September 2024 Report Card

Report Card September 2024 www.arsba.org

The Journal of the Arkansas School Boards Association

World travelers The Izard County Consolidated School district spent part of its summer vacation hosting two academic day camps bringing roughly 100 students to campus. Educators say the camps helped students sharpen their skills both mentally and socially. The theme was “Continuing Our Journey Around the World.” Above, camp director and middle school principal Sarah Burns helps first grader Lilith Boyd use chopsticks to eat goldfish crackers while learning about China.

– Also inside: Russellville Quiz Bowl wins

national tournament

How Court cases affect schools

Board members who post about districts can’t block Facebook complaints

The 2023-24 Supreme Court term included a number of decisions in cases that could have implications for schools.

In Lindke v. Freed, the defendant was appointed as city manager for a city in Michigan and updated his Facebook page to reflect that new position. He began sharing professional updates concerning directives and policies he initiated as city manager, along with continuing to post personal, non-workrelated matters. The plaintiff posted criticisms on the page about how the city manager was handling the pandemic, which led to the city manager deleting the comments and blocking the plaintiff from his page.

The plaintiff sued the city manager under Section 1983 for violating his First Amendment rights. The lower courts dismissed the claim, but the Supreme Court reversed, holding that a public official who prevents someone from commenting on the official’s social media page engages in state action and potentially violates a person’s rights if the official both possessed actual authority to speak on the government entity’s behalf, and purported to exercise that authority in the relevant social media posts.

In a related case, O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier, the Court vacated a lower court’s decision in light of the holding in Lindke. The case involved parents who frequently posted comments critical of the district’s school board on the board members’ social media pages. Some of the board members began to hide or delete the comments and then blocked the parents, which led the parents to allege in federal court that the board members violated their First Amendment rights.

These decisions obviously have implications for school board members and public school officials who use social media to communicate about the school district’s actions and activities.

2 September 2024 Report Card

by Jay Bequette Bequette, Billingsley & Kees, PA The Court also clarified when employees can sue over job transfers under Title VII. In Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, the Court ruled that an employee challenging a job transfer or reassignment under Title VII need not show they suffered “significant” harm in order to claim an adverse job action occurred.

Instead, they must only show that the transfer brought about “some” harm with respect to an identifiable term or condition of employment. The Court reversed the lower court decisions dismissing the sergeant’s case.

These types of cases frequently can arise when a school board approves the superintendent’s recommendation to reassign or transfer an employee. Based on this ruling, simply arguing the employee will receive the same pay and benefits will presumably not be enough to dismiss the claim.

The case involved the transfer of a police sergeant, but the briefs in the case discuss Title VII cases where school employees were transferred or reassigned to different positions. In 1998, the 10th Circuit in Denver ruled that there was no adverse employment action when a district transferred a fourth grade teacher to a school farther from her home to teach second grade because she was paid the same salary and benefits.

And in 2016, the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia ruled that a black school security officer transferred from a high school to a middle school did not suffer an adverse job action, despite his claims that the new position was less prestigious and did not offer the possibility of overtime pay. However, in 1980, the 2nd

Circuit in New York City held that an art teacher’s transfer from her longtime position at a junior high school to an elementary school interfered with a condition of employment. (The teacher alleged sex discrimination because the district had refused to transfer a lesssenior male art teacher to the elementary school vacancy.) Further, in 2000, the 11th Circuit in Atlanta let proceed a suit by a female high school principal who was transferred to a central office position because lateral transfers resulting in “a loss of prestige and responsibility” were covered by Title VII. Most recently, a 2021 decision by the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, ruled against a black middle school principal who challenged her transfer to a central office position as being motivated by racial bias. The court ruled that despite the principal’s view of the transfer as a demotion that decreased her chances for advancement, other principals had been moved to the central office without any loss of prestige.

Chevron overruled. What next?

Also, the Supreme Court in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimundo overruled the Chevron doctrine in a case with uncertain immediate implications for education law but the potential to have a significant impact in the future.

That doctrine was developed by the Court in a 1984 decision that called for judicial deference to federal regulations promulgated by administrative agencies. The Court replaced the Chevron doctrine with instructions for lower courts to use independent judicial judgment as to whether a federal agency acted within its statutory authority.

Some analysts have discussed the implications of this decision on school districts, recognizing that they are frequently involved in matters that are the subject of extensive federal regulation. It will be interesting to see if and how parents, students, and school districts attempt to challenge federal regulations issued by agencies such as the Departments of Education and Justice.

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Report Card

The Journal of the Arkansas School Boards Association

News and Features 10

12

Departments 2 Jay Bequette’s Column 6 President’s Column 7 ASBA News and Notes 9 Calendar 22 Commercial Affiliates 44 Marketplace 47 Advertisers Index

4 September 2024 Report Card

Garner retiring after 29 happy years

ASBA Staff Attorney Kristen Garner won’t be available to provide school districts with legal information after September 30.

She may, however, still be presenting training sessions. Garner is retiring with the same job title she started with on July 20, 1995.

14

NBMI: Students school boards’ focus

20

Russellville national Quiz Bowl winner

26

Cozart proposes formula changes

32

Wynne High rebuild begins

34

Cover / Izard County travels the world

40

Executive session with Danna Johnson

34 Izard County Middle School Principal

Sarah Burns, director of the district’s academic summer camp program, helps first grader Lilith Boyd use chopsticks to eat goldfish crackers as part of a study of China. The district holds two two-week camps for students in grades pre-K to eighth.

Retired Jordan ready to roll

ASBA’s former advocacy director, Dan Jordan, retired after 37 years in education and six at ASBA. Now it’s time to spend time with his grandchildren and travel the highways on his Harley Davidson.

The annual training for newly elected members reviewed board responsibilities and covered bullying.

A Russellville High School Quiz Bowl team composed mostly of sophomores won the 42nd Annual National Academic Championship June 16. Now it’s staying sharp as it prepares to compete again next season.

At ASBA’s Fall Leadership Institute, state Rep. Bruce Cozart, R-Hot Springs described his goal for a more flexible school funding formula tailored to individual students’ needs

Wynne High School staff, students and school board members celebrated the groundbreaking Aug. 26 of a new high school that will replace the one destroyed by a tornado last year. Dirt work was set to begin the next week.

It’s the middle of July, and Izard County Consolidated School District teacher Tabby Cooper is leading incoming first-graders in a Chinese New Year’s parade. “Gung hay fat choy!” she chants repeatedly and enthusiastically, using a traditional Chinese New Year’s greeting, as the students chant with her and follow her down the hallway.

ASBA News and notes

Report Card Letter from the President ...

by Randy Hutchinson

Train to serve schools, kids

I hope each of you has had a great start to the 2024-25 school year. I know the summer went by quickly, but I hope you had some time to spend with your families and recharge your batteries.

First, I would like to highlight a couple of key retirements from the Arkansas School Boards Association: Kristen Garner, who serves as our staff attorney, and Dan Jordan, who was our director of governmental relations.

Kristen will officially retire on October 1. She is planning to spend more time hosting dinner parties in her new home and using her seamstress skills creating new things for her family.

Kristen was always available to answer the legal questions that board members frequently had and served as one of the association’s primary trainers. Her expertise and guidance were invaluable, ensuring that we navigated complex legal landscapes with confidence.

Dan retired in July and is already enjoying more time with his family, especially his two grandkids, and spending more time on his Harley. He was our voice at the State Capitol. He knew everyone and was highly respected by legislators who worked with him. His deep understanding of the legislative process and ability to build strong relationships helped shepherd many critical pieces of legislation that ultimately enabled us to serve our school districts and kids more effectively.

I wish them both the best and hope their retirement allows them the opportunity to explore new passions and enjoy the many things they couldn’t while working full-time.

Next, I want to highlight a couple of opportunities for board members

6 September 2024 Report Card

to receive essential training needed to perform their duties effectively.

In October, there will be 14 regional trainings throughout the state. Information on when and where the trainings will take place is available on ASBA’s website, www.arsba.org. Attending these sessions will earn you three hours of continuing education credit, which is crucial for staying updated on the latest developments in education governance.

Additionally, our annual state conference is scheduled for December 11-13 in Little Rock, where up to 15 hours of continuing education credit will be available. This conference will cover a wide range of relevant subjects that will enhance your ability to serve your districts. The annual conference will be available online for those unable to attend in person. However, I strongly encourage everyone to participate in person if possible. Attending in person not only offers you the chance to immerse yourself fully in the learning experience but also provides invaluable networking opportunities with fellow board members from across the state. These connections can be instrumental in sharing best practices and gaining new insights that may not be as easily accessible if you never leave your district.

I truly believe there is power in training. It keeps us relevant and finetunes our skills as board members. As you know, the education landscape is constantly evolving, and it is our responsibility to stay ahead of the curve.

By investing in our own development, we are better equipped to navigate the challenges and changes that lie ahead, ensuring we can do what is best for our districts and the children we serve daily.

The Journal of the Arkansas School Boards Association Vol. 18, Number 3

September 2024

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

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

ASBA’s fall regional meetings are set to begin October 1

ASBA’s annual fall regional meetings have been scheduled at 14 locations for Oct. 1-29.

The meetings will be held from 5:30 until 8:30 p.m. School board members can earn three hours of boardsmanship training credit for attending.

Cost of attending is $55 and will include supper.

The meetings give board members a chance not only to gain information but also to weigh in on ASBA’s legislative priorities for the upcoming General Assembly, which starts in January.

Register at ASBA’s website, www. arsba.org. A registration fee will be charged to cover the costs of materials and dinner.

Board members who cannot attend the meeting scheduled in their specific

region may attend any of the other ASBA regional meetings across the state and still receive professional development credit.

Dates and locations for the meetings are as follows: • Region 1 – Bentonville West High School, Oct. 28 • Region 2 – Valley Springs School Cafetorium, Oct. 29 • Region 3 – The Academies at Jonesboro High School, Oct. 15

• Region 4 – Paris High School Cafeteria, Oct. 7 • Region 5 – Pottsville Junior High School, Oct. 1 • Region 6 – Clinton School District, Oct. 17 • Region 7 – Cross County High School Gymnasium, Oct. 3 • Region 8 – Mayflower School District, Oct. 17 • Region 9 – Barton School District, Oct. 22 • Region 10 – Magnet Cove Elementary School cafeteria, Oct. 24 • Region 11 – Poyen School District, Oct. 24 • Region 12 – Prescott School District, Oct. 21 • Region 13 – Bearden Elementary Cafeteria, Oct. 8 • Region 14 – Crossett High School Oct. 7 For more information, contact Tammie Reitenger at treitenger@arsba.org.

ASBA News and Notes continues on next page

Region 13: Renee Skinner, El Dorado Region 14: Debra Barnes, Crossett

Staff

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

TO CONTACT THE MAGAZINE

Please contact Steve Brawner, Editor 501.847.7743; brawnersteve@mac.com Report Card is published quarterly by the Arkansas School Boards Association. Copyright 2024 by the Arkansas School Boards Association and Steve Brawner Communications. All rights reserved.

Report Card September 2024 7

ASBA News and notes

New Board Member Institute recording now available

Deadline for Dr. Dan nominations is Oct. 15

ASBA is accepting nominations for the 2024 Dr. Daniel L. Pilkinton Award between now and Oct. 15.

The award recognizes outstanding contributions to education. School board members, administrators, teachers, and public servants are eligible.

“Dr. Dan” was ASBA’s first executive secretary. After his retirement, he served ASBA in many ways, particularly in the areas of state governmental affairs and legislation. In 1993, the ASBA Board of Directors established the annual Dr. Daniel L. Pilkinton Award in his honor.

Completed forms may be faxed to 501.375.2454, emailed to aellis@arsba. org, or mailed to the ASBA Award Committee, P.O. Box 165460, Little Rock, AR 72216-5460.

The “Dr. Dan Award” will be presented during the Awards Ceremony at the ASBA Annual Conference on Dec. 11.

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TEACHER OF THE YEAR SEMIFINALISTS. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva congratulate the 2025 Arkansas Teacher of the Year state semifinalists at the Governor’s Mansion August 5. From left are Kimberly Dickens with the Alma School District, Melani Blansett with the Cabot School District, Abby Roberts with the Conway School District, and Jeanie Wilcoxon with the Pulaski County Special School District.

Four are ATOY semifinalists Four teachers were announced as Arkansas Teacher of the Year semifnalists at the Governor’s Mansion Aug. 5

by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Arkansas Department of Education Secretary Jacob Oliva.

The four were Kimberly Dickens, who teaches 11th grade English and 11th and 12th grade Advanced Placement language and composition and AP literature and composition at Alma High School; Melani Blansett, a theatre teacher for grades 10-12 at Cabot High School; Abby Roberts, a first grade teacher at Jim Stone Elementary School in the Conway School District; and Jeanie Wilcoxon, a fourth grade math teacher at Chenal Elementary School in the Pulaski County Special School District.

A selection committee will conduct site visits for each of the four state semifinalists, with the 2025 ATOY being named this fall.

The state winner will be eligible to apply for the National Teacher of the Year program.

The finalists were chosen from among 14 regional finalists, who also were honored that day.

Each semifinalist received a $1,000 prize provided by the Walton Family

Foundation as well as an additional $1,000 prize for being selected as a state semifinalist.

Other regional finalists were: Christopher Coker, who teaches AP chemistry, accelerated chemistry, and AP physics for grades 10-12 at Camden Fairview High School; Amanda Daly, who teaches vocal music for grades 10-12 at the Academies of West Memphis; Candace Gilbreath, a third grade teacher at Cherokee Elementary School in the Highland School District; Tawnya Herring, a library media specialist for grades 5-8 at Meekins Middle School and Stuttgart Junior High School; Melanie Hill, a seventh grade math teacher at DeWitt Middle School; Matthew Holden, a science and biology teacher (grade level, honors and AP) and anatomy/physiology teacher for grades 9-12 at Fayetteville High School; Tammy Lites, a sixth and seventh grade math teacher at De Queen Middle School; Ricky Manes, an AP U.S. history, AP research, and holocaust and human behavior teacher for grades 11-12 at Bryant High School; Marcia Martin, a sixth grade literacy teacher at Walnut Ridge Middle School; and Karen McDowell, a second grade teacher at Fairview Elementary School in the Texarkana School District.

Board members who missed this summer’s New Board Member Institute may view the recording online.

Topics include: • Board governance, including the powers, duties, and responsibilities of the members of a school board with a focus on student achievement and accountability; • Financial management, including how to read and interpret an audit report; • Information regarding school safety and student discipline; • Topics relevant to school laws and school operations including FOIA School board members can receive six hours of credit at a cost of $185 per person. There is no charge to audit the Institute.

To register, visit the “Registrations/ Publications” tab in AR Board Connect on ASBA’s website at www.arsba.org.

After registration is complete, the registrant will receive a confirmation email with a link to the recording.

A recap of the Institute is featured on page 14 of this issue.

Download ASBA’s app, follow on Instagram

School board members can follow the latest ASBA news on Instagram or by downloading the ASBA app.

The association recently started posting on Instagram. Follow it at @ arschoolboards.

Also, download the ASBA app on the App Store and on Google Play. The app features live feed and news, upcoming events, and event registrations and training hours at ARBoard Connect. Enable notifications in your devices’s settings for the latest ASBA updates.

ASBA calendar Oct. 1 -29 ASBA Fall Regional Meetings Various locations Nov. 5 Election Day Dec. 11-13 ASBA Annual Conference Marriott Hotel and Statehouse Convention Center Little Rock Dec. 11 New Board Member Institute Marriott Hotel and Statehouse Convention Center Little Rock

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ASBA News and notes

Retired Jordan now ready to roll Former advocacy director retires after 37 years in education and six at ASBA

Dan Jordan opened the door to his Benton home on a Tuesday afternoon and welcomed Report Card inside. His two dogs were running around the living room, and he was expecting his grandchildren, ages 8 and 5, to swim in his pool later that afternoon.

After 37 years in education and another six serving as ASBA’s advocacy director, his first three weeks of retirement were suiting him just fine. His last day at ASBA was June 28.

“I’ve lived all those years with agendas and deadlines, and I’ve just pulled the plug to see how that’s going to be,” he said. “Everybody tells me I’m going to wind up being bored. And if I’m bored, I’ll do something.”

Jordan came to ASBA in 2018 as its advocacy director after serving as the Elkins School District superintendent.

Prior to his work at ASBA, Jordan enjoyed a career in public education, starting as a football coach. After playing tight end and defensive end at Malvern High School, he earned his bachelor’s degree in education at Henderson State University. He then earned his master’s degree while working as a graduate assistant coach for the Reddies for a year. From there he coached and taught classes at Benton High School.

His coaching career would be shortlived. He was spending too much time away from home and didn’t think the job would provide enough for his family, so

FORMER ASBA ADVOCACY DIRECTOR DAN JORDAN leans against his 2017 Harley Davidson Road King at his home in Benton. Jordan started riding while serving as Elkins School District superintendent. It’s one of the ways he’ll be spending his time now that he’s retired. More importantly, his two grandchildren live nearby.

he earned his administrative certification while attending graduate school at night.

He then served as assistant principal at Lakeside High School before returning to Benton, first as a high school principal , then as director of personnel and student services.

“One of the positive things was to have an impact on more than just the ones you saw in your classroom every day, and I enjoyed all that, every bit of that,” he said.

He spent his last five years in education as superintendent of the Elkins

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School District. When the position became available, then-superintendent Dr. Megan Witonski told him the district was a northwest Arkansas gem that had just passed a millage increase and was building a high school.

“Everything about it wound up being awesome,” he said.

In January 2018, ASBA Executive Director Dr. Tony Prothro approached Jordan with an opportunity. The advocacy director, Boyce Watkins, was retiring.

Jordan was an educator, not a lobbyist, but he understood the role’s value. His attitude was, “If I’m going to be a lobbyist, and if I can’t advocate for kids, then I’ve wasted 37 years of my life.”

Prothro commented on his hiring of Jordan, “When Mr. Jordan told me that he would be returning at some point to central Arkansas for family reasons, I saw a great opportunity for him and ASBA. He possesses great organizational skills and is easily approachable.

His witty attitude and a genuine like for people would be a great fit for Capitol work. He is also a taskmasker who will not tire until a job is completed. However, his greatest strength is his strong

character and personal values that are displayed in every fiber of his being.”

Jordan also had family reasons for returning to central Arkansas. He had a new grandson, and his wife, Kathy, a retired educator and school counselor, was spending as much time there as at their home in Fayetteville.

“I had five building projects going when Tony talked to me about this opportunity that I wanted to really see finished,” he said. “But the opportunity to come and work for ASBA and also be down here with my grandson was just an opportunity that I think maybe God had His hand in.”

Learning to deal with politics Dealing with State Capitol politics required an adjustment. Things weren’t always as they seemed. Lawmakers might seem sympathetic to ASBA’s argument but vote differently when the time came.

“You can’t get upset about any of that because the people that may have not voted right today, you may need their support tomorrow on something totally different,” he said. “So it’s relationships is really what it is, and I was able to build some good relationships. We’ve got some friends over in the Capitol, and you have to work with those folks all the time. All I know to do is always be honest, always look eye to eye and do what you do, and if it works out, fine, and if it doesn’t, fine.”

ASBA has long had a process for crafting its legislative agenda. All legislation ASBA supports is based on three pillars: Is it good for kids? Does it create an educational ethic? Is everyone held accountable? Each October, staff members travel to all 14 ASBA regions, update the members on what is happening in Little Rock, and survey the members on various topics to determine their priorities. The association’s policy is to avoid doing anything that would help some districts but hurt others. Any stance the association takes must have broad support.

During a legislative session, Jordan sent out weekly emails to the membership about filed legislation that could impact school districts either positively or negatively, and encouraged members to contact their legislators to let them know how the legislation might affect their district. Jordan said board members can have a big effect on a lawmaker’s vote.

“Senators and representatives are elected officials just like board members,” he explained. “Board members are the only elected officials in Arkansas that are not compensated for their time.

Those legislators know that these people were elected in their locale. They were elected to serve, and so they respect that differently than just another person that calls or sends a letter. They listen to board members because they know they were elected as well.”

Jordan, 66, said he is in good health and would like to enjoy his golden years. His son, daughter, and grandchildren live nearby, and his in-laws live next door. In fact, he built their home and his on two neighboring lots when he returned to central Arkansas.

He’ll have plenty to keep him busy.

The day after his last day at work, he and Kathy traveled to Maumelle to see his grandson win an 8-and-under baseball tournament. They then traveled to the New Orleans area and later spent a week in Florida in late August. They traveled to Yellowstone National Park last year and plan to return in January to snowmobile. This fall, they will travel to Fayetteville some to cheer on the Razorbacks.

He’ll also spend some time on his 2017 Harley Davidson Road King motorcycle. He bought his first bike in Elkins at age 57. It was a good way to unwind after a day at school. The day before he started working at ASBA, he and a buddy spent a week riding in the Smoky Mountains. Another buddy wants to take an overnight trip to a barbecue restaurant in Texas.

Jordan had not set his alarm since he retired.

“Right now, so far I haven’t gotten bored yet,” he said. “People tell me that I’m going to get bored, and so we’ll see and play that out. I’ve got my health, and I’ve got that motorcycle, and that’s kind of my hobby.”

Report Card September 2024 11

ASBA News and notes

Garner retiring after 29 happy years Longtime ASBA staff attorney still hopes to present to conferences, school districts

For the first time in 29 years, ASBA Staff Attorney Kristen Garner won’t be available to provide school districts with legal information after September 30.

She may, however, still be presenting training sessions.

Garner is retiring with the same job title she started with on July 20, 1995.

Through all those years, she’s been able to provide school districts legal information.

It’s been fun.

“Seriously, I’m the only happy lawyer I know,” she said. “I get to work with great people. I do not hang out with other lawyers. I hang out with school people, who are nice.”

Garner has not only enjoyed the people she’s worked with, but she also has found the work to be rewarding. Her favorite thing to do is talk to a school district about U.S. Constitution issues – those related to student searches or religion, as examples – which she said happens weekly. For the most part, school personnel listen.

“Not everybody has a job where they truly feel like they’ve helped people,” Garner said. “Most of the educators I have worked with were good people doing good work for good reasons. They were doing a hard work, and it was an honor to support them.”

Garner started working for ASBA in 1995 after graduating from what is now the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law the year before. She was a young mother looking for a job that would allow her to be home during the evenings with her baby. ASBA was looking for a full-time attorney. It had relied on Paul Blume, who shared a rent-free office in ASBA’s building and answered questions while also running a private practice. In time, it became clear the association needed a full-time staff attorney.

She had taken an indirect path to the legal profession. After graduating from North Little Rock High School, she 12 September 2024 Report Card

Legal information, not advice Much of Garner’s work through the years has involved helping school districts with staff terminations and other personnel issues. ASBA Executive Director Dr. Tony Prothro explained, “Kristen is often consulted by other school attorneys in the area of personnel human resources. I would dare say that Kristen has had more experience and exposure in this realm than anyone else in the state. She is an authority on the subject of school employee employment.”

But the job has gotten more complex.

She’s found over time that many districts did not modify their standard employment contracts for decades despite the changes in the legal environment.

Lately she’s found herself more often telling school administrators they need to consult their paid legal help. That lawyer helps a district weigh risks, and he or she will be the one to represent the district in a hearing.

“I try to stay on the side of legal information, not legal advice,” she said.

“This is what the law says. This is what most people do. This is the practice.

This is the procedure. If they ask, should I fire this teacher? Well, that gets into a risk assessment and needs to be referred to their staff attorney.

Garner is one of the three longestserving ASBA employees along with Commercial Affiliates/Board Liaison Manager Angela Ellis and Krista Glover, who works in the workers’ compensation program. Fellow staff members became “chosen family,” including former Executive Director Dan Farley. She and others helped care for him during his final days until he died last year.

Plenty for her to do While Garner is retiring from ASBA, she’s hardly planning on being idle. She hopes to pivot to private practice and continue doing training sessions through ASBA and for school districts. She’s

available at her personal email address, kristen.craig.garner@gmail.com.

While she no longer will be “staff attorney,” she’s keeping her more important title: “Nana.” She and husband Jeff have four children between them and three grandchildren, with another on the way. They recently moved to a cul-desac where they are practically next door to two of those grandchildren. They’ve already planned a post-retirement trip.

The domestically inclined Garner also likes home decorating and doing crafts.

Asked for her parting legal thoughts, Garner said school districts shouldn’t hesitate to seek advice and information when they have a question.

“Prior to their election, most school board members have not been involved in government before. The whole thing about school law: It’s a topsy-turvy world,” she said. “If it feels good, if it feels right, you’re probably about to make a mistake. … When in doubt, call.

I’d say, ‘Call before you dig.’”

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KRISTEN GARNER, ASBA’s longtime staff attorney, is retiring from the association after 29 years but plans to stay involved in school law while staying busy as “Nana” to her grandchildren. She has three with another one on the way.

studied two years at Hendrix College as a history major before spending her junior year studying abroad in Oxford, England. Eager to go to a big school with choices, she spent her senior year at the University of Texas in Austin.

After graduating, she considered going to graduate school to study medieval history, but that path’s financial opportunities were not great, so she started working for an insurance company.

It wasn’t the best situation. One day while she was recruiting for the company at a career fair, she met a professor from the Bowen School of Law who walked her through the application process.

“I sort of have this philosophy of life: When in doubt, go to school. When in serious doubt, go to graduate school, and I just was sort of flailing around for what I could do,” she said.

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New Board Member Institute

NBMI: Students school boards’ focus Annual training for newly elected members reviews board responsibilities, covers bullying

Why did attendees of the New Board Member Institute run for school board in the first place?

“Money,” according to one.

The question was posed by Shannon Moore, incoming ASBA executive director, at the Institute held in Hot Springs on June 20. The answer was a joke that drew laughter because everyone knew that school board members don’t receive a salary.

Instead, students are the focus for school board members, Moore and audience members agreed. Moore told attendees that a study by Lighthouse Research had found that highly functioning boards are a key building block of students’ academic success.

“Your single, relentless focus must be on teaching and learning. ... An effective board meeting directly contributes to the achievement of the district’s teaching and learning mission,” she said. “And you should always ask yourself, ‘Does the behavior our board demonstrates persistently and consistently reflect this single focus? Does it reflect what’s best for all kids?’”

The annual event brings together newly elected board members, veteran board members seeking refresher training, and superintendents.

Moore gave an overview of the 11 school board member responsibilities required by law.

Those are: – Attend board meetings. A member absent from three consecutive meetings or more than six in a year can lose their seat.

– Determine the mission and direction of the school district, which should be related to academic achievement and student success. Districts should have a strategic plan they periodically modify based on student academic needs.

– Adhere to state and federal laws governing public schools. This is a lawful requirement but also an ethical obligation.

14 September 2024 Report Card

– Ensure that all properties and facilities are properly built and maintained. Facilities should promote academic achievement. Districts should have a facility plan for their district’s future.

PHILIP POWELL, a new board member with the Arkansas School for the Deaf and the Arkansas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, interacts with a speaker at the New Board Member Institute, top. At left, Shannon Moore, ASBA’s incoming executive director, describes school board members’ roles and responsibilities.

– Enact, enforce and obey school district policies. These are a road map for district activities and should promote student achievement. Board members should read and know these policies.

– Employ all staff including superintendents and assistant superintendents. Employing the superintendent

is the board’s primary responsibility and perhaps the most important decision it will make. Moore compared the relationship between the board and the superintendent to a marriage. It’s a 50-50 partnership that affects the staff and the community. Each party should know their responsibilities and avoid encroaching upon the others’ functions.

“The golden rule of this is, if someone is hired to do it, then it’s not your job,” she said.

– Understand and oversee school district finances. These should be in line with the district’s academic goals.

Monthly reports should indicate financial stability.

STEVEN QUINN, then the Benton Middle School principal, provided an overview of bullying laws and policies, left. Above, Quinn presented scenarios that might or might not constitute bullying and asked attendees to offer their opinions. Above, Rob McGill executive director of the Academics Plus Charter School, and board member Pagan Williams thought one scenario was not.

– Approve the selection of curriculum. This can include textbooks but also technology and materials. Board members’ votes should demonstrate a focus on academic achievement.

– Visit schools and classrooms when students are present at least annually and attend events and functions. Board members should leave Continued on next page

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800.700.1414 | info@entegritypartners.com | www.entegritypartners.com Report Card September 2024 15

New Board Member Institute district? And when you cast your vote at the board table, do you do it with a clean conscience, and you’re always considering what is best for all students regardless of personal consequences?”

COMMERCIAL AFFILIATES were on hand at the New Board Member Institute to describe their services to attendees. Top photo, Nikki Courtney and Paul Hively with Nabholz visit with a conference-goer. Above. Stephens Inc.’s Kevin Faught, right, visits with Tim Hudson with the Fayetteville School Board.

the visits with a sense of pride in their schools while also being apprised of students’ and schools’ academic needs.

Policy Director Lucas Harder said ASBA generally recommends board members visit schools as a team. If they do so individually, they must follow the same rules as any visitor to limit disrupting learning.

16 September 2024 Report Card

– Obtain training and professional development.

– Do all other things necessary and lawful for the conduct of efficient free public schools.

“You are the link between the district and the community,” she said. “Are you able to convey positive attributes but also the challenges faced by your

Bullying policies and research Also at the Institute, Steven Quinn, the retiring Benton Middle School principal, provided an overview of bullying laws and policies.

Quinn reviewed research from the National Crime Victimization Survey in 2022 with data updated in 2024. The research showed that 19.2% of students in grades 6-12 reported being bullied at school; notably, the numbers were higher for females (21.8%) than males (16.7%). Females also reported higher levels of negative effects of bullying, including those related to schoolwork, relationships, feelings about self and physical health. There also were variances among grade levels. Reported bullying percentages were in the mid-20s in grades 6-8 and then fell into the teens in older grades, with the lowest being 10.4% in the 11th grade. But only 44.2% said an adult was notified, with percentages much higher in the sixth (61.7%) and seventh (57%) grades.

The most common types of bullying were being the victim of rumors (67.8%), and being made fun of, called names or insulted (62.1%). Less common was physical bullying such as being shoved, tripped or spit on (25.5%). The most common location for bullying was the classroom (39%) followed by a hallway or stairwell (37.5%). Other locations included the cafeteria (25.1%), outside on school grounds (24.4%), and online or by text (21.6%). The most common student response to bullying, practiced by 18.3%, was avoiding specific places.

Bullying occurred even in schools with security guards, staff supervision in hallways, security cameras or a student code of conduct.

“If we can figure out where it’s happening, we might be able to do something about it,” Quinn said.

Furthermore, 46% of teens ages 1317 in 2022 had experienced cyberbullying, according to the Pew Research Center. The most common form was

offensive name calling at 32%, while being the victim of false rumors was second at 22%. Another 17% received explicit images they didn’t ask for, while 7% had explicit images of themselves shared without their consent.

“I am a principal at a fifth, sixth and seventh grade campus,” Quinn said.

“Have I dealt with people sending explicit images? Yes. More than one time?

Yes. Multiple times during a year? Yes. Because people hand them the world in a box that they can get into anywhere, and they’re going to find a way to get into it.”

Arkansas law addresses both bullying and cyberbullying. The law requires school boards to adopt policies to clearly define bullying and to prevent it.

Schools must prohibit bullying on campus and on buses, at bus stops, and at school activities and events. They must prohibit cyberbullying whether or not it originated on school property. Schools are legally required to investigate acts

of bullying. There must be anti-bullying policies training for all employees.

All school employees are mandated to report bullying. When doing so, they are protected from retaliation and have tort immunity.

Cyberbullying can be prosecuted as a Class B misdemeanor or as a Class A misdemeanor if the victim is a school employee. Benton’s cyberbullying policy includes acts that would incite violence toward a student, school employee, or person associated with the student or school employee. Quinn said he would recommend for expulsion a student who threatens a school employee.

Bullying policies must be provided to all parents or legal guardians and staff.

Quinn said bullying is an emotional issue for both the parents of the victim and the parents of the bully. The latter might reason their straight-A student couldn’t be guilty. Benton Middle School notifies parents of both the vic-

tim and the perpetrator when an incident occurs. It cannot tell the victim’s parents what specific actions were taken regarding the perpetrator. Doing so would violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA. The district has a form letter that explains that restriction and that appropriate actions have been taken.

Quinn took attendees through a series of scenarios and asked if they represented bullying. In one case, a group of fifth grade boys stared at a student as he walked through a gate and then laughed. That was not yet bullying. In another case, a middle school student reported an older student had shoved him and made fun of him at the bus stop.

Previous bullying had stopped when he began bringing the older student a Pop Tart every morning, but he did not have one that morning. That was bullying because it was deliberate and involved physical contact, repetitive mocking and Continued on next page

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8 7 7 - 7 8 6 - 4 6 8 1 Report Card September 2024 17

New Board Member Institute

ASBA GENERAL COUNSEL Jay Bequette said Arkansas’ Freedom of Information Act “is one of the broadest if not the broadest in the entire country.”

In another presentation, Alma Superintendent Dr. Bryan Duffie provided tips and information about budgeting, revenues, expenditures and school audits.

Duffie said that what matters most to a

ASBA EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS were honored at the New Board Member Institute. The awards are given to children of Arkansas school board members. Top photo, Linley Garrett of Booneville, left, the daughter of Booneville School Board member Dustin Garrett, was the statewide recipient of the $5,000 Marshall R. Hughes Scholarship. The scholarship was funded with an initial seed money gift of $50,000 from First Security Beardsley. Pictured with Garrett are incoming ASBA executive director Shannon Moore along with Dan Lovelady, center, and Michael Dobbs with First Security Beardsley. The $2,500 award winners were, top right, Gracie Roberts of Harrison, a graduate of Valley Springs High School and the daughter of Valley Springs School Board member Jonathan Roberts; above left, Jax Andrews of Center Ridge, a graduate of Nemo Vista High School and the son of Nemo Vista School Board member Jenifer Andrews; and, above middle, Layton Wallace of East End, a graduate of Sheridan High School and the son of Sheridan School Board member Clarissa Wallace. Not pictured is Caleb Guthrie of Centerton, a graduate of Bentonville West High School and the son of Bentonville School Board member Becky Guthrie. Above right, Melissa Clayton of Crossett, a fourth grade teacher at Crossett Elementary School, received the J.K. Williams Memorial Scholarship. It goes to a student who is currently at least a junior in college pursuing a degree in education. She is pursuing her master’s degree in the University of Arkansas at Monticello’s Teacher Leader Program. She is the daughter of Crossett School Board member Jenny Allen.

involuntary donations. In another case, a parent reported her two daughters were being bullied on social media by another group of sisters. She had been in contact with the other sisters’ parents, but they had not been able to resolve the issue.

When she provided screenshots of the conversation, however, it was clear her daughters had made reciprocal threats and insults. This was conflict, not bullying, Quinn said.

18 September 2024 Report Card

In another session, ASBA General Counsel Jay Bequette covered the Freedom of Information Act, executive session, ethics and other legal issues.

Bequette said Arkansas’ Freedom of Information Act “is one of the broadest if not the broadest in the entire country.”

Until May 1, executive sessions were only lawful for the purposes of employment, appointment, promotion, demotion, disciplining or resignation. A

new law passed in 2023 expanded the circumstances when a board can meet in executive session. Those include pre-litigation discussions, litigation updates, settlement offers, the discussion and consideration of contract disputes with the superintendent, and discussions pertaining to real property. The law also modified the existing Freedom of Information Act to allow the school attorney to be present in executive session.

school district financially is the unrestricted ending legal balance. His rule of thumb is a 10% carryover; the law limits carryovers to 20%. The Department of Education monitors all school district balances. Districts should ensure there is no pattern of declining balances, which is an early indicator of fiscal distress.

School boards should watch if their average daily memberships are growing, declining or flat. Duffie said salaries and benefits typically are responsible for 70-80% of a district’s expenditures.

Overstaffing can lead to state interventions. He warned that school districts can’t count on 100% tax collection.

Most are 90-95%, and Alma is close to 98-99%. But at one district, he had to budget 75%.

“I’ve always tried to go by the premise – sometimes depends on your situation – that we budget revenue low and expenditures high, and then hopefully at the end there’s a bonus for us, as far as being able to meet our budget as we

ALMA SUPERINTENDENT DR. BRYAN DUFFIE discussed school finance. He warned that school boards shouldn’t expect 100% property tax collection.

want,” he said. “There is a finite amount of money. We don’t deal in profits. We deal with losses, but we really don’t deal with profits like businesses do.”

BUILDING TOGETHER

for a Better Future clarkcontractors.net Report Card September 2024 19

Russellville Quiz Bowl champs

Russellville national Quiz Bowl winner Super sophomores continue school’s winning tradition; coming back for more

A Russellville High School Quiz Bowl team composed mostly of sophomores won the 42nd Annual National Academic Championship June 16. Now it’s staying sharp as it prepares to compete again next season.

The championship team members included Will Stump, Ian Warnick, Alyx Dunaway and twins Keegan and Gidian Fuller. All had just finished their sophomore year and are 16 years old except Stump, who is 17. The other team members were incoming senior Logan Greggs, and Matthew Fox, who had graduated and is the only team member who won’t be returning.

The players described themselves as Russellville’s “B team.” The varsity “A team” had won the Arkansas Governor’s Quiz Bowl Association 6A championship in April, defeating Little Rock Catholic High School in the finals in a contest televised on Arkansas PBS. It was composed mostly of seniors along with Warnick, a starter, and Keegan Fuller, who was on the roster as a substitute and would help with challenges.

It was the seniors’ third straight state championship and the Cyclones’ eighth straight overall.

The state victory enabled Russellville to take three teams to a two-phase national tournament run by Questions Unlimited. The teams competed in the national preliminaries on Memorial Day weekend in New Orleans, with other preliminaries occurring in Washington, D.C., Chicago and virtually. Warnick moved to the “B team” so the seniors could play together. Four players play at any one time, with others available to challenge questions and answers. Warnick, Stump and the Fuller twins were the starters in the national tournament.

The sophomores finished 6-0 in the preliminaries, winning comfortably by an average of more than 173 points, and had the country’s highest overall score, while the varsity finished 5-1 and a junior varsity team finished 3-3.

20 September 2024 Report Card

The best teams in the preliminaries advanced to the national finals, which were held virtually on Father’s Day June 16. The sophomore-laden squad was the top seed and earned a first round bye thanks to its earlier performance. The seniors lost in the quarterfinals as the 10th seed. The sophomores played five games in the single elimination tournament that day, defeating a Pennsylvania team in the final, 360-300.

“We were up 40 points going into the last round, but that was still scary because that’s just two questions because it’s 20 points a question at the last stage of the game,” Stump said. “And so it felt close the whole way.”

The Cyclones played roughly 14 tournaments hosted by various schools throughout the year. The varsity finished 76-4, the only losses coming to 7A state champs Little Rock Central. Overall, Russellville was 5-4 against the Tigers, including a win in the national tournament.

The virtual national victory felt somewhat anticlimactic compared to the state title. There was no cheering crowd or organized celebration. In fact, there was hardly anyone at the school because it was summertime. Warnick and Dunaway had to rush to band camp at Arkansas Tech University, where Warnick finished first band, second chair in saxophone and Dunaway was first band, sixth chair in flute. The team was featured in a Little Rock television

news broadcast and in the local Courier newspaper. U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman praised the team in the Congressional Record.

“Our celebration was the IHOP lunch earlier that day,” Dunaway said.

All the players plan to return to compete next year and have bright futures in front of them once their high school days are done. Warnick likes history and international relations and said he could be a historian or diplomat. Keegan Fuller is interested in engineering or life science. Stump thinks he could major in physics or math. Dunaway is interested in vocal or instrumental music or computer programming.

Quiz Bowl is serious business at Russellville. Thirty-one students were involved in the program this past year.

Players start playing in the fifth grade and are aware of the school’s tradition of excellence. The school has a Quiz Bowl room with a U-shaped table and buzzers. A state championship banner hangs above it.

“There’s just a big legacy around the Quiz Bowl team, like, eight in a row?

Whenever I was growing up, I was hearing how good the team was,” said Warnick.

Russellville finished third in the first year of the state Quiz Bowl program, which started in 1985. The program was dormant for a while until it was resurrected in 2010 by head coach Paul Gray, now retired from teaching but still active

statewide, and assistant coach Brandon Cooper.

Coach Steve Quoss, a world history teacher, became an assistant coach in 2019-20 and then took over as head coach this past year. Accepting the position, he said, made him feel like “the guy taking over Alabama football.” His assistants are wife Becki, an elementary Gifted and Talented teacher, and math teacher Andrew Taylor.

Tournaments cost money, but Russellville’s history and tradition make it easier to gain support. The team’s sponsors include Stump’s father, a local veterinarian.

“The district is really good about supporting Quiz Bowl,” Quoss said.

“Whatever we want to do, they have no problem getting behind us and helping us pay for it.”

All four team members interviewed for this article were in Quoss’s AP world history class last year. As students, they know the content. He said Warnick could have a history college degree now.

Quoss’s only concern is teaching them how to write to communicate what they already know.

Like an athletics coach, he recruits players to be on the team. He said he looks for “Commitment, dedication and the willingness to work, and they all have it. We ask them to do a lot, and they do a lot, and a lot of it you don’t see in practice. In practice you only see

Continued on page 23

QUIZ BOWL CHAMPS. Russellville High School won the 42nd Annual National Academic Championship June 16. Pictured in back are, from left, Ian Warnick, Keegan Fuller and Will Stump. In front is Alyx Dunaway. All had just finished their sophomore years.

Not pictured are Fuller’s twin brother, Gidian Fuller; incoming senior Logan Greggs; and Matthew Fox, who had graduated. Behind them are some of the trophies Russellville High has collected through the years. A team of seniors had won the 6A state championship a month earlier – Russellville’s eighth straight.

Report Card September 2024 21

Commercial Affiliates

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

Premier Partners American Fidelity

Contact Lisa Boone

Phone 800.688.4421

Email lisa.boone@americanfidelity.com

Website americanfidelity.com

Apptegy

Samantha Bentley

501.613.0370

samantha.bentley@apptegy.com

www.apptegy.com

Arkansas Public Safety Solutions

Brianna Davis

501.837.7098

bdavis@motorolaapss.com

www.motorolaapss.com

Baldwin & Shell Construction Company

Bobby Gosser, Jr.

501.374.8677

bgosser@baldwinshell.com

www.baldwinshell.com

Cadence Insurance

Bill Birch

501.614.1170

bill.birch@cadenceinsurance.com

www.cadenceinsurance.com

Coryell Roofing

Chris Coryell

405.392.4800

sales@coryellroofing.com

coryellroofing.com

Entegrity

Michael Parker

800.700.1414

mparker@entegritypartners.com

www.entegritypartners.com

First Security Beardsley

Scott Beardsley

501.978.6392

scott@fsbeardsley.com

fsbeardsley.com

Homeland Safety Systems, Inc.

Mike Elliott

888.909.2261

mike@hssems.com

www.homelandsafetysystems.com

Instructure

Heather Harling

800.203.6755

hharling@instructure.com

instructure.com

Jackson Brown Palculict Architects

Randall Palculict

501.664.8700

randy@jbparchitects.com

www.jbparchitects.com

Lumatech

Chad Thornton

888.771.5341

cthornton@lumatechservice.com

www.lumatechservice.com

Nabholz

Andrew Adlong

501.505.5800

adlong@nabholz.com

nabholz.com

Performance Services, Inc.

Will Black

501.353.2299

wblack@performanceservices.com

www.performanceservices.com/ arkansas

Simbli by eBoardsolutions

Charlie Rigby

770.962.6844

crigby@eboardsolutions.com

eboardsolutions.com

Stephens Inc.

Jason Holsclaw

501.377.2474

jason.holsclaw@stephens.com

www.stephens.com/public-finance

The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS)

Stacey McPherson

866.839.8477

conferences@tips-usa.com

www.tips-usa.com

Exhibiting Partners

Contact

Phone

Email

Website

ACE Sports

Mark Bridges

501.909.9173

mark.bridges@acesports.com

www.acesports.com

All-Clean USA Restoration Services

Danny-Joe Crofford

501.646.6500

dcrofford@allcleanusa.com

www.allcleanusa.com

Architecture Plus, Inc.

Craig Boone

479.783.8395

craig@archplusinc.net

archplusinc.net

Bailey Education Group

Dr. Ivy Pfeffer

601.707.5778

ipfeffer@baileyarch.com

baileyarch.com

C.R. Crawford Construction, LLC

Becky Gosnell

479.251.1161

bgosnell@crcrawford.com

www.crcrawford.com

Capital Technology Group

Ben Higgs

501.375.1111

bhiggs@captg.com

www.captg.com

Chartwells

Kellye Neal

615.443.4613

kellye.neal@compass-usa.com

www.chartwellsk12.com

Clark Contractors, LLC

Michael McGrew

501.868.3133

mmcgrew@clarkcontractors.net

clarkcontractors.net

Cromwell Architects Engineers, Inc.

Jeff Overton

501.425.9656

joverton@cromwell.com

www.cromwell.com

Curriculum Associates

Valecia Ootsey-Marshall 440.334.3303

VMarshall@cainc.com

www.curriculumassociates.com

ESG

Jonelle Booth

479.422.8302

jbooth@energysystemsgroup.com

www.energysystemsgroup.com

Forefront360, LLC

Jonathan Frazier

888.441.8870

info@forefront360.com

www.forefront360.com

HES Facilities Management

Susanna Hoskins

865.263.1905

susanna.hoskins@hes.com

hes.com

Hight Jackson Associates, P.A.

Liz Cox

479.464.4965

lcox@hjarch.com

www.hjarch.com

JTS

Robert Anderson

501.227.0194

randerson@jtsfs.com

jtsfs.com

K-12 Culinary Connection

Justin Mills

580.574.9567

Justin.mills@k-12culinary.com

www.k-12culinaryconnection.com

Kinco Constructors

Clay Gordon

501.225.7606

cgordon@kinco.net

www.kincoconstructors.com

KLC Video Security

Bill King

903.792.7262

billking.klc@gmail.com

klcvideosecurity.net

Mammoth Sports Construction

Blaise Bauer

785.400.6136

info@mammothbuilt.com

mammothbuilt.com

McPherson & Jacobson, LLC

Pam Gaare

888.375.4814

mail@macnjake.com

www.macnjake.com

Modus Studio

Josh Siebert

479.455.5577

contact@modusstudio.com

www.modusstudio.com

Moser Corporation

Matt Rains

479.636.3481

mrains@mosercorporation.com

www.mosercorporation.com

Musco Sports Lighting

Brooke Hermsen

641.676.2388

lighting@musco.com

www.musco.com

National Safety Shelters

Dennis Corrado

886.372.1530

info@nationalsafetyshelters.com

nationalsafetyshelters.com

Paragon Architecture

Brad Erwin

417.885.0002

harris@paragonarchitecture.com

www.paragonarchitecture.com

Progressive Technologies

Rodney Jackson

501.833.9000

rjackson@thinkprogressive.com

www.thinkprogressive.com

SchoolEats

Kellye Neal

615.443.4613

kellye.neal@compass-usa.com

www.schooleatsconsulting.com

ServiceMaster Restoration by Advanced

Justin White

501.943.7606

justin@smrbyadvanced.com

www.smrbyadvanced.com

SFE - Southwest Foodservice Excellence

Greg Williams

480.551.6550

greg.williams@sfellc.org

www.sfellc.com

Southern Bleacher Company

Linc Darrow

940.549.0733

darrow@southernbleacher.com

www.southernbleacher.com

Strategos International

Steve Anderson

501.617.4718

sanderson@strategosintl.com

www.strategosintl.com

SYN Lawn

Paul Held

816.886.2747

pheld@synlawn.com

www.synlawn.com

The Playwell Group

James Robertson

800.726.1816

james@playwellgroup.com

www.playwellgroup.com

Trane Technologies

Beau Reynolds

501.392.9362

beau.reynolds@trane.com

www.tranetechnologies.com

Tri-State Floors

Alex Verseman

918.343.2553

akverse@tri-statefloors.com

www.tri-statefloors.com

Van Horn Construction, Inc.

Chad Weisler

479.968.2514

cweisler@vanhornconstruction.com

vanhornconstruction.com

VS America

Karina Kentsis

704.378.6500

k.kentsis@vsamerica.com

www.vsamerica.com

WDD Architects

Glen Woodruff

501.376.6681

gwoodruff@wddarchitects.com

www.wddarchitects.com

WER Architects

Russell Fason

501.374.5300

rfason@werarch.com

werarch.com

Supporting Partners

Contact

Phone

Email

Website

David H. Frieze Associates, Inc.

Paul Frieze

501.922.9704

paulfrieze7@gmail.com

Raymond James

David Fortenberry

877.447.8672

David.fortenberry@raynmondjames.com

22 September 2024 Report Card

www.raymondjames.com

BUZZED IN. Will Stump, Keegan Fuller, Alyx Dunaway and Ian Warnick, along with other team members, often practice in a room dedicated to the Quiz Bowl team. The team became the top seed in the national tournament after winning the preliminaries by an average of more than 173 points.

what they’ve studied on their own. We don’t memorize lists in practice. You read them questions, and then they go home and study on their own, so there’s a lot of self motivation of the kids, too.”

Studying, the team members agreed, is the key to retention. Team members do use mnemonic devices, or memory techniques, but mostly it’s all about repetition and practice. Team members quizzed each other during their interview and photo session with Report Card. Before Report Card arrived, they were reviewing assassinations while Dunaway was studying constellations.

“Hydra and Hydrus are two different constellations,” Dunaway said. “It’s so annoying, because one’s like a sea snake and the other’s a water serpent. I was going over that because I only started learning that two days ago.”

The players tease each other like team members often do. Stump once gave the wrong answer about a question involving the Stanford prison experiment, where a professor assigned some college students as “guards” and others as “prisoners” but had to halt the experiment early when the students took their roles too literally.

Stump instead answered with the name of the professor whose experiment demonstrated the willingness of subjects to obey an authority figure and administer what they believed to be electric shocks to others.

“It was like, I won’t forget it next time,” Stump said.

“Except he did it, again,” Dunaway said to laughter from the group. He later explained, “It was Philip Zimbardo, and he both (times) said Stanley Milgram.”

“Wrong torturer. My bad,” Stump replied.

While all the players must have a wide breadth of general knowledge, they also specialize in specific areas. Warnick is the history expert. Stump specializes in science and math. Dunaway specializes in psychology and social sciences.

Keegan Fuller specializes in geography and science, while brother Gidian is best in literature and fine arts. Players will defer and let the expert buzz in unless they 100% know the answer.

Students also learn to look for what Quoss called “trip words” that can narrow down the answers. He and Stump used as an example the murdered Soviet leader Leon Trotsky.

“If you hear, like, ‘assassination’ and ‘ice pick,’ you know it’s Trotsky,” Quoss said. “There’s nobody else that can fit that, so they might not listen to the whole question. They listen to key words in that question and go, ‘OK. It’s got to be that.’”

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Report Card September 2024 25

Fall Leadership Institute – The district’s sparseness; – The district’s size, with smaller districts receiving extra money; – Transportation needs; – Declining enrollment above 5%.

DR. KEITH McGEE, Watson Chapel School District superintendent, makes a point during a panel discussion featuring school board members and superintendents. Also pictured are Arkadelphia Superintendent Nikki Thomas and Arkadelphia School Board President Blake Bell.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE BRUCE COZART, R-Hot Springs, describes his Comprehensive Investment in Student Achievement proposed new school funding formula.

The economically disadvantaged students weight would add 15% to the base amount. With 278,813 students in 2023, it would have equaled roughly $290.5 million. Level 5 special education students would have a 175% weight.

The 7,552 students in 2023 would have generated $91.8 million.

The CISA formula would also provide additional per student direct funding for K-3 literacy, fourth grade tutoring, ACT testing, and students concentrated in career and technical education.

It also incentivizes student achievement and educational excellence outcomes. These would be defined in conjunction with the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education and

likely adhere to the state’s new assessment and accountability systems. Extra money would go to districts based on third grade students ready or exceeding on the state’s English language arts assessment; its number of eighth grade students ready or exceeding in English language arts and math or with growth scores above 80; its number of career and technical education completers; and if the district is meeting all ACT benchmarks. Economically disadvantaged students, English learners, and students in special education would generate outcome incentive dollars at twice the rate of other students.

The formula also would include changes in school accountability.

Schools with a D or F letter grade or a less-than-satisfactory evaluation could be subject to a hearing before the State Board of Education that could lead to a corrective action plan. DESE could audit and investigate a district’s academic pro-

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Cozart proposes formula changes Legislator wants more flexible school funding tailored to individual students’ needs

Arkansas could have a new school funding formula after next year’s legislative session and is rolling out the nation’s only student assessment system that’s aligned in grades K-10.

Meanwhile, the new school letter grade system will simplify how schools are measured while emphasizing the need for students to graduate with the skills they need to earn an income.

Those topics were covered at the ASBA Fall Leadership Institute at the Hot Springs Convention Center Sept. 5.

State Rep. Bruce Cozart, R-Hot Springs, described his proposed Comprehensive Investment in Student Achievement (CISA) school funding formula, which is based on one recently enacted in Tennessee.

Cozart, a House Education Committee veteran and former committee chair26 September 2024 Report Card

man, said his proposed formula would be more targeted and student based than the current formula. That formula, created in 2004, reflects too much of a cooker-cutter approach, he said.

“Believe me, I’ve worked on it for the last 12 years with the different groups, and the way we fund schools is archaic, basically,” he said. “It’s not working, and we need to make that right.”

The CISA formula would provide more money for schools than the current mechanism. Like the current formula, it would start with a base funding that covers essential needs for a K-12 education: instructional supports, teachers, operational expenses, etc. But a greater percentage would be based on student characteristics, and there would be outcomes-based incentives.

As a result, under CISA, per student base funding for fiscal year 2023 would have been $6,947 instead of the $7,677 that it was. But total education spending across the state would have increased

by 8.3% from $4.057 million to $4.422 million, a difference of $365,398,485.

Only seven school districts and four charters would lose money under the new formula, Cozart said.

Cozart said the current model is based on prior year average daily membership with multiple funding streams. The new model would be based on the current year average daily membership.

In addition to the base funding, the formula would include a system of student-based weighted funding. Schools would receive extra funding based on their numbers of: – Economically disadvantaged students; – English learners; – Special education students, which, unlike in the past, would be based on five levels according to placement; – Students receiving dyslexia services; – Gifted and Talented students;

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Fall Leadership Institute gramming and spending.

The formula would create a Progress Review Board establishing a school’s minimum goal to increase third grade student performance. If a school did not reach the goal within three years, the Progress Review Board could recommend to the secretary of education that school board members complete additional training about budgeting to increase student achievement.

Cozart said the bill is still in draft form. It will be filed sometime in November and then run in January as soon as possible. He tried unsuccessfully to pass a school funding formula bill late in the 2023 legislative session. This time he’s starting earlier.

At the moment, it does not have any funding from the LEARNS Act, the comprehensive educational reform bill passed in 2023, but that would come later. Cozart said he has been working with Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva on the bill.

“We’ll take everything that LEARNS has, we’ll roll it into this, and we’ll see if we can make this work,” he said.

Changes to testing, letter grades It remains to be seen what changes to the funding formula, if any, the Legislature approves. But Arkansas has already replaced its student assessment program.

Gone is the prebuilt ACT Aspire, for which the state had no input. In its place is the Arkansas Teaching and Learning Assessment System, which the state has written to align to its standards in partnership with Cambium Assessment.

Hope Worsham, the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education’s assistant commissioner of public school accountability, said Arkansas is in the process of becoming the only state with a unified assessment system for grades K-10 that gives consistent information 28 September 2024 Report Card

HOPE WORSHAM, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education assistant commissioner of public school accountability, described the state’s new Arkansas Teaching and Learning Assessment System.

across the grade levels and also will provide a consistent platform for students as they advance. No other state has a K-3 assessment aligned with the science of reading and directly aligned to the state’s standards.

Worsham said she was tasked with finding out what educators were seeking before helping build the new test.

“When I went around the state and talked to people, the palate at the time was, ‘Hope, we want some control over our assessment. We want to know that the assessment we’re giving in our schools is a hundred percent aligned to our standards. What you’re asking our teachers to teach is what you’re testing them on,’” she said. “That was what everybody told me.”

As of September, the state had reached the last stage where it determines student cut scores for each proficiency category. Worsham said she hopes to take suggestions to the State Board of Education in October, which is when schools should see the first round of ATLAS scores. In the future, those scores should come in June or July.

She strongly encouraged attendees not to compare ATLAS and ACT scores. A new baseline is being created with a new test.

“What I could encourage you to do is say, ‘OK, this is where we’re starting. We’re starting at 35% in Level 3 and 4 for math. Now, what are we going to do about it? How are we going to support teachers? How are we going to align curriculum? Do we need to buy new textbooks? Do we need to have more professional development? Do we need to require the (optional) classroom tool?” she said.

Worsham described the various tests students will be taking. K-3 students start with literacy and math screeners administered at the beginning of the year that demonstrate if a student is at risk or not at risk.

By law, the screeners must be aligned with the science of reading, an evidencebased, phonics-based approach. Students who flag as being at risk will take a testlet, or mini-test, that will further define their deficiency. All K-2 students must take fall-winter interim and spring summative tests, all aligned to standards. Parents must be notified annually of their children’s reading level. The law also requires intensive reading instruction and an individual reading plan for students deficient in their skill level.

Worsham cautioned that tests can be an effective tool, but they are not the only ones in the toolbox.

“For us, from our side, data from an assessment should never be used to make a single decision by itself, but what that can tell you is, ‘OK, our K-2 data in the fall is really not where we want it to be. What are we going to do about it?’ It should always be something

that drives you to action to think about, ‘How am I going to support Building A better? What resources as a board do we need to think about sending over to Building B because they’re not quite there? Do we have an issue across every single building, and do we maybe need to look at curriculum alignment?’

“Those are the kind of questions you should ask when you see that data. It’s not about shaming a building. It’s not about that building principal being the only cause of the problem, but what supports are needed for that building to get those scores up? OK, it’s either a teacher issue that we need to support a teacher, a leadership issue; we need to support the leader. It’s a training issue. There’s lots of different things that can be seen out of that data, but I would encourage you never make a single decision about a building based on that set of data. Use it with other pieces of data.”

Students in grades 3-10 will take endof-year summative assessments. Teachers in those grades will have access to an optional classroom tool that can help them see what the test questions will look like. Also optional are fall and spring interim assessments in English language arts, math and science that can help schools see their progress in the middle of the year. Not optional are the end-of-the-year summative tests that are required by federal law. These will be administered in grades 3-8 for English language arts, math and science, at the

end of grades 9-10 in English language arts, and at the end of the Algebra I, geometry and biology courses.

Worsham said the state’s school accountability system is being changed.

Letter grades will come in March or April of next year, and in the future they will come in October. These are meant to identify academically underperforming schools, provide support for those schools, and inform educators. One of the guiding principles of the new system will be that it will reflect high expectations for all students regardless of their circumstances. Another is that it will incentivize evidence-based practices. It should be consistently rigorous, reliable and fair. It also should recognize that high-poverty students generally don’t score as well as wealthier ones, so it will emphasize demonstrating growth in both populations. The system also must be easily understood.

Schools in the past have been graded on achievement, growth, and school quality and student success, the latter composed of science, absenteeism, and reading on grade level. DESE is proposing that at the elementary and middle school levels, the letter grades will be based only on achievement and growth. Schools will get an overall letter grade as well as separate letter grades for each of those two categories. At the high school level, 35% will be based on achievement, 45% on growth, and 20% on readiness. Students should gradu-

ate ready to enroll in college, enlist in the military, or go to work. Schools also can earn designations and badges recognizing them for excellence in other areas such as mental health services and security.

Worsham said the state has set up 21 CTE State Merit pathways that lead to high-wage and high-demand jobs.

Those include advanced manufacturing, nursing, and pre-educator. In the last, students must take three courses during high school to prepare for a teaching career. The pathway allows them to teach and earn an income while in college earning their education degree. There’s also an AP Scholar pathway for students who score a 3 or higher on three Advanced Placement exams, and a general bachelor’s degree preparation pathway for students who earn 12 college credits with nine of them in core credits. The state also has six Distinguished Merit Pathways, including among others an associate’s degree, identified technical certificates, the completion of a youth apprenticeship leading to a registered apprenticeship, and an AP Scholar with Distinction pathway for students with five AP classes with an average exam score of 3.5. Worsham noted that schools can’t offer all the pathways, but they can work with a neighboring district.

The goal is for students to graduate with a diploma and skills that mean

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Fall Leadership Institute renewal at that time, but that the circumstance could change.

Ultimately, two were not renewed.

“There were no surprises across the board – not to the staff member, nor were there surprises for the board,” she said.

The panelists also discussed the advisability of having multi-year contracts.

Ward said Magnolia doesn’t do it and would not encourage it. Nehus said she has toyed with the idea as an incentive but has not brought it to the board. Arkadelphia’s Bell said it benefits both the district and the employee not to INCOMING ASBA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SHANNON MOORE introduces ASBA Policy Director Lucas Hardbe in a longer-term er, who gave a talk on the top questions he is often asked. Among the questions was whether a board can contract.

But Watson remove a member. It can, but only for issues related to absences, a lack of training or because the board member has left the district. Also covered was whether board members can attend meetings remotely.

Chapel’s McGee said They can, but the board must have a policy. ASBA has a model one. it can be beneficial to a smaller school Thomas and school board president something. She said that last year, one district to lock in a good special educaBlake Bell. Attorney Cody Kees with Arkansas student graduated high school tion teacher before another district offers on a CTE advanced manufacturing path- Bequette, Billingsley and Kees moderthem more money. Laffoon said he uses ated. way and signed a contract for $80,000. multiyear contracts to retain assistant The panelists described how their “As a board member, you’ve got to superintendents who can be recruited by start thinking about, ‘How are we setting districts are responding to a state law up our system to get to a place where we change that ended the automatic renewal nearby big districts.

The panelists also discussed their process for contracted employees. Now are incentivizing the right work in our public comment policies. Kees noted administrators prepare a rehire list that schools and we’re supporting the right that boards want to encourage public boards approve. Magnolia’s Ward said work in our schools?’” she said. engagement but at the same time prevent he has maintained his practice of prepeople from violating student privacy senting a list to the board in the spring, Panelists talk employee renewals rights. At Hot Springs, a board member but now he omits the names of nonreThe Institute also featured a panel reads the policy so speakers understand newed individuals, some of which can discussion about changes related to emthe board will not comment in response. be renewed at a later date. ployee renewals and other topics. It feaFarmington’s Laffoon said the district Magnolia does all of this in open tured superintendents and school board created a formal application process session. Hot Springs and Arkadelphia, members from five school districts: where members of the public submit an Magnolia superintendent John Ward and on the other hand, discuss renewals and nonrenewals in executive session before outline of their comments, and they are school board member Emily Jester; Hot informed what they can and cannot say. returning to open session to act on the Springs superintendent Dr. Stephanie He and Warren discuss the application. superintendent’s recommendations.

Nehus and school board member Dr. “Sometimes you have to deny those, Nehus said she presented this spring the Cindy Rogers; Farmington superintenbut on most occasions people play by list of renewals and verbally told board dent Dr. Jon Laffoon and school board the rules because they have that prepresident Travis Warren; Watson Chapel members who would not be renewed. screening process, so I would recomPreviously, she had met with those superintendent Dr. Keith McGee and mend that for any district that’s having school board president Goldie Whitaker; individuals and given formal notice that issues,” he said. they were not being recommended for and Arkadelphia superintendent Nikki 30 September 2024 Report Card

Asked by Kees how to handle board member conflict, Rogers said, “When I do disagree, personally I have no hard feelings because I know my opinion alone stands for nothing and that we’re a collective so that when we walk out, we’re walking out united. We’ve only really had one run-in where one of our members got really upset and left the table, but when we came back again, it was business as usual. So I don’t think any of us take it personally. I mean, we’re all there because we know our school district has to focus on student achievement. We have a population that needs all the support services that we can muster to give them, and truly that’s our focus.”

Kees: OK to ride to game together The Institute also featured a discussion about the Freedom of Information Act led by Kees with help from his fellow attorney, Phil Brick. Kees explained that a meeting occurs any time two board members are discussing school business or topics that could foreseeably come before the board. Doing so improperly is potentially a misdemeanor, although a board member won’t go to prison, and he’s not aware of any ever being convicted.

Kees said board members can socialize informally. For example, they can ride to a game together.

“That’s generally OK,” he said. “Your discussion just needs to be purely social,

BEFORE

and steer away from any school business that is either in front of the board or is foreseeable to come to the board. If staff cuts make it into the conversation, you need to be able to testify in court if you were ever called to the stand that it was just incidental, in passing.”

Kees warned attendees to use cautiously a law passed in 2023 that expanded the topics that can be discussed in executive session. Board members can now discuss pre-litigation, litigation, settlement offers, superintendent contract disputes, and real property. The law now allows school attorneys to be present in board meetings.

Kees said it’s helpful that boards can discuss a lawsuit without the plaintiff being in the front row or listening to the recordings. The board can talk about a case’s merits or its potential resolution without the public knowing what it might be willing to spend.

But he warned attendees to use the law only as it was intended to be used.

If boards aren’t careful, the law could be repealed.

“Just be really cautious because if we abuse it, we very well could lose it,” he said.

Remote attendees and vacancies Policy Director Lucas Harder also answered what he called the “top questions” he often receives. He said it originally was going to be a top 10 list, but it grew longer.

Harder said board members can attend meetings remotely, but they must have adopted a policy. ASBA has one, Model Policy 1.6.1, which most boards across the state have adopted. Remote attendees must be able to hear the other board members, and the public must be able to hear the remote attendees. They can make motions, but they cannot go into executive session, and if an item is voted on afterwards, they must be treated as not present and can’t vote on it.

Harder said that if a board member is silent on a vote, it’s treated as a “no.”

That’s one reason for doing a roll call, because it’s clear how everyone voted.

He said the only way to abstain from a vote is to physically leave the room.

Harder said he receives many questions about vacancies. Boards cannot remove one of their fellow board members unless the individual has moved out of the district or has failed to attend three consecutive regular meetings physically, or failed to attend at least six in a year.

Board members also can lose their seat if they have failed to attain enough training hours in a calendar year, although they have 30 days after their January board meeting to cure a deficiency.

There is no statutory recall process for board members.

“So be nice and play nice, I guess, since you’re stuck with each other at least until the election comes up,” he said.

AFTER

Report Card September 2024 31

Wynne High School

Wynne High rebuild begins District breaks ground on new facility 17 months after tornado destroyed school

Wynne High School staff, students and school board members celebrated the groundbreaking Aug. 26 of a new high school that will replace the one destroyed by a tornado last year. Dirt work was set to begin the next week.

Dr. Kenneth Moore, the superintendent, is estimating the facility will cost $80 million, depending on how much if any state Academic Facilities Partnership Program funding the district receives.

Moore said he was trying to be conservative with his estimates. The district was still finalizing the budget and deductive alternates that could be changed based on how much money is available. It expects insurance money and Federal Emergency Management Agency funding will help with much of the construction.

“I’m just a person,” he said. “I don’t gamble, so I’m not counting partnership until I get a letter saying we got it.”

The district has created what Moore called a conservative but aggressive timeline to complete the new facility

by April 2027 when students that year return from spring break.

Moore, a 2000 Wynne High School graduate, said he has been adamant that the current sophomore class will spend its final nine weeks as seniors in their hometown high school before they graduate. The new school will be built on the same site as the previous one.

“I don’t want a class to come through here that never got to step foot on their high school campus,” he said. “The temporary site’s nice, but that’s not Wynne High School, and so we will do whatever we have to do. I don’t care. I’ll move stuff. I’ve already told them, ‘I’ll block off my days, but we’re going to get those kids in.’ Even if it’s not for the whole fourth nine weeks, I don’t care how long it is, we’re going to get them in for something. … We want them to be able to say they went to school there.”

32 September 2024 Report Card

AN ARTIST’S RENDERING of the new Wynne High School. Courtesy of ARCH 1010/Polk Stanley Wilcox.

Moore and others in the community have had to be patient while they waited for the various bureaucracies to move.

Furthermore, the metal was delayed, and when it arrived, the builder, Nabholz, rejected it over quality issues. In the meantime, students have been attending classes at a nearby temporary facility erected by Nabholz.

The tornado hits On March 31, 2023, the high school was largely destroyed by what the National Weather Service later described as an EF-3 tornado. The storm reached estimated peak winds of 150 miles per hour and a maximum width of 1,600 yards – almost a mile. The storm tore through Wynne, killing four, injuring 26, destroying houses, and badly damaging much of the First United Methodist Church. A camera at Southern Ambulance Service across nearby Falls Boulevard recorded the tornado crossing the street at 4:46 p.m. and headed straight for the school. After it passed, most of the school was gone. The basketball arena – commonly referred to as “The New Gym” even though it’s close to 50 years old – was damaged but repairable, and the Yellowjackets played ballgames there this past season. The library also survived and has been converted to a

weight room. The tornado also damaged the intermediate school.

Life, and school, went on. Two days after the tornado struck, Future Business Leaders of America students traveled to state competition, where five qualified for nationals. The district leased the nearby East Arkansas Community College Technology Center to finish out the year. By April 12, students were back in class. The graduation ceremony was held at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, where Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke.

Design plans take shape The new high school will anchor the district’s first major building project in 18 years. It will be three stories on the south wing and two stories on the north, with core classes on the south wing’s second floor and most of the sciences on the third. The first floor will house most career and technical education classes, special education, and agriculture classes. Housing agriculture on the first floor will enable the school to create a partnership with the Greenway John Deere dealership that – similar to an existing program at Lonoke – will train students to work as Greenway technicians when they graduate. The design will feature a protected interior court-

yard giving students a safe place to hang out. A college-style walk-in cafeteria will be integrated into the school with a mixture of seating and televisions. The building will feature the first permanent home of Wynne’s e-sports team, which was the state runner-up in 2023. It also will feature several makerspaces where students can work on robotics and other creative endeavors. The school is working with Vanderbilt University Medical Center on a project researching brine shrimp.

The design features a 26,000-squarefoot auditorium capable of accommodating about 900 people with hopefully a balcony that will ensure good sight lines throughout the facility. The district has enlisted the help of longtime former drama and music teachers to create the design. The band and choir programs, previously separated from the auditorium in the former high school, will be connected. The auditorium, band room and a physical education gym will butt up against the football stadium. The main building will house concessions and restrooms with a press box above the third floor.

Security will be a major focus. The school will have one public entrance facing Falls Boulevard, the town’s main thoroughfare, with visitors required to buzz in. Moore plans for the first floor to feature shatter-resistant glass, with the secretary’s office protected by bulletproof glass. Students will not have to leave the confines of the building and the courtyard except to go to athletics facilities. If funding is available, all the classrooms will include a mini-safe room provided by National Safety Shelters for protection from active shooters and, of course, tornadoes. Students on the top two floors will move to the bottom in case of a tornado threat. The school is performing a cost analysis to determine whether a gym will serve as a storm shelter or whether shelters will be moved from the school’s current temporary site. A service road will encircle the school so emergency vehicles will have access to every area. In the old high school, there were many inaccessible parts.

Parts of the design, however, depend on state partnership money being

available, because insurance and FEMA won’t pay for upgrades. If the money is not available, the design includes numerous deductive alternates. The balcony with its great sight lines would be gone. The school would have to look at different options for the safe rooms. The protective glass might have to go, too.

In addition to the high school, the district is planning to add a 20,000-squarefoot kindergarten wing at the primary school as part of a grade level reorganization. The ninth grade will move to the junior high. That arrangement would be a better fit considering many extracurricular activities involve both eighth and ninth graders, and their current schools are the farthest apart. Sixth graders will move into the intermediate school. The third grade will go to a K-3 campus with that new kindergarten wing.

The school has been holding classes in a temporary campus that itself cost $33 to $40 million to construct and rent.

The school board voted to purchase the land, which years ago was a trailer park, shortly after the tornado struck.

An insurance rider covered the majority of the cost of the facility, which is composed of tents and modular classrooms. One tent houses a double gym floor with two basketball courts and three volleyball courts. Other tents

house a 20,000-square-foot cafeteria, an auditorium, and other facilities. Moore said students moved in to the temporary school three months and one week after the first tree was removed. Normally, it would have been an 18-month project. The first HVAC units that the district rented couldn’t keep up with the temperatures, but permanent units have arrived that work well with the space. When students move into the new campus, those will be repurposed for gyms in the district that aren’t currently air-conditioned.

Despite the challenges, the temporary campus has worked well for the district. Moore said a survey by the high school principal last spring found that students, staff and parents all had more than 80% satisfaction rates regarding academics, culture, and safety and security. The district is down 82 students from the day the tornado hit because the lack of housing in the area has led many residents to move, and that’s forced it to make staff cuts. But primary school numbers are up, and this year there are 114 students making a legal transfer or choice to come in while only 48 chose to leave.

“That is extremely positive when you don’t have a high school and you have other buildings damaged,” Moore said.

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Since 1885 Report Card September 2024 33

Izard County Summer Camp

Izard County travels the world North-central Arkansas district’s summer camp continues school year theme

It’s the middle of July, and Izard County Consolidated School District teacher Tabby Cooper is leading incoming first-graders in a Chinese New Year’s parade.

“Gung hay fat choy!” she chants repeatedly and enthusiastically, using a traditional Chinese New Year’s greeting, as the students chant with her and follow her down the hallway.

Cooper, now in her 33rd year with no plans to retire, was teaching these students during Izard County’s two twoweek academic summer camps, which the district started in 2021. The camps lasted from 8 a.m. until noon each day and were available to all students grades preK through eight. About 100 were registered in the rural, north-central Arkansas district with an enrollment of about 600. Students were not required to attend every day. Breakfast and lunch were served. In fact, the district delivers five breakfasts and five lunches a week to all students during summer months.

The school also provided bus transportation.

Sarah Burns, the Izard County Middle School principal who administers the program, said it keeps students’ minds engaged with creative learning and social interaction during the summer months.

The camps focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) activities in a district where the preK and elementary schools are designated STEM schools and the middle and high schools are in the process of becoming them. Lessons are hands-on and crosscurricular. Teachers have professional freedom to create their own lesson plans. They often use the four weeks to front load curriculum to prepare the students for the upcoming year or to cover topics they wish they could spend more time on in the school year. Lessons usually start with a literacy-based component and then build on that foundation 34 September 2024 Report Card

the following week. The second week is more project based.

The summer camps offered students not just academics but other whole-child activities with a lot of support from the community. P.E., music and e-sports opportunities were offered. County extension agents provided yoga and healthy meal lessons. A banker discussed savings accounts and currencies.

A hospital representative talked about stroke awareness.

The district’s STEM night theme last school year was “Around the World,” so the camp’s activities theme was “Continuing Our Journey Around the World.”

Preschoolers made leaning towers out of toilet paper rolls. Kindergartners studied Egypt and made baskets. Second graders were learning about fossils the day Report Card visited.

The first graders traveled to China.

Cooper and fellow veteran teacher Meredith Cole helped them color Chinese dragons and learn to eat goldfish crackers using chopsticks. Photos from

Cooper’s childhood sent by a Chinese pen pal were displayed.

Cooper said the program introduces students to other cultures.

“You always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got,” she said. “We’re here for them. It is our job to expose these kids to new things, things that might pique their interest and say, ‘I might like to do that one day.’ Especially right here in first grade. They’re just taking it all in.”

Cole, who teaches second grade through the school year, said the summer camp helps foster a love of learning. Teachers build a curriculum around a STEM project and can teach about subjects they are passionate about. As a military brat, the “Around the World” theme has been especially meaningful to her. She said students are excited, and they’re honing the skills they were taught in the previous grade.

“I absolutely love it,” she said. “It gives the students a chance to expand their learning outside of their curricu-

lum and during the summer to stop the regression that sometimes students get over the summer. A lot of times there’s a two-month slide, and with this, they’re still getting the reading, they’re getting the STEM, they’re getting the math, and so when they start school again, then they’ve not slid.”

An introduction to school Burns said the summer day camps introduce new students, including kindergartners, to school in a relaxed environment “It’s really good for our new teachers,” she said. “We actually have two brand new teachers teaching this summer, too, and it gets those first lesson jitters out with a smaller class size, too.

When the school year starts, they feel just more confident coming into their classroom because they’ve already gotten to teach in it, they’ve already gotten to collaborate with one another, and so that’s been really cool to see.”

Continued on next page

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“GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!” Teacher Tabby Cooper leads first graders through the hallways on a “parade” chanting the traditional Chinese New Year’s greeting at the Izard County Consolidated School District’s summer academic day camp. The theme of the day camp was “Continuing Our Journey Around the World.” Cooper and teacher Meredith Cole helped the children color dragons, which they carried in the parade.

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Izard County Summer Camp Kindergarten teacher Kassidy Vest was one of those new teachers. She taught her students about Egypt, sharing with them about the Pyramids, basket weaving and native animals. The classes also covered Japanese fish kites and the fact that much of Venice is underwater.

The native of nearby Melbourne said the summer camp gave her a chance to establish a routine and to set expectations.

She typically had eight or nine students attending the camps, compared to the 12-15 she expected she would have once the school year began in the fall.

“I came in really nervous not really knowing what to do and how to do it, and so everyone here is helping,” she said. “And I love the STEM, so it’s helped a lot.”

For teacher Manda Jackson, the summer camp represented a big departure from her usual school year activities.

Jackson teaches seventh grade key coding and business education in grades 9-12. For the summer camp, she taught preschool. She said students learned about continents, states and cities. The preschoolers played well and followed directions, and they learned a lot.

“Just things like where to line up, how to stand on a paw print, and not running through a door until the line leader takes you through it,” she said.

“Just all of the things that make a classroom work so much better, they’re learning that now with summer camp, so it’s getting them a good jump start before preschool starts in August.”

Covered by grant and by district Costs to the district included teachers, transportation and meals. Certified and classified staff were paid by the hour.

The program this year was funded by a federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant, which goes to rural and inner-city schools, with the district covering the overage. Burns said school districts considering starting their own programs should understand that the grants won’t cover everything.

“We’re really lucky that our school board is super supportive,” she said.

“They’ve never said no to anything that’s going to benefit the kids, so for our grants that we’ve had have stipulations on what we can spend money on, 36 September 2024 Report Card

money runs out, so we’re prepared to take that on financially if we need to in the future to keep this going for our kids,” she said.

In addition to the summer camp, the district started an afterschool program in the fall of 2021 and started a before-school program in 2023-24 for preschool through the eighth grade that lasts from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 a.m. As a result, the schools are open and serving students all day Monday through Friday during the school year, with teachers getting paid extra for their time. The district runs regular bus routes when school lets out, and then drivers run a second route after the afterschool program ends. The option makes it possible for parents to drop off their kids at school in the morning and then pick them up after school rather than the kids going home to an empty house. Teachers are encouraged to reach out to afterschool teachers about specific needs so learning gaps can be closed. Afterschool pro-

grams also provide an opportunity for counseling. The before-school program is student led. Centers are set up in the cafeterias where students can take an activity from a tub. Teachers can help them with their lessons.

Burns said the programs together connect students with learning and with the school.

“They get to stay engaged with learning, which is important, but also they just get to be loved and cared for in a safe and structured environment throughout the summer and before and after school hours,” Burns said. “We have seen major growth in our kids just even socially and emotionally, getting to do that. The academic side is really important and we’re really excited about that, but we’ve gotten to see kids really grow as people through the experiences we get to offer them.”

School administrators started the camps to respond to COVID learning

Continued on next page

CHOPSTICKS SUCCESS. First grader Waylon Behe eats a goldfish cracker using chopsticks while studying about China.

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our district has been able to cover those extras to make sure we’re providing the best for our kids.”

Even if the grant money someday weren’t available, Burns said the school

district is committed to continuing the program.

“For us, we don’t want to have started this and our parents be benefiting, and then have to pull it out when that grant

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Report Card September 2024 37

Izard County Summer Camp

FUTURE PICASSOS? Preschool students Abby Bittner and Alaina Hegnauer paint at the Izard County summer day camp.

did, have spent all 13 of their educational years in the district, but there’s also a lot of movement. Many students

live with their grandparents. There are some factories and some family-owned businesses.

Work opportunities are limited in the area, so educators must prepare students to make their own way whether they stay in the area or leave. The district has a new career coach on campus and offers concurrent classes. Students are bussed four days a week to Ozarka College in Melbourne to study subjects such as welding. The high school has a partnership with Intimidator, a lawn mower manufacturer in Batesville, which is helping it shape its engineering pathway and its curriculum.

“We’ll never prepare them fully to be able to go out and function on their own, but really we want them to be able to leave us and be functioning adults that can survive,” Burns said. “And so over the last few years, I feel like we have really focused on those different pathways for our kids and career options that are not just [about], where are they going to graduate and go to college and figure it out? We want them to leave us with a pretty good idea of what they think they’re interested in. And we’re starting that all the way down in preschool. …

“We’re being very intentional about scheduling and bringing community members in to talk to our kids and letting them know about the opportunities because it’s easy for us to just assume that everybody knows what’s available and what’s not. I learn things that are available in our area every year, and I’ve lived here my whole life.”

FOSSIL RECORD. Second grade teacher Kailey Simmons teaches second graders Tokine McIllwain, Damien McCullough, and Kayden Body about fossils at Izard County’s summertime day camp.

loss, which was significant, both academically and socially. Remote learning was a challenge. The district is rural and isolated with sometimes inconsistent internet access. The district provided hotspots for families who didn’t have good connections, but it wasn’t the same as being in a classroom.

“We had kids that it was hard for them to come back face to face to school after getting into the comfort of being by themselves, not having to be around people,” Burns said. “That was probably more difficult than catching up on the academic side – getting kids to just be socially involved with one another and in person. And it is kind of crazy to me the number of families that chose virtual for as long as they did. … Now that we 38 September 2024 Report Card

do have kids back on campus, and we have all of these opportunities for them to fill those learning gaps, we’re seeing big moves with them, and so we’re really super excited about it.”

Growth among kindergartners as measured by the iReady online diagnostic assessment last year was 46% over the course of the year, while among first graders it was 45-50%, said Eve Hatman, elementary principal. This year the growth was even higher – 99% among kindergartners and 88% among firstgraders. Hatman said the district had not seen gains like that in the past. How much the various programs contributed isn’t clear because those scores measure the entire school, not just the students involved in the programs. Still, a large

percentage of K-6 students participate, she said.

“We could attribute that maybe to a number of different factors, but I do think at least part of it is our extended day services and summer camps,” she said.

Izard County is a beautiful area, but remote. The consolidated district is composed of a lot of small towns: Violet Hill, Brockwell, Oxford, Horseshoe, Salem, Calico, Union, Cave City. The closest Walmart is 21 miles away in Ash Flat. The closest larger cities – Mountain Home, Batesville, Mountain View and Cherokee Village – are all 45-50 minutes away, while Melbourne, which has about 2,000 people, is eight miles away. Many of the seniors, like Burns

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Report Card September 2024 39

EXECUTIVE SESSION with

Danna Johnson

By Steve Brawner Editor

On December 7, 2023, Brookland School Board member Danna Johnson heard her name called at the ASBA Annual Conference as the winner of the Dr. Daniel L. Pilkinton Award. That honor goes to an individual who has made substantive contributions to public schools.

The award did not recognize her for having a career in public education.

She’s a Realtor. And it didn’t recognize her for many years of school board service. She’s only been on the board since 2019. Instead, it recognized her for her volunteer service – as a PTO leader and as a leader with Make-A-Wish.

That organization grants wishes of children with a life-threatening illness.

One of her first Wish Kids, whose wish was to see the Atlanta Braves baseball team, returned miraculously cancer free. She’s now a kindergarten teacher at Marmaduke. Johnson has inspired volunteers, schools and students to get involved throughout northeast Arkansas.

As a result, she and the program were featured on 60 Minutes, and she has been a volunteer celebrity manager for golfer John Daly’s foundation.

Report Card met with her in the Brookland boardroom to talk about her work with Make-A-Wish along with the challenges of serving her fast-growing hometown district.

Tell me about growing up here and how the place has changed.

“I started at three years old with the school district. I was the first ever mascot for the cheerleaders at the school.

My grandmother was very active with 40 September 2024 Report Card

time she graduated in ’06, until my son started kindergarten, it just almost doubled again. …

“I can remember my son started kindergarten, and the last time I’d been in and out of our school buildings at Brookland, you could just kind of come and go. Parents could walk in.

There was no car line. You just pulled up, and your kids got out. In the afternoon, all the parents sat on a picnic table under the tree and waited on their kids to run out of the school building, and everybody got in their cars and left, and all of that had changed. I almost felt like, as a parent, there was no involvement. When I grew up, every kid knew every other kid, and not only did you know all of the kids, but you knew all their parents. … My parents knew everybody else’s parents.

And so when my kid got in school, I thought life’s not going to be like that because you don’t get to sit and talk under the tree at the picnic table.”

Why did you run for school board?

“Because I felt like we needed some changes within our district. I had been very involved with the school. When my son started kindergarten, and I saw the changes that were made within the school, I knew that the only way I was going to be involved with his education was to volunteer as a parent volunteer, so I started that in kindergarten. By the time he was in first grade, I realized we needed an organized parent volunteer base, so I helped to start a PTO for the school at the elementary, and I served as the president of that all the way through the third grade. When he went to middle school, I wasn’t going to do it anymore because honestly I was tired.

(Laughs.) But the teachers kind of guilted me into it, so I started another PTO for the middle school, and I served as president for that for fourth through sixth grade. … I would put in 15 to 30 hours a week volunteering at the school, just depending on what was going on. Some weeks not so much, but some weeks I would be there every day almost all day long. In doing that, you get to see so many of the school’s needs. …

“As my son was going into seventh grade, we did not have a parent organization for junior high and high school, and so just to find a way to still be involved with the school, school board seemed like the next step. Plus there were just some things that because of all the years and all the hours I had spent within the school, that I knew we desperately needed to change and make better. I felt like, after talking to a lot of our teachers and staff members, that somebody had to be willing to step up and do that, and so I decided I was going to be that somebody because that was my school. I love it. As they say, you bleed red and black. I bleed red and black.”

athletics with Brookland, so she created the first athletic booster club. … I’ve been a part of it since before I can even remember. Then I attended school here my whole life. I was very active here as a high school student. I was an officer of every club. I was editor of the yearbook, was on Student Council, played all the sports that the school had to offer.”

How much has it grown?

“When I left the district, we were three buildings on one campus, 56 kids in a class. I do have a younger sister that’s much younger than me, and she graduated in 2006, and her class was the last to graduate that was going to be under a hundred. So I knew there was some growth there, but even from the

How are you handling the growth as far as facilities?

“It’s our greatest struggle right now because we are growing in students faster than we can grow in facility, and part of that is funding. Part of that has been space. We didn’t have a location to be able to expand because of the infrastructure of being in such a small town. We … had to have at least 40 acres, and we had to really consider traffic because that’s a huge issue for us already. It’s been a two- or three-year

process to find land that was both suitable location-wise and would provide us access to the infrastructure that we needed. …

“We know it takes time to build these types of facilities. We want to build them the right way, and we want to be able to build them so that they meet the needs of not only the kids that are in the building but the staff that are in the building. We’ve learned some things from some of our newer buildings where we did not have staff and parents and community involved in that building process. That is something we are doing now with our new intermediate building that we’re getting ready to start. We have committees, and all of the teachers and the administrators and people that are going to be working in that building, we have asked for their input because they’re the ones that are there every day. I know from being in real estate and building for 27 years, I don’t care how good of an architect you’ve got, they don’t always get it right. And not only that, they don’t always really know what you need.”

There are no more places to build anything, right?

“We could have gotten an additional maybe five acres next to the middle school, and because it touches, we probably could have built another building there, but the issue is the streets cannot endure any more traffic from the car lines. …

Everything’s on School Street and Oak Street, and those two streets touch, and they are literally bogged down. I mean, the people start lining up at 7 o’clock in the morning for drop off.

Continued on next page

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Executive Session they’d ever been through and to see how that one day, how all of these things work. We bring in Wish Kids to the radio station all day long that tell their stories about their wishes being granted, and we bring in school kids all day long that come in and bring their donations and tell how they raised the money at their school and how it’s impacted them as kids. It’s a huge deal in our community.”

“ I felt like, after talking to a lot of our teachers and staff members,

that somebody had to be willing to step up and do that, and so I decided I was going to be that somebody because that was my school. I love it. As they say, you bleed red and black. I bleed red and black.

”

If you have a kid in the elementary, the bell rings at 7:45. Drop off may not be finished until 7:55 because it literally takes that long to get all of the traffic through.”

Tell me about your involvement with Make-A-Wish.

“I started with Make-A-Wish my second year in real estate. … Patricia Brown, who at the time was the CEO of the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Memphis … came over and spoke to us and told us what Make-A-Wish does and also that there was nobody in northeast Arkansas at the time. …

“There was a child here at the time in Jonesboro that was eligible for a wish.

There was no money, there were no volunteers, and so she said, ‘Why don’t y’all take on this child, try it, and raise the money for it and see if this is something you would like to do?’ And so we agreed as an office to do that. …

“We reached out to a local radio station at the time. … We were like, ‘We need to raise $5,000 to be able to grant this kid’s wish, and Valentine’s Day’s coming up. Could we do some kind of a radiothon where people can call in and donate money to play a song for their sweetheart?’ …

“We hoped by the end of the day we were going to have our $5,000. We started that day with our eight volunteers and our staff at the radio station, and we granted our wish, and we did our radiothon, and at the end of the day, we had a little over $20,000. We had phones ringing off the hook from people who wanted to volunteer and learn more about Make-A-Wish and families that were saying, ‘Hey, I think I have a kid that might be eligible.’…

“We have what we call roadblocks in different communities. We’re in Rector; we’re in Paragould; we’re in Marked 42 September 2024 Report Card

Tree; we’re everywhere. Almost all of those roadblocks are being manned by Wish families. A family had their wish granted, and then they said, ‘Hey, I want to give back. How can I be involved and give back?’ A lot of that is because we create these bonds with these families and these kids and these sponsors, and so they kind of step up and do that. Then we brought in our schools probably 15 years ago. We implemented the Kids for Wish Kids program where we go into the schools, and we talk to the schools about Make-A-Wish and these kids, and we teach these kids. We try to make it a teaching process for them if they’re doing penny drives or whatever it is that they’re doing for their fundraisers.

We want them to learn how to count that money and do those things and be hands-on, but then we also allow them to sponsor. If they have a kid in their school district, they get to sponsor that.

That’s the coolest feeling ever to know that you have helped one of your peers or your classmates.”

Tell me about 60 Minutes.

“They came down and went through the whole process with us. They would go out on interviews with us with kids, and then they would come back, film the wish reveal parties, and then they came in for the Wish-A-Thon that year and went to the roadblocks and got to talk to the volunteers. They literally said it was the most magical moment of anything

You work with John Daly’s charity.

“Make-A-Wish and the Boys and Girls Clubs were John’s two big charities that he supported. In 2005, he decided that he wanted to do his own foundation, so Patricia left Make-AWish and went with John and started John Daly Charitable Foundation. At the time, she was the only staff person that they had, and they went to California to do the first (fundraiser). … A lot of his sponsors were there, so she went down, and the first thing she realized was she couldn’t do an event that huge on her own. She was used to a staff of eight or 10 people.

“And so I get a call one Sunday afternoon, and she said, ‘What are you doing next week?’ I said, ‘I’m working. Why?’ She said, ‘I need you to get on a plane and come to California.’ I said, ‘What?’

She said, ‘We’ve got to do this golf tournament out here. I can’t do it myself. … I need somebody that can come down here and do all this.’

“Like I said, she had mentored us.

She had trained us. I was like a little mini Patricia. At the time, I didn’t have a child, and I was in real estate, which was flexible. I didn’t have a boss. I’m my own boss, so it’s not like I had to go say, ‘Hey, can I take off work next week?’ I went to my husband, and I said, ‘Hey, I need to go to California for a week.’

(Laughs.) And he said, ‘OK.’ So I took off, and we started the first event there, and for the next several years until I had a kid, I did all of the celebrity coordinating for all of the John Daly Charitable Foundation events.”

Which kids stand out to you?

“I’ve had so many. You know, Kendra (Street) is always one that we talk about just because she was one of our first

Wish kids. (She) was a senior at Marmaduke High School. The first thing we ask a kid is, ‘If you could wish for anything, if you could have anything, if you could go anywhere, if you could do anything, what would your one true wish be?’ I’ll never forget it. She looked us straight in the eyes, and she said, ‘To live long enough for my parents to see me graduate.’

“It’s heartbreaking. I have a senior, so I’m trying not to cry on this one, but I just remember in that moment thinking, ‘Wow. How surreal is this?’ She had no hair. She was getting ready for her senior prom where she was going to have to have a wig and do the whole thing.

“We showed up at senior day at Marmaduke High School where they bring all of the parents and the kids into the auditorium, and they do this big slide show of the kids from the time they’re in kindergarten until 12th grade.

That was where we were going to do Kendra’s wish reveal. Hers was to go to the Atlanta Braves. There were certain baseball players that she wanted to meet when she was there. Not typically a wish you would think of for a girl in high school, but that was her wish. The very last slide of the slide show that day was a picture of her that said, ‘Kendra, your wish has been granted.’

“She was sitting out there with everybody else, and she was like, ‘What?’

Of course we brought her up on stage.

It was a whole big thing. She went and met the Atlanta Braves a couple of weeks later and had a wonderful experience, went down in the dugout, got to do all the things, be out on the field.

“She had leukemia. When she came back, she had to go straight back (to St. Jude) for treatments. This girl who didn’t know if she was going to live long enough to graduate comes back from having her wish granted, and all of a sudden, there’s no signs of cancer anywhere in her body. St. Jude’s kind of like, ‘What happened? (Laughs.) How did this happen?’

“It’s been amazing. She’s been cancer free ever since. She started working.

She started going to college. She was working at Sonic in Paragould. Sonic is one of our Wish sponsors, so during our Have a Heart event, they sell Wish stars

for a dollar. Kendra called us and said, ‘I’m working at Sonic, and I’m going to get to sell Make-A-Wish stars! I’m going to get to raise money for Make-AWish!’ …

“She went to college, became a kindergarten teacher at Marmaduke School District, and she said, ‘I need my kids to do this. I need my kids to be involved in Make-A-Wish.’ I said, ‘OK, well, let’s get a Kids for Wish Kids program started at Marmaduke. Let’s get them started.’ She did, and she spearheaded it. …

“She has these two wonderful boys, and she’s married to her high school sweetheart who went to prom with her while she was bald and did all the things. … I love her. She’s my kid. I talk to her at least once a week.”

How has this involvement changed your perspective?

“The people that are in my life on a daily basis are people that have come to me through my work with Make-AWish. It has allowed me the opportunity to do some of these things. I’ve traveled to multiple states to help with different events with other chapters with John – you know, getting to travel all over to everything with 60 Minutes. So it’s brought numerous opportunities for

me along the way. Then with the kids, it has been great for me. As a school board member, I get to brag on our school, which I kind of started Brookland School in the Kids for Wish Kids program. … In all of Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi that our chapter covers, Brookland School District is the number one fundraiser. I get to brag about that as a school board member because that’s a really big deal, I think, for these kids to be able to do that. Last year, they granted three wishes, and all three wishes were kids that attend Brookland School, and we didn’t have to reach outside for other donors or other sources. Those kids got to give back to their kids. …

“I think it just keeps things real for me, and for me as a human and having a child, I also know that tomorrow could change for all of us because those are the stories that we hear. We hear that, ‘I had a normal kid, and one day they got a bruise, and the bruise didn’t go away, and then we found out three weeks later they had cancer.’ As a parent, hearing stories for all those years, and then having a kid, every single day I thank God every morning because I know that today or tomorrow, something could change.”

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

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Report Card September 2024 43

Marketplace

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Nabholz completes Arkadelphia’s Peake Elementary

Arkadelphia Public Schools partnered with Nabholz to construct Peake Elementary School, an 83,000-squarefoot state-of-the-art facility. This project, completed in collaboration with Lewis Architects Engineers, includes an indoor gym, administration offices, and 36 classrooms.

Peake Elementary is designed to nurture student growth with dedicated art and music rooms, a multipurpose area, and a commercial kitchen with a stage in the cafeteria. It also features three basketball courts with 88-seat retractable bleachers, a media center with outdoor seating, and a sprawling 38,000-squarefoot playground with synthetic turf.

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Hight Jackson designs parking addition for B’ville

A design by Hight Jackson added 341 parking spaces to the home side of the 44 September 2024 Report Card

Bentonville West High School Wolverine Athletic Complex, along with a new ticket entry and fenced area. Large vinyl graphics were added to the back side of the existing press box with uplighting to provide a new face to the stadium.

Architectural fencing and graphic signs enhanced the entry and back side of the stadium where visitors accessed concessions and restrooms.

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All-Clean cleans, restores Osceola building with leak

All-Clean USA received a call in the early afternoon of June 11 that one of the Osceola School District’s buildings had a bathroom leak, leading to water damage in two offices, the utility room, and the foyer.

The All-Clean team that same day performed emergency cleanup and water damage mitigation. Restoration technicians removed affected materials, cleaned the flooded rooms, and dried out everything saturated with water using dehumidifiers and air movers. The administration’s early call and All-Clean’s quick response prevented further damage. In addition, All-Clean’s restoration crew cleaned and sanitized the carpets in the library of another building. As a result, staff and students resumed normal operations in a safe and clean building.

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Architecture Plus designs facility for Springdale

Architecture Plus designed Springdale Central Junior High’s new twostory, 91,000-square-foot classroom and administration addition.

The school has an inviting, secure entry with an adjoining parking lot. Design and construction have been closely coordinated between Architecture Plus and Springdale Public Schools. Collaboration among all parties has allowed Phase I of this three-phase project to be completed on time and within budget.

The school features a central core with a teaching stair that has large, two-story windows facing a large exterior teaching space with turf. Phase two construction continues with music rooms and a student dining and kitchen area.

For more information about Architecture Plus, Inc.’s K-12 projects, contact Craig Boone at craig@archplusinc.net or go to archplusinc.net.

French Architects designs Lakeside Jr. High media center

French Architects designed the new Lakeside Junior High media center for grades 7-8.

Media centers/libraries are being revamped into more of a space to socialize and interact instead of being “Be quiet” or “Shhhhh” spaces. Schools are incor-

porating gaming equipment on large screens for available activities during the day, creating open spaces for students to gather, and incorporating fun seating to encourage large and small groups to interact. The arrangements encourage both group and individual learning.

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

McPherson & Jacobson helps with superintendent hire

McPherson & Jacobson recently was contracted to help the Huntsville School District with its superintendent search opening later this fall. The lead consultant is Dr. Kieth Williams.

Interested applicants should apply to McPherson & Jacobson, LLC., at www. macnjake.com. The phone number is 888.375.4814.

McPherson & Jacobson can also assist with central office, principal, and other leadership position searches.

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National Safety’s mini safe-rooms gain popularity

National Safety Shelters has installed mini safe-rooms at Quitman, Lawrence County, Danville, Pangburn, White County, Concord and Ouachita River school districts. Several additional districts are planning projects in 20242025.

The mini safe-rooms are a preferable alternative to large FEMA safety shelters

because, located in each classroom, they uniquely offer immediate protection from both tornadoes and active shooters at about one-third the cost. They take up less than 5% of classroom space, require no construction and can be installed over three to four weekends.

Enrollment at the Quitman School District has increased more than 40% since project completion in 2019. Superintendent Dennis Truxler said, “The increase is largely due to parents wanting to send their children to schools that offer the best protection available from tornadoes and active shooters.”

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

Entegrity energy projects lead to teacher bonuses

Farmington School District is achieving a guaranteed annual savings of $283,000 implementing Entegrity’s energy-efficient solutions including LED lighting, HVAC upgrades, and solar arrays. The project replaced 200 heating and air units, with about 180 of those units being 20 years old.

The improvements completed in May have already saved the district an estimated $176,000, with savings running ahead of the guaranteed $283,000 for the year. These savings have helped the district issue retention bonuses to teachers, enhancing staff stability and morale as the district continues to prioritize both educational excellence and environmental responsibility.

To learn how Entegrity can create unique savings opportunities for your district, contact Entegrity at info@entegritypartners.com. For more information, visit its website at www.entegritypartners.com.

Baldwin & Shell breaks ground on Watson Chapel High

In May 2024, Baldwin & Shell Construction Company hosted a groundbreaking ceremony celebrating the commencement of construction for a new high school for Watson Chapel School District.

The two-story, 109,745-square-foot campus will be constructed at the site of the recently demolished junior high school. This new high school for the Watson Chapel School District is projected to be completed before the start of the 2026-27 school year.

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

WER Architects designs Vilonia’s softball locker building

Vilonia High School has broken ground on a new softball locker building designed by WER Architects.

WER Architects has been working with the Vilonia School District on the building’s design. It will feature space for 35 lockers and a uniform washing station. The building is integrated into the softball park and will be a great addition for the team. It is scheduled to be ready for the Vilonia Eagles’ 2025 softball season.

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

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Report Card September 2024 45

Marketplace

TIPS: Seek legal help, waivers with construction projects

TIPS is aware of the state’s new development and restriction on construction through cooperatives. It encourages TIPS members to defer to the laws and their legal counsel and seek a waiver when exceeding the $1 million aggregate for construction-related projects.

For any questions regarding this development, contact Stacey McPherson at stacey.mcpherson@tips-usa.com or at 870.565.6178.

American Fidelity a one-stop shop for employee benefits

American Fidelity’s supplemental employee benefits (https://americanfidelity.com/products/benefits) are just one piece of the company’s offerings. Its wide range of products and administrative services allows it to become a onestop shop for a school district’s benefits needs. This helps simplify the district’s administration and benefits management, and allows it to be a school district’s strategic partner.

For more information about American Fidelity, go to americanfidelity.com.

the needs of preschool students and their families, with vibrant new classrooms, maker spaces, indoor exploration areas, and a dedicated space for community functions. The ribbon cutting ceremony featured remarks from Kinco Constructors, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. and Win Rockefeller Jr. For more information, visit wddarchitects.com.

C.R. Crawford to manage construction Southern Tire helps for Valley View SD

C.R. Crawford Construction has been chosen as the construction manager for the Valley View School District’s upcoming renovation and expansion projects, which are set to begin in spring 2025.

These projects will include eight new classrooms along with expanded facilities for the choir and agriculture programs at the high school.

Superintendent Roland Popejoy, pictured at right along with administrative staff members, stated, “We are excited to collaborate with C.R. Crawford to expand and enhance our high school facilities, providing valuable space for our students to excel both today and in the future.”

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

ARBuy Marketplace statewide contracts help schools save

ARBuy Marketplace’s statewide contracts platform empowers schools and education agencies with informed, efficient, and budget-friendly procurement, benefiting students and staff. ARBuy’s contracts streamline processes, save time, and enhance accountability.

Collaboration promotes community and resource sharing, while negotiated prices ensure cost-effectiveness. By joining forces statewide, school districts can secure favorable terms and discounts.

For more information about improving a district’s procurement approach, go to arbuy.info.

46 September 2024 Report Card

WDD Architects cuts ribbon for LRSD early child center

WDD Architects recently celebrated the ribbon cutting for the Little Rock School District’s new Rockefeller Early Childhood Center, which reopens for children this August.

The former elementary school was completely reimagined by WDD to meet

J’ville-North Pulaski manage bus needs

Since its inception in 2014, the Jacksonville North Pulaski School District has navigated the challenges inherent in establishing a new educational institution. Among the many logistical considerations, JNPSD has addressed its bus tire management through an innovative mounted tire program with Southern Tire Mart. This forward-thinking approach involves outsourcing the dismounting, mounting, and inflation of tires off site.

By leveraging a mounted tire program with Southern Tire Mart, JNPSD has optimized the safety of its bus mechanics and liberated time for employees to focus on critical aspects of maintaining the bus fleet. This strategic decision underscores JNPSD’s commitment to efficiency, safety, and excellence in its transportation operations.

For more information, go to stmtires. com or call 877.786.4681.

Stephens can help school boards with required training

Stephens can assist board members with obtaining their required professional development hours. Arkansas law generally requires that school board members obtain up to six hours of certified professional development on topics related to school operations.

The Arkansas School Boards Association has deemed Stephens’ financial advisors as certified ASBA trainers who are able to provide up to four hours of school finance training annually toward

ASBA’s Boardsmanship Awards Program. Normally held in the evening or on a weekend, this free training workshop will address topics ranging from state and local funding revenue sources to debt financing of capital projects.

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

To learn more about how Stephens can assist your district, contact Michael McBryde of Stephens Public Finance at 501.377.2641 or go to www.stephens. com/public-finance.

School staff finish Strategos active shooter training

Arkansas school personnel in midJuly completed the 5-Day School Active Shooter Intruder Response Training Instructors Course by Strategos International.

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Congratulations to Nathan Sullivan and Angie Looney of White Hall, Bobby Beeson of Magnolia, and Blake Benton and Travis Barrentine of Greenbrier for becoming certified instructors. They are now equipped to train school staff on active shooter response, enhancing preparedness in their districts.

Strategos International proudly supports these professionals in their mission to create safer schools, reinforcing the company’s commitment to providing top-tier security training and consulting nationwide.

For more information, contact Steve Anderson, retired superintendent, at sanderson@strategosintl.com or at 501.617.4718.

Nabholz...................Back Cover Johnson Controls....................3 National Safety Shelters ��........5 Architecture Plus...................7 Modus Studio.........................8 ARBuy................................9 McPherson & Jacobson............10 Hight Jackson ......................11 TIPS...............................13 Entegrity...........................15 Southern Tire Mart.................17 Clark Contractors..................19 All-Clean ............................21 C.R. Crawford......................23 Stephens Inc....................24-25 Baldwin & Shell. ...................27 WDD Architects....................29 M3 Services.........................31 Cromwell...........................33 Arkansas Public Safety Solutions.35 Cadence Insurance........ .......37 WER Architects/Planners. .......39 American Fidelity .................41 French Architects � ...............43 Strategos............................47

ASIR FOR SCHOOLS

Active Shooter & Intruder Response Training (ASIR) ASIR Training

“This course has given me the knowledge, confidence, and ability to help protect those around me.”

–Course participant

The training assists school staff in their ability to prevent, report and protect themselves and their students from an active shooter during the critical moments they are waiting for police to arrive. It also educates school staff about what to expect from officers once they are on site.

300 N. OSAGE STREET

ARKANSAS REPRESENTATIVE

INDEPENDENCE, MO 64050

STEVE ANDERSON (Retired Superintendent)

888-569-5444

sanderson@strategosintl.com

WWW.STRATEGOSINTL.COM

Phone: 501-617-4718

Report Card September 2024 47

LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT 75 YEARS OF

building spaces to help students change perspective

Arkansas Middle School, outdoor classroom, Texarkana

Founded as a small construction company 75 years ago, Nabholz has grown into a strong team of professionals serving our clients, communities, and each other.

With a wide range of K-12 projects under our belt, we have the experience to deliver your project successfully — regardless of size.

LOOKING FORWARD SINCE 1949 1.877.NABHOLZ | nabholz.com