Continues building on success
MOUNTAIN PINE — The Mountain Pine School District is excited to build upon the successes of last year and ready for the challenges this school year will offer.
The district, led by Superintendent Bobby Applegate, is beginning construction on its new safe room, agriculture building, and Community Based Instruction building this summer. The safe room will be used by both school and community members in case of emergency, while the agriculture building will assist in the continuing development of our agriculture program, led by Jason Braziel. The CBI room will be instrumental in offering life skills education to students receiving Special Education services, and Mountain Pine Special Education Supervisor Shelley Applegate agrees.
“Our students need the skills the Community Based Instruction offers, and we are excited to be able to spearhead this program in our district,” she said.
The district is also proud of our school resource officer, Deputy Matt Cogburn, as he was recognized at the Arkansas Safe Schools Conference for being nominated for SRO of the Year. He will provide classes again this year to our students about internet safety, drug and alcohol avoidance, and state and federal laws.
The 2018-19 school year will begin with teacher in-service week Aug. 6-9, culminating in the annual Community Carnival from 5 to
6:30 p.m. on Aug. 9. An open house will follow, with a teacher “meet and greet” and staff members eager to show parents and students the positive changes in buildings and programs.
Toby Crosby, Mountain Pine High School principal, is looking forward to the 2018-19 school year. Our College and Career Coach, Tammy Brown, has scheduled College Hops, Financial Aid workshops and events throughout the upcoming school year. She will again partner with National Park College in providing Talent Search and Upward Bound programs for seventh through 12thgrade students and is the satellite instructor for Upward Bound through NPC. Mountain Pine High School continues to offer vocational and career training through partnership with NPTC and COTO. We also offer free college classes and concurrent credit opportunities for all qualifying students.
Lisa Engebretson, Mountain Pine Elementary School principal, sees positive changes happening throughout campus. The elementary is excited to be welcoming several new staff members who we know will be a great addition to our Mountain Pine family. Teachers have been meeting this summer to plan for the upcoming year and new literacy curriculum. The Gifted and Talented Program, led by Melissa Wilson, will implement exciting STEM/STEAM activities including Google Classroom for students who require additional enrichment.
The school is also currently working on some physical changes in the building. The building office has been painted, redecorated, and is a lot more welcoming. We want our students to know how much we care about them, and we want them to be proud to be a Red Devil. Our school is growing, and we couldn’t be more excited. It’s truly all about the kids.
Last year was a great year for the athletic and band program at Mountain Pine and our athletic director James Galarza hopes we continue the upward trend again this year. Our band continues to thrive and grow under the leadership of band director and music teacher Christopher Johns. Our teams made the state playoffs for football, boys basketball, and baseball, with their winning season and placing first in the District Tournament, to all three head coaches winning a coach of the year award.
Fishing, once again, made it’s way to Lake Dardanelle, bowling placed some athletes for all conference and all state, which seems to be a consistent theme with the bowling team every year. Golf was started, some of the facilities were improved, and archery and trap shooting had plenty of participation. Cheer competed well in competition for its first time. Now, we look forward to building on the success we had from last year going into the 2018-19 school year.
Senior High Football will return several key players and underclassmen. Senior girls should be competitive and senior boys basketball should return to the playoffs. Golf has two returning players from last year with a year experience who will be competitive again this year. Trap shooting and archery are expanding and more students are projected to participate.
Consistency plays a key in anything, we have all our coaching staff back, and they have been working hard over the summer from camps to workouts. Our Pee Wee program, from football to cheer to girls basketball, has helped prepare these athletes for the high school. Our volunteer coaches and workers have played key roles in their development. Let’s get the season started. Go Red Devils!