Farmington Officials Give School Report

FARMINGTON — Principals and administrators for Farmington Public Schools delivered their annual report to the public at the Farmington School Board meeting on Oct. 26.

Each building principal ( or in one case assistant principal) reported on the status of their schools while district administrators spoke about the Farmington School District as a whole.

District-Wide Report

One of the biggest topics of the report was the new coronavirus and ensuring the school year opened smoothly.

“We’re in a new time right now and I think our staff is doing a great job to provide an atmosphere at both learning locations in order to get the very best to our kids,” said Assistant Superintendent Stephanie Pinkerton.

In the nine to 10 weeks Farmington schools have been in session, 24 students and three staff members have tested positive for covid-19, Pinkerton said.

Currently, as of Oct. 26, one student and one staff member have tested positive for the virus, Pinkerton said

Pinkerton reported that Farmington has 2,576 students in the school district as of Oct. 26, with 2,043 on-site students and 533 virtual students.

She noted that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has granted a waiver to provide free meals in Arkansas for the 2020-2021 school year. This means that Arkansas students have universal feeding this year where every meal is free.

“Free school meals are designed to help students who typically would receive free or reduced cost meals, as well as students whose families have been impacted by the covid-19 pandemic and may be financially struggling,” Pinkerton said.

One of the challenges faced by Farmington was to prepare their schools for learning after being out for several months. The school formed a Ready to Learn committee over the summer which consisted of administrators, parents and teachers, Pinkerton said.

Actions taken by the committee included:

• Ensuring continuity of teaching and learning by providing a guaranteed and viable curriculum that includes blended learning for all grades and diagnostic assessment for K-8.

• Address unfinished learning from the prior year by using the “Arkansas Playbook: Addressing Unfinished Learning” and district developed resources.

• Utilizing Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Seesaw; Google; Buzz; and Canvas.

• Providing teacher training to support blended learning and virtual LMS.

Assistant Superintendent Terri Strope reviewed district goals, including a goal on the statewide initiative, the Science of Reading.

The Science of Reading is a component of the Reading Initiative for Student Excellence (R.I.S.E) which encourages a culture of reading by coordinating a statewide reading campaign with community partners, parents and teachers to establish the importance of reading in homes, schools and communities, according to the Arkansas Department of Education’s website.

“Every teacher, every employee in our district is required to receive some kind of training in the Science of Reading,” Strope said.

Elementary teachers would have to show proficiency in the Science of Reading while secondary teachers would have to have awareness training, Strope said. Presently 59 teachers completed awareness training, she said.

Following Pinkerton and Strope, principals discussed what was going on in their schools.

Folsom Elementary

Folsom’s goals backed up district goals, according to Principal Shannon Cantrell. She said Folsom planned to focus on the Science of Reading.

Another goal at Folsom is getting more technology like Dreambox Math and Amplify Reading, Cantrell said.

Both are adaptive programs purchased this year to support blended learning and to close learning gaps which occurred when kids were out of school, Cantrell said.

“It’s focused on Arkansas state standards and it’s a really nice addition to fill in those gaps and also be something the kids can do at home if indeed we have to (close down again),” Cantrell said.

Williams Elementary

New staff at Williams are Emily Saunders, first grade teacher; Alexis Shelley, second grade teacher; Sara Tennison, a new virtual teacher for Folsom and Williams; speech teacher Courtney Green; teaching assistant Chasity Spicer.

Gardenhire discussed Istation test scores. Istation is the standardized test Farmington administers three times a year to their kindergarten, first and second grade classes.

Gardenhire said many of the test scores from the first round of testing were lower than the same time in 2019. Gardenhire said it shows what happened when schools were closed statewide in March because of the covid19 pandemic.

“We did our best in the spring and the teachers worked so hard, worked their tails off and so did the students and parents to make the best of it, but it just shows the big picture,” Gardenhire said.

The results showed reading scores stayed a little more constant than math scores, Gardenhire said. She is confident when the schools retest in January they will see a different picture.

Farmington Middle School

FMS focused on new ways to learn and interact with others this school year, said Principal Julia Williams.

“We were thinking and planning for five months while we were trying to process what was going on in our country, in our town and in our state,” Williams said.

The principal said students and staff have learned to smile with their eyes because they are wearing protective face coverings. FMS also had its first blended day of learning on Oct. 16 where on-site and virtual students were able to learn together at the same time, and is ready to pivot in case students need to go home again, Williams said.

She also welcomed new faculty to FMS. They include counselor Carla Meadors; administrative assistants Haley Noe, Kristi Caldwell and Lindsey Meek; resource teacher Sarah Heigel; speech pathologist Bethany Freeman; instructional facilitator Tammy Bullock; computer lab manager Deanna Berner; social media/paraprofessional Mary Beth Patterson; paraprofessionals Nicole Hoodenpyle and Barb Pereira; and Kaileigh Shefelbine, licensed practical nurse.

Williams also said she is proud of the virtual academy and the things teachers are doing above and beyond just to give students education.

She reported the school has received a Successful Outcomes for Arkansas Readers grant for $32,500 per year for two years. The first year will go toward purchasing Chromebooks for students and providing tutoring for English Language Learners (ELL), and adopting a literacy initiative the second year, Williams said.

Farmington Junior High

The main priority for FJHS is safety, according to Principal Joe McClung. Along with safety, the school is looking at shoring up soft skills and adapting to new guidelines. McClung said he has seen ways to be more efficient through difficult times.

“Restrictions haven’t been necessarily lifted per se but we are seeing ways we can get creative with how we do things,” McClung said.

One of the things the school focuses on is to ensure that students are connected, McClung said. This means increasing club activities, increasing participation of organizations but also making sure students can find their niche, McClung said.

The school has increased elective offerings to students so they can find different career paths or interests they may have as they move forward. Some of the electives are emergency medical responder, flight and space, medical detectives, as well as offering classes like agriculture, typically a class reserved for ninth graders, to seventh and eight graders.

On the academic side McClung touted some of

the school’s more advanced classes like pre-AP math, English and science courses like algebra I, biology and Pre-AP English.

“We want to make sure that we give students the additional opportunity so when they get to the high school they can take those higher level courses and they can be prepared to take those on,” McClung said.

Farmington High School

The presentation for the high school focused on the football stadium and the school’s Advanced Placement program. Assistant Principal Clayton Williams gave the report in the absence of Principal Jon Purifoy, who was in Jonesboro with the volleyball team.

Fa rm ing ton ju s t completed its second season with the new stadium and was set to host the Regional Band Assessment at its stadium before the coronavirus restrictions, Williams said. The competition was modified where students played at their own stadiums and the judges traveled to different schools to hear the bands, Williams said.

“One thing we always try to hold on to is to try to give these students opportuni

ties and experiences during these crazy times and this is one of them,” Williams said.

Williams said FHS is also planning on introducing soccer this year and playing it in the football stadium.

The assistant principal then switched gears to talk about Farmington’s AP scholars. The high school has the highest number of 3, 4 and 5 scores (out of a scale of 1-5), Williams said. He compared the current AP Exam passing rate of 50.2 percent to 23.9 percent from 10 years ago.

“Going from a 23.9 percent all the way to a 50.2, you know it’s just a small microcosm of how hard our kids have worked, especially how hard staff has worked,” Williams said.

He also touched on the school’s career tech program which teaches students technical trades. Presently the career tech has programs in bio-medical; pre-engineering and TV production.

The high school is in the process of trying to apply to the state Career and Technical Education (CTE) program for a television production pathway, Williams said.

After Williams concluded speaking, the school board thanked the principals for their presentations.