Name the paper contest

With school out of session and the halls no longer packed with kids, Pea Ridge Schools have a good opportunity to do some cleaning and other maintenance.

Superintendent Rick Neal said this year, the school is going to be focusing on the usual fare, with no big projects in mind.

“Our summer maintenance Is kind of pretty customary,” he said. “Floors and different types of repairs and maintenance and upkeep.”

While there was an instance of vandalism at the Intermediate School, he said, it did not cause a great deal of damage.

“We had five boys that entered into the building … got into some paint, drew some things on the wall. The damage was minimal,” he said. “We had them on camera and caught them.”

In addition to maintenance and graffiti cleanup, he said, teachers and administrators are staying busy. Teachers, he said, are working on professional development, while administrative staff is performing interviews and considering new hires.

“This is our quiet time of year,” he said.

But people are still working.

Transportation director Cameron McNabb said that there are two people working on buses during the summer, but he’s confident they’ll be sorted out in time for the school year — even if one was stubborn about starting up.

Bus mechanic Marion Holland said that the buses tend to be fairly simple machines, particularly compared to a contemporary car, and the problems typically aren’t anything too dramatic.

“It’s usually just bulbs and things coming loose,” he said. “You get a lot of jarring on these dirt roads.”

Eric Crabtree with M&K Lawn Service said his company, which has a contract to perform basic maintenance on the school’s landscaping, is out working around the school buildings every two weeks. A workday at the schools, he said, could be a couple hours or all day, though three hours is fairly typical during the summer.

They pull weeds, spot spray, check the bushes and trim them as needed and whatever else needs to be done, he said.

“Try to keep it presentable year round,” he said between bouts of spraying weed killer.

TIMES photograph by Keith Bryant Marion Holland, schoolbus mechanic for Pea Ridge Schools, examines an out-of-commission bus’s wiring after making a few adjustments.