GENTRY -- Randy Barrett, Gentry School District superintendent, told the school board at a special meeting on Monday that the Arkansas Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation denied the district's final appeal of an earlier decision which found that the school district did not qualify for an academic facilities grant to assist the district in building a new high school.
Barrett said the state agency representatives were kind and courteous but said no to Gentry's appeal and reasoning, as they did to all the other districts which appealed.
The district had applied for the funding to assist in the cost of building a $20 million new high school so that the high school would have needed facilities to fully implement the new Common Core Curriculum and so that the intermediate school could be moved into the middle school and the middle school into the existing high school building.
Barrett described the district's plan as meeting two school needs with one project. He said the district would now likely have to focus on the most pressing need, a new school facility for the intermediate school -- a project which could be completed for far less than the high school project, approximately $8 million rather than $20 million.
Barrett also told the board that the education pendulum is shifting away from trying to prepare all students for college and toward career and technical training so that graduating seniors are equipped to enter the workforce and obtain good paying jobs. He said the charter school plans discussed last month, and another he learned of in West Memphis, might want to be the direction Gentry takes to prepare its students for careers after high school.
Whether Gentry should further pursue the option of establishing a charter school within the district was a matter discussed at the Dec. 15 school board meeting, with the board voting unanimously to look deeper into options for the Gentry District.
Judy Winslett, curriculum coordinator for Gentry Public Schools, told the board last month of a recent visit to the Pea Ridge charter high school -- a second high school in the Pea Ridge School District, with a focus on preparing students for technical jobs in the area upon graduation. She said the charter school allowed students to complete required courses via computer curriculum and focus more time to prepare for employment in industry or health-care fields after graduation.
Winslett explained that the charter school option offered by the Arkansas Department of Education allows for open-enrollment schools which would draw on students from other neighboring districts or charter schools within the district -- either an additional school, such as the one in Pea Ridge, or the conversion of a school to a charter school as is being done in the case of Siloam Springs High School.
The advantage of having a charter school, Winslett explained, is that it gives the school some freedom and flexibility in meeting state requirements for public schools and allows the schools to focus on certain areas for the benefit of students. Those pathways (the focus of the charter school) can go in a variety of different directions, allowing schools the flexibility to prepare students for employment in technical fields rather than focusing on college readiness alone.
While required academic classes would still need to be taught by certified teachers, trade and technical instruction could be provided by non-certified staff with knowledge and experience in the fields of study.
Due to the low numbers of students who graduate from high school and then go on to complete a college degree program, Winslett said the schools may be failing to prepare a lot of students for success when entering the workforce. She said charter schools could work with local businesses and industries to provide students with both the academic and technical skills to make them ready to go to work when they graduate or at least have a skill to support themselves while they pursue a college education.
The ideal, Winslett said, is for area businesses to be contacting and offering employment to students when they graduate rather than have students seek employment with no skills needed for the positions.
Suggested at the board meeting was the possibility of working with area employers like McKee Foods, SWEPCO and the poultry industry to set up a charter school which allowed students to prepare and train for entering specific areas of the workforce at the same time as they completed academic requirements. Also suggested was working together with other school districts on the Highway 59 corridor to provide the most opportunities for students.
According to Winslett, if interested, Gentry Schools would have to submit a letter of intent by July of 2015 and apply to the state Department of Education by September to open a school in the fall of 2016.
Unlike the schools of innovation program, startup funding is available for charter schools and grants are often available, Winslett said.
Should the Gentry School District pursue the start up of a new charter school or the conversion of an existing school into a charter school, research into the needs of students with input from the community and area businesses and employers would be needed to select the most appropriate pathways and focus for the new school. Also needed would be an administrator and instructors who can work together with area businesses and industry and use business and industry management practices at the school.
Should the Gentry School District pursue the possibility of a charter school within the district?
"I think we would be doing our students a disservice if we didn't," said Jim Barnes, board president, last month. And the rest of the board agreed.
In other business, the board finalized the selection of members to a special search committee charged with selection in the hiring of a new head football coach for Gentry High School. The board also approved the hiring of Shanna Sullins as a special education aide at the primary school, accepted the resignation of Michael Fletcher as night custodian at Gentry Intermediate School and approved a 12-week family medical leave for Megan Oaks, to begin about Feb. 2.
The board also discussed seeking input from students and parents to be used by the search committee in deciding who to hire as Gentry's new football coach.
General News on 01/14/2015