GRAVETTE -- School superintendent Richard Page was pleased to report that the Gravette School District had three schools recognized in the top 10 percent in the state for student achievement and improvement.
Gravette Upper Elementary School will receive $35,238.14, Glenn Duffy Elementary $36,540.70 and Gravette Middle School $41,134.51 through this Reward Recognition Program, which will be used for bonuses for faculty and staff. The money is to be used for maintaining and improving student performance, he said, and committee of teachers had met and decided to designate them for personnel. "I know of no other district in the state our size which has three schools in the top 10 percent," he said.
Members of the Gravette High School choir, under the direction of music director Breana Clark, performed just before the start of the December school board meeting. They entertained those present with several holiday carols. Other guests from Gravette schools were Brooklyn Carte, Hailey Baldwin and Christina Bramel, winners of the annual student Christmas card contest. They were recognized and presented with a packet of cards printed from their designs. The winners then led in the pledge of allegiance to open the meeting.
Bill Hayford presented the financial report for the month of November. He noted that fund balances were up in almost every category compared to the same time last year. The FFA's sales of Blue and Gold bacon and sausage had brought in about $2,000 profit.
Page, in his report to the board, said that attendance was pretty consistent. The Oct. 1 student count was 10 students higher than last year.
Page discussed the possibility of broadcasting the monthly board meetings. He said the board could choose to do audio recording, video recording or Internet video streaming. He said the school already has the equipment needed and drama instructor Ian Galloway would send students to do the recording. Susan Santos suggested that the board should be given some training in video recording and this was placed on the agenda for a special meeting on Friday.
Sharla Heltzel presented the special education report that showed growth over the past three years, with 22o special-ed students in 2012, 231 in 2013 and 250 this year. Special-ed students include the autistic, hearing-impaired, visually-impaired, students with various health problems, including orthopedic-impaired, and emotionally disturbed students. Counselors from Ozark Guidance are brought in to work with some students. They are given instruction in reading, math, language and adaptive arts to help them move up to their highest achieving level. Some students may never make it up to the level they need to achieve, she said, but they are taught money skills and living skills in an attempt to make them self-sufficient and hold a job.
Transportation director Richard Carver noted that all bus routes have now been reduced to 60 minutes or less, including the route in the Maysville area. He said the district was short two bus drivers because one driver was leaving to become safety director, in charge of bus driver training, in Olathe, Kan., and one driver was on family medical leave until March 1.
Carver then gave the facilities report, including the Gravette Capital Project Plan. He presented a list of planned projects, including repairs to the Upper Elementary School gym floor, restroom floors in Glenn Duffy Elementary School, demolition of the old Scout hut, turf in the stadium, HVAC replacement at several schools and renovation and a larger parking lot at the administration building.
The board discussed re-establishing a facilities committee, which would be charged with prioritizing projects that need to be done and estimating costs. The facilities master plan will be approved at the January school board meeting and submitted to the state by Feb. 1.
Gravette school district goals for the upcoming school year were approved. Board president Jay Oliphant commended the administration and Susan Santos for their work on the goals, saying they had done an outstanding job and the goals were "3,000 percent better than the previous ones." He was also pleased that guidelines had been set for measuring the achievement of those goals.
Board members voted to approve the transfer of one student from Gravette schools to attend school in Decatur. The student has missed 14 days of school at Gravette and the transfer will allow him to graduate elsewhere.
Approval was also given to upgrading the technology infrastructure with the use of student growth funds. Upgrades are planned so all testing can be moved online and labs can be upgraded. A broadband grant was approved to segment the wireless traffic so each school building would have a separate network, improving the speed of transmission. Installation of a secondary router will ensure that if the tech system has problems there will be minimal downtime. A motion was made and passed unanimously to approve purchase of 80 Dell laptop computers and 16 Casio projectors from White River Services. Purchase price of $62,647.02 will be paid out of Federal Title 1 and NSLA categorical funds.
The board went into executive session at 8:52 p.m. In executive session resignations were accepted from Keith Hubanks, maintenance department; Margaret Allen, food service; and Freda Thompson, bus driver. Board members voted to hire Ashley Oosterman, Ben Onnen and Jake Onnen as 21st Century Grant employees for the duration of the grant and to employ Samuel Morrow as lead maintenance tech.
General News on 12/31/2014