School District to combine 6 grades at Western Grove

LITTLE ROCK — The Western Grove campus in the Ozark Mountain School District will house all of the district’s seventh through 12th graders starting in the 20232024 school year.

The Arkansas Board of Education on Thursday upheld the 4-3 decision made earlier by the district’s School Board to move secondary school grades from the small Bruno-Pyatt and St. Joe campuses to the Western Grove site that is home to the Ozark Mountain Bears athletic teams.

Elementary grades will continue to be served at Bruno-Pyatt and St. Joe campuses, as well as at the Western Grove site.

All three campuses in the 368-square-mile district are classified as “isolated” and, as such, by law can’t be shuttered without a unanimous vote of the local school. The district’s board had voted in favor of the changes, but it was not unanimous — resulting in the local board having to petition the state board for a final decision.

By law, the state board can uphold a plan to close isolated campuses if it determines that the change is in the best interest of students overall.

“Our students deserve more than they are getting,” Ozark Mountain Superintendent Jeff Lewis told the state board about academics, athletics and other extracurricular activities.

By combining the three high schools into one, choir, band, Advanced Placement courses, art, EAST Lab, drama, robotics and computer science can either be added to the curriculum or expanded in their scope, Lewis said.

Lewis and the district’s financial consultant Norman Hill said the three high schools are currently meeting state standards for curriculum offerings — partly through online instruction — but that the operation will not be sustainable after this school year and the expenditure of one-time funds.

“They must do something drastic to survive,” Hill said about the school system, after saying that the district receives enough state funding to support nine teachers but employs 22 in order to meet state requirements.

Western Grove, about 12 miles from Harrison, has a seventh through 12th grade enrollment of about 100 students. Bruno-Pyatt has a seventh through 12th grade enrollment of 75 and St. Joe has 48 students.

Bruno- Pyatt, Western Grove and St. Joe were separate school districts that merged in 2004 in response to a state law that required districts to have an enrollment of at least 350 to continue to operate. The former Bruno and Pyatt districts had merged earlier, in 1974.

Darryl Treat, executive director of the Greater Searcy County Chamber of Commerce, one of four people who spoke in opposition to the changes and submitted a petition against them, argued that St. Joe is not a failing school and that time is needed to explore options.

At a time when state political and education leaders are calling for empowering parents to make the best school choices for their children, Treat said parents see the St. Joe campus as the best fit for their students.