Younger kids get extended recess
The Eureka Springs School Board met Monday evening, a week later than originally scheduled. The delay allowed the district enough time to compile financial figures for the end of the school year.
The meeting also marked the first meeting for Candace Spaulding, who was elected to the board in a run-off election June 18, and took the seat formerly held by Tina Johnson.
The board voted to retain the same slate of officers, with Chris McClung as president, Al Larson as vice-president, and Gayla Wolfinbarger as secretary. The board will also keep its present schedule, meeting at 5:30 p.m. on the second Monday of each month.
Results are not official yet for tests taken in the spring, but Supt. Bryan Pruitt said he was pleased with the preliminary numbers. All three schools received good scores, and that news is especially welcome in the elementary school, which has lagged behind the middle and high schools in test scores. In an interview after the meeting, Pruitt said some of the credit should go to the new curriculum introduced a year ago. Primarily, he saw the success as a payoff for the efforts of teachers and students alike.
Pruitt said the soccer field at Lake Leatherwood has served the school well, but he would like to bring soccer back to the campus. The track has room in the center for a regulation soccer field, but the field has a pronounced crown in the middle. An engineering company will assess the costs of flattening the field. For safety reasons, the state will no longer allow schools to use the area inside the track for field events like discus and shot put. The school will clear and level an area behind the track for field events at track meets. Another area along the road can be leveled relatively easily, to accommodate more parking for track or soccer events.
Recess to be longer
The state will require more recess time for elementary students. To avoid losing instructional time, the school will reverse the order of bus loading at the end of the day. High school students will now board first, and since younger students take longer to board the bus, buses will leave the school a few minutes later.
In other business:
- Eureka Springs was one of 10 school districts in the state to receive a Solution Tree grant. The grant comes through the Arkansas Department of Education and will provide leadership support in the elementary school, and help students and staff grow academically.
- A low bid of $78,000 was accepted from Davis Construction to complete the parking lot below the high school gym.
- The school improvement plans are posted on the websites of each school.
- Jennifer Robinson and Tara Green were hired as preschool teachers. Shelby Polite was hired to teach art in the elementary and middle schools, and James Garner was hired as a bus driver.
- Work on the elementary school is continuing, and the board members will tour the project in hard hats at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 23.