Keeping students in school and learning
If a student’s learning style is non-traditional, he or she can fall off the educational track.
Even before he was hired as school superintendent, high school principal Rick Neal had a vision for saving those students who were getting “lost.”
“I’ve been working on this for several years here in Pea Ridge,” Neal said. “A number of our students are lost because of not having this program (alternative education) in our community. These students are non-traditional learners — non-traditional students.”
“We’re creating a model ... it will be for seventh through 12th grades.”
Neal recently attended a national Alternative Learning Conference in Nashville, Tenn.
“Since 2007, we’ve been attending Boston Mountain Cooperative,” Neal said, saying that only 38 of the 178 sent there in the last five years has graduated, and blaming the 45-minute drive each way for much of the problem.
“I have an empathy for these kids,” he said, explaining that he hopes to see the new program
help students with credit recovery.
And to that end, Pea Ridge ceased its contract with the Boston Mountain Coop and is hiring people to work in the alternative program at the high school, as well as re-assigning currently employed teachers to the Alternative School.
Neal and the School Board have selected teachers for the center and are interviewing applicants for the director. He has two sites in mind for the location of the school — either the third-grade wing which will be empty when the new Intermediate School is completed or the former Head Start building at the football field. He said he looks forward to the coming year.
“I am going to be there for all the stake holders in this journey — the parents, the students. I don’t want to lose that contact with the students,” Neal said. “And the teachers, I’ll be there for the teachers.
“I think we have all been negative about these kids. We’ve removed them to keep them from being a distraction to the other students. We were not helping these kids. I had to help the remaining population by taking them away,” he said, obviously grieving over the “lost” students. “Right now, I’ve lost over 19 kids this year.”
“They’re walking the streets. They vanquish.”
The new program has a sense of balance with accountability, Neal said, and he hopes to help the students regain the necessary credits to earn their high school diploma.
“Most people want somebody to be visible and somebody to speak to them. I think a good school leader makes themselves visible and available,” he said. “That means going to the bus shop and listening to the bus drivers, their concerns and criticisms. I’m going to be able to talk to cafeteria workers and maintenance staff.”
Neal served as the transportation director and athletic director while at Lincoln and still taught four classes. He said he knows each of the positions and can identify with the unique challenges each presents.
“I think that my back- ground from working in my dad’s retail Otasco store when I was 10 years old all the way to working as the high school principal has given me incredible experiences dealing with diverse individuals. I feel like my dad’s gift in life has been able to communicate with different people in the retail world. That’s where I received my gift. My dad was always good to people,” Neal said, adding that he was the first college graduate in his family on his father’s side and that most of his mother’s family was in the military.
“I treat people with dignity and respect. I expect that out of our employees and I’ll expect that out of our students.”
“My greatest strength, my gift to community and to everyone — I can’t think of one person who ever walked out feeling like they weren’t listened to. They knew I cared about what was happening,” he said. “I feel like I’m fair dealing with their children.”
Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series on Neal and his vision for the Pea Ridge School District.