Superintendent Childress welcomes a restriction-free year
Superintendent Maribel Childress is beginning her 32nd year in education. She has spent the last 25 years as an educational administrator in Northwest Arkansas and this is her third year as superintendent of the Gravette School District. She was quick to say what she is most excited about as the new school year begins. “We are hoping for a great postCOVID school year,” she said. “A year free of the restrictions that we all had to live with for the past two years.”
All of the Gravette district educators are excited for a school year of in-person learning. Much of the first school year of the pandemic was focused on responding to covid and the gaps in education that resulted from school closure and virtual learning. But Gravette can boast that during that 2020-2021 school year, schools did not close a single day as a result of covid.
There are other exciting new things going on in the Gravette School District.
“Probably the most visible new thing is we are just completing our AstroTurf project at the football, baseball and softball field,” the superintendent said. “That will be something that everybody will notice when they come back in the fall.”
The district is also adding new programs to their Career Center, including a construction tech program and a criminal justice program.
“The construction program will give our students just a great foundation for all of the construction trades,” Childress said. “So, for students who are interested in that, it’ll help them learn more about plumbing, electricity and engineering and just help give them more of an idea of what they may want to do after high school. It will also give them a chance to earn industry certifications that would help them go straight into the workforce after high school.”
In the criminal justice program, students will have the opportunity to learn more about some of different areas of criminal justice.
“They can then apply their learning to some of those different areas in case they’re interested in law enforcement academies, paralegal school or emergency responder kinds of jobs after high school,” Childress noted.
“To the students, I just want to say it is going to be a great year of learning and we will have some unexpected surprises,” she said. “I don’t want to spoil the surprises but I will say we want learning to be an event. We don’t want our students to be complacent or have their mind somewhere other than in the classroom. We want their learning experience to be an event and something that makes memories. We’re just excited about the new school year that will be full of making memories and learning.
“You know, the thing that I think makes Gravette Schools so special is our tight knit community,” she continued. “The teachers know their students, the teachers get to know the parents and the community really embraces our school district and our students. The community backs our school district and supports the families. Whether it be providing school supplies and backpacks or helping them when they’re older students make the move into the workforce, we just have a great support system in this community. I like to say that going to school in Gravette is like going to school with family.”