El Dorado News-Times

JC School Board approves substitute pay increase

Lowe: One-week delay ‘not big of a deal’

- By Brittany Williams Staff Writer

JUNCTION CITY — The Junction City School Board approved a substitute teacher pay increase at its meeting Tuesday.

The new daily rate of $70 breaks down to $8.75 an hour, 25 cents more than the Arkansas minimum wage rate.

“Four years ago, we were at $60. We went to $65, $68 (and now) $70. It’s still less than what a paraprofes­sional makes,” said Superinten­dent Robby Lowe.

After a phone call with ERC architect Michael Rogers, Lowe reported to the board that the district should expect to open bids on Tuesday as scheduled.

“We may need to have a special board meeting to approve the bids but if we’re not in a big hurry, we’ll just do it in April,” the superinten­dent said. “(The state) had sent back some minor modificati­ons for him to make to his documents. He’s in the process of doing that but doesn’t foresee it as an issue. Worst case scenario, we’ll be one week late opening bids and that’s really not that big of a deal.”

Lowe said the district is going to do maintenanc­e projects on the football field, which includes a new drainage system and crowning. District employees will

do most of the work, but ERC and the county will provide assistance.

In addition to showing excitement for several of the school’s competitiv­e teams, high school Principal Joy Mason said that Larry Bell strategies including the 12 Powerful Words are working in the classroom.

Words like “analyze,” “evaluate” or “infer” may trip a student on the ACT Aspire, but Larry Bell’s strategies converts them into student-friendly phrases.

Through six-minute “bell ringers” students reinforce test-taking skills, concepts and strategies they’ve learned before. At the elementary school, students sing and dance to an original song that incorporat­es the words, Lowe said.

“That’s something that’s in lesson plans and as I walk around, you can hear how different teachers are implementi­ng the 12 Powerful Words and how they’re getting those across to the students,” she said. “I like it and I really think that the motivation, the high energy is extremely important … The teachers, their feedback has been ‘We want to make it our own.”

The board also approved the resignatio­ns of kindergart­en teacher Kelsey Jones, high school math teacher Emily Smith and junior high math teacher Roxanne Robison, effective May 30.

The Junction City School Board’s next meeting is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. April 10 in the special programs meeting room.

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