School Board Reorganizes For New Year

PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove School Board reorganized for the 2019-20 school year and member J.C. Dobbs will serve as president, Casie Ruland as vice president and Bart Orr will continue in the role as secretary.

The board last week accepted resignations from gifted and talented teacher Liz Messerschmitt and Joel Taylor, paraprofessional. New hires approved were Leslie Cogburn as elementary art teacher and Lacey Oxford as special education paraprofessional at the elementary school.

One change within the district, as approved by the board, will be to move Melanie Nations from elementary GT teacher to GT teacher for the middle school and high school.

The board approved a bid for $20,210 from Professional Cabling Solutions of Springdale for a new intercom system for the elementary school.

In addition, board members approved another recommendation to determine how much it would cost to reroof part of the high school through the state bid process or whether to seek additional bids. The school is applying for state partnership funds to possibly help with the costs, according to David Kellogg, assistant superintendent.

The board’s July 16 agenda included reports about progress on the schools’ 2018-19 School Improvement Plans and approval of the 2019-20 School Improvement Plans.

The high school’s 2019-20 School Improvement Plan has four goals that include (1) improving the school’s graduation rate, which is 94.29% based on the past four years; (2) improving the ACT College Readiness Score; (3) increasing the percentage of students who earn industry certifications, endorsement or college credit; (4) improving building level collaboration through professional learning communities.

The middle school’s plan shows goals that include (1) 80 percent of the students reading at grade level or above with high comprehension; (2) 80 percent of students at grade level or above in math; (3) collaboration at the building level through professional learning communities; (4) decreasing the number of missing assignments in all areas to 10% or less.

At the elementary school, the improvement plan calls for (1) continued improvement of the literacy program in kindergarten through fourth grade through the use of certain programs; (2) providing teachers with appropriate training/tools in order to handle students with severe emotional/ behavioral issues; (3) all certified staff will collaborate in weekly meetings in their professional learning communities.

In other action, the school board approved student handbooks. The middle school is the only one with changes.

Middle school students will be required to put up their cell phones and/or electronic devices during class. Each classroom will have a place for the devices or students can keep them in their backpacks, but not on their person.

The board also approved a resolution to hold the next school election on Nov. 3, 2020, instead of during the preferential primary election on March 3, 2020.

Dobbs