Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

ESB To Network New Computers

New computers have been purchased by the Emmet School District and will soon be networked.

Dr. Gene Ross, Emmet superintendent, told the Emmet School Board the district received $56,000 in grant money and has bought 16 new computers.

He said 13 of these computers were bought with funds from an Impact Technology grant, with the other three coming from an International Paper Co. grant.

Now, two computers are in each room at Emmet. These systems will be networked, he informed the panel at its regular monthly meeting Monday, Jan. 10, to make it easier on everybody.

At this time, he said, each computer has to be downloaded individually.

Enrollment at the school is down from December, the board was told. The elementary school's head count was 180, while the high school number is 117. This puts total enrollment at Emmet at 297.

The elementary side lost three students during the Christmas holidays, while the high school saw nine students leave the district.

The board approved a field trip for students in the fourth and fifth grades to visit the Perot Theater in Texarkana in February, where they will see a play.

Several field trips were approved for high school students as well. A total of 20 students will be selected to visit the Arkansas Department of Correction.

Citizens National Bank will be the site of the Emmet junior/senior prom this spring. Students going will meet in the bank's banquet room.

Cheerleaders were given permission to have a fund raising event April 15. A pageant will be held to raise money for cheerleading activities.

This pageant, the board was told, will be open to the entire area and not just Emmet. The entry fee is $45 per person.

The board also approved a field trip to Texarkana for girls in the ninth grade. No date has been set for this trip yet.

The district's textbook committee selected reading books for elementary students, choosing the Score Foresman series.

Members of the panel went to a textbook caravan in Texarkana recently to look them over. Each of the committee had a list from each company.

They discussed what they did and didn't like about each one, narrowing their list down and then voted for the ones they liked best.

The consensus was to go with the Foresman series because of the reading level. In addition, this company's product has questions at the end of the stories so parents can help their children as well.

The Foresman books, the board was told, also has a vocabulary with them which is color coded by grade level.

According to the committee, the vocabulary is based on words students should know in each grade, so when they come across them in a story, they will know what the words mean.

Ross, in the superintendent's report, said the district is getting where it should be on the lunchroom budget, but could have to supplement it by the end of the year.

He said the school is working on an application for startup money for a vocational home economics course. The application must be turned in by March.

Rooms at the school have been examined to see which would be best suited for such a class, with the old home economics room being the one recommended.

Ross said it would be to the district's advantage to remodel the old home ec room and use it solely for this purpose.

The district will have to purchase computerized sewing machines to fulfill some of the course requirements, along with other appliances.

The room itself will have to be rewired, with new doors, windows and a central heat and air conditioning unit put in.

Ross said the district received $12,000 startup money when it began offering the vocational business course.

It was said the school could get up to $30,000 for the vocational home ec course, depending on how many schools apply for the funds.

Board member Jack Faulkner said the district may be able to start a chapter of the Future Farmers of America at Emmet again in the future the way things are going.

The panel approved seeking bids for the electrical work along with the central heat and air unit.