Oliphant elected school board president

GRAVETTE -- Members of the Gravette school board held election of new officers at their October meeting. Jay Oliphant was elected board president. Other officers are Bryan Johnson, vice-president; Heather Finley, secretary; Hope Duke, primary disbursing officer; and Tracy Moorman, secondary disbursing officer.

Richard Page, superintendent of schools, led the Pledge of Allegiance to open the meeting. Oliphant displayed the certificate of accreditation the school received at the AdvancED Arkansas Conference in Little Rock Oct. 18. Page reported on the Bright Futures kickoff breakfast and said it resulted in several new volunteers signing up. Board member John Edwards commented that it is an excellent program.

Bill Hayford, business manager, gave a financial report. He said the auditor is still here and would probably stay three or four more weeks. He said the school would be converting Monday to a new e-system with a more user-friendly interface. He said federal dollars were coming in and a large portion of Title I funds have been received. He reported a current cash balance of $5,646,578.44.

Richard Page gave his superintendent's report. He said he and the high school tech team, accompanied by assistant principal Taos Jones and school technology director Robin Leonard had gone to the Arkansas Public School Resource Center fall conference Oct. 17 and Jones made a presentation there. He said 78 school choice and out-of-state students are enrolled this year, down from 82 last year. The number is down a little because a school does not have to accept such students if they are already at capacity. He presented the Oct. 1 district enrollment report showing a total of 1,914 students, including pre-K. There are 1,857 students without pre-K. He said Mandy Barrett, upper elementary principal, Sharla Heltzel, Janna Sharp and Pam Page will make a presentation Dec. 8 at the Arkansas School Board Association meeting in Little Rock on the school's program for mentoring new teachers.

Sharla Heltzel presented the Every Student Excel Act annual report and the 2016-2017 ACSIP plan. She said students did well on the Iowa Test. They tested proficient in all areas, very close to advanced.

Representatives from BiLD Architects and Nabholz Construction Company were present to give a facilities report. They presented a proposed timeline for the upper elementary addition, with a move-in date of Aug. 10, 2017. All facilities plans will be submitted by Dec. 8, then there will be a three-week bid process. They said they needed to get the pad in for the new maintenance building before freezing weather, then workers will get the metal building in and construct it.

Superintendent Page gave a vocational education report. He said an application had been submitted to start an advanced manufacturing course. $125,000 of equipment has been donated for the program. Senator Jim Hendren recently visited the school and said that Page and high school principal Jay Chalk have done an excellent job with the vocational program. He also visited the Young Democrat and Young Republican clubs while here. Page said the monthly meetings of the Western Benton County consortium present a unique opportunity to get legislators to consider funding for career and vocational education. Page had recently met with Gentry school superintendent Randy Barrett and said he was open to having students from Gravette and other area schools enroll in Gentry's diesel mechanic course. He reported that the school's new website features a link to the Western Benton County Career Center.

Sharla Heltzel gave a minority recruitment plan report, showing a total of 137 white minority students and three American Indians among the students enrolled.

Jim Singleton was approved as president of the facilities committee and he, Susan Santos and Mitchell Wilber were approved as community members of the committee. Board member Jack Skillett requested that another community member be added at a later date.

Board members adjourned for a short executive session. When they reconvened in regular session, they voted to accept the resignation of bus driver Deryl King. They also voted to approve employment contracts for Mali Schreiber as special education paraprofessional, Teresa Ford as custodian, Stacy Curl as cafeteria worker at the middle school and Shawnda Craig as cafeteria baker at the high school.

Items on the agenda for a Nov. 1 planning session were transportation, including bus driver pay and bus ride times; board goals; vocational ed plans, including drawings from the facilities committee and consideration of business ed and commerce courses; and a refresher on board rules and regulations.

General News on 11/02/2016