Education notebook
Students praised for volunteerism Panels will meet, talk school safety
Subcommittees of the Arkansas School Safety Commission, which was established by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in the aftermath of the Feb. 14 shooting deaths of 17 students and adults at a Florida high school, have scheduled their initial meetings for the coming days and weeks.
Some of the subcommittees will meet using the Internet in what are Zoom videoconferences. Links to those meetings for members of the public are available on the Arkansas Department of Education website: www.arkansased.gov/divisions/communications/safety.
The subcommittee meeting times are:
The Intelligence/Communication Subcommittee will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards, 4 State Police Plaza Drive, Little Rock.
The Mental Health Subcommittee will meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday via Zoom videoconference.
The Security Audits and Emergency Operations Plans and Active Shooter Drills Subcommittee will meet via telephone conference call at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
The Physical Security and School Bus Transportation Subcommittee will meet at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday via Zoom videoconference.
The Law Enforcement Subcommittee will meet at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Clarksville School District, 1701 Clark Road, Clarksville.
The Ad-Hoc School Visit Committee will meet at 11 a.m. April 2 via Zoom videoconference.
The subcommittees will periodically report to the full commission, headed by Cheryl May.
The Arkansas School Safety Commission will next meet at noon April 4, and at 10 a.m. April 17. Both meetings will be held at the Criminal Justice Institute, 26 Corporate Hill Drive, in Little Rock. Members of the public can attend in person or via Zoom conference call.
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a national awards program for outstanding youth volunteers in grades 5-12 that is now in its 23rd year, has announced Arkansas’ 2018 winners.
Anna Richey, 16, a sophomore at Paris High School, organizes an annual community “tea party” that has collected more than $100,000 in gifts and donations over the past four years to brighten the Christmas season for foster children. Anna is helped in the event by her sisters.
Alexis Roberson, 13, of Caraway, a seventh-grader at Riverside High School, collected more than 1,500 coloring books and 600 boxes of crayons for hospitalized children in memory of her best friend who died in 2016. The books and crayons were delivered at Christmastime to about a thousand children at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Alexis also has distributed “survival kits” through first responders and also provided blankets and cooling fans to nursing-home residents. She is now collecting soda can tabs to support a Ronald McDonald House in Memphis to honor her late friend.
Each of the 102 state honorees in the awards program will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion and an all-expense-paid trip in late April to Washington, D.C., for four days of national recognition events. During the trip, 10 of these students will be named among “America’s Top Youth Volunteers of 2018,” and will receive additional $5,000 awards, gold medallions, crystal trophies and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for nonprofit charitable organizations of their choice.
In addition to the state honorees, the program’s judges recognized 234 students nationwide as distinguished finalists for their community service activities. Each will receive an engraved bronze medallion.
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals.