GRAVETTE — Members of the Gravette school board, in a special meeting Thursday evening, July 6, held a brief discussion of a demographic study of the district. Board president Jay Oliphant said he had asked the members to send their comments to him regarding the study and received only one brief response.

Hope Duke, who had been traveling out of town, asked that the report be placed on the agenda again at the regular board meeting July 17, because she had not had time to study it carefully. Oliphant told members they should agree on appropriate boundaries and they did agree to revise the designated "planning areas" in the report and simply divide the district into four quarters for purposes of tracking projected enrollment growth.

Oliphant reported the study showed that no new school building was needed for a minimum of five years, so he did not wish to waste time talking about building now. The report did not take into consideration the new addition at the upper elementary, he said, but figures did show that the high school would most likely be the first to run out of space.

After adjourning into executive session, board members returned to regular session and voted to accept the resignations of James Hendrix, high school band director; Gloria Calloway, bus driver; Jennifer Amos, paraprofessional; and Stacy Curl, child nutrition worker.

In other action, the board voted to offer employment contracts for the 2017-2018 school year to Taylor Bower, high school math teacher; Sarah Jordan-Reyes, middle school English teacher; Brandi Varner, junior high assistant volleyball coach and upper elementary physical education teacher; Emily Ensor, third grade teacher; Bobbie Shields, child nutrition worker; Julie Whitehead, child nutrition worker; Stephanie Phillips; cafeteria cook/cashier; Jennifer Mahon, cafeteria manager at Glenn Duffy Elementary; Amanda White, junior high cheer coach; and Aaron Ray, high school band director.

General News on 07/12/2017