GRAVETTE -- Members of the Gravette school board heard presentations from representatives of five construction companies at their July 16 meeting. Interviews with those firms and one other not represented at the meeting were scheduled for Tuesday, July 24. Selection of a manager for the district's upcoming building program will be announced soon.

Representatives of construction management companies gave two-minute presentations about themselves and their companies. Construction company representatives at the meeting were Dustin Palatine of Crossland Construction, Paul Hively of Nabholz Construction, Phil Jones of CR Crawford Construction, Tori Bolinger of Baldwin Shell and Johnathon Gilbert with Manhattan Construction. FlintCo was added to the interview list at the request of board member Jay Oliphant.

In other action at the meeting, Dennis Kurczek, business manager, gave the June financial report with a statement of assets, liabilities and fund balances for the month.

Richard Page, superintendent of schools, reported that the 21st Century Grant has been approved. Students in kindergarten through eighth grade will be served. The Security and Threat Assessment and Recommendation report is complete. Page said the school's transportation department would receive the Safety Fleet award on July 17 and reported new teacher induction was scheduled on July 25 and 26, an administrators' meeting on July 27 and the August school board budget workshop would be held August 16 at 3 p.m.

Jeff Gravette, assistant superintendent, presented the ACT Aspire results and reported on PLC training held recently in Rogers. Gravette said he hoped to update the Gravette schools Facebook page in order to get out more timely information to the public. He also feels a brochure is needed to better market Gravette schools to prospective teachers and new area residents. He said he would also like the school to have a sports information director and an academic information director.

Mandy Barrett, principal at Gravette Upper Elementary, gave a report on the school's performance report from the Arkansas Department of Education and reasons for the grades received. She said district administrators and teachers plan to place special emphasis on attendance and on science instruction to help bring the grades up. Schedules are being revamped at all schools to emphasize the science curriculum, and the statistical formula for how schools are graded is being studied to see where Gravette schools are coding absences differently.

Page said that Gravette is a high achieving school district but the grades from the state education department don't show it. Attendance is a key factor and it is suspected that many absences are being coded differently. Attendance is taken before field trips so students on those trips are not counted absent, but students who are tardy or leaving early and students who are receiving outside services and are absent for eye appointments and various therapies may be counted incorrectly. The attendance policy has been made more stringent and plans have been made to follow up on students who are habitually absent, so it is hoped attendance scores will go up on the next report card.

Board member Hope Duke congratulated school administrators on bringing scores of weak classes up. She said she would like to hear a report on what they consider the strengths and the weaknesses of each school and suggested the administrators put plans in their goals for how to address the weaknesses.

In other business, board members voted to approve the sale of two school buses. A bid of $4,255 was accepted from Elk River Floats for a 1999 Freightliner, and a bid of $2,901.75 from the Decatur Public Schools for a 2001 Freightliner.

Student transfers were approved as presented. Five students will be transferring in, two from Decatur, and one student will be transferring out to Bentonville. One student desiring to transfer from Bentonville was denied because of capacity issues.

Sheila Roughton, food service director, presented a bid of $22,471 from Superior Dodge at Siloam for a new van she wishes to purchase for food service use. A bid of $20,817 was obtained from state procurement, but the vehicle didn't have the desired seating and cargo area. Members voted to approve the purchase of the van with payment coming from food service funds.

Board members voted to accept a grocery bid from Springfield Grocers for the 2018-2019 school year. Springfield Grocers was the supplier for Gravette schools during the 2017-2018 school term.

Following a short executive session, board members reconvened in regular session and voted to accept the resignation of Sabra Bird as paraprofessional, effective immediately, and of Vic Clouse. Employment contracts were approved for Ron Moore and Gloria Galloway as bus drivers, Steven Smith as elementary and upper elementary music teacher, Sheldon McKenzie as high school social studies teacher, Jared Hall as high school math teacher, Jaymey Boston as fifth grade teacher, Ivony Pianalto as ESL aide/migrant clerk, Alisa Corke as middle school ALE instructor, Jeff Melton as middle school math teacher and head junior high boys' basketball coach, Morgan Bailey as pre-K aide and Mali Schreiber as program director/site coordinator for the upper elementary and middle school afterschool programs.