none of the CTE equipment could be saved.

For the students, life had to go on. On Sunday, two days after the tornado struck, Future Business Leaders

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of America students traveled to state competition, where five qualified for nationals. Prom was held at the EACC Technology Center. Mattox, the athletic director, and Foister made sure athletics was covered. The Arkansas Activities Association provided a waiver so athletes could continue to practice and compete while school was out. The graduation ceremony was held at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, where Gov. Sanders spoke.

One of the most heartening things about the tornado is the support the school and community have gotten from elsewhere. Moore spoke with Dr. Andy Ashley, currently the Heber Springs superintendent and formerly a high school principal at Vilonia, where the new intermediate school was destroyed by a 2014 tornado. Ashley told him that mental health should be a priority for the staff and that the district should let others help, even if help wasn’t seemingly needed, because the district doesn’t actually know what it needs. Other school districts donated buses. Administrators from other districts came with their work gloves during a high school cleanup day. FFA crews from other schools came to help with the recovery.

Arkansas State University brought a 54-foot trailer with supplies. Students in McCrory held a penny drive and raised $3,500. The Arkansas Community Foundation created a fund for donations to the Wynne School District. To donate, click on the link at the district’s website, www.wynneschools.org.

“I think short-term needs are going to be met pretty easily for people just because it’s so fresh on people’s minds,” Schlenker said. “Six months down the road when most of the volunteers have packed up and gone away and we don’t have as many donations coming in, I think that’s when you’re going to start having to use some of those funds. Because six months, say the start of school next year, somebody may not be able to go purchase school supplies or clothes for school. I think we’re still going to be left here as a community trying to pick up the pieces after volunteers are gone and donations kind of dry up coming in. Social-emotional-mental health is going to be a big piece for us moving forward.”

Mental health counselors, in fact, were available for staff members the day they were brought back to campus. The students seemed to be handling

everything OK, but research has shown they can have ups and downs following a disaster, and the district wants to ensure it has resources available. Moore noted that the last kid on the bus route might see every devastated site on his way home. Lyons, the assistant superintendent, said staff members were skittish during a Sunday meeting after the storm. A major storm was forecast only days after the tornado. Schlenker noted that nurses at her hospital were fearful because they weren’t with their children.

Schlenker, a 1994 Wynne High graduate whose father, Randal Caldwell, was a 20-plus-year Wynne School Board member, has tried not only to support Moore and the staff in board meetings but also has been part of the day-to-day recovery efforts. It’s an all-hands-ondeck situation, so she is involved in ways she normally wouldn’t be. She’s tried to attend every meeting with FEMA and the state. She’s also been a liaison with the board and with the community. The day of the interview with Report Card, she had emailed Nabholz to get an updated map for FEMA. On Oliva’s advice, she contacted Dr. C.J. Huff, the former superintendent of the school district in Joplin, Missouri, that was struck in 2011. That tornado destroyed or damaged 10 of the district’s 20 buildings and killed 161 residents, including seven students and one staff member. Huff spent the first two weeks after the Wynne tornado volunteering his expertise in person. Afterwards, the board hired him on a 90-day contract for help with navigating the federal bureaucracy.

“I’m just trying to be supportive for [Moore], and anything that I can do that he doesn’t have to do, at the end of the day we still have school, and he still has to be a superintendent to 2,500 kids, and we still have to meet certain state expectations,” Schlenker said. “We’re doing testing. We still have ACT Aspire testing. Everybody has to go on with what their normal regular roles were, so for me, if I can take anything off of his plate to try to help with or navigate or call or email somebody that he doesn’t have to or Stephanie or Eric doesn’t have to, then I’m just trying to do whatever I can.”

DR. KENNETH MOORE, Wynne superintendent, gestures towards what’s left of the high school. Opposite page, the storm destroyed the bleachers and tore the turf off Yellowjacket Stadium, but school officials plan to have it ready before the next season.

Schlenker said school board members know the district has a long, winding road to recovery, and that changes will occur along the way. Moore said he appreciates the support she and her fellow board members have provided.

“I could not imagine how from emotional as well as just the physical side I could hold up if I didn’t have a board that was so supportive, and not meaning they just agree with everything we do, but they understand we’re trying

to make decisions and we’re trying to make them sometimes in 30 minutes,” he said.

Before the tornado, the high school was already in a period of change and reflection. Last July, it had been designated by the Arkansas Department of Education as a School of Innovation, defined as one using new or creative teaching and administrative practices. The intermediate school previously had earned that designation. In January, Meek, the high school principal, had begun leading staff members in talks about the school’s future. Discussion topics included questions about what Wynne High School actually is. One question Meek asked was, what would Wynne High be if the building were gone?

“It’s just mind-boggling to think that they had just had those discussions, and then the building is technically gone,” Moore said. “And it is amazing. They’ve done exactly what he said. I mean, they’re being Wynne High School in a different building, and they’re making it work.”

If installing a solar array is still on your school’s summer to-do-list, it’s time to cross it off.

Wynne plans two schools of thought

The district is building a $20$25 million temporary campus that will be ready when school starts July 24. It’s also asking patrons to increase the millage rate as it plans for its permanent high school.

By Steve Brawner Editor

When Wynne High School students return to school July 24, it will be on a temporary campus that as of May 21 was an empty field once housing a trailer park. Meanwhile, the district is planning its new permanent high school while asking voters to increase the district’s millage by 4.9 mills.

The superintendent, Dr. Kenneth Moore, estimated the total cost of both campuses at roughly $100 million. Much, but not all, will be covered by insurance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was expected to cover some of the rest. Moore was hoping Wynne will be treated like Waverly, Tennessee, was after a flood in 2021 destroyed the elementary and junior highs, and FEMA provided extra funding.

The temporary campus will feature modular classroom buildings as well as other structures needed for any high school, including a temporary gym for P.E. classes. Career and technical education classes will be offered, which the district was not able to do in the weeks after the tornado destroyed most of the high school March 31.

The temporary buildings will be guaranteed for four years with an option for three while the permanent high school is constructed. The cost of the temporary site is expected to be in the $20-$25 million range.

“There isn’t anywhere else in the city,” Moore said. “There isn’t an abandoned factory or anything large enough to put 780-plus capacity student body in and us still be able to give them all the offerings that we’ve always given them.

And that’s a big deal. Our number one priority is to be able to continue to do that because if not, and I wouldn’t blame them, but we would lose kids.”

The school board voted to purchase the land, which years ago was a trailer park, shortly after the tornado destroyed the high school March 31. The property is located across the street from the primary and intermediate schools.

Nabholz, the school district’s construction manager, will erect the facility. Adam Seiter, executive vice president of operations, said the temporary structures were procured by the district’s architect, Memphis-based ARCH 1010.

“Those things are in demand. Every year, if there’s a hurricane, if there’s a flood, whatever natural disaster, everybody is fighting over the availability of those modular units,” he said. “So that’s

TEMPORARY CAMPUS. The architectural rendering shows what the temporary campus could look like. Below is the property on May 21, two months before students were to return to class. Rendering courtesy of ARCH 1010.

where we’re at right now is making sure that people honor the commitments that they’ve made to us to deliver modular buildings and that sort of thing.”

The challenge of getting the campus built on time is compounded by the fact that Wynne is on a year-round calendar. Students will return to school July 24. But Seiter said the actual construction won’t take long. The infrastructure was being built for water, sewer, power and data communications. Nabholz will have plenty of workers on the ground installing the buildings. The weather should cooperate over the summer, and when it rains, the ground should dry out quickly.

The district wanted to create an inviting academic environment. Lots of trees were left, and the school will feature a courtyard in the center. Classrooms will open to the outside, so constructors will build sidewalks and pathways with covered access where needed. Fencing will be installed around the temporary school, with controlled access off two roads, one of them being Falls Boulevard, the main street through town.

“I told Kenneth, ‘You have to communicate: We are going to give our kids a comprehensive high school education for the next three years,’” said the school board president, Stacie Schlenker. “Yes, they’ll be going to school in modulars, but they’re not modulars back when we were in school 35-40 years ago. They’re going to be nice structures, and we’re going to offer band, we’re going to offer choir; we’re going to offer drama; we’re going to offer every sport we ever offered before. We’re going to offer agri. I mean, agri’s huge in this community. We’re going to offer food and nutrition services. We’re going to offer every single thing we offered before. It may look a little different, but we are not going to downsize because of the tornado.”

Moore said the architect’s renderings have generated positive comments. His daughter, an incoming sophomore, had worried she would be graduating from something that didn’t feel like a high school. Instead, she said the drawings almost have the feel of a college campus.

While students will be attending classes at the temporary facility, football games this fall will be played at Yellowjacket Stadium, which was badly damaged by the tornado but will be repaired. Lighting and temporary bleachers have been secured. Also, while most of the buildings at the school have already been razed, the basketball arena appears salvageable.

Meanwhile, the district is planning its permanent high school on a compressed timeline. The early review deadline for the 2025-27 state Academic Facilities Partnership Program funding cycle is Nov. 1.

That’s not much time. The district was holding community meetings in advance of asking for a previously scheduled 4.9 mill increase, its first increase since 2003. If approved, the rate would increase from 35 to 39.9 mills. The vote is Aug. 8.

The district had already planned the request because it wanted to build a kindergarten wing at the primary school and then shuffle the third grade over to the primary school, the sixth grade to the intermediate school, and the ninth grade to the junior high. The current arrangements have been a little mismatched to state Department of Education standards. It also wanted to improve security at its campuses.

Safety and security, of course, are now fresh on everyone’s minds. Moore said Wynne has been hit by three tornadoes, including one that struck the old junior high. He wants the new high school design to equip every classroom with a safe room that is rated for the most powerful EF5 tornadoes and also constructed with Army-certified ballistic steel that a bullet won’t penetrate. Meanwhile, all other classrooms in the district will be retrofitted with those safe rooms.

The new high school will have a smaller footprint than the old campus did, reflecting the fact that the district has fewer students than it did when the old high school was built. At the same time, Moore said it should have nicer amenities. The district has long had an excellent theater department, and the auditorium was used by the town. Moore is hoping to make the new one a pillar of the community, perhaps visible from heavily traveled Falls Boulevard, and potentially equipped with a community storm shelter. Plans are for the new high school to have a turfed baseball-softball field on site. Currently, students travel to a community field on the city’s outskirts. Also planned are an indoor multipurpose facility, a pre-K center and a day care for school employees.

Moore had previously frowned on safe rooms because of their high cost. That’s no longer the case.

“I’m telling you right now, I don’t care what we have to cut or ask for, anybody that doesn’t have a safe room in their buildings, they’ve lost their mind,” he said. “There isn’t one thing worth putting in that building that’s more important than that safe room.”

Family is at the heart of all we do.

which has supported new and renovated schools. 1,857

Session a LEARNS experience

Education reform package dominates; now, schools begin to adapt to new realities

One hundred nineteen of the 196 education-related bills tracked by ASBA in the 94th General Assembly became law, but none attracted more attention or will have more of an impact than the LEARNS Act.

The 145-page law was Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ signature piece of legislation. The first part of the legislative session was dominated by the wait for it. Once the bill was filed Feb. 20, it was obvious it was headed to passage with 25 sponsors in the Senate and 55 in the House. A little more than two weeks later, Sanders signed it.

Now school districts must prepare for the upcoming school year under LEARNS while watching to see what

happens with the rulemaking process, which will flesh out much of the law.

Meanwhile, they are keeping an eye on a lawsuit filed by individuals from the Marvell-Elaine School District and education advocates that affects when the law will take effect.

The plaintiffs say the State Board of Education illegally directed the Department of Education to enter into a transformation contract with the Friendship Education Foundation, a charter organization, to manage the district. They say lawmakers did not pass the act’s emergency clause in a separate vote from the bill as the Constitution requires. With no emergency clause, the law would not take effect until Aug. 1.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright placed a temporary restraining order on the LEARNS Act, but on June 15, the Supreme Court vacated the order

in a 5-2 decision and remanded the case back to Wright for a hearing June 20.

The majority ruling addressed only the order, not the case’s merits. However, four of the seven justices indicated in their concurring opinions that they believe the state cannot be sued in its own courts, that the courts cannot interfere with how legislators set their own rules, or that the case won’t succeed on its own merits.

Also worth watching is an attempt by Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students, or CAPES, to place on the November 2024 ballot a referendum letting voters reject the law. It remains to be seen how that will play out.

Two aspects of the legislation attracted the most attention: raising the minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, and the Arkansas Children’s Education Freedom Account Program.

GOVERNOR SIGNS LEARNS ACT. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is pictured signing the LEARNS Act in the State Capitol Rotunda March 8. The adults pictured with her are, from left, Arkansas Teacher of the Year for 2022 Jessica Saum of Cabot; Arkansas first gentleman Bryan Sanders; Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva; Rep. Keith Brooks, R-Little Rock, who sponsored the bill in the House; and Sen. Breanne Davis, R-Russellville, who was the Senate sponsor.

The latter will give parents access to 90% of per pupil school foundation funding for non-public school options like private schools and homeschooling. That money will come out of the funding that would have gone to their local public school, had they attended it.

Families won’t be getting a $7,000 check from the state. Instead the money will go for qualifying expenses like private school tuition and fees, testing, uniforms, tutoring, and curricula but not TVs and video games. Private schools must be at least on a path toward reaching private school accreditation standards and must administer a test that will be approved by the State Board of Education, though it may not be the same test public schools take.

Eligibility for the program will phase in over three years. Beginning next year, it will be open to 1.5% of total public school enrollment. Eligibility will be targeted to students with disabilities, homeless students, students in foster care,

Succeed Scholarship recipients, students from active military families, students within the boundaries of F-rated schools or Level 5 intensive support school districts, and students entering kindergarten. In year two, the cap rises to 3.5% of total public school enrollment. Targeted eligibility expands to students within attendance zones of D- or F-rated schools, and also students whose parents are military veterans or reservists, first responders and law enforcement officers. The third year, 2025-26, it will be available to all students.

Dan Jordan, ASBA director of government relations, said ASBA would like to see universal, transparent accountability measures enacted for all schools that accept students using the education freedom accounts. Comparable data should be required so parents can make informed choices.

He said ASBA had a meeting with the governor before the session where she shared the plan’s basic concepts.

“We were fortunate to discuss several items important to us including school safety, mental health, broadband, among other items in general,” he said. “We specifically asked for continued local control for school boards and for accountability in meeting student academic outcomes for all schools that receive public funds, directly or indirectly.”

The education freedom accounts were among the law’s most controversial aspects. Jordan said that regardless of what school leaders thought about the LEARNS Act, it’s the law, and they must make it work for their districts.

“It is now a piece of our history,” he said. “Schools should look for positive ways to implement the act and think outside the box in the implementation phase.”

Teacher salaries go up

The other high-profile aspect of LEARNS involved raising the minimum

by baldwinshell.com

teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, while also providing all teachers a $2,000 raise. A Merit Teacher Incentive Fund Program will award annual bonuses of up to $10,000 to teachers who demonstrate outstanding growth in student performance. The law also creates the Arkansas Teacher Academy Scholarship, which covers tuition costs for students and current educators. Student loan repayments would be increased from $3,000 to $6,000 per year for students who teach in high-need areas. It also includes an option for districts to provide employees 12 weeks of maternity leave, with the state reimbursing half.

Few people in public schools would oppose paying teachers more, but there are some concerns with this part of the law. It doesn’t provide additional funding beyond the $2,000 for those employees already making $48,001 regardless of where the employee may have been in the district’s salary schedule. As a result, many school districts have flattened their salary schedules separating their veteran teachers from their beginning ones. It doesn’t fund staff who are funded by the federal government. The funding is based on 178 in-person days or 1,068 hours; it makes no provision for alternative methods of instruction that could arise for various reasons.

Perhaps more concerning is the way the salary increases are being funded –out of the general fund, which is flush with a surplus thanks largely to COVID dollars that are going away – rather than through the more permanent, alwaysincreasing per pupil foundation funding. Act 744 set the state’s per pupil foundation funding at $7,413 for 2022-23, $7,618 for 2023-24, and $7,771 for 2024-25. This was considerably less than what was recommended by the House and Senate Education Committees during the adequacy process. The Legislature also did not increase Enhanced Student Achievement categorical funding. Jordan said ASBA hopes future raises will be included in foundation funding amounts.

While educators will be receiving pay raises, they also will face more accountability measures. The law repealed the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act and also the

Public School Employee Fair Hearing Act as of June 30, making it much easier for school districts to remove poorly functioning personnel. Staff will no longer be automatically renewed. Those who are terminated, but not nonrenewed, must be given notice and must have an opportunity for a hearing before the school board. Jeremy Lassiter, Bryant School District attorney, noted at the ASBA/AAEA Joint Leadership Conference May 2 that the LEARNS Act forbids schools from providing additional due process rights beyond what already exists in state law or in the LEARNS Act. In fact, schools won’t be funded for the minimum salaries and the $2,000 raises if they do.

Dr. Mike Hernandez, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, said at the conference that school districts now have more flexibility to pay their teachers in different ways if they choose to do so. AAEA will be forming groups to create compensation models.

“If you want to identify your best and your brightest, and you want to pile on responsibilities and put kids in that class and pay them a lot more than you pay somebody else, you have that ability to do that,” he said. “If you wanted to do incentive pay in your school, you have the ability to do that.”

The law also has other elements tied to accountability – the “A” in “LEARNS.” District and school targets for achievement and graduation rates will be part of future superintendent contracts. Superintendents must consult with teachers regarding principal hires. Superintendents and principals must base employment rating decisions on performance, effectiveness, and qualifications. District reduction-in-force policies must be based primarily on effectiveness rather than seniority or other elements.

‘L’ stands for ‘literacy’

The “L” in LEARNS stands for “literacy.” The most high-profile element requires third grade students to be reading at grade level in order to advance to the fourth grade. The act includes numerous provisions for exemptions, the rules have yet to be written, and students would only be retained once, but it’s a provision schools can’t afford to ignore. School districts that don’t retain students will need a process in place for supporting the student with more staff, resources and money. The law also provides for 120 literacy specialists who will focus on D and F schools.

At the Joint Leadership Conference, DESE Deputy Commissioner Stacy Smith said districts should monitor prog-

COMMITTEE HEARING. ASBA Director of Government Relations Dan Jordan, right, and Rep. Les Warren, R-Hot Springs, work to pass one of ASBA’s bills before the House Education Committee at the State Capitol March 30.

ress, determine if students are reading at grade level, and be able to determine how many students need an intervention. She said school board members should ask what the system is, how students are being screened in primary grades, how middle school students who need additional intervention are being identified, and whether the school offers specific courses for those students in a class period and not just after school.

Numerous parts of the law are contained in the “R” part of the law, “Readiness.” Those include a requirement that students be offered student success pathways. Starting with the ninth grade class of 2024-25, public high school students will have the option of earning a diploma through a career-ready pathway with classes aligned with high-wage, high-growth jobs. The pathways will be primarily designed for students seeking stackable credentials as they pursue degrees or certifications or immediately enter a career upon graduation. The

diplomas will be considered equal to traditional diplomas. Public schools will review the pathways with local business leaders, economic development agencies, and postsecondary educators. They will expand offerings through courses, industry training programs and digital learning opportunities. If a teacher is unavailable to teach a course, a school can partner with another school district or educational entity or use technology.

Under previous law, Arkansas students by the eighth grade were required to have a student success plan containing college and career planning components developed by school personnel, parents and the students themselves.

The LEARNS Act further requires schools with an approved career-ready pathway to annually conduct an informational meeting for parents of eighth-graders about the curriculum. It also requires school districts to provide career awareness and exploration activities such as field trips and dedicated

curricula for sixth-, seventh- and eighthgraders.

Rep. Brian Evans, R-Cabot, the chair of the House Education Committee and a 10-year Cabot School Board veteran, said that aspect of the LEARNS Act will help prepare students for work. When he was at Cabot, the school district felt it did a good job meeting the needs of its top 20% and bottom 20% of students. The other 60% were not as well served. The LEARNS Act will better serve what he called “the middle of the middle.”

“I think by putting additional resources into the school systems, there are going to be more programs and CTE opportunities within each of those school districts,” he said in an interview. “And I think that it’s putting an awareness with partnerships of different trades, different occupations to partner with schools to help get students job ready.”

There is plenty related to the “S” for “Safety.” Many provisions grew out of

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Providing Quality Architectural Services for K-12 Facilities Across Arkansas Including FEMA Safe Rooms

recommendations of the Arkansas School Safety Commission.

Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson reactivated that commission last year after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, after originally creating it after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018. Districts must complete school safety assessments every three years, with the first due by Aug. 1, 2024. The Criminal Justice Institute and Division of Elementary and Secondary Education will have to provide guidelines for districts to follow. Districts must also provide a system where safety concerns can be anonymously reported. School districts must have a policy requiring mental health training for staff and must establish behavioral health intervention teams. At the Joint Leadership Conference, DESE’s Smith said school districts should become aware of easy safety measures, like locking classroom doors.

Among the LEARNS Act’s other provisions is a requirement that students complete 75 hours of community service in order to graduate. It also prohibits instruction using sexually explicit materials or instruction using critical race theory.

ASBA’s legislative package

Outside of the LEARNS Act, lawmakers passed many other educationrelated bills. Four of ASBA’s five bills became law while the fifth was deferred because another bill accomplished the same goal.

Act 883 makes a number of major changes to school board law, including adding five circumstances when a board of directors can enter executive session: pre-litigation discussions, litigation updates, settlement offer discussions, superintendent contracts, and to discuss real property. It also allows the district’s

attorney to participate in an executive session when requested by the board. The law also allows the Ethics Commission to investigate ethics complaints against board members. The law goes into effect May 1, 2024.

Among the other laws that were part of ASBA’s package was Act 425, which requires each monthly school board agenda to include something about student achievement; Act 745, which authorizes a board to consolidate identical individually filed grievances of a group of employees; and Act 750, which statutorily reinforced that appointed board members are not eligible to serve as a holdover member if no one runs for their position.

One ASBA bill was deferred because Act 424 accomplished a similar goal by repealing the requirement that districts that reach a 10% or greater minority population in a census must then rezone.

Other bills passed by lawmakers included several related to school elections, including Act 300, which limits the dates for special elections to the preferential primary and general elections during even years, and to the second Tuesdays in May and in November in odd years. Under Act 276, the filing period for school districts using the fall election cycle is 90 days before the elec-

tion whether in an even or odd year. Act 305 eliminates write-in candidates as an option for all elections, including school board races.

Several laws passed during the session related to controversial social issues. Act 317 requires each multiple occupancy restroom or changing area to be designated as meant for the use by the male or female sex. School districts may provide a reasonable accommodation such as a single-occupancy restroom. On overnight trips, students must share sleeping quarters with a member of the same sex or be provided singleoccupancy sleeping quarters. Family members of different sexes can sleep in the same room. A superintendent, principal or teacher who violates the law faces referral to the Professional Licensure Standards Board and a minimum fine of $1,000, plus possible additional sanctions. A parent could have a cause of action against the district if permission to violate the law is granted by the superintendent or principal.

Three other social issue bills attracted a lot of attention. Act 372 created specific requirements in a district’s policy governing challenges to school and public library materials, including making the school’s review committee meeting for challenges open to the public. Act

LEGISLATIVE LEADERS. Rep. Brian Evans , R-Cabot, a former Cabot School Board member, chaired the House Education Committee, while Rep. Keith Brooks, R-Little Rock, was the primary sponsor of the LEARNS Act in the House of Representatives.

542 states that school employees shall not address a student with a pronoun or title that is inconsistent with their biological sex, or by a name other the one listed on their birth certificate or a derivative, without the written permission of their parent or guardian. Act 411 requires the state treasurer to divest the state of all investments in financial services providers who discriminate against energy companies or firearms entities or who make investment decisions based on environmental, social justice, or other governance-related factors. The law applies to the state’s retirement systems, including the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. Lawmakers amended the bill when they learned ATRS could lose $7 million so that if an early divestment would affect the state negatively, then the investment would be exempt from disclosure.

Lawmakers have the prerogative of referring up to three proposed constitutional amendments to the ballot each

legislative session. This session, they referred only one, and it affects public education. The proposed amendment would allow Arkansas Scholarship Lottery proceeds to be used for scholarships and grants to public or private vocational-technical institutions or public or private technical institutes.

Other education bills passed

Among the other laws passed were the following:

• Act 633 requires the State Board of Education to adopt exit criteria for districts under state control within two years following state takeover. Once the exit criteria are met, the district must return to local control. If the exit criteria are not met within five years of the takeover, the State Board must either return the district to local control, annex, consolidate or reconstitute.

• Act 461 repeals the mandatory consolidation requirement for districts that fall below 350 students.

• Act 543 prohibits districts with enrollments below 350 from being administratively consolidated if classified as in need of Level 5 - Intensive Support and if an enrolled student would have to ride a bus more than 40 miles to attend. Instead, the state would take over the district.

• Act 26 requires that the first day of public school be on or after the Monday of the week in which Aug. 19 falls, and not earlier than Aug. 14 nor later than Aug. 26.

• Act 347 requires the State Board of Education to use the same criteria for granting public school waivers that it also uses when granting charter school waivers.

• Act 428 designates the last full week of January as Holocaust Education Week.

• Act 802 requires school boards of directors to appoint board members to the state’s educational service coopContinued on next page

Legislative session

eratives. Board members can be the superintendent, a school staff member, a school board member or a community member.

• Act 189 allows a student who physically moves from one district to another to continue to be enrolled in their first district through graduation.

• Act 621 provides an excused absence for a student to observe a parent voting, with a limit of one absence per election.

• Act 635 amends the law so that instead of school districts being required to employ at least one computer science teacher at each high school, they are merely allowed to do it.

• Act 630 allows a home-schooled student to participate in an extracurricular activity at a non-resident district without the permission of the resident district’s superintendent if the activity is not offered at the resident district.

• Act 654 amends the computer science graduation requirement to allow computer science-related courses to count toward graduation.

• Act 242 allows DESE to substitute comparable career and technical education coursework for core academic courses required for graduation.

• Act 243 allows DESE to create an elementary school agriculture education pilot program.

• Act 776 prohibits school districts from using payroll deductions for employee member dues for labor or professional associations including the Arkansas Education Association, the Arkansas State Teachers Association, and the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators. Districts can still pay the dues but not through payroll deduction.

• Act 788 prohibits a student from being disciplined or having their grade affected for expressing a religious belief to the extent relevant to the school assignment, or expressing a religious viewpoint at a forum open to student expression.

Policy Service updated; more to come

ASBA Policies Director Lucas

Harder completed the updates to the Model Policy Service May 1 in order to give districts time to update their own policies, even though much of the LEARNS Act’s provisions must be fleshed out through the rules and regulation process.

In other words, the policies will have to be updated again.

“There will likely be, depending on how close I estimated on where the department would go when the rules are crafted, I’m sure there will be anywhere from minor tweaks to some policies to major revisions to make sure that districts are fully in alignment once the rules come out,” he said.

Harder said that between all the different acts passed by legislators, 77 model policies required an amendment. That was far from the most changes in recent memory. After Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s state transformation policies in 2019, Harder had to amend 120 policies. Those were mostly technical corrections where “Department of Education” was rewritten as “Division of Elementary and Secondary Education.”

Many of the changes associated with LEARNS and other legislation are more substantive. The LEARNS Act’s repeal of the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act and the Public School

Employee Fair Hearing Act required significant rewrites. Instead of school districts having an automatic renewal process, superintendents will recommend individuals for renewal based on effectiveness, performance and qualifications. The policies include measurements like evaluations, disciplinary infractions, credentials and education related to the position. The termination process will be tightened, though it still requires the superintendent to provide a notice to the employee. It must, as before, include a numbered paragraph listing of the reasons the superintendent has recommended termination. That information will help employees defend themselves if they choose to go before the board. The policy also states that the board hearing must be no earlier than 10 days before the next board meeting or not later than the next board meeting after those 10 days unless the parties agree to a different time.

The reduction-in-force model policy also required major changes because of the LEARNS Act and Act 780. The latter act said the policy must include considerations of merit, ability, attendance, performance and effectiveness. Meanwhile, seniority, length of service, total professional development hours and the employee’s education level must not factor in more than 50% of the total criteria used.

Other major policy changes were necessary because of two laws that changed the way school boards relate to employees. Act 781 requires school boards to adopt a policy governing personnel policy committee bylaws including PPC membership, the election process for teacher members, and mid-year policy changes. Act 782 requires boards to adopt a policy governing classified personnel policy committee bylaws.

The LEARNS Act’s repeal of the 3% net maximum cap on student choices out of a particular district required significant changes to ASBA’s model policies.

On the other hand, Harder did not make any changes in response to the education freedom accounts that will allow families to use state dollars for non-public school options. Those matters won’t be handled by school districts.

Harder

Law clarifies size of storm shelters

Any district looking at new construction has likely fretted over storm shelter requirements. Since 2015, the International Building Code has required school buildings in “Tornado Valley” with a capacity of 50 or more occupants to build storm shelters. All of Arkansas is in “Tornado Valley,” which comes as no surprise to anyone who has lived here for long, and not to anyone in Wynne, which lost its high school in March.

In 2022, changes to the Arkansas Fire Code were made to sync with the IBC’s rules. Per those changes, starting January 1, 2023, any new school construction projects had to include storm shelters capable of accommodating the maximum number of people the building can hold. So, if your district was building a new gym that seats 1,500, the new gym had to be able to shelter 1,500. Pricey.

by Cody Kees Bequette, Billingsley & Kees

Realizing this interpretation would present a significant hardship to districts, Act 764 was passed this legislative session. Under Act 764, all new school construction between August 1, 2023, and January 1, 2025, must have a storm shelter, but the capacity does not have to exceed the load of the classrooms, vocational rooms, and offices. In

other words, if a school has 300 students and a gym that seats 1,500, it has to be able to shelter the 300 students plus staff, not 1,500.

Come January 1, 2025, districts can construct shelters that are separate, detached buildings or a space within a building, but the capacity is still only the load of your classrooms and offices. The legislation included some additional language about capacity for catastrophic need.

There are still some questions about how Act 764 applies, and arguably the mandate for schools to include storm shelters in their new construction projects may not be enforceable until January 1, 2025. We await rules and regulations coming from the ADE.

Regardless, school districts should plan to add storm shelters to their new construction. Wynne certainly is.

Next Generation School Safety

Joint Leadership Conference

Funding could fall for many schools

At the ASBA-AAEA Joint Leadership Conference, schools were warned COVID dollars were going away, while student numbers are falling

Funding levels could drop significantly in the coming years because of the end of COVID dollars and because of various demographic factors, while schools can use data to better serve students.

Those were some of the topics covered at the AAEA and ASBA Joint Leadership Conference May 2.

Lake Hamilton Superintendent Shawn Higginbotham warned attendees that four challenges could lead to significant funding losses, with the problem being most acutely felt in 2024-25.

That’s the year Arkansas schools will stop being able to spend Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief

Commercial Affiliates

funds that provided $1.77 billion to respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency. According to the Department of Education’s ESSER Transparency Dashboard, the state had spent $1.33 billion, or 74.93%, as of May 16, and had $443.73 million remaining. It must be spent by September 2024.

Higginbotham and Lake Hamilton School District CFO Kelli Golden warned that schools must prepare for this “ESSER cliff.” Recurring costs like staff or technology rotations should not be paid through temporary ESSER funds.

“Have you been limping along and plugging holes for three years with some of those funds?” Higginbotham asked. “And is that going to go away, and then what are you going to do, especially if you’re in the situation like we’re going to talk about next, where you might not be growing or gaining students?”

Higginbotham said that while some districts are growing, many across Arkansas and nationally – including his – are losing students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, total public school enrollment, after a quarter century of increases until 2019,

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

SHAWN HIGGINBOTHAM, Lake Hamilton superintendent, said his own district is seeing kindergarten classes that are smaller than his older grades.

dipped during COVID, only somewhat recovered, and is projected to decrease 4% by 2030. Arkansas K-12 public school enrollment dropped from 465,000 in 2013-14 to about 455,000 in 2022-23, and is projected to decrease to between 430,000 and 440,000 in 2032-33.

The decline is caused by several factors, including falling birthrates, an increase in non-public school options, and falling immigration rates. Live births nationwide peaked in 2007-08 but have fallen significantly since then. Nonpublic school options are another factor, although not the main one. Immigration has been falling since 2016, probably as a result of federal policies and the pandemic.

Higginbotham noted his own school district is seeing this play out with smaller kindergarten classes compared to older grades. He said school districts have spent decades building facilities and have added staff but now face this downward trajectory.

Two other issues are creating funding challenges. One is inflation, which results in reduced purchasing power for schools, higher borrowing costs, increased funding disparities, and schools chasing inflation with salary increases. The other is the economic slowdown, which could affect state revenues.

Higginbotham offered several suggestions that could help school districts weather the coming storm. They can adjust staff counts to reflect enrollment trends, freeze their hiring, alter their benefits, reduce stipends, rein in spending on things that are merely nice to have, eliminate ineffective programs, squeeze discretionary spending, postpone projects, and build reserves.

“Don’t delay, and hope and prayer are good strategies, but pray for the discipline to do the right thing and get your budgets where they need to be,” he said. “Avoid at all costs deficit spending and a RIF (reduction in force). Those are not popular things to have to live through.”

In another presentation, Hamburg Superintendent Tracy Streeter, Assistant Principal/ALE Director Lesley Nelms, and school board member Trey Tubbs spoke about using data at board meetings. The presentation came following the passage of Act 425 of 2023, a one-sentence piece of legislation by Rep. Bruce Cozart, R-Hot Springs, and Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock, that requires each monthly school board meeting to include a report or presentation regarding student academic data.

Hamburg had already made a commitment to doing this. Nelms said Streeter last year told the staff that the district was a professional learning community and that school board members needed to know what they were doing and why.

Streeter said the school district underwent a paradigm shift that was not always easy. Among its goals was to model data-driven decisions.

Please see FUNDING, page 39

EXECUTIVE SESSION

with Buddy Puckett

By Steve Brawner Editor

When Carl “Buddy”Puckett was 15 years old and a student at Poyen, he went to work for an auto body repair shop in nearby Malvern. The job would start him on a lifelong career, first painting cars and then managing people. He married the boss’s daughter and, together, they would raise three children.

He was elected to the Poyen School Board in 2009 and currently is its president. He was serving as president when Jerry Newton announced he would be retiring as superintendent in 2018 after 39 years in that position. Puckett and the board began the difficult process of replacing him, finally choosing Ouachita Superintendent Ronnie Kissire.

Other highlights of Puckett’s time on the school board have included building a new gymnasium – without debt or asking for a millage increase – and moving to a four-day school week this year.

Report Card sat down with Puckett at Poyen High School, where he once played center for the Indians, to talk about those subjects, and also what it’s like when the State Board of Education chair is your former math teacher.

What do you do for a living?

“I manage a body shop now, grew up in a body shop, automotive repair business, started when I was 15 years old, still got a passion for it, fixing a car and fixing it right all the way around. It’s really all I’ve known.”

What do you enjoy about that?

“I enjoy the painting side of it, the craftsmanship that is involved in repair-

ing a car and making it look like it’s never been touched. Just that aspect all the way around. I want somebody to look at a car and have to really pay attention to it to see if it’s been repaired.”

There’s been a big push the past few years to move away from “everybody’s got to go to college” to career and technical education. Do your experiences affect how you look at that?

“It has with me. I didn’t get a full college education, but I’ve done what I loved, and I made good money. You can make good money, you can make a really good living using your hands, using your technical skills, not necessarily have to sit behind a desk. I still like to see children that go and further their educations. Some of them can’t. Some of them because of what they’re coming out of, whether it’s economic or social or whatever, there’s always a niche in there. There’s always something that can be done, and it’s something you can be proud of because you’ve done it.”

You’re basically from this community and stayed in this community your whole life, right?

“Yes, sir, within 10 miles of here is pretty much where I grew up.”

Tell me about one of your favorite math teachers.

“My math teacher was Mrs. Ouida Newton, and she’s on the State Board of Education. Pushed you to do better, but did it in a way that made you feel comfortable doing it and learning it. Excellent teacher. She knew how to explain everything – the complicated maths. She was in our Beta Club at that time when I was in school, which has been a long time ago. She could multitask. She’s a great lady. … She taught my wife, Kim, who graduated here in ’92, and my oldest daughter, Samantha, who graduated in 2012. My youngest daughter, she graduated in ’16. Mrs. Ouida got to teach both of them. My son’s not going to get the chance to be taught under her, but Mrs. Ouida moved up and is helping the whole state on the education part.”

Arkansas education is about to be really transformed with the LEARNS Act being passed. Do you think y’all are going to use her as a resource, and also maybe lobby her a little bit?

“Yes, sir. As a small school, small schools are always on the defensive. We think that when they do some of this legislation, these big schools have the tax revenue. They have the money to spend on some of this stuff, and the smaller schools, you kind of fight for your money, and having someone there

that comes from small schools, I think that’s a good thing. They understand what goes on, and yes, if we have to, yes, we could contact her and see what she could help out with. I mean, she’s going to do what’s right not necessarily for one school. She’s going to do what’s right for the whole state.”

We’re sitting in the Jerry and Ouida Newton Gymnasium. Tell me about Jerry Newton.

“He was a superintendent here at the Poyen school for a long time, fought for the small schools, graduated from a small school, worried about everybody here. You see people that focus on just their kids. He was not that person. He focused on every child, and that’s what he instilled in us is you’ve got to look at every child. You can’t focus on one person.”

You were school board president when he …

“When he resigned, it about broke my heart. One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, when you’ve got somebody that’s so worried about the community, so worried about the school, to find someone who has that love for a small community, a small school, understanding that the school is the only thing this

community has. So it’s a strong love and a passion for this school.”

What does a school need after it’s had the same person in charge for 30-something years who is a part of the community, beloved by the community? Do you need someone at that point who’s a little fresh, or do you need somebody who’s just like what you had?

“We looked for someone that was pretty close to what we had. Someone that understood about a small school and the parents that are going to be concerned. They’re going to come up and ask questions, making sure they’re going through the right chain of command when they have questions. Someone that doesn’t mind telling you what’s right and what’s wrong, and why we have to do something. Someone that’s not scared. Somebody fresh wouldn’t fully understand that, but they will when you start getting put in those situations.”

We’re sitting, like I said, in the Jerry and Ouida Newton Gymnasium. When was this built?

“About five years ago. … That was a fun year of surprising him and Mrs. Newton in the middle of a ball game and

announcing that we were going to name the gym after them because he was still superintendent at the time. It was right before he retired. Mr. Newton had told us as a board not to surprise him.”

How did he respond to that?

“He was a little mad when we first called out his name but very grateful.”

How did you all do this?

“At halftime, we just walked out there on the floor, and I had the mic. We had it all planned out. Everybody knew that needed to know about it except for Mr. Newton. It was a big surprise to him.”

How did you pay for it?

“The state did fund us. I think they paid, like, 80%. We had to come up with the rest of it. We had saved for years for what we could use towards new facilities. We did not raise the millage up. We didn’t want it to be a burden on the community, and we ended up with a gymnasium. Just moving funds around that could be moved to be used for facilities.”

Saving for it rather than doing a millage increase or doing a bond issue, why was that so important?

“You don’t want to put a burden on the community. Small schools are about sports. I love sports. I was a competitor as a kid. My wife’s a competitor. My girls were competitors. But you’ve got to have education, so you need to focus most of your money on the buildings for education, and the last thing you want to do is put it in a bind or end up getting the school in fiscal distress over a gymnasium.”

Did you play?

“Yes, sir.”

Were you pretty good?

“I was OK.” (Editor’s note: He was good.)

What position did you play?

“I was a center.”

You’re ‘small school tall,’ right?

“Yeah, I was small school tall.” (Laughs.)

Six-four? “Six-four.”

Were y’all pretty good those years?

“We had a pretty good team. For what we had in the small schools, which with small schools you had a lot of competition. Back then when I was playing, you still had Prattsville playing, you had Carthage playing. Paron still had a team. A lot of schools that were in our district. Only ones left now are Ouachita, Poyen, and really that’s about it. Leola, Grapevine, Carthage, Paron, all of them are out now. They shut the schools down.”

You think athletics are still important?

“In a small school, I think athletics are important, but, as competitive as I am, it’s got to be education. Most of the time, even the best athletes won’t make it in college and won’t make it professionally, so the education has to be there.”

You went to four-day weeks this year. What led to that?

Once I got on here, it wasn’t about my kids. It’s about all the kids. I can’t focus on one kid. If I focused on just my kid, you lose focus on all the other ones that truly need help.

“ ”

“We had thought about it for a while. Kirby had done it for a little bit, and we had asked them questions. It turned out really successful for a small area. We sent out a survey to the teachers. I think it was 95 or 97% of them were positive for it. They were ready for it. Once we found out about that, we sent out another survey to the community. About 80% of the community was for a four-day school week. Ten percent were ‘maybe,’ and maybe 10% were against. Once the ‘maybes’ got called back and questions answered about the four-day week, you know, just not knowing, they changed their mind. So we’ve had really positive results with what’s going on.”

Ultimately in the lead up, you had almost 100% support, then.

“We did. We did. You’re going to have your people that are against it no matter what, just because it’s a change, but it’s done really well. Like I said, one of the negative drawbacks of them being against it was child care. You’ve got to find somebody to watch your child, but since COVID when people had to stay home, they had to find child care. It has not been as much of a problem as what it could have been if we just all of a sudden had jumped on there and we wouldn’t have had COVID.”

Why did you want to go to four days?

“To help a little bit financially. To give the teachers and the staff in the school a day that they could take their kid to go to a dentist appointment or go to a doctor’s appointment, to where you weren’t having to steadily find teachers, substitute teachers, which are hard to find now. You save a little bit of money on not having to have the school completely turned on.

“Some of the stuff that was a negative was, I guess, some of these kids that may not have a meal on that fifth day, and we’ve done changes on that making sure that fifth day is covered where the kids aren’t going to miss a meal. I mean, it is about the children in these schools, small districts. All in all, it’s turned out to be a really good thing. We had some parents that were upset because they said we picked a Monday instead of a Friday. You’ve got parents who are going to automatically gripe about that because they’re saying, ‘Well, you’re not doing it because of football.’ … We chose Mondays because most holidays fall on a Monday, so you’re not taking away from your school week, or that day off that would have normally been off during school week. You’re still getting that off. You’re still getting that holiday off, and it doesn’t count against the school, so we’ve got a chance to add extra days, I guess, if needed for snow or inclement weather days. It’s turned out to be a good thing.”

In this area, you’re one of the first.

“Yeah, Ouachita was the first in our area. Kirby was one of the first ones we looked at. Elkins. There are other schools now. I think some of the closer schools are looking at a fourday school week next year. We found positives out of it.”

What does your school day look like now?

“7:40 a.m. till 4 p.m. For the elementary kids, you can now double block for the English and math and some of the extra ones. We were worried about some of the younger kids being there and it being a little bit longer day. Not a whole lot longer, but a little bit longer. Kids are very resilient. They bounce back and just accept it and go on. Now in high school you’ve got longer periods to focus on some of the potential problems, I guess, the math, English, the science, for the upper kids to spend more time in there with the teacher and learn more.”

And then you all get that extra day off.

“And the extra day off, we had tried to set it up so that teachers who wanted to come in would be there to help if some of the kids wanted to be tutored. We do have it set up to where it’s all about the kids.”

Can you tell a difference in how it’s affected academic performance?

“Everywhere, every school, the academics have gone down a little bit because of COVID. Ours have held pretty evenly. I don’t think that we have gone down one bit this year. We’ll know more about it come next year. We had kind of set this up on a two- or three-year, let’s see what happens. Within two or three years, if our test scores start falling, then we may look at going back to a five-day, but as the way it’s looking right now, we’re going to stay on a four-day.”

Do teachers and the parents and the students feel like they’re still getting as good of an education?

“We haven’t had any negative feedback from anybody that I know of.”

I never did ask, why did you run for school board in the first place?

“My kids. And then once I got on here, it wasn’t about my kids. It’s about all the kids. I can’t focus on one kid. If I focused on just my kid, you lose focus on all the other ones that truly need help.”

Your name is Carl “Buddy” Puckett.

“My name is Carl Edwin Puckett III, but I’ve been called ‘Buddy’ all of my life. So it’s just, ‘Buddy’s’ stuck with me.”

Where did “Buddy” come from?

“My grandpa’s nickname was ‘Buddy,’ my daddy’s nickname was ‘Buddy,’ and they called me ‘Buddy.’ I’m the third, so I just kept ‘Buddy’ ever since.”

It’s a very friendly nickname. Does that affect you having a name that everybody kind of associates with something very positive?

“No, it doesn’t bother me one way or the other. I try to treat people like I want to be treated.”

Like a buddy?

“Like a buddy. Like a friend.”

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

American Fidelity is the benefits partner of choice

Since 1960, the education community has turned to American Fidelity for employee benefits, education, and enrollment support they can trust. Consider joining the 122 school districts in Arkansas that currently partner with us.

Learn more at americanfidelity.com/education or call us today!

Cadence Insurance: Watch for rising building values, costs

School Districts will be renewing their property coverage effective July 1. According to Bill Birch with Cadence Insurance, as districts review their statement of values, they should pay attention to their building values and items on their property schedules. Building costs have increased substantially, and the cost to rebuild educational facilities is surprisingly high – as much as $300 to $400 per square foot. Board members and administrators should conduct their due diligence in making sure their districts are adequately insured.

For more information about school property coverage, contact Birch at 501.614.1170, or email him at bill. birch@cadenceinsurance.com. For more information about Cadence Insurance, go to cadencebank.com/insurance

Architecture Plus designs Perryville cafeteria/safe room

Architecture Plus did the design work on the Perryville Cafeteria/Safe Room, a 10,640-square-foot structure that provides storm shelter for the district as well as much-needed cafeteria and kitchen space.

The storm shelter area consists of a 5,100-square-foot cafeteria and 906-square-foot stage that also acts as a teacher dining space. The storm shelter area is constructed of painted tilt-up precast concrete walls with a concrete double tee roof structure.

The 2,450-square-foot full service kitchen and serving area is constructed of painted split face concrete masonry unit-bearing (CMU) walls with bar joists

and a single-ply roof system. Painted split face CMU walls and a prefinished metal roof make up the structure of the restrooms and entrance vestibule.

For more information, visit archplusinc.net.

American Fidelity suggests questions for benefits providers

Employers should ask questions about their benefits providers, according to American Fidelity. Does their provider:

- Specialize in their industry?

- Make itself available year-round?

- Have a dedicated team to ensure there is no gap in service expectations?

- Offer individual benefits education so employees understand their compensation package?

- Educate and enroll new hires throughout the year?

- Support employees year-round?

- Give compliance guidance regarding state and federal laws?

- Have familiarity with Affordable Care Act and ERISA requirements?

- Conduct dependent verification reviews?

- Have strong financial ratings?

- Charge for benefits communication literature, enrollment platform, compliance or education?

- Educate about retirement and also options to lower taxable income while still working in education?

For more information about how American Fidelity can help school districts with employee benefits, go to americanfidelity.com/why-us/for-education or call 800.688.4421.

Entegrity: Act now for solar benefits before law takes effect

School districts still have time to implement solar energy projects to receive the maximum financial benefits, but that window could close by the end of this year, Entegrity says.

Act 278, passed this legislative session, imposes net metering and financ-

ing restrictions that significantly reduce the value of solar energy entering the utility grid, thus reducing the financial payback of solar projects for schools.

New customers connected to the grid before Oct. 1, 2024, will be grandfathered in under net metering, meaning these customers will continue to receive one-to-one compensation at retail rates through 2040. However, this does not account for installation time. To ensure their project meets this deadline, Entegrity advises customers to be under contract by the end of 2023.

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

VS America helps schools buy furniture with ESSER money

VS America is working with educators nationwide to help them purchase school furniture using ESSER funding.

“Prior to this COVID-related funding, a lot of schools had no path available to update student furniture,” said Scot Morris, regional manager for VS America.

Morris said that over the past several years, there has been an emphasis around the need for agile, adaptable learning spaces to better support student health and the evolving science of teaching and learning. Research shows such agile spaces are more aligned with the project-based, collaborative learning that is happening in schools today.

According to Morris, “Moving classrooms from static to agile is completely within the guidelines of the COVID relief funds for schools, and using a portion of those funds to make important updates in adaptability will have important generational impacts.”

For more information, contact Morris at 704.378.6500, or go to vsamerica.com

TIPS implements Marketplace system for eProcurement

The Interlocal Purchasing System is implementing the TIPS Marketplace, a one-stop eProcurement system that TIPS members can utilize to facilitate and streamline the electronic purchasing process.

The TIPS Marketplace, powered by EqualLevel©, will facilitate vendor/contract discovery, evaluation, request for information/quote, and order processing between TIPS members and TIPS awarded vendors.

The Marketplace allows members to order from multiple vendors from one site, while knowing that the contracts they are purchasing from have been awarded through a competitive bid.

For more information, go to www. tips-usa.com

Stephens can help board members obtain training hours

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

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

ASBA 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 addresses topics ranging from state and local funding revenue sources to debt financing of capital projects. This type of workshop can be particularly useful when boards are considering how to finance future capital projects.

To learn more about how Stephens can assist your district, contact Michael McBryde of Stephens Public Finance at 501.377.2641. For more information about Stephens, go to www.stephens. com.

Arkansas Public Safety installs weapons finder at Hot Springs

Arkansas Public Safety Solutions has contracted with the Hot Springs School District to implement Motorola Avigilon Concealed Weapons Detection technology powered by Evolv.

APSS Engineering Director Joe Marfone said, “Our team is excited to be implementing the second Motorola/ Avigilon Concealed Weapons Detection system in the K-12 market in Arkansas. APSS appreciates the confidence the Hot Springs School District places in our team for this mission-critical component of next generation school safety technology.”

Greenbrier was the first district to install the technology.

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 about Arkansas Public Safety Systems, go to www. motorolaapss.com

100,000 children, teachers, and residents in 60 Arkansas school districts are safer because of safe rooms.

C.R. Crawford has served as construction manager for several Arkansas projects. In 2017, it completed one that doubles as a P.E. facility for Mountainburg School District. The district added the extra protection to the design knowing it would not interfere with the building’s use or aesthetics. A year after it was complete, a tornado touched down in Mountainburg, and many took shelter in the safe room.

For questions about safe room construction, contact Leigh Ann Showalter at lshowalter@crcrawford.com or go to www.crcrawford.com.

French Architects designed five safe rooms for Lakeside

French Architects designed five safe rooms for the Lakeside School District that are spread over its campus and were constructed several years ago.

French Architects designed the safe rooms to be integrated into the design while meeting the needs of the district. One is a classroom space within the building at the primary wing, others blend in as French Architects matched the façade of the existing middle school facility, and all are located within proximity of students.

C.R. Crawford built FEMA safe room in Mountainburg

An average of 38 tornadoes hit Arkansas each year, and multi-purpose FEMA safe rooms are one solution. In a 2021 study, FEMA said more than

The safe rooms provide an open P.E. space in both primary and intermediate schools. They are striped for games, provide wall climbing activities, and serve as another basketball gym for elementary sports.

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

Stock photo

Nabholz partners with Greenbrier on useful storm shelters

As more Arkansas school districts include storm shelters in their construction projects, they are increasingly viewing these shelters as more than mere concrete boxes. By incorporating them into multi-purpose buildings, schools can maximize their space and stretch their construction budgets, all while keeping students safe.

Nabholz partnered with Greenbrier Public Schools to build six such facilities, beginning in 2015 with construction of the new Springhill Elementary. Shelters were later added to the district’s remaining three elementary schools; the junior high, which shares a campus with the middle school; and to the high school. All six serve students daily as physical education, athletic, and flex spaces. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, these facilities also provided much-needed space for social distancing.

Between ever-evolving K-12 educational facility needs and the constant threat of severe weather in Arkansas, Nabholz predicts these versatile, resilient spaces will become routine additions to school design plans.

For more information about Nabholz, visit nabholz.com.

WER Architects designs more than 20 hardened facilities

Keeping students safe is always a top priority in school design. Storm shelters not only serve as a safe haven for students and the community during severe weather, but also can be a large-format educational space year round.

Under Arkansas’ newest iteration of the building code, all new school construction projects built for 50 or more students will be required to provide a storm shelter within them. WER has designed more than 20 hardened facilities from FEMA to ICC 500.

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

Energy company M3 Services meets students, offers jobs

Energy reduction company M3 Services had a booth at the 2023 Draft Day career fair at Lake Hamilton. Students from Garland County districts and elsewhere were bused in to meet with potential employers.

“What sets us apart from the traditional employer at this fair is we are looking for those students who may be overlooked, offer them a trade and encourage them to reach their full potential,” noted owner Alex Mouton, who is pictured above at left.

M3 Services, one of a handful of trades companies there, interviewed a dozen students and made entry-level offers to a few graduating seniors. It plans to keep up with the juniors it met and steer them towards a path in the energy reduction trades upon graduation, including successful completion of their EPA license.

For more information about M3 Services, go to m3svs.com or call 501.991.4822.

Baldwin & Shell celebrates finish of Lion Arena

Searcy Public Schools hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony at its new high school arena in May 2023. The new Lion Arena, which was completed by Baldwin & Shell, is approximately 100,000 square feet and contains 2,800 permanent seats. Additional features include a golf practice room, hospitality room with kitchen, history wall, trophy case, cheer/dance room, locker rooms, weight room, and a high-end sound system with lighting controls. The main uses for the arena will be for basketball, volleyball, and wrestling.

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

Strategos provides armed school protection services

Strategos International now offers “school protection specialist” services that provide schools with armed school protection. These specialists are high quality and highly trained professionals. Strategos has delivered this program to some of the largest districts in Missouri. Strategos’ extensive experience in providing school training, consulting and protection solutions to more than 500 school districts currently ensures the districts get a protection solution that increases safety and security without compromising the core mission of educating students.

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

Funding

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“We all have opinions. Think about that,” she said. “But if those opinions are not backed up with good statistics and good numbers, they’re just that: They’re opinions. And so what we realized is we had to cut the fluff. We talked too much about things. We would repeat ourselves, but at the end of a 10-minute conversation that should have taken 30 seconds, we still didn’t have a decision. When you pull those numbers in and you look at numbers, whether it’s attendance, achievement, or anything else in between, when you have good data, it takes all of those questions out of the way.”

The district also made a commitment to monitoring the results of its actions. District administrators did six-week rotations at buildings to support and, when necessary, correct the instructors there. Staff didn’t like it at first, but the administrators were able to learn what the various campuses needed, ranging from school safety improvements to trash cans.

A critical step was learning to follow the data and make decisions based on it. In one case, a third grade teacher moved in the summer but then moved back and applied to return to school. Her third grade slot had been filled, so she briefly

was assigned to a fifth grade opening. However, the data showed her students had the best test scores in the third grade. When informed of that situation, the building principal noted that the new third grade teacher had already moved in and put up her bulletin board.

“We offered to change the bulletin board, moved the teacher where she needed to be and rocked on based on data,” Streeter said.

Tubbs, the school board member, said the district had begun focusing on SMART goals, the acronym standing for “Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timebound.” Without that guardrail, decision makers can get off base or look at things too broadly. The district is now accepting accountability for all students to learn at a high level, helping them improve weekly using data.

“If you can tell me why you need something, then you probably need

it. And if you can tell me why, you’re probably going to get it,” he said.

In a panel discussion covering a range of topics, Division of Secondary and Elementary Education Deputy Commissioner Stacy Smith said important changes were occurring at the state level. She said the State Board of Education had adopted new math and English Language Arts standards that are clear and concise and have parent-friendly language. She said a side-by-side comparison of those standards with the previous ones made it clear how much better the new ones are.

Smith said this is the last year the state will be using the ACT Aspire as its end-of-year summative assessment for grades 3-10 after using the test starting in 2015. Next year, the state will be using a test developed by Cambium Assessment. Smith said Arkansas will have more control over this new assessment. The new math and ELA standards will match the test questions from the beginning. In the 2024-25 school year, the state hopes to have a K-2 assessment that’s more streamlined than what it currently has.

Attendees also got an unplanned visit from Arkansas Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva. In a brief speech, Oliva said he had committed himself to visiting every school superintendent. He had traveled more than 5,000 miles by road in an effort to gain a better understanding of the state’s education needs.

HAMBURG SCHOOL BOARD member Trey Tubbs, left, and Superintendent Tracy Streeter offer their thoughts on the use of data in making school decisions.

WE BUILD

SPACES THAT HELP STUDENTS EXCEL

When the White Hall School District sought to make lasting improvements that would benefit their students for years to come, they partnered with Nabholz. Their 1,250-seat stadium-style theater is located inside a 48,000-square-foot fine arts center which doubles as an auditorium. The space also features a scene shop, band and choir rooms, and a full-height fly loft, ensuring that the show will go on!