MHPS Wings 2021-22

A PUBLICATION OF MOUNTAIN HOME PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND THE MOUNTAIN HOME EDUCATION FOUNDATION

2021-2022 SCHOOL YEAR

Charting a

New Path

Pathways lead the way to future success

A Publication of Mountain Home Public Schools and the Mountain Home Education Foundation

2465 Rodeo Drive Mountain Home, Arkansas 72653 (870) 425-1201

online access

mhbombers.com mountainhomeeducationfoundation.com

MOUNTAIN HOME PUBLIC SCHOOLS’ VISION/MISSION​

Committed to Excellence in Education … Every Student — Every Time!

THE MISSION OF THE MOUNTAIN HOME EDUCATION FOUNDATION

The Mission of the Mountain Home Education Foundation (MHEF) is to raise funds to enhance student education for all students attending Mountain Home Public Schools.

MHEF will achieve its mission by directing resources toward the following goals:

facebook.com/BombersMH facebook.com/MHEdFoundation

@BombersMH

@bombersmh @MHEdF

»

Stay up-to-date while on the go by downloading the MHPS app on your mobile phone.

» Providing scholarships for students to pursue postsecondary education. » Encourage all students to work to their highest potential. » Recognize staff, alumni and friends of the school district for exemplary contributions.

MHPS Board of Education

Arnold Knox, President Daniel Smakal, Vice President Lisa House, Secretary Barbara Horton Neal Pendergrass Jason Schmeski Bill Wehmeyer

MHEF Board of Directors

Bob Knight, President Dr. Julia Gist, Vice President Dr. Ray Stahl, Vice President

» Staff support for innovative efforts. » Build community awareness for the MHEF. » Inspire parents and the community to participate with the school district in enriching education.

Julie Haney, Secretary Jackie Morrison, Treasurer Tami Barrow Janet Evans Buck Gilbert Lisa House Joyce Lechtenberger Dr. Jake Long Kelly Lucas Michele McWilliams Dr. Robin Myers Tobias Pugsley Ted Sanders

Publisher Sarah Knight Contributing Writer Dwain Hebda Contributing Designer Saige Roberts Contributing Photographer Jason Masters Wings is produced annually for the alumni, families and friends of Mountain Home Public Schools. Please report any address changes or corrections to the Foundation Office at (870) 425-1201. All other comments should be directed to the MHEF Executive Director at jseaman@mhbombers.com.

WELCOME MESSAGE

Dr. Long

I

am honored to present to you the first issue of Wings. I hope this magazine gives you a glimpse into Mountain Home Public Schools and highlights our deep commitment to excellence in education for every student, every time.

The Bomber legacy is so strong. I see it daily in the ways our community continues to embrace us and help us provide worldclass learning opportunities for our area’s young people.

Every school year takes on a theme of its own. This year — as we work to clean up the wreckage left by a global

pandemic — we’re focused on six major projects: Curriculum, Career Pathways, Facilities, Employee Recruitment and Retention, Communication and Finance.

Each of these focus areas is highlighted within this magazine.

Thank you, and Go Bombers!

Dr. Jake Long Superintendent

Mrs. Seaman

W

ithin this magazine, you’ll see student achievement at its finest. As the Executive Director of the Mountain Home Education Foundation, I am proud to work with a Board of Directors that is dedicated to supporting this achievement in a host of different ways. This publication includes profiles on several individuals who have positively impacted our school district and our world. These honorees have utilized their gifts and talents to make a difference in the lives of countless others. We’re blessed to have them — and so many others — as partners.

Through your gifts, you support the Foundation’s mission to facilitate student achievement and skill development. By supporting the work of the Foundation, you are pouring into the next generation

of medical professionals, tradespeople, educators and more. You’re even supporting students as they train for essential careers that do not exist yet.

Your gifts make great impacts and are far reaching.

As we like to say at the Foundation: “We Connect.” I would love to make a connection with you and help you connect to the incredible students at Mountain Home Public Schools.

Thank you,

Jennifer Seaman Executive Director Mountain Home Education Foundation

On the cover: Taylor Schumaker, Dr. Rob Conner, Cathy Beckham, Dr. Jake Long and Will Beckham 2021

| 1

THE

T

here’s a new day dawning in Mountain Home, Arkansas.

Students file into their classrooms, greet their peers, open their books, face front. Across all grade levels, teachers impart the lessons of the day, challenging young minds.

After school, students scatter to various extracurricular activities, from sports to the arts to committees and groups related to student government, academic honoraries and service clubs. (Continued on page 4)

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TO

SUCCESS AWARENESS

EXPOSURE

EXPLORATION

EXPERIENCE

A Clear Direction for K–12 Career Discernment 2021

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For years, career academies have also been an important part of the scene here, helping high schoolers plot their next steps after graduation, connecting the dots between high school instruction and the local job market. And now, they’ve laid the groundwork for a new program, Pathways, that in the coming years will expand this process all the way to the earliest grades in the system.

“The longstanding history of our career academies speaks for itself,” said Jake Long, superintendent. “But where I feel Mountain Home Public Schools is taking that step to the next level of Career & Technical Education plus college preparation is through Pathways. We’ve been intentional with our academic programming to where Pathways aligns perfectly with what we’ve been already been doing for well over a decade.

“I honestly don’t know of anyone in the country who has a better model than what we’ve put together on this.”

Under the current system, high schoolers join one of three career academies tailored to their interests and job aspirations.

Currently, there are three academies: agriculture, construction, manufacturing and engineering (ACME); health and human services (HHS); and communication, arts and business (CAB) of which students can attend just one or sample all three during their high school career as their interests lead them.

Pathways will begin the process of interest and career discernment much earlier, dividing the process into four broad categories: awareness, exposure, exploration and experience. At each level, students are given age-appropriate opportunities to consider their talents and interests and how those fit into the working world, with education as the key common denominator.

“Pathways really focuses on career-connected learning that spans grades K-12 and into the postsecondary transition,” said Dr. Dana Brown, assistant superintendent of administrative services and former principal of MHHS. “For example, in grades K-5, teachers focus on career awareness by enhancing their current curriculum. When the local fire department does the fire safety unit in kindergarten through fifth grade, for example, teachers can identify and build excitement for careers that tie with that topic. Students then begin to see a connection between careers and school while teachers enhance learning without adding to their workload.”

Along the way, students are steered toward formally taking stock of their interests and are shown how those interests lend themselves to the working world. This journey of self-discovery includes a myriad of speakers and exposure to jobs within local companies, walking students through the steps in the learning cycle.

“ We make sure students are engaged

with development of their own futures. What are my interests? Not what do I want to be when I grow up, but what are my interests?

”

— DR. DANA BROWN, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS CHOOSE BETWEEN 3 CAREER ACADEMIES: ‣ Agriculture, Construction, Manufacturing and Engineering (ACME) ‣ Health and Human Services (HHS) ‣ Communication, Arts and Business (CAB)

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Opposite page from left: Taylor Schumaker, Dr. Rob Conner, Cathy Beckham, Dr. Jake Long and Will Beckham outside the main entrance of Mountain Home High School

FEATURE STORY

2021

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“ As we have created these pathway opportunities for our

students, it has become apparent that our current facilities at the high school will need to be adjusted to accommodate these programs. We need spaces on our high school campus for our flagship programs to grow. Our students need spaces that foster creativity and problem solving while exposing them to innovative opportunities. — DR. JAKE LONG, SUPERINTENDENT

”

Concept renderings show potential improvements to the high school campus that will accommodate flagship programs and support Pathways learning.

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FEATURE STORY

“We are a strengths school; through the Gallup poll our students take the strengths inventory, and we really apply that,” Brown said. “We make sure students are engaged with the development of their own futures. What are my interests?

Not what do I want to be when I grow up, but what are my interests?”

R. Scott Flanagin, who taught science courses at Mountain Home High School for 25 years, helped formulate the original career academies. He sees the same comprehensive thinking at work in Pathways as ruled on the original project.

“At the time, I was not familiar with academies at all. To some degree, it almost sounded like we were going to become a technical school, teaching kids how to weld and how to build things,” he said. “It took us a while to catch on to the fact that the academies really meant we would teach children what their interests are and plan our curriculum around things that interested them, while still meeting state standards.

“Once that was understood, we began discussing whether to implement the academies as ‘pocket academies,’ you know, start small and then maybe expand it. We’d discuss it in the teacher’s lounge, and we concluded that we don’t want these pocket academies. I was chairman of the science department back then, and I remember saying, ‘We want it wall to

wall or not at all.’ That stuck, and it kind of became the theme.”

With the benefit of career-connected learning opportunities, future high school students will have poured a firmer foundation upon which the career academies can continue to build. Shop teacher Owen Carpenter, who has been involved with the career academies for years, said it’s much more efficient — to say nothing of less expensive — for students to experiment with various career fields during primary and high school than it is after graduation.

“When we started out, there was still a push for students across the board to attend four-year schools,” he said.

“Even today, there’s still the students who say, ‘I don’t know what I want to do. I’m just going to go to college to get my basics.’ I cringe when I hear that. I want to tell them you might as well just start throwing $100 bills at me instead of out the window because that’s what you’re doing.

“Pathways and the academies check all the boxes as far as forming relationships between core classes and career and tech.

Four-year schools aren’t for everybody, and this program has helped us shift some students to trades and technical schools, apprenticeships and sometimes just directly into work. We always push some sort of post-secondary training.”

“ It took us a

while to catch on to the fact that the academies really meant we would teach children what their interests are and plan our curriculum around things that interested them, while still meeting state standards.

”

— R. SCOTT FLANAGIN, RETIRED SCIENCE TEACHER

“ Four-year schools aren’t for everybody, and

this program has helped us shift some students to trades and technical schools, apprenticeships and sometimes just directly into work. We always push some sort of postsecondary training.

”

— OWEN CARPENTER, SHOP TEACHER

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One of the more unique elements of Pathways is how creative teachers can get in connecting their subject matter to some kind of practical, transferrable skill to be applied in the workplace.

“I taught English in the ACME academy,” said Neilla Flanagin who taught for more than a decade at the school. “Now how do you take a group of boys who really don’t want to take an English class, who just want to do things with their hands and take care of the cattle and all that stuff, and teach them poetry or literature?

“I came up with this idea that okay, the first part of this class, we’re going to learn about this and why it’s important and blah, blah. And then, we’ll take the second part of the class and see if you guys can build a replica of Walden’s Pond. And they did; they worked their heads off to get everything they needed to do.

“Along the way, they taught me so much. At times, they had to go weld something, and I said, ‘I taught you something. I’ll let you all teach me how to weld.’ So, that was a bond that I never expected, and it was wonderful.”

By far, the most visible and impactful element of the high school program lies in the number and scope of internships it provides, a process overseen by Cathy Beckham.

“These programs didn’t exist when I went to school here, and it would have been very beneficial for me if they had been,” said the 1987 graduate. “I was very involved in Future Business Leaders of America in high school, and I liked

numbers, so I thought I’d major in accounting. In my senior year of college, I realized I wanted to teach, but I was already too far into my degree program.

Had the academies and the internship program been in place, I could have interned as an accountant one semester and a teacher the next semester and would have quickly realized, before I went to college, that I was supposed to teach.

“That’s why I’m very passionate about what I do. I’m passionate about our kids finding the correct pathway or the correct career or the correct college for them. It’s so special to us to be able to place them in internships, and they can figure out, ‘Oh I like this,’ or ‘Oh, I don’t like this.’”

Jack Baran, a 2014 graduate from Mountain Home High School now working in St. Louis, experienced this benefit firsthand.

“What was great about having the different academies was if you didn’t like one, you could go to the other. It just gives you that option to experience and explore different things,” he said. “I was in the HHS academy for health care, and I realized quickly that I did not want to go into it professionally. At the same time, I learned things that benefited me a lot in the career I did go into. I still carry on some of the things that I learned in high school to this day.”

Beckham coordinates up to 70 internships per year, possessing a seemingly boundless ability to find the right match for a student’s interests, no matter how far-out that interest is.

“I had a student come in who had

“ The mentorship was once a month

where we met with a class of students and stayed with those students throughout their high school careers.

”

— JEFF QUICK, CEO FOR THE FOOD BANK OF NORTH CENTRAL ARKANSAS

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“ What was

great about having the different academies was, if you didn’t like one you could go to the other.

It just gives you that option to experience and explore different things.

”

— JACK BARAN, MHHS 2014 GRADUATE

FEATURE STORY

“ I’m passionate about our kids finding the

correct pathway or the correct career or the correct college for them. It’s so special to us to be able to place them in internships, and they can figure out, ‘Oh I like this,’ or ‘Oh, I don’t like this.’

”

—CATHY BECKHAM

an interest in aerospace engineering,” she said. “I’m like, ‘We’re in Mountain Home, Arkansas, and we don’t have an aerospace engineer here.’ Well, there is an Air Force graduate in town who has all these contacts and ties throughout the United States, and now that we have Zoom capability, he agreed to set him up with a guy he knows that’s an aerospace engineer in North Dakota.

So now I’m telling kids, if we don’t have that opportunity here, we can set it up, literally for anywhere in the world.”

To a person, everyone agrees that the secret ingredient of the program is the participation of the wider community, which is critical to the process.

Jeff Quick, CEO for the Food Bank of North Central Arkansas and an MHHS grad, has served a variety of roles, from being a mentor to sitting on advisory committees to sponsoring interns.

“The mentorship was once a month where we met with a class of students and stayed with those students throughout their high school careers,” he said. “Basically, those were opportunities to help them understand some of the important things in life and in their careers. It gave them the opportunity to see what different paths there are for success because it doesn’t necessarily have to be college. You may go to mechanic school. You may become a pilot. There are options.

“What we basically want them to understand is, what equals success for you doesn’t necessarily equal success for the next person. There’s no cookiecutter way to set goals and reach them and feel like you’re a productive member of the community. We want to help them understand that, recognize it and prepare for it.”

Local vet and Mountain Home graduate Dr. Rob Conner has been front and center in the career education process for years. He said while job shadowing and internship opportunities offer an obvious face value for students, there’s a deeper socioeconomic purpose at work.

“We usually have two to three interns per semester, and we’ve been doing it 15 or 20 years, which adds up to quite a few kids,” he said. “One of the things we’re trying to foster is an innovation, not only in your studies or in your job, but how do you innovate in your community over the long term?

“Where this effort ultimately pays off is in retaining people by providing highquality jobs in a place where they want to live. Mountain Home is a beautiful place, and we want it to grow by raising the standard of living without ruining any of the wonderful natural things that we have. That will take innovative and creative thinking, and that’s what we are trying to foster in our young people.”

“ One of the

things we’re trying to foster is an innovation, not only in your studies or in your job, but how do you innovate in your community over the long term?

”

— DR. ROB CONNER, VETERINARIAN

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ACCELERATED LEARNING

THE GATEWAY

to a brighter academic future

Briley Blasdel has a passion for learning that’s contagious; she can’t wait for the school day to start. The 11-yearold sixth grader, who wants to be an author one day, is so consumed with her education she’s even a fan of the subject matter that doesn’t come as easily as the humanities.

“I wasn’t as big of a fan of science as I was of reading,” she admits. “But I learned a lot about STEM projects, and that taught me so much about these subjects. We did an engineering project where we learned about electricity. We also did the paper rollercoaster. We had to build a rollercoaster out of paper and send a marble down. I learned so much from that. It was really interesting.”

Briley’s enthusiasm for her studies is a direct result of the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program offered through the Mountain Home Public Schools. This program, which students test into as early as second grade, provides additional learning opportunities during the school day. For 45 minutes, four days a week, Briley and her fellow GATE students engage in special projects designed to spur curiosity and critical thinking in a variety of subject matters.

“I thought it would be a great opportunity for her to get in the classroom with other creative thinkers, expand her view of a regular classroom and try new STEM projects,” said Briley’s mother Alisa.

“It’s been incredible. She has really become confident. She’s always been a naturally curious kid, but this has really helped her be confident in asking questions.” “(GATE) has helped me learn to take risks and that it’s okay to make mistakes,” Briley added. “It has given me a lot of confidence because the teachers have taught us to ask questions whenever we want to.”

Marsha Partney is in charge of the GATE program, which runs third through fifth grades. She said the program is essential in helping participants reach their full potential in the classroom.

Emili Elkins, a senior at Mountain Home High School, in the chemistry lab 2021

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The GATE program is a part of an accelerated academic continuum that feeds into preAP courses, open to all students.

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ACCELERATED LEARNING

“Research and longitudinal data prove gifted children do need something qualitatively different to enhance their learning experience,” she said. “We know GT students have unique social/emotional needs that are different from the regular population. As a result, they often struggle in certain ways related to giftedness. They know early on that they are different and think differently, and they need a gifted specialist to help guide them through those social and emotional aspects.”

Mountain Home’s program follows state standards in terms of curriculum but differs from other programs in terms of student selection.

“Generally, the referral process starts with a regular classroom teacher and the gifted and talented teacher noticing that there are strengths across academic disciplines,” she said. “We look at any standardized test score that shows the child in the top 5 percent. In Arkansas, the state recommends we identify the top 3-5 percent of our population. So that would have the students testing in the 95th percentile or above.

“The end of second grade is where we start the formal identification process, but we do start early identification with whole group enrichment, starting in kindergarten. And, of course, parents and community members can refer a child for gifted and talented at any time. I’ve even had one of my gifted and talented students refer a child she was babysitting.

I took it, we tested the child, and yes, she did place in our program.”

The GATE program is a part of an accelerated academic continuum that feeds into pre-AP courses, open to all students. Students as young as sixth grade can begin to take these higher-level courses with the opportunity to take actual AP level classes starting in ninth grade.

Emili Elkins, a senior, came through the program starting in third grade and has taken full advantage of the advanced coursework open to her.

“When I was in ninth grade, the school offered something to a few students they never offered before and that was AP World History,” she said. “I just wanted

We know GT students have “ unique social/emotional needs that are different from the regular population.”

— MARSHA PARTNEY

to see what an AP class would be like, so I decided to take the class. I’m so glad I did. It was very fast paced, which I appreciated, and it was challenging as well. To be honest, I never really had a challenging course before.”

Immediately hooked, Elkins started accumulating AP credits every semester of her high school experience. She’s on track to complete 14 AP courses by the time graduation rolls around, a class load that is instructive in itself.

“Being in the program has taught me to be self-motivated,” she said. “It’s very difficult to keep up with different timelines when you have five AP courses, but you find a way to manage.”

“The opportunity for Emili to take a challenging course was very exciting from a parent standpoint,” said her mother, Terrie. “She has had this issue from a very early age of being bored in class. Fortunately, the district has always been very accommodating, and they’ve given her teachers who have challenged her to the point that she worked at advanced levels long before she got to middle school.

“I feel the teachers and administration have all in some way facilitated her learning. As a parent, I’m happy she is taking classes that challenge her. It’s great knowing that she’s going to be prepared for college.”

Madison Ingle, AP Chemistry and AP Statistics teacher at Mountain Home High School, has a unique perspective when it comes to his advanced placement students.

Ingle, a 2011 graduate of MHHS, came through the accelerated programs himself

as a student. He said that perspective, as well as seven years of experience in the classroom, has helped him approach AP students in a different way.

“My teaching style actually frustrates a lot of students because I’ll present a problem or have a question, and I’ll just step back from it and make them think.

I won’t always answer their questions directly; I’ll try to answer it with their prior knowledge,” he said. “It’s really frustrating to students who just want an answer.”

“With most of my AP students, they are craving that ability to problem-solve themselves, and they rise to the challenge every time. In the AP class, they’ll ask the questions, and sometimes I just don’t know the answer. It’s hard to accept sometimes, but we look it up and learn together.”

Ingle said the school has shown its support for students in other ways, such as celebrating high academic achievers in the same way as championship sports teams.

It’s a seemingly subtle gesture that actually provides a lot of motivation, he said.

“The last three or four years, it’s been a larger push,” he said. “It started out with the Wall of Honor where students who made all A’s would be in one section; A’s and B’s would be in another. It’s in the cafeteria, so you see the names all year. They also do an academic awards ceremony at the end of the year, and it’s quite the event. Then they have a senior awards night separate from that.

“It’s great that the school recognizes the students’ hard work in the classroom, and I also think it serves to motivate the younger kids coming up. I’m very proud of my alma mater and love teaching here.”

From left: Madison Ingle, AP Chemistry and AP Statistics teacher at Mountain Home High School and Marsha Partney, in charge of the GATE Program offered through the Mountain Home School District.

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On the

Same Page There’s nothing quite as exciting as the first day of school. Clean, new clothes, unopened notebooks and unsharpened pencils, even the gleam of the desktop speak to the promise of the new year as yet undiscovered.

And it’s not just the students who feel the electricity of what’s to come with the first day of class. In the lower grades of Mountain Home Public Schools, the teachers also have something new to open the year: a new reading program designed to help keep classes aligned as they progress through the year.

It’s enough to make first-grade teacher Brittany Reeves, now in her third year in the district, positively giddy.

“What I love the most about this program is the vertical alignment of topics,” she said. “These kids are going to be able to take their background knowledge each year and just keep building on it. That’s a total game-changer and one of my favorite parts of the program.”

The science of reading requires the mastery of five pillars: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Under Mountain Home’s previous reading program, only phonemic awareness and phonics were consistent across grades K-5. The new program brings all of the reading instruction into alignment, said Reeves, who has also taught fourth, fifth and sixth

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graders during her career and thus has seen how a discordant program affects learning later on.

“Our new program builds the foundation for their comprehension skills at the first-grade level and teaches them how to work with the text,” she said. “It really aligns with the science of reading, which is a really big focus right now in education throughout the entire United States. We’re able to hit all of those big five components of literacy that we know kids need. They get that strong foundation as they move up to those grades and can transition from learning to read to reading to learn.”

Improvement or not, selecting and implementing a new curriculum is not an unsubstantial task.

“We developed a committee with teachers representing every grade level,” said Dr. Caroline Nail, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning for the district. “We had teachers that were on special assignment, people from different departments like our dyslexia program, and we had a whole plethora of people spanning kindergarten through

senior high representatives.

“We did an audit of resources we were utilizing for our literacy program.

What we found was we had a lot of great things going on, but we did not have any materials that spanned multiple grade levels. So, the committee met and decided to start reviewing new programs. There’s a lot of rules that we have to abide by in this, and it is very important that we’re making sure we are following those rules.”

The committee narrowed the choice of teaching programs down to two and invited representatives from the respective companies to come and make a presentation. Ultimately Benchmark was recommended to the school board which approved its purchase. With the program in hand, the work was just beginning.

“I’m going to brag on our district,” said Nail. “We didn’t just stop when the board approved it. We met this spring and went over it with our teachers and said, ‘OK, here’s the program,’ and did a deep dive into the lessons. We worked with our teachers about the pacing and what materials they would need to ensure this is a success. Then this summer, we

LITERACY

worked with our teachers “ Weabout the pacing and what

materials they are going to need to ensure this is a success.”

— DR. CAROLINE NAIL, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

had two different training sessions.”

Through these extra work sessions, educators and their leadership worked together to create pacing and support schedules to help ensure no student slipped through the cracks. Even the supervisory responsibilities are planned down to chapter and verse.

“We have actually the full year paced out for which units and lessons and when they are going to be,” said Laurie Cramton, principal at Nelson-WilksHerron Elementary. “That means I can, as the principal, walk into one first-grade classroom and I know that I’m going to see in unit five week two. Then I can go next

door, and I’m going to see the same thing.

“That’s not to say they’re teaching it exactly the same way because that’s the art of teaching. But with the program we chose, it’s the same science of teaching, and it links beautifully with the science of reading to ensure that we’re using a structured literacy approach.”

For teachers like Reeves, seeing fellow educators and administrators go to such lengths on behalf of the students was eye-opening.

“When everyone showed up for all of the training days, that’s not something that you usually see,” she said. “We really love our summers, but everyone showed

up and was like, ‘Where are my materials?

I want to start digging into this.’

“That’s not something that I saw in my previous district. To have that kind of commitment was kind of breathtaking.

Maybe we’re in the honeymoon phase right now, but everyone’s ready to go.”

Laurie Cramton, principal at NelsonWilks-Herron Elementary with firstgrade teacher Brittany Reeves in the library. (Opposite) Reeves teaching one of her students with the new Benchmark program. (Above) Dr. Caroline Nail.

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T

he Mountain Home High School Bombers basketball team has its work cut out for it this season. Not only does the team play in a very competitive classification, it graduated a lot of talent last year. It’s a team of underdogs, which isn’t all bad, said Head Coach Josh Fulcher.

Fulcher talks a lot about earning what you get, both on the court and in life, so the underdog tag fits right into his wheelhouse.

“We’re going to teach these guys life lessons through basketball,” said Fulcher who’s coached here for six of his 16 years on the sidelines. “My goal when they leave is they’re going to be better basketball players, yes, but we take more pride in them being better people.”

Gio Pacheco, 16, is one of those young men. A first-year member of the varsity team, he’s yet to play a minute in a Bomber uniform. But the junior has already seen his life change for the better because of the basketball team.

“I definitely try to be the best that I can be out there and have good relationships with my teammates,” Pacheco said. “I just want to work hard and get better.

Coach is really great about getting to know everybody, and he tries to get you in the game.”

Pacheco came to MHHS halfway through his freshman year and not without baggage. Lacking direction, his grades suffered, and he found it difficult to get along with others. Administrators thought athletics would be just the ticket, so they arranged a meeting between player and coach. Fulcher didn’t pull any punches explaining his expectations.

“You’ve got to have a good attitude, be a good teammate, make good grades and

keep your butt out of trouble,” Fulcher said. “In order to remain with us, you’re going to have to meet these standards.”

The transformation was almost immediate. Pacheco’s grades improved, and his behavior no longer attracted negative attention. As for basketball, he impressed Fulcher with his commitment to get better.

“It’s been a learning curve from Day One for him because everything is new,” Fulcher said. “The amount of improvement that he’s had has been tremendous.”

Pacheco lets his performance do his talking for him, and not just his basketball skills, which may or may not lead him to a starting role one day.

THE MVP GIO PACHECO 16 |

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More importantly, is his character and academic success, which will serve him for a lifetime.

“When I first went into high school, I went into a college prep private school, and it was hard for me,” he said. “When I came to Mountain Home High School, things got a whole lot better. I could talk about situations with my teachers, and I always wanted to play basketball, since third grade.

“Now, I’ve got academic goals; I really want to keep those grades up and have a good GPA by the end of the year. I’ve definitely learned how to stick with things and not just do what you think might please others. You definitely have to do things for yourself.”

I’ve definitely “ learned how to stick

with things and not just do what you think might please others.”

STUDENT LIFE

CATTLE BARON SKYLER ROBINSON

S

kyler Robinson chuckles when he thinks about the kid he was when he moved to Mountain Home six years ago. It’s a far cry from where he is today.

“I was a city boy,” he said. “I didn’t want to get dirty or anything like that.”

Robinson and his sister had come to live with their aunt and uncle after the untimely death of their mother, and truth be told, he was still trying to find his way forward. Then one day, he was summoned to help with livestock chores, and something caught the tenderfoot’s attention.

“They asked me if I would come down to the barn and work with them, and I was like, ‘Yeah, sure,’ ” he said of his aunt and uncle. “I started working with the animals, and one day I asked my uncle, ‘Hey, could I possibly show one?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, sure thing.’ I started doing that, and I’ve enjoyed it ever since.”

Robinson’s activity continued to grow until showing cattle at local competitions became an obsession. A regular force to be reckoned with at the county fair level, Robinson reached the pinnacle last year with a Grand Champion at the Arkansas State Fair.

Three years ago, he got involved with Arkansas Junior Cattlemen’s Association competitions and is currently running for president of that organization. And as if that weren’t enough, he’s been active in the National FFA Organization chapter at his high school.

Not bad for a kid who once would have rather been kicked by a steer than be front and center before a group of people.

“I used to be really shy and stuff. I used to not talk to that many people.

When I got to showing, it’s just like a family. It’s one big family that you get to talk to and have a great time with.”

When I got to showing, it’s just like a family. “ It’s one big family that you get to talk to and have a great time with.” he said. “AJCA also helps with your speaking. When we have our awards assembly, you get to speak a little bit about yourself, have some fun and get to meet some new people.”

Livestock competition, unlike other sports and activities, is an expensive and year-round activity requiring daily dedication to be successful. Josh Baker, ag education instructor for Mountain Home High School, said Robinson’s commitment stands out from his peers.

“He not only takes care of the cattle, he also cuts and bales hay in a custom hay baling operation. The responsibility and work he puts out as a high school

kid are impressive,” he said. “He’s doing adult things as a teenager. I’m proud of him and all he’s accomplished.”

The senior, known for his willingness to help younger kids in various ag classes and competitions, is a mentor to many who face their own challenges in life.

“If a kid’s super-shy and doesn’t know what they’re doing, I’ll go up and tell them, ‘Hey, I’ll help you out,’ I used to be that kid,” Robinson said. “As far as dealing with tough things in your life, I would say no matter what, just keep moving. No matter what your ups and downs are, you’ve got to always think positive of what you’re doing.”

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2 0 2 0– 2021

ANNUAL REPORT MILLAGE COMPARISONS

MHEF GIFTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

Districts with Similar ENROLLMENT to Mountain Home Public Schools County

2020 Total Valuations 2020 Total Mills 2020/2021 Enrollment 48.30 45.70 45.00 42.10 40.90 40.60 40.60 38.90 37.49 36.55 36.00 33.50 32.16

3,781 3,911 4,174 3,629 3,568 3,726 4,251 3,880 3,525 3,947 4,103 4,121 3,881

15%

SCHOLARSHIPS AND GRANTS

34%

430,771,856 426,719,759 395,597,644 660,434,941 273,184,120 427,843,069 472,517,611 473,744,907 333,935,868 76,954,867 355,576,552 671,856,908 676,420,539

51%

School District

Jacksonville North Pulaski Pulaski Marion Crittenden Siloam Springs Benton Hot Springs Garland Greenbrier Faulkner Greenwood Sebastian Lake Hamilton Garland Texarkana Miller Greene County Tech Greene Searcy County Searcy Sheridan Grant El Dorado Union Mountain Home Baxter

Districts with Similar ASSESSMENT to Mountain Home Public Schools School District

County

North Little Rock Hot Springs Fort Smith Bryant Russellville Lakeside (Garland) Cabot Nettleton Conway Searcy El Dorado Jonesboro Mountain Home

2020 Total Valuations 2020 Total Mills 2020/2021 Enrollment

Pulaski Garland Sebastian Saline Pope Garland Lonoke Craighead Faulkner White Union Craighead Baxter

820,128,887 660,434,941 1,589,179,481 949,338,131 1,068,017,752 515,888,865 772,877,738 665,991,845 1,306,338,688 595,282,603 671,856,908 648,789,112 676,420,539

48.30 42.10 42.058 40.80 40.80 41.70 39.50 38.95 38.10 35.70 33.50 33.10 32.16

7,610 3,629 13,839 9,214 5,212 3,413 10,171 3,411 9,849 728 4,121 6,341 3,881

MHEF TOTAL AWARDED FOR 2021–2022 SCHOOL YEAR Traditional Scholarships: $51,000 Promise Scholarships: $75,700 Teaching Grants: $21,699.57

◻ ◻ ◻

8%

County

2020 Total Valuations

Randolph Cleburne Lafayette Baxter St Francis Sevier Baxter Boone Howard Clay Fulton Polk Hempstead

2020 Total Mills 2020/2021 Enrollment

185,745,812 304,639,986 73,649,165 61,587,164 213,442,510 148,609,755 676,420,539 61,133,562 155,483,128 124,861,612 53,321,320 57,228,721 37,913,362

32.81 32.80 32.80 32.67 32.60 32.20 32.16 32.00 31.70 31.50 31.50 31.30 31.30

1,937 1,537 513 743 2,107 2,295 3,881 1,052 1,878 818 850 488 458

Real Personal Utilities Total

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

459,241,581 129,167,050 25,875,210 614,283,841

469,050,072 129,089,120 27,227,950 625,367,142

482,509,932 136,918,010 28,795,700 648,223,642

493,280,077 141,337,340 29,487,210 664,104,627

504,245,589 140,723,160 31,451,790 676,420,539

◻ ◻ ◻ ◻

MHPS SUMMARY OF FUNDS 35000000

Total Revenues Total Expenditures

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$34,386,536 $33,610,199 $33,061,222 $31,222,653 $30,029,773 $29,214,423 2020

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2019

DONATIONS

MHEF DONATIONS RECEIVED JUNE 30, 2020–JULY 1, 2021 Traditional Scholarships: $110,961.06 Promise Scholarships: $78,188.20 Teaching Grants: $15,096.71 Other Donations: $18,384.50

Assessment History

50%

School District Pocahontas Heber Springs Layfayette County Cotter Forrest City Dequeen Mountain Home Bergman Nashville Corning Salem Ouachita River Blevins

35%

Districts with Similar MILLAGE to Mountain Home Public Schools

7%

30000000

2018 25000000

BY THE NUMBERS

Mountain Home Public Schools

BY THE NUMBERS

3,889 TOTAL STUDENTS

311

TOTAL CERTIFIED STAFF

214

TOTAL CLASSIFIED STAFF

16

AP COURSE OFFERINGS

Industry Certifications

earned in ’20–’21 school year (by students in grades 8–12)

79

20.4

ACT COMPOSITE SCORE

(19 state average)

PATHWAYS NUMBERS

20 CTE programs of study

7of 24

290 graduates

356

87

Interns Industry internship partners

AAA ACADEMIC STATE CHAMPION

SPORTS TEAMS WERE MHPS TEAMS

Class of 2021 Stats MORE THAN

College Scholarships Awarded

$131,000 Scholarships Awarded

BY MOUNTAIN HOME EDUCATION FOUNDATION TO CLASS OF 2021

$3.6 Million

32 ATHLETES

signed to play in college

2,392 Concurrent Credits (AT NO COST TO STUDENTS) E A R N E D 2021

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MHEF

GIVING BACK

It takes a lot of people giving of their time and talents to make our school system what it is, from caring staff and quality teachers to committed members of the Mountain Home community. For those who go well beyond the call of duty, the Mountain Home Education Foundation Hall of Honor provides fitting recognition of their efforts. Honorees include outstanding educators, support staff, graduates of Mountain Home Public Schools and community members who have given unselfishly in support of and in service to the students of Mountain Home Public Schools.

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M O U N TA I N H O M E E D U C AT I O N F O U N D AT I O N HALL OF HONOR 2004

Fannie Pinkston Bob Hackler Evelyn Hackler Mary Hogle Larry Choate Nell Powell Wright Linda Pitts Terry Poynter Dr. Fran Coulter Earnest Perry

2005

Thelma G. Carter Mary Alice Elam Willie Mae Magness Bentley Stracener Dr. William R. Snow Larry Nelson Wade Doshier Darren Irby Dr. Jennifer Wiseman Imogene Roane

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Sheridan Kirksey Sarah Kelly Barbie Kent Graham Thomas Fowler Bob Knight Richard Padget Sergeant Tom Knebel

Calvin Czeschin Nancy Knight Crawford Patty Marion Debbie Shearer Walker

Robert Nelson Renata Jenkins Byler Dean Curlee Dr. Robert Ahrens Elaine Hughes First National Bank Pfc. Wilford Knight

Anita King Jeffery Koenig Dr. James McGuire Jane Ritter Ted Sanders Donel Jo Dobbs

Norma Wood Patsy Mooney Chambers Betty Jo Atlinson Dr. Stanley Trauth Dr. Thomas Bruce Admiral Robert Baker, M.D. Thurston Perry

Susan Bergman Dr. Ed Coulter Warren Haley Gwen Khayat Anna Jean Dahlke Bonnie Brown Army Infantry Private Homer F. Strain

Nancy Reed Mica Strother Dr. Max Cheney Southern Tag & Label

Ralph Ingram Mike & Joy Walker Dean Sanders Baxter Regional

Dean Hudson Vicki Brantley Nell Ponder Frances Hackler Jones Dr. Darren McGuire Dr. Simon Abraham Nannie Lee Trammel

Terre Ware Jackie Edmonds Neil Putz James Biggers Baxter Healthcare Lance Corporal Sidney Lee Fletcher

John W. “Bill” Maxwell Brandi Sanders Joplin First Security Bank Hal E. “Bud” Bodenhamer

Billie Larson Kathy Farris

Don Dempsey Leo Pitchford Mauzee Pitchford Dr. Carson Davis Kevin L. Perkins Dr. Janet Cathey Sherry Perkins Norma Bryant

John Erwin Pat Hickman Nora Regan Steve Singleton Pfc. Elvin French Wells Fargo Advisors

Margaret Mason Norman Mason Glenda Small Robert Newton John Partipilo Marvin Kunz LTG. Paul Ostrowski ASU-Mountain Home

Dr. Rob Conner Janet Wood Joe Bodenhamer Judy St.Clair

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Local Vet Invests in

Students’ Success 22 |

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MHEF HONOREE

GIVING BACK

DR. ROB CONNER

Investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs has been the motivation for Dr. Rob Conner, owner of All Creatures veterinary clinic, committing substantial time and talent over the years to the students of Mountain Home Public Schools.

“ I grew up

here, and it was a normal part of my life to have people involved.”

— DR. ROB CONNER

But to hear the longtime veterinarian and Mountain Home native, who was recognized by the Mountain Home Education Foundation with the Community Partner Award, you’d think he hardly played a role in their success at all.

“I’m just following the blueprint of the people before me,” he said. “I grew up here, and it was a normal part of my life to have people involved. Every program they had at any level had a lot of parent, grandparent and community involvement.

“We had a lot of people who would move in, and retirees would take interest in the kids because their own kids and grandkids didn’t live here. A lot of hardworking folks have made this their home, and they want it to be as good as it can possibly be.”

Conner has served on the district’s business advisory board and mentored students one on one. He’s also been a volunteer coach and has done a lot of work with local 4-H and FFA clubs; in fact, he’s led the FFA’s vet science team to state titles in five out of eight tries. He’s also provided internships at his clinic for high schoolers — two or three of them every semester since the program started, in fact.

“My vision, and I think it’s a shared vision, is we’re trying to really foster entrepreneurship,” Conner said. “With the internet age, there are people who are successfully raising families and earning income and enjoying a quality of life from home or from jobs that work from home or remotely. Some of them are even doing business internationally, from right here in Mountain Home.

“To have an innovation center in the school system is really unique, and it’s important to continue that. We’re able to take kids’ ideas all the way from concept

to a product on the market in a way that involves them all the way through research and development, CAD drawings, the patent process, marketing, sales, distribution, manufacturing, everything.”

Conner said he’s impressed at the creativity and depth that some of the projects display, and for this, he gives credit to the district’s superintendent, Dr. Jake Long, for thinking outside the box.

“We just started an engineering program; I met with the teacher for that, and he’s excited about projects surrounding recycling and the environment,” he said. “We also have a natural resources program that dovetails into the efforts of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We have aviators who want to start an aviation program not only for future pilots, because there will be a shortage, but also for future mechanics.

“These programs all happen because of leadership. Dr. Long has an opendoor policy for new ideas, and he even holds meet-and-greets within the community. He’s very involved and interested, and everyone else feeds off of that. It’s pretty special.”

As for being recognized for his service to his alma mater, Conner said he’s humbled by the honor.

“It’s amazing to me, because I know the people in the past who have been nominated, and I’ve put those people on a pedestal my whole life. I don’t know that I belong in that group,” he said. “I’m grateful that someone appreciates my desire to help the school system and the community, but there are many more behind me. There are certainly a lot of wonderful people in this community who are also very deserving of this kind of recognition.”

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MHEF HONOREE

JIM BODENHAMER

Extra!

Extra!

It’s a fair bet that when Jim Bodenhamer was a student at Mountain Home High School, he could not have imagined what his life held in store. Oh, he might have entertained the idea of returning to his hometown at some point — maybe even thought he’d get to be a newsman along the way.

But he couldn’t have imagined a decades-long career reporting the news in print and over the airwaves, or that into his 70s he’d still be contributing to the welfare of his hometown via the city council.

“Let me just tell you a personal deal here,” he said. “When I graduated from Mountain Home High School in 1965, the faculty selected 10 outstanding seniors. I was stunned when I was named one of those 10 outstanding graduates.

“I know I was one with the lowest grade point average; I was involved in more extracurricular stuff, and I wasn’t very strong in academics. But that really meant something to me.”

Bodenhamer’s family goes back several generations in Baxter County and the Mountain Home school system.

Both his father D.J. Bodenhamer and mother, Doris Easley Bodenhamer, graduated from Mountain Home. His great uncle, Rex “Jickie” Bodenhamer,

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served on the Mountain Home school board in the 1940s. His uncle, Hal “Bud” Bodenhamer, served on the Mountain Home school board in the 1960s and is an inductee in the MHEF Hall of Honor and the district’s Athletic Hall of Honor. Jim’s brother Joe, a retired county judge, served on the school board in the 1980s.

After graduation, Bodenhamer attended Arkansas State University in Jonesboro where he majored in journalism with a minor in radio, TV and military science. With a degree in hand in 1969, he joined the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant and served a twoyear hitch. He returned home to a golden age in local journalism.

“When I moved back home, I became associate editor of the Baxter Bulletin. It was a weekly newspaper then,” he said.

“I’d worked there in high school as a pressman’s assistant — a printer’s devil is what they called them.

“Anyway, I was the associate editor for about five years during which time The Bulletin was recognized as one of the top weeklies in the nation by the newspaper association. That wasn’t because of me; we had a really good group of people, and that followed me all the way through my career. I was one lucky person to have such dedicated co-workers.”

In 1977, Bodenhamer made the switch to radio at local station KTLO, first as assistant news director and then as news director, a job he held for more than three decades. With a tenure that long, he was hard-pressed to single out any one story that stood out from his career, nor could he easily say which he

GIVING BACK

“ I was one

lucky person to have such dedicated co-workers.”

enjoyed more: print or broadcast.

“I’ll tell you I enjoyed the photography aspect of a newspaper,” he said. “I don’t have a voice for radio, and I sure don’t have the face for television, you know?

“If I had to pick one over the other, I guess I’d choose newspaper. I took that newspaper in-depth and tried to marry it up with broadcasting. The station manager and owner Bob Knight used to say, ‘Hey, 60 seconds is it.’ He would just shake his head when I would come back with a four- or five-minute school board story. But he never told me to stop. He would just shake his head.”

After retiring from his news career, Bodenhamer indulged a lifelong goal of

teaching, serving as a high school substitute teacher at his alma mater. He stayed in the Army National Guard until 2006, retiring with 30 years of military service and the rank of captain. And he’d also experience life on the other side of the microphone deciding to run for the Mountain Home city council and being elected in 2019.

“When I was a young reporter covering schools boards, city councils, quorum courts and politics, I had a school board member tell me, ‘One of these days, you need to get into public service. It’s not as easy as it might look to you,’ ” he said.

“He was right. When I was a substitute teacher, it really opened my eyes to what these school teachers and administrators

— JIM BODENHAMER

and even the lunchroom personnel and the janitors do every day. Serving on the city council is not always easy, but after covering government in the area for 40 years, I saw being a good school board member is one of the most unappreciated public service jobs there is.”

For a life spent keeping others informed, as well as lifelong service to school, community and country, Jim Bodenhamer was recognized as the 2021 Distinguished Alumnus by the Mountain Home Education Foundation.

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“ We preached

all the time, whatever you do in the classroom is exactly what you’re going to do on the court.”

— JANET WOOD

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GIVING BACK

MHEF HONOREE

JANET WOOD

For Coach Wood, Winning on Court was

Just the Beginning Janet Wood loves winning, which doesn’t exactly set her apart from any other coach who has ever prowled the sidelines, sat on the bench or patrolled the dugout. But not every coach can put their sport into such perspective that they see past the scoreboard to focus on improving the lives of players as Wood did during a 42-year career in education.

“We preached all the time, whatever you do in the classroom is exactly what you’re going to do on the court,” she said.

“The emphasis that we put on grades, the classroom, respect for your teachers with ‘Yes, ma’am. No, ma’am. Yes, sir.

No, sir.’ We spent as much time on that part as the basketball part.

“Hard work and education — that’s the key. It doesn’t matter how many sports you play or how good you are at them; if you don’t have that educational background, it’s tough these days. It’s tough anytime.”

Wood knows firsthand about having one’s priorities straight. As a poor farm kid from Melbourne, she learned from an early age that life wasn’t going to hand

her anything. So, she grabbed a book in one hand and a basketball in the other, determined to set her own trajectory in life.

She was doubly successful in that endeavor. After leading Melbourne to the 1973 state title, the gritty point guard played for Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia before starting her teaching and coaching career in Cotter in 1979.

Two years later, she made the jump to Mountain Home where she would eventually coach, teach and serve several administrative roles.

For nearly half of her 42 years in education, she built a decorated career as a basketball coach and spent another 11 as the district’s athletic director. During her time on the bench, she led the Lady Bombers to a state title in 1986 and in 1994 was skipper to a team that set a national record that stands to this day.

“In 1994, there was a highlight; we lost in eight overtimes to Fayetteville,” she said. “At that time, the top 32 schools were in one classification. Fayetteville had the most enrollment in the state, and we were number 32 in enrollment. They beat us in eight overtimes that year, which is still a national record. If you Google ‘overtime state championships national record,’ you would find Fayetteville beating Mountain Home 75-73.”

Many coaches would still be eaten up over losing in such as fashion, but Wood doesn’t necessarily see it that way.

How many small-town schools get to say they’ve held a national record for that long, if at all?

“It’s not all about winning a state championship, it’s the relationships that these kids have with each other over the years,” she said. “There’s just no substitute for that.”

By the time the dust settled on her career (she retired in spring 2021), Wood was an acknowledged giant in her profession having been inducted into the Arkansas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor (2009); Southern Arkansas University Hall of Honor (2012) and Arkansas High School Athletic Administrators Association Hall of Honor (2020). She’s also enshrined in the Mountain Home Athletic Hall of Honor three times, once as an individual and twice as the coach of teams.

But ask her what her lifetime record is, and she’s surprisingly nonchalant about it.

“We had some really good years,” she said. “I think 30-2 was our best. The year we won state, I think we were something like 28-7 or 29-7. Someone figured up once that we had an 82 percent winning record at Mountain Home. But I really don’t know what my record was.”

Wood found a kindred spirit in Lou Wood, her husband of 33 years, himself a retired high school coach of some repute. She said of all the accolades she’s received, none have meant more than being inducted into the Mountain Home Education Foundation Hall of Fame.

“I cried,” she said. “This honor is for education, and I would like to think that all the years I coached, education was still the most important thing I did.”

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Mama Bear

Any teacher will tell you that one of the joys of a long career in the classroom is leaving one’s mark on the lives of students and having those students later point you out as someone who made a difference.

Judy St. Clair never held a teaching degree and never led a classroom of her own, so she can’t accurately be remembered as a teacher. Instead, the generations of special education students and families who she worked with for 32 years think of her as something much more: a surrogate mother whose love and compassion knew no bounds.

“I cared so much about those kids,” she said. “Special ed can be very challenging, but there is so much to look back on and feel good about. They’re just very loving, and I loved them back.”

St. Clair was working part time in a local office supply company when she heard about an opening at what was then the Day Service Center. Something told the Illinois-born mother of three that this was the job for her.

“I decided I wanted to do that because I felt like that was more of a calling,” she said. “I started out working as a teacher’s aide there for Rhonda Martin, who was the first special ed teacher that Mountain Home School District hired.”

The experience of working with special needs children was many things, and no two days were ever the same.

“It was very challenging because we didn’t have a whole lot of guidance like you do in a school today,” she said. “We

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were working mainly on teaching students how to eat, how to feed themselves, how to do self-help things. I had one student in particular, he couldn’t tie his shoes.

And it took almost two years for him to learn how to tie his shoes. When he did, that was very rewarding.

“We had a student who was afraid of food, and I think the teacher and I worked with him for almost a year to get him to eat something besides baby food.

And he did finally did it — he fed himself.

He was scared to death, and he held that spoon in his hand, shaking, but he stuck it in his mouth.

“That’s just how it was, little baby steps of things that we all take for granted that for someone else is very rewarding when you see progress.”

Even moving from classroom to office, St. Clair found ways to stay engaged in the kids’ lives and development. In fact, her subsequent duties made her even more connected to the student body.

“I worked in the office probably most of the 32 years I was there. I ended up being the office manager of the Special Ed Office,” she said. “And they knew me as the bus driver; I got my CDL, and it allowed me to take students to physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy.”

MHEF HONOREE

JUDY ST. CLAIR

In these roles, St. Clair became mama bear to all the students, not just one classroom full. And she also was a familiar, welcoming sight to many parents through the years.

“Parents of special needs children are very sensitive and sometimes very frustrated,” she said. “I guess I’m a people person because it was easy for me to be kind to them and to be patient with them. We had some hard parents, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with any of them.”

Ten years ago, St. Clair stepped into retirement, officially anyway. In reality, she’s hailed all over town by former students and their families. She’s even helped organize class reunions for alums of the special ed program.

“We’ve had two reunions with those kids, and they don’t forget anything.

They always remember us,” she said. “I run into parents, still. You know, ‘How’s Bobby doing?’ and stuff. They don’t forget us either. It’s like a bond you build, and it’s just there.”

For her longtime service, she was recognized with the Earnest Perry Retired Classified Staff Award, something for which the attention-shy St. Clair is grateful. But no award can duplicate the life-altering relationships and experience she gained during her time serving her most special students.

“Having the opportunity to work with special needs kids gave me patience, taught me stamina and mostly, it showed me what they go through in their lives,” she said. “Whenever I thought I had a problem, I realized theirs were so much bigger. Yet they always had a smile, they were always happy and they were always excited to see you. It was just a very special place to be all those years.”

GIVING BACK

“ I cared so

much about those kids.

They’re just very loving, and I loved them back.”

— JUDY ST. CLAIR

2021

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Funding the Future As a career accountant and company president, Steve Blumreich has earned all the quiet time he can get in retirement.

No one would blame the Wisconsin native for dipping his toes in the local creeks and watching the world go by.

Instead, Blumreich has taken a leadership role in supporting the efforts of the local school system to get students off on a fast start to the future. Together with his wife Susan, who graduated from Mountain Home High School, Blumreich sees this work as his highest calling.

“When we look at the public school system up here, we see the type of school system that gives young people tremendous opportunities,” he said. “Whether they go to college, decide on a technical career or go into the military, you name it, there are so many different options they have up here to better themselves.

“Both of us are firm believers in education being the solution to a lot of the issues that we face. Mountain Home is a community we want to see flourish, and I think people are interested in improving their community as well. Therefore, we’ve always been advocates for getting young people started early learning about issues that impact our lives, whether it’s science or health care or business. It’s important

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GIVING BACK

MHEF DONOR

STEVE BLUMREICH

from an education standpoint they have that resource and actively participate in it.”

The couple has funded or helped fund scholarships in business and environmental science. The former, two $2,500 scholarships paid for by the couple, is tied in with a business plan competition conducted through the high school.

“We funded the business scholarship at the high school to promote the business plan program,” Blumreich said. “Sheri Smith is the accounting and business teacher who introduced that, I think last year, and we had good participation.

One or two business plans were used in state competition through the Future Business Leaders of America.

“That was something I wanted business students to look at, because so many people who start a business and need to get a loan or financing, it’s helpful to know what’s involved. A business plan is a good tool to introduce to students.”

The second scholarship came about through a local organization, Friends of the North Fork and White Rivers, where Steve has served as an officer.

“We have two scholarships there,” he said. “Those are $1,000 apiece, and we do one through Lyon College in Batesville. Those are funded half from us and half by the organization.”

In addition to the scholarships, Blumreich has been a staunch advocate of connecting the issues of conservation with high school programs. He’s helped develop a partnership among the club, the city and the school’s art department to paint storm drains with nature scenes and colors that remind individuals of the sensitive ecosystems to which those storm drains ultimately lead. And, he’s helped support a Stream Team at the high school — a conservation program for youth sponsored by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

“We get science and biology students to Dodd Creek, which runs through the ASU Mountain Home campus,” he said.

“They participate in getting macro-

invertebrate and minnow and other creatures that live in the creek; they count the inventory, identify creatures. They also learn how to take water samples and run a chemistry analysis at the creek to see what the condition of the water is via 10 or so tests, including temperature, pH, alkalinity.”

All in all, it’s been a pretty productive eight years since the Blumreichs touched down in Mountain Home. And worth every single minute, Steve said.

“From a personal standpoint, education was important to help us live the lifestyle in retirement we’re able to. If it weren’t for education and the opportunities it provided us, we wouldn’t be able to do this,” he said. “The school system here provides those opportunities to educate young people, and that’s the best investment all of us can make.

“I just think it’s important for people of all ages, whether they’re gainfully employed or retired, to give of their resources to pay it forward.”

“ The school

system here provides those opportunities to educate young people, and that’s the best investment all of us can make.”

— STEVE BLUMREICH

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Impacting the Next Generation Mountain Home Public Schools is a thriving, dynamic educational community that seeks to lead each student to their full potential. Our cutting-edge programs and the expertise of our staff are assets generally found in much larger school districts, made possible here by the generous support of people in the community.

The Mountain Home Education Foundation was formed to provide an easy way for individuals and organizations to invest in the future of our school and its students. Funds collected through the Foundation provide for educational programs and activities that have not been funded by the district’s normal operating budget. These programs and activities facilitate student skill achievement and development; recognize and encourage staff excellence; and expand community involvement from individuals, businesses and civic organizations.

Specifically, MHEF funds are directed to:

→ Connect supportive community members with the school district to enrich education.

→ Support the Mountain Home

Promise, a scholarship program that provides MHHS graduates with four semesters tuition-free at ASUMH (after other free aid is exhausted).

→ Provide traditional

scholarships for students attending postsecondary institutions besides ASUMH.

→ Provide Teaching Grants to

MHPS educators to try out new, innovative projects and programs in their classrooms

Donations to the MHEF are changing the futures of Mountain Home Public Schools students. Through teaching grants, thousands of students are impacted each school year as teachers try new and innovative techniques in their classrooms. Our traditional scholarships allow Mountain Home High School graduates to spread their wings at accredited colleges and universities across the country. And, the Mountain Home Promise funds the tuition gap for students who wish to earn a technical certificate or associate degree from ASU Mountain Home.

Since its inception in 2003, the Mountain Home Education Foundation has awarded more than $1 million in student scholarships and more than $375,000 in teaching grants.

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Your tax-deductible contribution to the Mountain Home Education Foundation is an investment in the future of our children and our community. For more information about any of the available giving options, contact Jennifer Seaman, MHEF executive director, at (870) 425-1201.

MHEF

GIVING BACK

There are several ways to support the work of the Mountain Home Education Foundation going forward, including: WINGS A five-year specified pledge at different levels of giving that can be used toward scholarships, teaching grants and/or operating expenditures.

At the end of the five years, a plaque featuring the donor’s name will be placed in Dunbar Auditorium.

PLANNED GIVING Patrons can remember the Foundation through a gift in their estate planning. The gift can take the form of money, property, stock or other valuable items to leave a lasting legacy to Mountain Home students and faculty.

HONORARIUM/MEMORIAL GIFTS This vehicle is a meaningful way to honor or remember loved ones.

The honored individual or families of those remembered will receive notifications of donations.

“

The Mountain Home Education Foundation has been such a blessing to my classroom. I am extremely thankful for their generosity and hope they know what a difference they make in the education of my students. This year they granted my proposal to use Brain Bins in my classroom. These are sensory based, open ended tubs that allow students to use and develop vital life long skills. These tubs allow my students a moment to decompress when they arrive. In addition they provide them with opportunities to think, cooperate, create, collaborate and communicate with their peers. Just within the first few days of school, I have noticed what an incredible and joyful start to the day these make.

”

— TIFFANY STONE, MHEF TEACHING GRANT RECIPIENT

ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP These funds are of vital importance to the MHEF and to the students it serves.

Scholarship awards are granted according to the expressed direction of the donor as recorded in the scholarship agreement. The MHEF Scholarship Committee then selects the individual recipient(s). All endowed scholarships are named for the donor(s) or as the donor directs.

2021

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2465 Rodeo Drive Mountain Home, AR 72653

STAY CONNECTED ALL YEAR facebook.com/BombersMH facebook.com/MHEdFoundation

@bombersmh @MHEdF

@bombersmh

mhbombers.com MountainHomeEducationFoundation.org

2021—2022 FISCAL YEAR ENDS JUNE 30*

*Make your annual gift to the Mountain Home Education Foundation by this date

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