Teacher Raises Approved

SCHOOLS FOCUS ON LITERACY CURRICULUM Man Leads Officers On Chase

FARMINGTON — Farmington School Board approved a $1,000 raise for its teachers and administrators last week, bringing the base salary for a new teacher to $ 41,200. The raise will be applied to the school district’s salary schedule and is retroactive to July 1.

Farmington administration typically recommends a bonus or raise close to the Christmas holiday. Superintendent Bryan Law said employees may not expect to receive one but admitted it is customary.

“This comes at a valuable time,” Law said.

According to Law, Farmington’s base salary for a new teacher is the seventh highest in the state. He told board members Farmington wants to remain competitive with districts in the region so it can retain and attract teachers.

The board also approved a 2.4 percent increase for classified employees.

Mandy Uher, district treasurer, said the raises will cost Farmington School District about $300,000, including costs for benefits.

Most of the meeting was taken up by an update on the school’s strategic plan, formulated with the assistance of John Brown University’s Soderquist Center. Assistant Superintendent Stephanie Pinkerton gave a Power Point presentation showing how the district is working to improve literacy scores.

The district has identified three areas of action for literacy: implement a comprehensive literacy program for kindergarten-sixth grade, align kindergarten- sixth grade literacy and align seventh-12th grade literacy.

One of the main areas of focus, Pinkerton said, is phonics instruction for kindergarten through fifth grade. Teachers began looking at ways to improve phonics last year through professional development and working with each other in professional learning communities.

“They have shared with each other and learned from each other,” Pinkerton said, adding teachers of all grades are “looking at the final destination and how to get there.”

Instruction for K-6 grades is provided in whole groups and small groups. Small groups allow teachers to work with those students on their level. Some need more help and others need enrichment, she said. For seventh-12th grades, teachers are identifying skills and strategies for reading literature and informative text, writing narratives, research and speaking and listening.

Pinkerton commended teachers for their hard work and said Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative also has assisted the school district in strengthening its literacy curriculum.

Pinkerton listed several results from the action plans: increased communication between buildings, sharing best practices, using a common language every year that students are familiar with and establishing a 90-minute literacy block for kindergarten through sixth grade.

“We’re focused on learning, not just focused on teaching,” Pinkerton said.

Her presentation included short videos of teachers telling about the progress. Teachers from kindergarten through high school all spoke about the advantages of the changes and the professional development. Several commented that they believe they are better teachers and their students are benefiting and learning from this.

FARMINGTON — Two Farmington police officers and a Washington County sheriff ’s deputy were involved in a pursuit Friday morning that started on North Holland Drive in Farmington and ended in a parking lot on the University of Arkansas campus, according to Capt. Mike Wilbanks with Farmington Police Department.

Dakota King, 24, of Fayetteville, is facing theft of property motor vehicle, fleeing, reckless driving, first degree criminal mischief and also a parole violation, according to Washington County Detention Center website.

On Thursday, a 1977 blue Chevrolet El Camino was reported missing from the Farmington High School parking lot. Wilbanks said Detective William Redfern spotted the vehicle Friday morning and pulled in behind it.

When Redfern was exiting his vehicle, the El Camino took off down South Holland toward Wolfdale. It then traveled to Highway 170, to Ash Street, Neal Street, Sprague and was north bound on Old Farmington. From there, Wilbanks said the vehicle went through the grassy field behind Colliers Drugstore and back on U.S. 62 to Fayetteville. King then crossed oncoming traffic on Martin Luther King Boulevard into Lot 56 on the university campus. He went back across Martin Luther King through Chick-fil-a parking lot, behind Sonic, through the Sonic parking lot, across Martin Luther King again and into Lot 56 again. The vehicle was traveling on two flats and finally ended in the parking lot across from the university’s police department.

Wilbanks said the vehicle started spinning and the sheriff ’s deputy hit King’s vehicle with his patrol car, causing it to spin around into some parked cars. Wilbanks said he pulled in and blocked the vehicle from going anywhere.

King was taken to Washington Regional Medical Center because he was “exhibiting signs of chemically induced behavior,” Wilbanks said.

After King was released from the hospital, he was taken to Washington County Detention Center.