Report Card March 2021 www.arsba.org
The Journal of the Arkansas School Boards Association
Fighting back
After a year of playing defense against the COVID-19 virus, schools are going on the counterattack. Saline County pharmacists collaboratively organized a vaccination drive that brought together all the county’s school employees. At Bryant, about 70% of classified and certified staff members participated. Among them was full-time sub Amy DeVito, who’s already had COVID but didn’t hesitate to get her shots.
A message of hope
Even in the midst of a challenging global pandemic, we must not forget that students should always remain our focus As I embark upon a new journey as president of the Arkansas School Boards Association, I am overcome with concerns, celebrations, anticipations, and reservations. Such opposing feelings have seemingly consumed our society during the pandemic, thereby changing the way we act, think, and speak. Unfortunately, many have chosen to focus primarily on negative thoughts and emotions, and our vocabulary has been altered to normalize the usage of words such as quarantine, pandemic, overwhelmed, isolation, and survival. While these terms are used to define the pandemic, it is crucial that we refrain from allowing them to define our lives or devalue our convictions. As educational leaders, we must maintain a relentless focus on hope! In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Even though these words were spoken more than 50 years ago, their truth continues to resonate inspiration during these troubling times. Just as Dr. King guided, I have committed to hope
2 March 2021 Report Card
by Rosa Bowman ASBA President throughout my life for inspiration, motivation, and opportunity. While some may believe that my eternal optimism is a product of my own fantasy world, I can personally attest to the power that hope has over adversity. Hope is what led me to a new life in the United States as a Peruvian teenager, hope is what guided me to a passion for educating our youth, and I am convinced that hope is what will lead us through the current pandemic. For these reasons, I maintain that hope allows us to maneuver through the chaos and challenges of life as we seek to remove barriers and inspire others. As board members, we have been granted the privilege and responsibility to advocate for the betterment of all children, regardless of circumstances.
Although each of our districts is unique in makeup and challenge, hope for our students’ futures is the common mission that binds us together. Even in these trying times, our districts’ employees and community members have sought to identify and satisfy the needs of every child. This was particularly evident across our great state in March 2020 when cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and various other district employees joined forces with local community members and churches to deliver meals to students after schools were shut down to onsite instruction. For me, these selfless actions exemplified the hope that public educators provide for our children every day of every year. I am beyond blessed to have the opportunity to represent the great students, educators, and community of Ashdown School District as a member of the Ashdown School Board, and I am exceedingly grateful for the opportunity to represent Arkansas as the ASBA president. Together we will promote opportunities for every student and ensure that hope remains infinitely available. In closing I would like to share a quote from our late 2013 ASBA president, Maxine Nelson: “Let’s not forget to consider the impact on students with every decision we make. Our students are our main focus.”
Report Card
The Journal of the Arkansas School Boards Association
News and Features ASBA Annual Conference
8 Keynote: Treat kids differently
To close the achievement gap, schools must teach students the ways they learn best, said Patrick Briggs.
10 Supports needed for COVID trauma
The COVID-19 pandemic is a collective traumatic experience, and school-based mental health services will be needed.
12 Key: Digital learning to continue
Some virtual arrangements will outlive the pandemic. But some things are non-negotiable, Secretary Johnny Key said.
12 Prepare to hire tech staff
School board members can support digital learning by replacing myths with facts – and hiring additional technology staff.
14 Boards, superintendents must talk
Boards should make clear their expectations of superintendents, while superintendents must keep their boards informed.
15 Mark Rash wins Dr. Dan Award 18 Farmington junior is top speaker 20 Bryant High School offensive line and
wrestling coach Shane Clancy gets his second shot Feb. 12 at a countywide clinic. Local pharmacies collaborated to organize two events for five Saline and Hot Spring County schools.
Departments 2 6 7 28 30 31
President’s Column Letter from the Executive Director Advertisers Index Marketplace Commercial Affiliates Cody Kees’s Column
19 Three for five so far
ASBA has successfully advanced three of its five bills to the governor’s desk, with one of the remaining still going through the process.
20 Cover / Schools fight back
In Saline County, pharmacists collaborated to vaccinate teachers and staff at five area school districts in an effort to defeat the virus and get back to normal.
23 Vaccines: First time used, but not new
The first two COVID-19 vaccines are effective and were developed quickly because funding was plentiful and the techniques had been in the works for many years, said Dr. Joel Tomlinson.
24 Executive Session with Randy Hutchinson 4 March 2021 Report Card
Jerrod Williams Sheridan School District Superintendent Partnering with Chartwells has been a great business decision. Five years ago we ran our foodservice program in-house and we were significantly in the red. Today, we are significantly in the black. There have been many benefits besides financial that make this a win for Sheridan School District. • More students eating - over 25% increase in lunch and 19% in breakfast since we started, and continued growth year over year • Environment has a collegiate, inviting feel • Implemented School Garden to Table program • Coffee shop serves reimbursable meals, froyo and a la carte items that students love • Students have a place where they can eat, connect with others, recharge, and enjoy a sense of happiness in their school • Fresh, made-from-scratch food and tons of daily options that students and staff enjoy
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• Internal and external catering • Adult participation increased by 31% • Concessions has become a food destination for the community each week • Our District Food Service staff now has the tools, resources and training to be successful
Sheridan Schools and Chartwells, a partnership that serves the students
Report Card The Journal of the Arkansas School Boards Association Vol. 14, Number 1
March 2021
P.O. Box 165460 / Little Rock, AR 72216 Telephone: 501-372-1415 / 800-482-1212 Fax: 501-375-2454 E-mail: arsba@arsba.org / www.arsba.org
Letter from the Executive Director
by Dr. Tony Prothro
Next school year
The last school year will certainly make the history books as a very challenging year. Difficult decisions were made in March 2020 to physically close schools for the safety and welfare of Arkansans. Teachers and administrators scrambled to provide new and innovative learning opportunities (without the physical presence of a teacher in the classroom) for Arkansas students. Anecdotal reports showed some success in a difficult time, while others relayed little to no advancement in learning on the part of our students. Regardless, most schools did their best in a difficult situation to rise to the challenge of meeting student needs in the midst of a pandemic. Difficult decisions were once again made for what the start of the new school year would be in August 2020. The mode of instruction varied from district to district, but the majority of schools continued with both in-person instruction for some and virtual learning for others. Some offered a mode of instruction where a student received both in-person and virtual learning at the same time. Many schools gave parents a choice of the method of instruction for their children. Parents struggled to ascertain the best fit for their children in the midst of a pandemic. We saw modes of instruction change in direct correlation to the state of the virus. At times classrooms, grade levels, or entire campuses were closed and switched to virtual instruction as the numbers of positive cases fluctuated within a school and community. Many educators and parents became frustrated and concerned with the experience because they 6 March 2021 Report Card
worried about the intellectual, emotional, and physical welfare of their students in this ever-changing environment. As the numbers of new COVID cases reported are in a decline in late February, we are hopeful that we are rounding the curve of the pandemic. I have heard many teachers, administrators, parents, and school board members express hope that things will return to normal for the 2021-22 school year. But what does that “normal” look like in August 2021? I believe most parents will want their children to return to a complete physical learning environment. However, other parents may have seen advantages to the hybrid approach of instruction based on their own particular set of circumstances. I have heard some practitioners state that this past year might forever change the face of what constitutes a school day. So what does this mean for schools and those making the important decisions? There have been many conversations about choice over the last several years. It will be interesting to see this possible evolvement for Arkansas schools. It is important to note that Arkansas law and the Department of Education will set parameters for what constitutes a school day in Arkansas classrooms. However, district plans are currently underway for what August 2021 classrooms will look like. Some parents will want to continue to have virtual learning for their students. Many school districts are currently planning a hybrid approach to instruction. There will also be many other items that will need the attention of schools in
Please see DECISIONS, next page
Board of Directors President: Rosa Bowman, Ashdown President-elect: Dr. Tad Margolis, Valley View Vice President: William Campbell, McGehee Sec.-Treasurer: Randy Hutchinson, Springdale Past President: Randy Goodnight, Greenbrier Region 1: Travis Warren, Farmington Region 2: Randy Rogers, Lead Hill Region 3: Dr. Julea Garner, Highland Region 4: Kyle Cannon, Mena Region 5: Clint Hull, Pottsville Region 6: Nikki King, Pangburn Region 7: D’James Rogers, West Memphis Region 8: Jereme Carter, Carlisle Region 9: Joey Astin, Forrest City Region 10: Mark Curry, Lake Hamilton Region 11: Carl “Buddy” Puckett, Poyen Region 12: Laura Clark, Blevins Region 13: Doris Parham, Bearden Region 14: Jerry Daniels, Warren
Staff
Executive Director: Dr. Tony Prothro Board Development Director: Dr. Anne Butcher 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 TIPS-TAPS Project Manager: Mickey McFatridge General Counsel: Jay Bequette Risk Management Program & Workers’ Comp. Program: Shannon Moore, Director Krista Glover Dwayne McAnally Misty Thompson Melody Tipton LaVerne Witherspoon Linda Collins Lisa Wigginton Kara Quinton
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 2021 by the Arkansas School Boards Association and Steve Brawner Communications. All rights reserved.
Decisions Continued from page 6
August 2021. Some virtual students may have not been in a physical classroom for the better part of a year. Will there be some issues when physical interactions commence once again? Will there be an increase in disciplinary incidents? Will some students have emotional or social issues that may have occurred during the pandemic that will need professional attention once school commences? Will there be students who have lost part or even all of a year of instruction and will need immediate and quality remediation? What additional short-term and long-term resources might be needed in August to meet the needs of the student population? How many educators will be needed to start the school year in relation to the beginning number of students? What will it mean for a school
district if adjacent school districts offer a hybrid approach to instruction? These are all very difficult and important questions for board members to consider. The answers will predictably differ from school district to school district and even from school to school depending upon the unique circumstances and needs of the student population and the school community in general. Board members will need to obtain as much relevant information as possible for making appropriate policy-level decisions for their schools. Some policies cannot be formulated until laws yet to be passed are put into statute and implemented by various agencies. It might be easy to become frustrated with the myriad of unanswered questions. It will not be an easy task, but I know Arkansas board members, administrators, and teachers are committed to making the 2021-22 school year the best possible experience for students.
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ASBA Annual Conference
Keynote: Treat kids differently At ASBA’s Annual Conference, a former teacher and administrator said all students have equal value, but some need more support to reach their potential By Steve Brawner Editor
The “achievement gap” of higher test scores among white and Asian students compared to students of color is really the result of systemic gaps pertaining to opportunities and expectations. To close those gaps, schools must provide different levels of support and teach students the ways they learn best. That was part of the message of Patrick Briggs, the keynote speaker at this year’s ASBA Annual Conference in December. Briggs is AVID’s Northeast area director and is a former teacher
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‘THE SYSTEMS YOU USE ARE PERFECT FOR THE RESULTS YOU GET.’ Keynote speaker Patrick Briggs said achievement gaps based on skin color and income are the results of systems. School districts must ask themselves what those systems are.
and school administrator. Two breakout sessions also discussed the achievement gap. The Annual Conference was held virtually this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools must ask why racial achievement gaps exist, Briggs said in his lively presentation. Are student, family, community or school factors involved? Teachers can control only the school factors. “If you didn’t catch anything from me this morning, the systems you use are perfect for the results you get,” he said. “So school board members, as you look at the results of the schools and your districts, just know that’s a result. Always ask the question, what systems do we have in place that create this result? Because a gap based on skin color or a gap based on income is a result. What system caused that?” Briggs said at his school in Texas, an Advanced Placement calculus class was composed entirely of white and Asian students, none of whom were eligible for free- and reduced-price meals. The in-school suspension room, where no one was learning, was full of young
men of color who would never have the opportunity for college, a career or the military. Briggs said systems had created that situation. In order to get into Advanced Placement calculus, a student was required to complete Algebra I as an eighth grader, which was only available if they had completed sixth grade advanced math, which was available only to those on track by the third grade. “Really, AP calculus was full of kids that we had made that decision about when they were 7,” he said. “In my advanced classes, they weren’t full of my smartest kids. They were full of my most compliant kids. Oh, you can sit still and do a worksheet, and you don’t cause any trouble. Well, let’s have you tested for gifted and talented. You’re a genius. But you move and disrupt school? Let’s test you for special ed. You see, the systems we had in place were creating opportunity gaps.” By changing systems, his school in Houston no longer has an achievement gap, he said. Briggs displayed two $1 bills – a flat one and another that he balled up, threw on the ground, and spoke harshly to as
a teacher had once spoken to him when he was a student. Both bills still had the same value, with no actual gap in their achievement, but he asked which one would have the opportunity and the expectation of getting into “Coke Machine University.” It would be the flat one, or the compliant one. If a corner were folded, the user would smooth it out. Systems are needed to ensure the balled up one can succeed, too, he said. Briggs said teachers must help students learn the way the students learn best – not the way the teacher learns best. Starting as a seventh grade science teacher in Houston, he was going to change the world, but he soon lost his passion. He defaulted to his own learning style rather than trying to work with students in their learning style. He had them take notes believing they should understand how to organize them. “I would say something silly like, ‘Study harder,’” he said. “What am I really saying to a child? ‘Whatever you
“
Always ask the question, what systems do we have in place that create this result? Because a gap based on skin color or a gap based on income is a result. What system caused that?
”
did to fail, do that harder.’ Studying is a skill that must be taught – if you choose to.” As a new teacher, Briggs said he had told his class before the first test he ever administered that they all would score a 100. He had handwritten the questions straight from the notes he had given them. But they were surprised that they had a test. None of them scored a 100. Some of them failed. The next day, he brought his stack full of graded tests, looked at the students, and asked them what was wrong with them. “See, what I know now is what I had spent weeks teaching children to do was how to copy,” he said. “They weren’t
learning any science in my classroom. They were learning how to copy words from a board onto paper.” Briggs said close relationships between teachers and students increase students’ feeling of safety, boost their academic test scores, increase their understanding and the meaningfulness of what’s being taught, and reduce absenteeism and dropouts. Relational capacity is the trust created between two people who know each other. Briggs said it can change people’s behavior whereas punishment only modifies behavior when the punisher is present, like the driver who slows down when he sees the police officer and then speeds up when the officer is out of sight. “Not one rule you have is going to cause good behavior or grades or choices at the end of the school year. Every strong relationship you make will,” he said. Continued on next page
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Report Card March 2021 9
ASBA Annual Conference He noted that students have only six post-secondary pathways after public school: They can continue their education, enter military service, get a job, or be unemployed, incarcerated or dead. If they don’t have a high school diploma, the first two aren’t options, and the last three are bad. The goal is to ensure all students are successful. Because they don’t start out in the same place, they shouldn’t be treated equally. “Fair and equal hate each other,” he said. “They’ve never gotten along. Fair and equal are enemies. My goal is equity. … Equity says, let me give you what you need to be successful.” Equity, not equality “Understanding and Ensuring Educational Equity” was the title of one breakout session. Dr. Jeremy Owoh, deputy superintendent for academics and school leadership at the Little Rock School District, said equity does not mean creating equal situations for all students. Instead,
it’s about targeting resources based on students’ needs. He said certain policies affect educational equity, including those that result in effective Owoh teachers and leaders; high-level curriculum; funding; and disciplinary policies. Teachers and leaders should operate with a sense of urgency. “If we truly mean, ‘All means all,’ then we need to make sure our policies, our systems, our procedures create the opportunity for every student, for all students to have the greatest opportunity to learn,” he said. Owoh said educators must know students personally so they don’t see them as labels and ID numbers. Educational leaders must identify their own biases and ensure they don’t affect decisions. In another breakout session, Chandra Boone with the Arkansas Academy for Educational Equity said the achievement
gap was first documented in 1966 by James Coleman, a Johns Hopkins sociologist, as a result of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He found that African-American children were several grades behind white students. Boone said African-American students face the most disciplinary actions, which can be reduced by having African-American teachers in the classroom. “There are many things that AfricanAmerican students do that AfricanAmerican teachers tend to understand,” she said. Dr. Toriano Green, assistant superintendent of the Osceola School District, a participant in the event, told Boone that he struggled in school because he didn’t see himself in books. February is Black History Month, but the lessons weren’t embedded in the entire class and were always about the same people. Boone agreed, saying, “It was disheartening to see that the only … contributions black people made were enslavement and civil rights.”
Supports needed for COVID trauma Not just students but also educators have faced challenges that will require school attention after pandemic’s end By Steve Brawner Editor
The COVID-19 pandemic is a collective traumatic experience affecting students and educators now and in the future, and school-based mental health services will be needed in response, said mental health professionals during a general session at the Annual Conference. Emotional and behavioral health issues were already a growing concern that the pandemic has exacerbated, said Dr. Jill Fussell, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Clinically significant, diagnosable health problems needing treatment were increasing, she said. Meanwhile, younger students were more clingy to caregivers, and some children were experiencing physiological changes in eating, sleeping and toileting, and perhaps some regression in reaching developmental milestones. She said she was seeing increased intensity and frequency of behavioral outbursts, as well as the development of anxiety and mood disorder symptoms. Students with learning and developmental diagnoses and pre-existing mental health issues have been most at risk. Fussell said adults must acknowledge young peoples’ struggles. They haven’t been able to celebrate milestones. They’ve 10 March 2021 Report Card
‘EVERY STUDENT HAS EXPERIENCED A TRAUMA.’ Ryane Sorey, Sheridan School District mental health coordinator, said all students have been affected by the pandemic, so all are eligible for school-based mental health services in Sheridan.
lost classroom interactions and socialization. They have faced an ever-present threat of sudden family sickness or death. Ryane Sorey, Sheridan School District mental health coordinator, said the pandemic has been traumatic for all students. They were in school one day in March 2020 and then left the classroom for the next six months. “I’m not asking, you know, hey, have their grades dropped?” she said. “Or what sort of impacts do you see in the classroom? Because every single student has experienced a trauma, and so every single student is eligible for school-based mental health services through our district.”
Teachers can spot troubled kids School counselors can’t be everywhere, but a math teacher will see 150 students a day and can be provided the skills to spot problems, Sorey said. Then those students can be linked with appropriate services. Districts should promote Mental Health First Aid training for educators and other school personnel in order to build capacity. Free training is available for all staff members at every education cooperative through the year 2023. Schools can identify virtual students who need services by looking at their academic data – for example, attendance. If a student isn’t logging in or their academics are faltering, that’s a warning sign and schools need to reach out, Sorey said. School districts should seek near- and long-term solutions by being proactive and building capacity, Sorey said. She encouraged school districts to start working with providers on a plan for expansion if student referrals increase
by 50%. School board members should prioritize mental health needs and recognize that students don’t learn when they have significant issues. “We all feel like the train has left the station, and we’re chasing the train, but what we can do is we can anticipate,” she said. “We do know that in six months, in 12 months, we are going to have increased need in our student body, in our employees, of mental health services. I mean, that’s a given. And so what we can do is we can anticipate those needs.” Likewise, educators are facing challenges. Dr. Betsy Kindall, Arkansas AWARE State Coordinator for the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, said burnout was common before the pandemic and now has increased. She talks to an educator considering leaving the profession almost daily. Sorey is seeing increased anxiety and depression stemming from a variety of concerns, including physical, financial,
and staff members’ wondering if they are doing all they can to keep students safe. Janitors, bus drivers, and child nutrition staff members are affected and can be overwhelmed. Sorey said she’s also seeing a lot of resilience. School employees are working hard and should be recognized for their efforts. She said her superintendent, Jerrod Williams, was giving employees random prizes donated by local businesses. Arkansas AWARE is offering professional development for educators to learn to take care of themselves and be healthy. Employees should be told how to access mental health services, which school insurance covers, Kindall said. Kindall said the state faces a clinician shortage and that there are cultural barriers to seeking mental health services. Some families are not comfortable doing it, and there is still a stigma that Arkansas Aware is trying to overcome.
Continued on next page
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Report Card March 2021 11
ASBA Annual Conference Dr. Jay Barth, chief education officer for the city of Little Rock, said the stigma can be greater in certain communities. That means districts must be proactive. “I do think in the area of mental and behavioral health services, this is not a case of, ‘If you build it, they will come,’” he said. “There really has to be a level of work to get individuals and
families comfortable with the notion of seeking out these services.” Telehealth has been an effective tool for helping students access services. Fussell said telehealth lets her see patients in their own homes and family environments, where she can learn about their pets and toys. It also reduces the stress involved with going to the doctor’s office. Internet access is limited
in parts of the state, but telehealth isn’t going away, she said. Kindall and Sorey said the pandemic has been a collective trauma with longlasting repercussions. That means mental health services must be prioritized. “Mental health services have always been a support,” Sorey said. “There may be a moment where mental health services are primary.”
Key: Digital learning to continue The state’s secretary of education told school board members that digital learning models won’t end when the pandemic does. But he said some things are non-negotiable. By Steve Brawner Editor
Some of the virtual and hybrid arrangements created in response to COVID-19 will outlive the pandemic because parents will want to continue educating their children that way. But some things are non-negotiable, Education Secretary Johnny Key said at the ASBA Annual Conference Dec. 11. Key said 64% of students this year were onsite, while 22.3%, or 105,479 students, were studying remotely. Another 13.5% were engaged in a hybrid model of some kind. Key said the arrangements were created to give school districts a way to pivot to at-home instruction if necessary because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some patrons will want to continue a blended or remote education, so the state must be ready to continue offering these choices to parents and students.
SECRETARY OF EDUCATION JOHNNY KEY said digital programs must be planned with purpose.
“Even if the pandemic has subsided, we expect there will be parents across the state of Arkansas that feel like this is a good option for them. So we have to be prepared for that,” he said. For the upcoming 2021-22 school year, schools must offer 178 days of instruction under the law, but they will be able to continue to offer blended or remote instruction programs as they did this year. Quality is non-negotiable Key said six aspects of digital programs are “non-negotiables.” The
program must be planned with purpose; it must have high-quality content and instruction; students and teachers must have equity of access; teachers, students and parents must be offered support; there must be clear expectations, policies and guidelines; and school districts must plan for regular communication and interaction. Key said 5,125 at-home students had been identified by 108 participating school districts as either “no shows” who never engaged in remote learning or as students who were not logging in to their classes. The state has 262 school districts. In response to this situation, the state Division of Elementary and Secondary Education has partnered with the Graduation Alliance to create the Engage Arkansas initiative to engage those students along with others who are struggling at home. The division was contacting them and trying to set them up with a coach through the end of the school year. Among the students contacted at the time, more than 95% in grades 6-12 said they did have an adult checking on their progress. “Families are trying. Families are trying to support their kids. Sometimes they just find it difficult to do that,” Key said.
Schools should prepare to hire tech staff
How can school board members support digital learning? By replacing myths with facts, having high expectations, and offering grace. They also should be prepared to hire additional technology staff. 12 March 2021 Report Card
Those were among the suggestions in a breakout session at the Annual Conference titled, “7 Steps for School Board Members Supporting Digital Learning.” Cathi Swan, director of the Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative,
said school board members should help dispel the myths associated with digital learning: that students can’t learn without a teacher in front of them, that technology will replace teachers, and that technology isn’t necessary because
previous generations turned out fine without it. The realities are, students can learn remotely if conditions are right, teachers’ roles always change but their relationships with students remain vital, and students must understand technology because most professions now require it. Swan said school board members must also support continued investments in technology, including hardware, software, internet access, and technology support staff. “I can assure you, and this is not a popular thing to say, but I can assure you that the technology staff you currently have is more than likely struggling with manpower to support all the new hardware and all the new software and kids all over the place, and teachers teaching from different places,” she said. Other steps school board members can take include: – Supporting high quality and high expectations while encouraging teach-
DIGITAL LEARNING. Cathi Swan, director of the Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative, speaks.
ers, students and parents to improve their digital skills – Expecting policy revisions in attendance, technology usage, discipline and
scheduling based on students’ needs and their families’ requests – Advocating for increased broadband access – Supporting educators, students and parents with additional training and resources, letting the district work its plan, and being a calming influence Finally, school board members should offer grace to others during this challenging time. “Change is hard,” she said. “This is new. We’re in a pandemic. We expect better, but we have to give grace because no one was ready for COVID-19. … Everyone is doing the best they can with the information and resources they have.” Successful online students have six traits, said Candice McPherson, director of design and development for Virtual Arkansas. One is academic readiness because if a student was already struggling to remain at grade level, a change won’t
Continued on next page
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ASBA Annual Conference fix the issue. Another is the ability to effectively communicate and be willing to ask for help. Some students might actually do that better in an online environment, while others might struggle.
Other necessary traits are tech preparedness, independent study skills, self motivation, and time management skills. Virtual Arkansas surveyed 300 students for their tips about succeeding
online. Their advice? Don’t procrastinate, go to Zoom meetings, take notes, try your best and believe in yourself, and pay attention to your calendar, the students said.
Boards, superintendents must communicate Superintendents need to know what’s expected; board members must know what’s happening, Beebe presenters say
School board members should make clear their expectations of superintendents, while superintendents must keep their board members informed, said Beebe School District Superintendent Dr. Chris Nail and board Vice President Jason Smith at this year’s ASBA Annual Conference. The two presented a breakout session entitled, “Superintendent/board relations: Understanding the other perspective to communicate effectively.” Nail said he tries to share information with board members early so they don’t learn it from others at church or while shopping. “I try to tell myself I get paid to communicate with my board,” he said. “Board members don’t get paid anything. They just do it because they want to help the school and the community.” Smith said the relationship between board members and superintendents can deteriorate after a disagreement occurs and the different sides retreat into their bunkers. It’s important to reach out and communicate. Nail said he sends a weekly memo to school board members that starts with the positives and then provides other information about topics such as board training, Freedom of Information Act requests and media contacts. The memo provides the superintendent’s schedule, COVID-19 numbers, activities of other staff members, and reflections on the week. He sends board members a 7 a.m. text informing them that the memo has been released. Nail keeps in mind that the memo is subject to a FOIA request, but there’s 14 March 2021 Report Card
BE OPEN AND TRANSPARENT. Dr. Chris Nail, Beebe School District superintendent, right, said he sends a weekly memo to board members including Vice President Jason Smith, left. In the center is Holly Glover, director of curriculum and instruction.
nothing in there that he wouldn’t be afraid to see reported. Smith said it’s a 3-4 minute read, and he loves the positive news about the students. Nail said he tries to ensure board members have seven days to look at their board packets. Meetings start by recognizing students, which changes the tone. For the superintendent’s evaluation, board members are given a form where they rate the superintendent in a variety of areas from 1-5, or from “unacceptable” to “excellent.” The format creates uniformity and lets board members provide effective feedback. Nail said superintendents should approach their evaluation with an open mind and be transparent. If school board members want their superintendent to improve in an area, they should provide a detailed explanation describing what they want – not just say they want him or her to be more of a people person, for example. “Whatever they want, just please just share that with them because even
though it might be a little bit uncomfortable while you’re doing it, it gives the superintendent the opportunity to meet your expectations,” he said. The two said school board members often are more closely connected to their communities than superintendents, who frequently move to the district from elsewhere and eventually leave for another job. “As a board member, one thing that I think that all of us don’t really burn in our brain is it is our fiduciary responsibility as a board to your district,” said Smith, who described himself as a third generation Badger. “It’s not Dr. Nail’s responsibility. It’s our responsibility. And 10 years from here, Dr. Nail may be at another district somewhere else, and we are still here entrenched in our communities. And it’s our responsibility to make sure that financially [our] district is sound and [we’re] moving the right direction because we’re the ones that are going to be left here in this community to deal with it otherwise.”
Mark Rash wins ASBA’S Dr. Dan Award
Former Cutter Morning Star School Board member Mark Rash received the Dr. Daniel L. Pilkinton Award at ASBA’s Annual Conference. The award has been presented since 1993 to individuals for outstanding service to public education. Rash was elected to the Cutter Morning Star School Board in 2001 and later helped lead the district out of a financial hole as president. At the time, the district’s balance had fallen to about $700, but he helped develop a plan and pass a millage increase that prevented a state takeover. “He has been calm and our voice of reason,” his fellow board members described him in nominating him. “He has mentored our new board members and taught us how to be a leader from the district. He has taught us to always listen and make only a decision that is the best decision for our kids. He has
been the glue that’s kept us all focused on the right path toward one common goal – the best education for all of our students.” The Dr. Dan Award usually is presented as a surprise announcement, although this year Rash was made aware of the award beforehand. He received it at ASBA’s offices as part of the association’s virtual presentation. After receiving the award, he said, “It has truly been an honor to be a part of Cutter Morning Star School District, to serve and to take care of the kids because that’s what it’s all about. It all comes back to the kids – all the decisions and everything that we do is based on what’s best for those kids.” Awards were also presented virtually. The following school board members received the 30-Year Award for 30 years of service: Wayne Gibson, El Dorado; Please see AWARDS, page 18
FORMER CUTTER MORNING STAR board member Mark Rash speaks after receiving the Dr. Dan Award.
Report Card March 2021 15
EVALUATING A MUNICIPAL BOND REFUNDING FOR ECONOMIC SAVINGS Jason Holsclaw, Senior Vice President, Stephens Public Finance
With interest rates at historic lows, many Arkansas school districts have refinanced or “refunded” their outstanding municipal bonds to reduce their interest costs. In fact, Arkansas school districts represented by Stephens saved more than $41 million during 2020 by refunding their outstanding bonds.
Changes to federal tax law in late 2017 eliminated the ability of districts to issue tax-exempt advance refunding bonds. However, a district may use taxable bonds to refund its outstanding bond ahead of the optional call date if it makes economic sense. To do so, a district will be required to establish an escrow account to pay investors until the agreed upon call date on the original bond issue.
Refunding Considerations.
When issuing bonds, a district enters into an agreement with investors agreeing to pay them principal and interest for a specified period before having the option to “call” bonds away from those investors prior to maturity. While each bond transaction is unique, many municipal bonds carry an optional redemption or “call date” of approximately 5 to 10 years. The industry standard is 10 years for this investor protection. A “refunding” is a bond financing procedure whereby a district may pay off or “redeem” all or certain maturities of existing debt by issuing new bonds. In general, there are two types of refundings defined in the tax code: (1) a current refunding and (2) an advance refunding, which are determined by the optional call date. Current v. Advance Refunding < 90 days: Current Refunding Period
CALL DATE
> 90 days: Advance Refunding Period
An advance refunding is a transaction in which the payoff of the outstanding bonds is more than 90 days from the date of issuing the new refunding bonds.
A current refunding is a transaction in which a district pays off the existing bonds within 90 days of issuing the new bonds. Depending on the district’s needs, it may use either tax-exempt or taxable bonds to current refund a bond issue.
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Districts should consider the following when evaluating whether to refund their outstanding municipal bonds and discuss their financing objectives with their municipal advisor. These considerations include:
Evaluating the “Optional Call Date.” When a district issues bonds, it enters into an agreement with investors, and in most instances establishes a fixed optional call date. Meaning, the district agrees to pay the investors’ principal and interest for a designated period before having the “option” to pay off its outstanding bonds earlier than the stated maturity. Investors view this as a type of investment protection. A district must consider when the outstanding bonds are callable. If not callable, the district will not be able to conduct a tax-exempt refunding and should explore whether it is economically advantageous to advance refund the bonds prior to the call with taxable bonds. For example, if a district issued bonds in 2019 and assigned a 5-year optional call date, the district will be restricted from issuing tax-exempt bonds until 2024. Please keep in mind that while investors tend to prefer longer call periods, a district can set the optional call date as short as it desires. The tradeoff is that the shorter the call period, arguably, the higher the interest rate as investors will expect to be compensated for the potential loss in yield. A district should work with its municipal advisor to determine the cost/benefit of when the optional call date should be set.
Refund To Reduce Interest Costs. Most frequently, districts will refund their outstanding bonds to lower the interest rate and achieve cash flow savings. Thus, achieving an increased annual cash flow. In determining whether to refund an outstanding bond issue, a district may consider establishing a minimum net savings threshold that factors in the costs of a refinancing. For example, this threshold could be a fixed percent such as 3% for current refunding and 5% for an advance refunding. Arkansas’ Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) regulations correspond with this guidance by requiring a district to generate a minimum principal and interest savings of at least one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) or five percent (5%) of total principal and interest over the life of the bond on the refunded (old) issue.
If you would like to learn more about these types of opportunities, please contact a Stephens Public Finance representative today.
Recent Transactions • $44,535,000 Texarkana SD Refunding (Taxable), 2021 (Savings - $3,747,712) • $7,595,000 Harrisburg SD Refunding, 2021 ($1,302,217) • $4,975,000 Dumas SD Refunding, 2020 ($321,963) • $15,700,000 El Dorado SD Refunding, 2020 ($1,612,483) • $7,365,000 Greene County Tech SD Refunding, 2020 ($819,215) • $4,290,000 Forrest City SD Refunding, 2020 ($406,245) • $16,930,000 Jonesboro SD Refunding, 2020 ($2,038,684) • $4,060,000 Melbourne SD Refunding, 2020 ($231,189)
Another consideration is whether the district has multiple bond issues outstanding with the same security and maturity date. If so, the district may consider whether it makes economic sense to combine these transactions into one bond offering in order to save on the costs of issuing the bonds. Moreover, a district should consult its advisor on how to best structure the expected cash flow savings in order to meet its needs.
• $25,835,000 Van Buren SD Refunding, 2020 ($1,931,055)
In Arkansas, a refunding for debt service savings does not require a vote, but does need approval from DESE.
For more information about our work with Arkansas school districts, please visit stephenspublicfinance.com.
Advance Refundings and Escrow Costs.
• $9,100,000 Russellville SD Refunding, 2020 ($1,048,441) • $7,085,000 Flippin SD Refunding, 2020 ($1,084,203) • $1,250,000 Mayflower SD Refunding, 2020 ($130,172) • $4,685,000 Benton SD Refunding, 2020 ($329,345) • $32,815,000 Sheridan SD Refunding (Taxable), 2021 ($4,806,813) • $4,130,000 Cabot SD Refunding, 2020 ($310,374)
As noted, a district may use taxable bonds to refund outstanding debt when the optional call date is more than 90 days from the date of the closing. To do this, a district is required to establish an escrow account to pay investors’ principal and interest to the already established optional call date. The escrow costs are foregone savings. As such, the district needs to evaluate with its advisor whether the realized cash flow savings offset escrow costs.
Jason Holsclaw Stephens Public Finance jason.holsclaw@stephens.com (501) 377-2474 (800) 643-9691
Consult your Municipal Advisor. Districts need a partner who will not only watch the market for money-saving opportunities as interest rates change, but also advise them on the cost/benefits of such transactions.
@Stephens_Inc
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ASBA Annual Conference
Awards Continued from page 15
Pat Roby, Lawrence County; Ira Lee Whitfield, Marked Tree; Lennie Hogan, Nettleton; Ronnie Ledbetter, Ouachita; and Jerry Daniels, Warren. In addition, René Knowles of Drew Central received the President’s Award for achieving at least 500 hours of continuing education credit. Receiving the Platinum Award for achieving at least 400 hours were Mike Pennington, Drew Central; Jerry Bishop, Nevada; and Carla Gipson, Stuttgart. Receiving the Pinnacle Award for achieving 200 hours of continuing education credit were the following school board members: Rebecca Powers, Bentonville; Todd Hales, Greenwood; Daryel Jackson, Marion; Sandra Campbell, North Little Rock; Torian Bell, Osceola; Jeff Lisenbey, Sheridan; Michelle Cheek, South Conway County; Mark Stobaugh, South Conway County; and Spencer Parker, Wynne. Receiving the Master Award for achieving 50 or more hours were the following school board members: Gina
White, Arkadelphia; Scott Jowers, Armorel; LaDonna Gibson, Bald Knob; Chad Hipps, Berryville; Joe Trusty, Cabot; William King, Cleveland County; Jennifer Cunningham, Conway; Joe Burton, County Line; Katie Jordan, Crossett; Jim Harbin, Cutter Morning Star; Kevin Smith, Decatur; Stephanie Jones, Dermott; Clarence Thrower, Dermott; Gary Lucas, Drew Central; Brandon Akridge, East End; Daniel Nooner, East Poinsett County; and Christopher McClung, Eureka Springs. Also receiving the Master Award were Will Segraves, Foreman; Yolanda Mason, Forrest City; Evetta Whitby, Forrest City; Talicia Richardson, Fort Smith; Gary Dunlap, Gentry; Lee Ketchum, Gosnell; Jodi Moore, Gravette; Jay Oliphant, Gravette; Brad Johnson, Greenwood; James Rooney, Guy Perkins; Jim Wells, Hamburg; Alan Ferguson, Hampton; Frank Magness, Harrison; Mark Martin, Harrison; Sandra Penn, Hazen; Cynthia Rogers, Hot Springs; Greg Coats, Hoxie; Janeal Yancey, Huntsville; Joel Brasel, Jasper; Skip Emmett, Jasper; and Tiffany McCain, Lake Hamilton.
Also receiving the Master Award were Jason James, Lamar; Brittany Schmidt, Lawrence County; Michael Gipson, Mansfield; Gary Wehrum, Marion; Pat Raney, Mayflower; Bob Briley, McCrory; Allen Holmes, McCrory; Arnold Knox, Mountain Home; Michael Palmer, Mountain Pine; Susan Allen, Mt. Vernon Enola; Harry Harvey, Nettleton; Rochelle Redus, North Little Rock; Beth Ullrich, Paris; Sandy Button, Pea Ridge; Mike Brickell, Riverside. Also receiving the award were Adam Fritsche, Scranton; Cliff Preston, Smackover-Norphlet; Debbie Creek, Springdale; Vivian Finney, Star City; Larry Barnes, Stuttgart; Todd Reed, Valley View; Brant Tosh, Valley View; Tim Nolan, Vilonia; Owen McAdoo, West Fork; and Doug Coleman, White Hall. School boards received the Master Board Award for having all of their board members accumulate 50 hours of boardsmanship credit. The following boards received the award: Conway, Drew Central, Greenwood, Hot Springs, Hoxie, Paris, Valley View and White Hall.
Farmington junior wins speaking contest
Farmington High School junior Summer Wolfe won ASBA’s Student Speaker contest with her essay and speech, “A Quarantine Fling.” She presented her talk virtually at ASBA’s Annual Conference and received a $1,000 cash award. First Security Beardsley Public Finance sponsored the contest. Eighteen juniors and seniors submitted an essay and a video on time. The topic was, “Identify and discuss what weaknesses and what strengths the coronavirus is exposing in our society.” Wolfe’s speech was a clever “breakup letter” addressed to the virus where she said, “It’s not us; it’s you. ... This relationship has to end.” On the plus side, Wolfe said the virus had inspired people to display empathy and volunteer to help others. However, it also had divided the country and inspired some to mock science. 18 March 2021 Report Card
“Good people who care about their country have turned against each other, misled by your devious ways,” she said. Regarding the disease’s infectious nature, she said, “You are incapable of a monogamous relationship. It’s like you can’t survive unless you are involved with everyone.” But humanity was fighting back through the vaccine, she said, adding, “I was not immune to you, but someday I will be.” The second place winner, Conway High School senior Lydia Quinn, received a $750 cash prize for her presentation, “Revelations from COVID-19.” The third place winner, Bentonville High School senior Muskaan Arshad, received a $500 cash prize for her presentation, “COVID-19 and Race.” Quinn and Arshad also presented their speeches virtually at the conference.
Summer Wolfe placed first with her speech entitled, “A Quarantine Fling.”
In session, ASBA is three for five so far Bills passed would give more time to cure training hours, replace board vacancy after death
After a month and a half of this year’s legislative session, ASBA had sent three of its five bills to Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s desk, while another failed by one vote on the Senate floor but could be reconsidered later. The fifth was still in the early stages of the legislative process. Act 182 by Rep. Brian Evans, RCabot, makes school safety and student discipline part of a board member’s initial nine professional development hours. It also allows school board members to cure a deficient number of annual training hours from January 1 through 30 days following the January board meeting. Previously, the window to cure the deficiency opened only after the January meeting. Evans is a member of the Cabot School Board whose term expires in 2021. Two other bills in ASBA’s legislative package have been signed into law by the governor. Act 261 by Rep. Les Warren, R-Hot Springs, a former Hot Springs Lakeside School Board member, would increase from 30 days to 60 days the time a school board has to fill a vacancy caused by the death of a member. Warren is also the main sponsor of Act 262, which would allow the com-
missioner of elementary and secondary education to round the threshold at which school districts must make bid purchases up to the nearest $100 based on the consumer price index for all urban consumers. The current threshold is based exactly on the index, which is not an easily remembered round number. A fifth bill, House Bill 1540 by Rep. Bruce Cozart, R-Hot Springs, had yet to be heard in committee as of early March. That bill would clarify the deadline to create or adjust zones for school districts with 10 percent or more minority populations. The bill’s purpose is to give candidates more time in response to delays in redistricting caused by the later than expected release of U.S. census numbers. Cozart is a former Lake Hamilton School Board member. One bill in ASBA’s legislative package passed the House but failed in the Senate by one vote, 17-12. The vote was expunged, allowing it to be reconsidered. House Bill 1101 by Evans would have set the number of patron signatures that can force a school board to meet at the greater of 50 signatures or 1% of the district’s qualified electors, with a maximum of 200. The current amount is 50. This bill would have provided a more proportional amount of signatures according to district size. Although not part of its package, ASBA also is supporting House Bill
1464 by Cozart, which requires school districts to develop policies allowing parents to challenge educational materials, with school board members making the final determination. The bill is a response to earlier legislative efforts that would have limited material that could be taught in schools, including the New York Times’ 1619 Project. ASBA opposed those earlier bills. ASBA is also supporting Senate Bill 101 by Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, which gives school districts greater flexibility in how they spend Enhanced Student Achievement Funds based on a three-year plan the districts submit to the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education. Among the other bills ASBA is watching is House Bill 1371 by Rep. Ken Bragg, R-Sheridan, which would create the Arkansas Child Academic Scholarship and Grant Act. The bill would provide a 100% tax credit to Arkansans who donate to organizations that provide scholarships to students to attend private schools or that provide grants to public schools. In its current form, the bill would provide $4 million to private schools and $6 million to public schools. ASBA has traditionally opposed legislation that would divert otherwise public funds to private schools. Bobby G. Lester Elementary School werarch.com
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Report Card March 2021 19
Schools fight back Cover / Schools fight back
In Saline County, pharmacists collaborated to vaccinate teachers and staff at five area school districts in an effort to defeat the virus and get back to normal By Steve Brawner Editor
John Goff says it’s hard to teach math to Bryant Junior High students virtually. He needs to see their faces and their sheets of paper when they’re working a problem. Full-time sub Amy DeVito has already had COVID but wants her fellow teachers to be vaccinated to protect her third-grade daughter. And Bryant High offensive line and wrestling coach Shane Clancy is simply “ready to ditch the mask and just be normal.” All three didn’t hesitate to be vaccinated at a pair of events organized by local pharmacies for Saline County-area schools: Bryant, Benton, Bauxite and Harmony Grove, along with nearby Glen Rose in Hot Spring County. About 1,200 school employees received their second shots Feb. 13 at the River Center gymnasium after receiving their first shots Jan. 23. The events were administered by a collaboration of six area pharmacies who worked with the Department of Health and the Saline County Office of Emergency Management to coordinate the event. Each pharmacy was assigned a different school district, with two in charge of Bryant, the largest district with the most participants. School employees were given the vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech. “We’re actually really close anyways,” said Jon Martin, owner of Bryant Family Pharmacy. “We all work together on a lot of different projects. So when the state moved to [Phase] 1-B and said the educators would fall into 1-B, we all pooled together all of our resources, went together, started working as a team, as a group, to coordinate this event.” Martin was the contact with the Bryant School District because he already had a good relationship with the superin20 March 2021 Report Card
JOhn goff, a math teacher at Bryant Junior High School, gets vaccinated for COVID-19 at the Benton Riverside Park Feb. 13. Local pharmacies collaborated to organize two events for five Saline and Hot Spring County schools.
tendent, Dr. Karen Walters. He asked her what she thought about a countywide effort. She helped coordinate the event with the other school districts. Martin said big events make it easier to vaccinate a lot of people. The first event on Jan. 23 lasted all day with no hiccups, but the second event was accomplished in half a day. Recipients were screened at the door. After the shot, they were asked to sit for 15 minutes for observations. Martin estimated that he has administered 300-500 shots since the pandemic began, and his pharmacy has administered thousands. Some people have been sick afterwards for a few hours, some for a day or so, and some had no reaction at all. He personally had a sore arm after his first shot and, after the second, a sore arm along with a fever that lasted a few days. “Nobody’s had any serious reactions,” he said. “We’ve had a couple of people that had responses to getting the shot – to actually getting the shot, anxiety related, but nobody’s had anything related to the vaccination itself.” Walters was pleased with how the events have gone.
“I don’t think it could go any better,” she said. “Things are so smooth. There’s no wait. I told Jon that Governor Hutchinson needs to ask him what it would cost for him to run every clinic in the state of Arkansas because Jon, he’s got it down to a well-oiled machine.” Walters said her school district sent emails to staff and provided information from the Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The district has recommended employees be vaccinated but has not required it. She estimated that close to 70% of the staff had chosen to get vaccinated, with teachers probably closer to 77% and classified staff in the lower 60s. Administrators made it clear there would be no repercussions for those who declined to be vaccinated. However, Walters has told staff that current leave policy will last only through June 30. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released guidance saying employees who have been vaccinated do not have to be quarantined after a close contact if they show no symptoms, and Bryant could incorporate that guidance into next year’s policies.
Decliners offered a variety of reasons. Some people’s doctors had recommended against doing it. An office employee has anaphylactic reactions to vaccines. Some of her district’s pregnant employees chose to take it, while others did not. For some people, the speed with which the vaccine was approved and produced was a concern. Some had already had COVID but experienced only mild symptoms and didn’t feel like they needed the vaccine. Some didn’t take the vaccine the first time because they had COVID or were under quarantine. A few were out town when the events occurred. “I’ve had a couple of people tell me, ‘Well, you know, I know people that had it and it wasn’t that bad, and I don’t want to find out later that the vaccine has side effects that we don’t know about. I’m going to take my chance,’” Walters said. Harmony Grove and Glen Rose saw similar rates of participation among their school personnel, said their superintendents. Harmony Grove’s Heath Bennett said administrators talked to teachers and staff members about the vaccine and explained that getting vaccinated was their choice. Likewise, Glen Rose made it an option, said Superintendent Tim Holicer. “We just made sure that everybody knew it was available. … It’s strictly up to them,” Holicer said. “I mean, what I think personally is, why wouldn’t you?
But that’s Tim. They’ve got to make up their own minds.” Holicer and his wife had COVID at Thanksgiving. He felt a little bad over a weekend and wouldn’t have even tested if he hadn’t lost his sense of smell. His first shot resulted in a headache that lasted a couple of days, and his arm was a little sore. He said he had never felt any side effects from previous vaccinations. Bennett said his throat hurt, and he felt chills after his first shot. After his second shot that morning, he had felt a little woozy for the first hour but was already feeling better when he talked to Report Card. Bennett appreciated the local pharmacists’ efforts in getting everyone vaccinated at once. “If we would have tried to do this and just gone through each individual school district, there’s no telling how long it possibly would have taken, but with the help and teamwork and just everybody coming together, it’s been amazing,” he said. Goff, the Bryant Junior High School mathematics teacher, had no hesitancy in taking the shot. He said he has a degree in physics and understands the biology involved with the vaccine. His wife volunteered to be part of the testing for the vaccine produced by Moderna. She ended up in the placebo group and then later was given an early vaccination. “I understand that the vaccine has been developed by a very robust scien-
tific community, and so I don’t think that there’s an issue with trusting in what’s going to happen,” he said. Goff said this past year has been “probably the hardest year I’ve ever taught since my first year.” His dad died last year from non-COVID causes. He’s diabetic, so he’s aware of the greater risks he faces. He’s tried to take precautions in class, and students have been understanding, but there’s only so much that can be done. He doesn’t have any full-time virtual students, but he does have students going in and out of quarantine. Zoom sessions with 10 students are especially challenging for a math teacher. He needs to see the light bulb go off when a student understands a problem. He also needs to look at the sheet of paper to see how they’re working it. “I believe as much as possible we are getting the standards taught, but it’s a much slower process,” he said. “It’s much, much slower. We don’t get as much accomplished in virtual as we do in class. We don’t get as much feedback. Like, the facial feedback – there’s a lot to that, and there’s a lot to being in the same room and getting sort of the oneon-one interaction in the same environment that you don’t get, and you feel like you’re missing out on some things.” Clancy, who coaches the Bryant Hornets’ offensive line and is the school’s head wrestling coach, was among those vaccinated. Bryant won its third straight
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Cover / Schools fight back state championship in football this year, staying on the field by following the rules and keeping things sanitized, he said. There have been no outbreaks on the wrestling team, either. DeVito was also glad to be vaccinated, even though she’d already had COVID at the end of September. Her case, she said, was mild to moderate, with a loss of taste and smell along with a cough and fever. This is her first year as a full-time substitute teacher at Hurricane Creek Elementary after subbing part-time in previous years. She goes to work every day and then is sent to whatever class needs a teacher, or she works in the office. “I have a third-grader at our school, and it makes me happy to see all the teachers here getting vaccinated to keep our kids safe, too,” she said. Like other districts, the challenge for Bryant this school year has been both the number of cases and the quarantining. On February 13, about 320 students and staff members were quarantined. Just before Christmas, more than 900 were quarantined out of 9,300 students and 1,100 staff members. Ninety-two of those cases were positive. Jamie Sheffield, a special ed teacher at Bethel Middle School, passed away in early December. The deputy superintendent’s eighth grade daughter is on her fourth quarantine. Walters herself had to be quarantined after visiting her daughter, a social worker in a nursing home, the week of Thanksgiving, but she never got sick. Walters said staff members have done well during a difficult and stressful time. Some good teachers retired. The district tries to be careful and has removed furniture and shelves from rooms so students can spread out, but there are classrooms where they cannot be six feet apart. Despite the challenges, staff members have maintained the same standards with the same expectations for academic rigor, and she was encouraged by scores in the district’s second round of NWEA testing. And it’s not just teachers. Lunchroom personnel are sending home meals with students, and custodians are sanitizing the school. “It’s been more work for everybody, but everybody has stepped up to the 22 March 2021 Report Card
DID NOT WRESTLE WITH THIS DECISION. Shane Clancy, a Bryant High School offensive line and wrestling coach, gets his second shot Feb. 13. Clancy said he had no hesitancy about being vaccinated. “I’m ready to ditch the mask and just be normal,” he said.
plate,” she said. “I couldn’t be more pleased with how they have performed under pressure.” Bryant chose to give students two options: virtual full-time or on-site fulltime, with nothing in-between. About 25% chose the virtual option during the first semester, but that number fell after Christmas to 21%. Walters said younger students especially need five days a week of instruction, and it’s a hardship for parents when schools are not open five days. Walters is squarely in the camp of having students on site. Students were happy to be back when schools opened last fall. She said students need to be around peers to learn social interactions, and elementary students need to learn phonics in person. Supports and therapies are not the same virtually. “And we have some students that we need them to be at school so that we know that they’re OK,” she said. “They’re in situations that if there’s not somebody outside checking on them, there could be some bad things happen. So I’m a firm believer, we need them to be on site.” Furthermore, she estimates that 10% of her virtual students aren’t logging in and fully participating in their studies. With 1,500 virtual students, that’s 150 who are falling through the cracks. She said the state needs a structure where
juvenile judges can declare students in those situations absent. Her district plans next year to offer virtual courses realizing that if it doesn’t, it will lose students. (“The horse has left the barn, and I don’t think it’s coming back,” she said.) For elementary students, virtual classes are being discouraged but nevertheless are being made available. Virtual secondary students will attend Buzz Academy after completing an application process. Students who didn’t have good attendance this year won’t be able to choose that option. Few students at rural Glen Rose have chosen the virtual option this year. Out of 1,000 students, about 30 are virtual, and those are doing OK, Holicer said. The challenge has been with students going in and out of quarantine. He agrees with Walters that most students do better on site. “I would be shocked if you could find an administrator that wouldn’t agree with that now that we’ve seen what can happen to a gigantic percentage of our kids. … Some kids don’t need somebody over them the majority of the time that they’re trying to learn. That’s wonderful. But I can’t find anybody in Saline and Hot Spring County that they have a large group of that,” he said. After schools were closed during the spring 2020 semester and were disrupted this school year, everyone is hoping next school year will be normal, and that includes Walters. However, she believes students and staff will still be wearing masks this fall, and her district is preparing by purchasing personal protective equipment. She’s hoping more fans can be in the stands, and she’s hoping she won’t have to do so much contact tracing. This year she has two full-time staff members engaged in that task. Her people, she said, are tired but resilient. They’ll keep showing up for work to help students learn. If next year is like this year, they can do it. But she hopes they don’t have to. “This is one of those things I hope that I’m wrong, but I’m afraid it’s going to go on through the calendar year,” she said. “I just don’t think they’re going to be able to get the general public vaccinated. And that’s the key piece for us getting back to some normalcy.”
Vaccines: First time used, but not new
The COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are effective and were developed quickly because funding was plentiful and the techniques had been in the works for many years, said Dr. Joel Tomlinson, Arkansas Department of Health physician specialist in the Outbreak Response section. Tomlinson made his comments in a Facebook Live presentation organized by the Arkansas Education Association Jan. 28. The two-dose vaccines incorporate a new technique using the body’s own messenger RNA processes – unlike typical vaccines that use a dead or weakened virus. The mRNA vaccines instruct human cells to produce part of the spike protein found on the surface of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The material does not enter the cell nucleus. Once cells produce that protein, the body recognizes them as foreign and mounts an immune response, teaching it to repel an invasion by the virus itself. In studies, the Pfizer vaccine was shown to be 95% efficacious in preventing symptomatic disease, and the Moderna vaccine was shown to be 94.1% efficacious, Tomlinson said. Both vaccines were shown to be 100% efficacious in preventing severe cases.
Both vaccines were tested with large, diverse populations. The Pfizer vaccine had a particularly large Hispanic cohort because it was also tested in Argentina and Brazil. After Pfizer rolled out its vaccine, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found 21 cases of severe anaphylactic allergic reactions among the initial 1.9 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine given through Dec. 23, 2020. That’s 11.1 cases for every million doses, which was more than typical influenza vaccinations of 1.3 cases per million doses. All 21 recovered. Other reactions are more common: swollen lymph nodes in armpits, fatigue, headaches, achy muscles, chills. “Those are almost expected things,” Tomlinson said. “I as a doctor will tell you, ‘Yeah, if you have these and they’re not exaggerated or prolonged, that just tells you the vaccine is working.’” Tomlinson said the vaccines were developed quickly, but no steps were skipped in the process. Traditional vaccine development takes up to 15 years, largely because of financial considerations. Pharmaceutical companies must invest as techniques show promise, while universities must apply for grants. This time, federal money was plentiful and immediately available. The mRNA
technique hasn’t been used in previous commercial vaccines, but it’s been studied with other coronaviruses, including the SARS epidemic of 2003 and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus, which appeared in 2012. Tomlinson said the vaccines can be produced faster because they’re being manufactured in labs, not in vitro in cells. Also on the plus side: No live virus enters the body. The disadvantages include the vaccines’ newness, along with the fact that they require very cold storage. Tomlinson said people who have histories of immediate reactions to vaccines or injectable therapies should consult their doctor. The same is true for people who have an immediate reaction to vaccine components including polyethylene glycol. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are not contraindicated from receiving the vaccine, but those situations were not studied in trials, so he recommends consulting their doctors. People who have an anaphylactic reaction to the first dose shouldn’t get the second one. A third vaccine manufactured by Johnson & Johnson is now being distributed. It showed lower rates of preventing all infections than the others, but it effectively prevents severe illness. It also is easier to store and only requires one shot.
Report Card March 2021 23
EXECUTIVE SESSION with
Randy Hutchinson By Steve Brawner Editor
Randy Hutchinson has spent all but five years of his life in Springdale. The 1986 Springdale High School graduate was an All-State center on the basketball team and is a member of the athletic hall of fame. When his children became students, he became involved in the PTA and then was elected to the school board 13 years ago. His Shelter insurance agency provides three scholarships each year to graduates of his alma mater. Springdale is the state’s largest district with a diverse population comprised primarily of Hispanic, white, and Marshallese students. Forty-eight languages are spoken in the homes of the district’s roughly 22,700 students, a third of whom are English language learners. Hutchinson loves the diversity of the student population and believes Springdale is a wonderful example of how children from anywhere, with diverse backgrounds, languages and cultures, can form strong bonds to create a resilient Springdale family. Report Card sat down with Hutchinson to discuss his district’s challenges, its School of Innovation, and how it has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. When you’re a school board member and your district is changing so much demographically, how do you keep the community together? “It could have been challenging, but [former longtime superintendent] Dr. [Jim] Rollins always did a great job of including people, getting the leaders to participate in the education process. 24 March 2021 Report Card
Significant effort went into blending many different cultures together to create a sense of one community. We are proud of how our community has come together and is so inclusive and caring for one another. Our student body is second to none. “Early on, when our community began to experience significant increases of students, Dr. Rollins invited many Hispanic and Marshallese leaders to partner with the school district in the educational process for children. So, we created a trusting relationship with the Hispanic and Marshallese communities early on by identifying the importance
of education and inviting everyone to participate. The first step was being present, engaged, and ready to learn. Our diverse cultures are highlighted often and are indeed a tremendous influence in our community. Our diversity enriches the Springdale experience for all.” Now is there more of a community atmosphere, and everyone accepts that this is the way we do things? “Yeah. Oh, it’s great. From a school perspective, now again, I’ll go back to my experience as a father with kids in school. We always had a Super Bowl
party when my kids were at the junior high stage. … We’ve got a little 1,400-square-foot house. We’d have 40 or 50 kids in our living room. My wife and I would sit back and just kind of check out who all was there. We had as many as 10 or 15 countries represented in our living room, which we thought was great. I mean, I think the diversity piece is an awesome piece of the Springdale puzzle.” What’s it like trying to run the largest school district in Arkansas? “I like to tell people it’s like trying to guide an aircraft carrier, and trying to make a change, it’s kind of like turning an aircraft carrier. You can’t just turn it on a dime. It takes a lot of work, and you’ve always got to be looking around the corner. Dr. Rollins was always a master at that. [Current superintendent] Dr. [Jared] Cleveland has proven to be pretty darn good at it, too, taking over during this pandemic, and things have gone pretty smoothly with him. We’re blessed. We have a great administrative team, and all seven of us, the school board members, are confident in their abilities, and it’s worked out pretty well. “But yeah, it’s a difficult thing. I try not to think about it because the numbers are staggering. Our district has roughly 23,000 students, 3,000 employees, $250-$270 million budget. When you think about it, you’re like, ooh. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. We have an elephant here, and you just have to depend on the people that you trust that are in place to do what they’re trained to do. And we’ve been very fortunate because they have proven to be the best in the business over time. … “And that’s why I stay on. Thirteen years, if there was just chaos all the time, I’ve got many other things I could be doing. But it’s enjoyable. I enjoy being around the students and staff. I enjoy feeling like I make a difference. So that’s why I’m an active board member, and I plan on continuing for a few more. I’m up for re-election next year, so I’ll be running again.” With the largest school district in the state, and with 48 languages, how have you handled COVID? “Well, I think we win the prize for having the most numbers, but that’s obviously to be expected considering we are the largest district. I have been a student during the COVID situation because I care about our students, staff, and community in general. ... Out of our 3,600 staff and 22,700 kids, we’ve had 365 staff that have been positive since school started, and we’ve had 1,055 students that have tested positive, so 12% of our teachers and 5% of our kids have been positive. A significant difficulty we face is quarantining of staff and students. We’ve experienced roughly 4,600 quarantines so far collectively. “But yeah, it’s made it very challenging to have class. I don’t know if you knew or not, but back in the fall around Thanksgiving, our district experienced a significant shortfall of substitutes that strained our ability to cover classrooms appropriately. We chose to pause in-person learning for two weeks and move strictly to remote learning. A key question we faced was, when does remote teaching and learning become a
better option than in-person learning? Our answer was clear. Remote learning is better when we do not have a quality, caring teacher present to deliver or facilitate the learning in person. Our goal was to get a reset and have that last three or four weeks before we released for Christmas. The spring semester is critical for assessments and each day of instruction is important. We needed our staff on campus to drive that instruction. We sprinted to the finish line of the semester and got to Christmas. We worked hard over the Christmas break to recruit college students into our sub-pool along with patrons of our region. It worked for the most part and we were able to make it through the difficulties of January. February and March are typical weather months, so we will likely have new obstacles to overcome. “The good news is, out of the 4,600 [close contacts] that we’ve had, 64 of them actually ended up with COVID. Out of 4,600 people that have been sent home because they were a close contact, 64 of them actually got COVID. That’s 1.4%. That’s pretty good.” How have y’all communicated to these different populations what you need them to do? “Well, I think a lot of that’s done on the school level by communicating in multiple languages, on social media, letters, and school email platforms. You can’t personally go to every household and check and see what they’re doing, especially during a pandemic. We just have to go on faith that everyone Continued on next page
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Report Card March 2021 25
Executive Session is doing his or her part and it’s getting done. You make sure that everybody’s wearing their mask at school and try to keep them distanced as much as you can. “Har-Ber’s girls golf team, before the state championship was coming up, knew they had a good shot at winning it. They all self-quarantined for a couple of weeks before the event, so they could all go down there and compete – they actually did win the state championship – and not have to worry about getting plucked out the day before they left to go compete. The Springdale [basketball] girls coach was down to like six girls the other day. They had to cancel two games because too many players were considered possible close contacts. Fortunately, everyone was OK. So coaches are having a tough time trying to actually compete.” You are an insurance agent, which means that your profession is about assessing and responding to risk. How does that inform how you’ve looked at COVID as a school board member? “I do try to look at things more from a percentage. You know, 4,623 sounds like an awful lot – and it is; it’s a lot of people. But when you look at how many people we have, percentages can help keep perspective. I mean, one number is one too many, but perspective is important. “The news always leads with ‘Cases up. Five thousand cases in Arkansas.’ OK, but how many of those come to something bad? And that’s the way I look at it. I mean, 1.4% actually are positive, that is encouraging, noticing that the work we are doing is at least helping the numbers stay reasonably low. That’s what I look at. I try to temper everything by trying to look at it from a percentage versus the sheer number.” So are you the voice of tamping down the worry sometimes? “There’s two or three of us that have kind of the same thought. I’m not the only one. I’m probably not the most outspoken. None of us think it’s a hoax or a conspiracy or anything. We understand that COVID is real. There’s no 26 December 2020 Report Card
I try not to think about it “because the numbers are stagger-
ing. Our district has roughly 23,000 students, 3,000 employees, $250-$270 million budget. When you think about it, you’re like, ooh. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. We have an elephant here, and you just have to depend on the people that you trust that are in place to do what they’re trained to do.
”
doubt about. There is COVID. I feel like I’m being manipulated sometimes from a state perspective, from a national perspective, from a political perspective. … “We’re going to follow the CDC and the Arkansas Department of Health and Arkansas Department of Education rules. We’re going to follow those. Even if I or anybody else on the board thinks [differently], we’re still going to follow it. We’re going to do what we have to do to have school because we definitely believe the schools should be open for our children. We all believe that every child should be in school and have great access to their learning. So if it takes wearing a mask and jumping through 14 different hoops and doing exactly what the medical experts tell us we should do to safely have school, we’ll do it. We all have been inconvenienced and are tired of the situation, but we’re going to do whatever it takes for our students and staff, hopefully with a smile.” Let’s talk about the Don Tyson School of Innovation. “You get to kind of design your plan on how you’re going to get through your three or four years of school. We had a student from DTSOI present to the school board at a previous meeting, and he described his experience at the school. He’s going to graduate from the Don Tyson School of Innovation with two associate’s degrees from the local
community college … and he’s going to study biology at the University of Arkansas and then plans to attend medical school. Obviously, he’s a special young man, but what other high school have you ever heard of where you could graduate high school and obtain two associate’s (degrees) at the same time? He can be a doctor sooner if that’s what he ends up wanting to do. “So the opportunities that are available at Don Tyson School of Innovation are what’s really cool. We’ve got kids that for whatever reason, they can’t come to school for a month or whatever. Maybe we’ve got an aspiring gymnast or a missionary family needs to be able to earn a Springdale education but needs flexibility to do it remotely, from practically anywhere in the world from right there at the computer. Virtual learning is not new this year. DTSOI developed virtual learning from the start, well before the pandemic hit. They were able to do this before we were required to make it available to everybody. DTSOI not only focuses on college but on business and industry certificates. We offer diesel mechanics, industrial maintenance, construction technology, culinary arts, and many more. The culinary arts program in Phase 2 that was just completed is likely the envy of most chefs in a state-of-the-art restaurant kitchen. It’s unbelievable the facilities and staff the students have at their disposal. They offer electrical, plumbing and on and on. It’s just amazing. By the time you get out of there, if you want to, you can have all kinds of certifications, you can have associate’s degrees. If you don’t want to go to college, you could go right into a
plumbing program or in an electrical program or a diesel mechanic. Those guys make six figures.” What makes it different? “Well, there’s nothing traditional about it. … Don Tyson School of Innovation – big open spaces, you can kind of set your schedule, you can pick your classes a lot easier than in a traditional setting. You can go ahead if you are a math whiz, and you can get through algebra in four weeks? Go for it, and then jump into Algebra II. If you can get done with that in four more weeks, then you can go on into trigonometry. … You can go as fast as you want to go, or if you hit something that’s not working right and it’s not clicking, you can slow it down. They’ve got extra help over there that can get you through if you have a rough spot, and then you’re off and running again. So just the atmosphere, the scheduling, the seat time requirements have been waived. They don’t have to be there for seven [periods]. … All those requirements have been waived because of the status of the school, and they just kind of move at their own pace. You turn a kid loose that really embraces that, and it’s amazing some of the stuff they can do.” Now school districts have no choice but to be innovative because we’re not going back. “No, I’m afraid not. Like you said, the genie’s out of the bottle. It’s hard to stuff her back in there and undo that. Personally, I think every kid should be in school five days a week. … I’m afraid what we’re going to figure out eventually is a lot of these kids that were staying home and doing virtual, [I’m] not sure that they’re going to be as well off as if they would have been coming to class for five days a week.” Maybe I’m putting words in your mouth. More flexibility’s good, but you’re concerned that we’re going to go too far, right? “I think we need to look at each situation and make sure that whatever that kid chooses, or whatever those parents choose for that kid is really what’s best for that kid. How you do
that, I don’t know. When you’ve got 22,000 kids to say grace over, I don’t know how you do that. But I think there’s got to be some checks and balances there. I’m actually glad that they’re going to have testing this year because I want to see how the testing goes, and I want to see it broken down: These kids were five-day-a-week in school; these kids were two-day-aweek; these kids were three-day-a-week; these kids were all 100% virtual. I want to see the numbers. I want to see how they compare.”
School. We’re going to have like a little 30-minute walk-around. There will be about five of us that walk around and just kind of see how things are going. But it’s not the same as spending an hour and a half with them and doing all that. So I want to get back to normal. “And we talk to kids. What do you miss? They miss being able to socialize with their friends. They can’t stand in the hallway together and talk. They can’t eat together in the lunchroom. They can’t do things that you think of that you would enjoy doing when you go to school. And I want to get back to more normalcy – have a regular classroom, have everybody in class all the time, have lunch, have our school board lunches, have sporting events without having to worry about turning people away because you can only have 20% of the gym full. Just get it back to regular again. “Now I don’t know what the definition of ‘normal’ or ‘regular’ is. I’m sure it’s going to be changed a little bit, but I want to get it closer to what it was in January of last year. So I really hope that we get there.”
We’ll be through with this pandemic at some point. How do you think next year will look at Springdale? “Well, I hope it’s what we would all consider as normal – you know, back in school, allowing people to have lunch together. We used to have a school board lunch in every school at least once a year. We’d go to all 31 facilities at least one time every year. We’d spend about an hour and a half. Kids would put on a program. We’d eat lunch. We’d meet with administrators. We’d see kids, which was awesome. That’s one of the best parts of our job. Well, we don’t do that anymore. So tomorrow morning, 7:45, we’re going to go to Tyson Middle
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Chartwells K12 adds jobs, employs almost 500 in state
In a year when many employers were reducing their workforce, Chartwells K12 added jobs in Arkansas. The contract school nutrition provider employs 489 Arkansans through its 26 school district partnerships in the state. The company’s Arkansas representative, Kellye Neal, said Chartwells is composed of a family of companies with specific areas of expertise. It can offer school clients the kind of attention to detail normally found among local, family-owned businesses. “My sole focus is getting more K-12 students eating and enjoying school meals,” she said. Chartwells K12 fed meals to all the students at its partner schools over the holiday breaks, providing them enough food to get through the entire break. Hot Springs School District Superintendent Stephanie Nehus, a client of Chartwells, said, “Everything that we do at the Hot Springs School District is centered around the needs of students and families. I am so proud to work with professionals at Chartwells who continually help us identify efficient and effective ways to make sure our families are taken care of inside and outside our schools.” For more information, contact Neal at 501.615.3660 or at kellye.neal@ compass-usa.com.
C.R. Crawford brings to life new Pea Ridge High
C.R. Crawford Construction was construction manager for Pea Ridge’s new 140,000-square-foot high school, complete with an athletic center, fine arts center, and community clinic. The facility accommodates PRHS’s new innovative education program, 28 March 2021 Report Card
First Security Beardsley issues 120 bonds in 2020 Pathways. The district has partnered with business and industry leaders to develop a curriculum that provides workforce skills and lets students engage in and explore potential career paths. “The kids are going to be working and living and learning in this amazing setting,” said Pea Ridge Superintendent Keith Martin. “I think it will enable them to walk into any other environment, be it a business or college, and feel comfortable.” For more information, go to www. crcrawford.com or call 479.251.1161.
First Security Beardsley in 2020 worked with school districts across the state to issue more than 120 bonds to expand, improve and better serve students. Those bond issues saved clients more than $80 million that can be used to serve students rather than servicing debt and paying interest. For more information about how to partner with First Security Beardsley, call 800.965.4644.
All-Clean USA mitigates damage at Blytheville High
The Fayetteville High softball field.
Hight Jackson Associates designs new sports facilities
Hight Jackson Associates has designed a new softball complex for Fayetteville High School, and construction was completed February 2020. The complex includes softball fields, dugouts, stands, press box, and indoor training facility. Recent projects completed for Rogers School District include a multi-purpose gymnasium addition for Heritage High School, a competition gymnasium for Rogers High School, and baseball/softball complexes for both high schools. For more information about Hight Jackson Associates, call 479.464.4965 or go to www.hjarch.com.
All-Clean USA of Jonesboro worked to mitigate and dry the water in the Blytheville High School auditorium after a supply line burst and caused major flooding. All-Clean used specialized equipment to ensure proper drying, replaced the carpet, and cleaned and sanitized the theater chairs. To learn more about how All-Clean USA can help schools with fire, smoke and water damage, go to allcleanusa. com or call any of its three locations: Jonesboro, 870.972.1922; Conway, 501.336.0075; and Hot Springs, 501.760.0075. Someone is available 24/7 to take your call.
TIPS purchases on HVACs can be made with ESSER Arkansas school districts that obtain Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds can
utilize TIPS contracts to save additional money. ESSER funds can be used to replace or upgrade existing HVAC units, giving school districts the ability to retain their building fund balance, increase air quality, cut energy costs and pay for these upgrades with the stimulus money. Through TIPS, the competitive bidding process has been completed and a district can choose from multiple vendors that have provided discount pricing and a history of savings. Visit tips-usa. com.covid.cfm for more ways to utilize ESSER funds, including personal protective equipment contracts. For more information, contact Mickey McFatridge at 870.926.9250 or go to www.tips-usa.com.
Stephens can help board members get training credit
As a reminder, Stephens can assist school 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. The Arkansas School Board Association (ASBA) has deemed Stephens’ financial advisors as certified ASBA trainers who are able to provide up to three 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. Stephens believes this type of workshop can be particularly useful if 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.
To learn more, contact Entegrity at 800.700.1414 or visit the company’s website at www.entegritypartners.com.
The architectural rendering and the school under construction.
French Architects designs Lakeside Junior High School
French Architects designed the Hot Springs Lakeside Junior High for seventh and eighth grade students. The district wanted the design to incorporate the newest technology and encourage project learning and group learning. The focus was on collaboration and innovation throughout the process. For more information about French Architects, email David French at david@frencharchitects.net, or check out the firm’s Facebook page.
Entegrity solar project gets help from FFA sheep
Entegrity has partnered with Cedar Ridge Schools and Midland School District on a 1.36 MW solar array resulting in annual savings of approximately $65,000 and $46,000, respectively. The school districts were the first in the state to utilize agrivoltaics, the co-location of agriculture and solar, by implementing sheep as their grounds maintenance crew. The districts’ Future Farmers of America students will cultivate the grounds and raise the sheep as part of their curriculum.
Chase Slifka and Sofia Lopez work with an injection molding machine.
School built by Nabholz teaches manufacturing
The Sheridan School District has partnered with Kohler to create a space that prepares students for careers in manufacturing in a new high school addition. The addition is part of a districtwide building plan Nabholz is managing. The Kohler Academy features a Kohler Robotics Lab with equipment used in Kohler’s manufacturing plants. The academy consists of two career pathways: a computer-integrated manufacturing career-oriented track and an engineering college-oriented track. Students who take the manufacturing track receive training that prepares them for a career at Kohler – or another manufacturing company – right out of high school. For more information about Nabholz, go to nabholz.com or call 877.NABHOLZ.
WER Architects designs facilities for Jacksonville
WER Architects has teamed with Jacksonville North Pulaski School District to design new facilities for the district across all age levels. The new Jacksonville High School and Bobby G. Lester Elementary School have both
Continued on next page
Report Card March 2021 29
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been completed, and the new elementary and middle schools are under construction. These facilities have been designed to promote citizenship throughout the student population. The spaces engage the student and promote active learning and the act of helping one another. For more information about WER Architects, go to werarch.com.
ry school facility. Designed by Fayetteville architecture firm Modus Studio, the new two-story, approximately 57,000-square-foot Pre-K and K-6 building will include general classrooms, a computer lab, cafeteria, self-contained classroom, fine arts, multi-purpose spaces, and other resources. The building’s design responds to the juxtaposition of the city grid and the surrounding natural landscape, with overlapping forms creating an outdoor classroom and covered play area. Construction is scheduled to be completed by January 2022. For more information about Modus Studio, go to modusstudio.com or call 479.455.5577.
England Elementary Designed by Modus Studio being built
Construction is underway for the England School District’s new elementa-
Commercial Affiliates
Homeland technology makes schools safer
Technology is transforming K–12 education by enabling richer, more personalized and more student-centered learning environments. Aided by technology, students are collaborating with their peers and with subject matter experts around the world, creating and sharing original ideas. Homeland Safety Systems’ technology has allowed students and staff to maintain safety in their facilities with the use of air sampling detectors, and has increased accountability of the policies and procedures necessary during the COVID pandemic. Homeland Safety Systems is looking forward to working with Arkansas state educators on ideas to better enhance the safety of their facilities through the use of technology. For more information about Homeland Safety Systems’ offerings, go to www.homelandsafetysystems.com or call 888.909.2261.
ASBA thanks its premier partners and other commercial affiliates for their support.
Premier Partners
Contact
Phone
Website
American Fidelity
Tom Sledge
800.688.4421
tom.sledge@americanfidelity.com
americanfidelity.com
Apptegy
David Rutledge
501.613.0370
David.rutledge@apptegy.com
www.apptegy.com
BXS
Bill Birch
501.614.1170
bill.birch@bxsi.com
www.bxsi.com
First Security Beardsley Public Finance
Scott Beardsley
501.978.6392
scott@fsbeardsley.com
fsbeardsley.com
Homeland Safety Systems, Inc.
Mike Elliott
318.221.8062
mike@hssems.com
www.homelandsafetysystems.com
Jackson Brown Palculict Architects
Randall Palculict
501.664.8700
randy@jbparchitects.com
www.jbparchitects.com
Lifetouch National School Studios, Inc.
Patrick Hand
479.631.8951
phand@lifetouch.com
schools.lifetouch.com
Pro Benefits Group, Inc.
Gary Kandlbinder
501.321.0457
pbfsi@sbcglobal.net
www.pbfsi.com
Stephens Inc.
Jason Holsclaw
501.377.2474
jason.holsclaw@stephens.com
www.stephens.com
The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS)
Mickey McFatridge
870.839.8477
mickey.mcfatridge@tips-usa.com
www.tips-usa.com
Exhibiting Partners All-Clean USA
Contact Melissa Martin
Phone 870.972.1922
Email mmartin@allcleanusa.com
Website www.allcleanusa.com
AVID
Marybeth Hines
858.654.5072
mhines@avid.org
www.avid.org
C.R. Crawford Construction, LLC
Jordan Ligon
479.251.1161
jligon@crcrawford.com
www.crcrawford.com
Capital Business Machines, Inc.
Ben Higgs
501.375.1111
bhiggs@capbiz.com
www.capbiz.com
Chartwells
Kellye Neal
501.615.3660
kellye.neal@compass-usa.com
www.chartwellsk12.com
Crow Group, Inc.
Morgan Zimmerman
479.264.4332
mzimmerman@crowgrp.com
www.crowgrp.com
Entegrity Energy Partners
Rick Vance
501.414.0058
rick.vance@entegritypartners.com
www.entegritypartners.com
ESS
Julie Crum
870.236.2350
jcrum@ess.com
ess.com
Kinco Constructors
Clay Gordon
501.225.7606
cgordon@kinco.net
kincoconstructors.com
KLC Video Security
Bill King
903.792.7262
billking.klc@gmail.com
www.klcvideosecurity.net
McPherson & Jacobson, LLC
Thomas Jacobson
888.375.4814
mail@macnjake.com
www.macnjake.com
Southern Bleacher Company
Sarah Lundgren
940.549.0733
lundgren@southernbleacher.com
www.southernbleacher.com
Summit Bus
Richard Cooper
501.945.8400
richard.cooper@summittruckgroup.com
summittruckgroup.com
WER Architects/Planners
Russell Fason
501.374.5300
rfason@werarch.com
werarch.com
Supporting Partners Central States Bus Sales, Inc.
Contact Mike Wingerter
Phone 501.955.2577
Email mikew@centralstatesbus.com
Website www.centralstatesbus.com
Cobb & Suskie, Ltd.
Michael Cobb
501.225.2133
mcobb@cobbandsuskie.com
www.cobbandsuskie.com
30 December 2020 Report Card
Legal issues with transgender students
Schools will soon face a lot of necessary adapting when it comes to transgender students, bathrooms, and sports. It has been illegal to discriminate against a person in the workplace based on their sex since at least 1964 with the passage of Title VII. Then Title IX expanded those protections to include discrimination against students in educational programs in 1972. Schools have long known they must treat female students the same as male students, whether it be equal access to social clubs, sports, STEM classes or vo-tech. The law regarding transgender students has been less clear. It was not until June 2020, with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton, that the legal interpretation of “sex” was expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. It is now undisputed law that an employer cannot discriminate against an applicant or employee because they are gay, transgender, nonbinary, etc. This ruling is currently limited to employment practices, but it is widely believed it will be expanded to include public school activities governed under Title IX, which is just one of more than 100 federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of “sex.” Currently, an Arkansas school can require that a student use the bathroom and participate in the sport that corresponds with their biological sex. My advice if a transgender biological male is requesting access to a female facility is to provide access to a private bathroom. This solution follows the current law and may help prevent potential legal battles. When it comes to the student’s preferred use of pronouns, don’t fight it. Sports are a little trickier (see Arkansas Activities Association rules), but the common advice is to let the student participate in the activity that aligns with their gender identity when at all possible, but to provide private bath and locker room accommodations. Our advice likely will soon change. President Biden has ordered a review of all agency rules (including the Department of Education’s) to ensure they are consistent with the new Supreme Court holding that “sex” includes gender identity. The executive order announcing
by Cody Kees Attorney at law the review specifically said “[c]hildren should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.” This wording suggests that students must be allowed to use the public restroom of their gender identity. This is the guidance offered by President Obama’s administration that was rescinded under President Trump. Likewise, if a transgender female is on the football team (which is currently allowed by AAA), that female would be allowed access to the men’s locker room, even if a private room were provided. We anticipate the Biden rules will have limited, if any, restrictions on how transgender students should be accommodated in the use of bath and changing rooms. How schools address the inevitable concerns of other students who
don’t want to use those rooms with the opposite biological sex remains unclear. What Biden will say about sports is a bit of a sticky wicket. Democrats have long-championed Title IX as a mechanism for increasing woman’s access to competitive sports, but the law recognizes that sex segregation is allowed when it is based upon competitive skill or in contact sports. If the Biden rules allow a biological male to compete on the female team, it could certainly lead to an unfair advantage. Indeed, conservative legislatures across the country, including here in Arkansas, are considering bills that would allow biological females to compete on male sports teams but would not allow a biological male to compete on the female team. These bills have generally been opposed by civil liberties groups, and in the end, any state law on the issue would have to give way to federal law. Some scholars predict a compromise may be in the works, where there are no biological sex restrictions for most K-12 sports, but restrictions do exist for sports at the upper high school, college, and pro levels. Regardless, the general rules will involve participation and accommodation, with more specifics yet to come.
FRENCH ARCHITECTS ARCHITECTS I DESIGNERS I INTERIORS 827 CENTRAl AvE ST. B I HOT SpRINGS I AR I 71901 DAVID@FRENCHARCHITECTS.NET
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Report Card March 2021 31
CO N ST RU C T ION
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IN DUSTR IA L
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E XC AVAT I O N
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ENVIRONMENTAL
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WE BUILD SPACES TO LEARN
Completing this large 150,000-square-foot addition on an active campus was not without its challenges. But with careful planning and attention to safety, we completed this project on time with zero incidents. And now, Sheridan High School students have access to increased state-of-the-art facilities that marry real learning with real life experience.
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S P E C I A LT Y