Farmington school to seek designation
FARMINGTON — The Farmington School District’s Cardinal Academy will apply to become a state school of innovation. The district’s School Board gave unanimous consent for the application on Monday.
Schools of innovation are allowed to attempt new and creative alternatives to traditional instruction and administration. The state Legislature created the designation to try and find new, creative ways to improve learning.
Cardinal Academy could, for instance, allow field trips to count as state-mandated classroom time if it successfully receives the designation, Superintendent Jon Laffoon said.
Cardinal Academy is the district’s alternative learning center, serving students from grades six through 12.
The board’s action allows the academy to apply for the designation, but schools of innovation are approved by the state Department of Education. Farmington will have to apply to the department’s Division of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The process requires a technical assistance meeting with the division to review the application’s specifics. The requirements include training by the Office of Innovation for Education at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
The academy would have to implement its suggestions if approved and show they succeed.
The final application is reviewed by a team of educators.
Final approval must come from the state secretary of education. The status, if granted, lasts for four years at a time.
In other business, the board reapproved existing memorandums of understanding.
Those partnerships extended include understandings with Methodist Counseling Clinic for student counseling services, the Farmington Police Department for a school resource officer, an agreement with Northwest Arkansas Community College for programs to train certified nursing assistants and dental hygienists and leasing some classroom space to Drury University.
The board also approved contracts to refinish the floors of the district’s junior high school.
Monday’s board meeting fell on the same day the high school’s football coach, J.R. Eldridge, announced plans to resign to take a job in the private sector, though the resignation was not discussed there.
“I am grateful to my family, coaching staff, players and supportive administration and parents who worked hard and sacrificed to make memories that will last a lifetime,” Eldridge said in a Monday morning statement.
He announced plans to join Geosurfaces, a Louisiana-based artificial turf installation company, as director of business development for south Arkansas and north Louisiana.