Trojans looking to return to a sense of normalcy as classes restart
Parkers Chapel School District
Parkers Chapel School District will welcome students back on August 16, and the district has been hard at work preparing for the new school year, said Superintendent John Gross.
“Our summer maintenance, custodial and transportation departments have been moving classrooms, painting, cleaning and waxing floors,” Gross said. “They have been preparing equipment, servicing buses and remodeling science labs.”
He also shared some changes that will be implemented in early August.
“We are going to implement the High Reliability School’s model on Aug. 11, 12, and 13,” Gross shared. “A consulting group will come to our school to work with our faculty with fellow professional learning community members at each grade level and in each area of our curriculum.”
Gross said this collaboration is to help bolster the strength of lesson plans and assessments. PCSD teachers, along with this consulting group, will analyze the data and determine which students need further instruction.
“In order for our teachers to have time to do this, we are reducing our class schedule from eight periods to seven periods,” Gross said. “Last year, our school day ended at 3:30 p.m. This year our school day will end at 2:46 p.m. Student athletes will go with their coaches and teachers will meet each day in their professional learning communities until 3:30 p.m.”
Along with this plan, the district has been able to hire academic interventionists for the district. Two master elementary teachers in the district will be receiving further training this year to be able to help students that need further assistance according to Gross.
“We’ve been able to hire two additional literacy interventionists in the elementary school and one in math,” Gross said. “In the high school, we have hired one interventionist in math, one in literacy and one in science.”
Gross said these changes are important because the district recognizes that there has been some learning loss due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
More academic changes for the district include the introduction of a new literacy curriculum called Benchmark for grade levels K-5. The career and technical education programs will also be experiencing some redesign, according to the superintendent. The new programs will have a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) focus and will utilize tools such as drones, 3-D printers, a green screen and more to encourage video production, building robots and other activities.
PCSD students will return to in-person instruction for the start of the new school year.
“I know our students will be excited to return to school and be with their friends,” Gross said. “Our athletes have already been training, our cheer groups have been going to camps, our band director is getting all of their instruments repaired and ready. We are looking forward to a more normal school year.”
But as Arkansas continues to see a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, some guidelines will still be put in place for the school year.
“Masks are recommended but not required,” Gross said. “We will still social distance in class. The custodial team will continue to do our sanitizing and cleaning protocols. There will still be protocols in place but they will not be as restrictive as last year.”
Students that have been vaccinated and are exposed to someone with COVID during the school year will not have to quarantine unless they start showing symptoms, Gross said. If a student has previously had the virus they will be considered immune for 90 days.
Another update for the upcoming school year includes free breakfast and lunches for all students, Gross stated.
“We’re also looking to start a weekend breakfast program,” Gross added.
PCSD School Board Members this year include John Morgan, President; Lisa Murray, VicePresident; Jason Hardy, Secretary; Bonnie Fish, Board Member; Kristina Madison, Board Member.
“We can’t wait to see our students and we’re looking forward to the new school year,” Gross concluded.