Gentry School Board creates two new posts

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

GENTRY - School Board members, at their June 17 meeting, accepted the resignation of Marty Edmiston, high school math teacher and coach, reassigned teachers, hired a new math teacher for the middle school and created two new instructional technology facilitator positions in the district.

Board members accepted the resignation of Edmiston from his post as high school math teacher, head high school baseball coach, head junior high football coach, assistant senior high football coach and bowling coach for high school boys’ and girls’ teams.

Edmiston accepted a teaching/coaching position in Springdale, according to Gentry School District superintendent Randy Barrett.

Due to the short time available to search for a replacement coach for the next school year, the formation of a special committee to hire those in prominant public positions will be bypassed and an in-house committee made up of school administrators and staff will begin an immediate search to fill the coaching posts. Because the combination of math teacher and coach is less common, a coach with a different area of licensure may need to be hired.

“We’ll do our best to find an exact fit to the rolls filled by Edmiston, but that may not be possible,” said Brian Little, Gentry’s athletic director.

“What we’re saying is, ‘Don’t be surprised if we have to come back to you and ask you to hire another math teacher at the high school,’” Barrett explained.

The board approved assigning the head coaching position for seventh-grade football to Beau Collins and relieving Mason Pinkley (by his own request) of those duties.

The board also approved hiring Kyle Kimel to teach math at the Gentry Middle School. Kimel has been teaching in Springdale and was a first choice by all on the selection committee. He wanted to teach in a smaller school so he could better know all his students, Barrett said.

At the request of Judy Winslett, Gentry’s federal curriculum coordinator, and at the recommendation of Barrett, the board approved the creation of two new positions to facilitate the use of instructional technology in the district and approved the reassignment of Jenni Morris and Phyllis Berry to those positions, one to serve in the Gentry Primary and Intermediate Schools and one to serve in Gentry Middle and High Schools.

According to Winslett, the district has been purchasing new technology with specialized funding for two years to get the district ready for the new Common Core curriculum and testing. Now, it’s time to spend some of that specialized money to provide facilitators who will help Gentry’s teachers use that new technology most efficiently to teach students in the classrooms.

Winslett said the salaries for the two new positions will not come out of the district’s general funds used for teacher salaries but out of restricted funds designated for such purposes.

Morris and Berry will assist teachers in developing digital teaching materials and aids to enhance student learning and better equip students for continued education and employment in the 21st century. The facilitators will also work with school librarians as they assist students in being responsible and safe users of Internet technologies.

The board approved the transfer of Nou Lee from her post as a first grade teacher to teaching English as a second language. Keith Sexton was reassigned from his post as maintenance helper to bus driver.

Other Business

In other business, the board approved the following:

◊Continued use of Sub-Teach to supply substitute teachers for the district, following a positive review after using the service last year;

◊Renewal of contract with Northwest Technical Institute for its vocational service;

◊A projected biennium budget (required by state law); and

◊Revisions (most of them required by state law) to the board’s policy manual and to the parent student handbook.

Barrett also reported that he was negotiating with the city of Gentry to obtain a school resource officer for the district on a full-time basis during the school year. The district has had an officer on a part-time basis for the last eight years and has paid half the officer’s salary. Barrett said he is negotiating an arrangement whereby the district would have an officer devoted to the school Monday through Friday during the school year, with additional uniformed officer presence at home games and events.

News, Pages 5 on 06/26/2013