Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Student Rewards Studied At Emmet Schools

Improved grades on the SAT-9 tests will result in rewards for Emmet students.

The Emmet School Board, at its regular meeting Monday, March 6, agreed to reward students who bring up their SAT scores by 10 percentile points from last year.

Suggestion for rewards for elementary students include field days, popcorn and movies at school, certificates recognizing the improvement, extra recesses, special notes home to parents, a picnic, getting to pick the menu for lunch one day, a pizza party and for those reaching the 90th percentile, lunch with a teacher and/or principal off campus.

For high school students the rewards for bringing their scores up 10 percentile points on reading, math or composite could include two periods of free time in the gym with refreshments. A movie could be shown if the students preferred it over the gym.

At this time there are 295 students enrolled in the Emmet schools. Floyd Pollock said there are 181 in the elementary school, while Frank Henson said there are 114 in high school.

A group is asking the district permission to have an old timer's basketball game with the proceeds to be used to put up goals at the tennis court and use it for outdoor basketball.

The idea is to have four basketball goals on the two courts so children will have somewhere to play during the summer.

Jack Faulkner, a member of the board, said it could become a hangout if it's fixed too nicely and people could tear it up.

Faulkner voiced his objection on having people coming on school grounds Saturday and all through the summer when no one is around to monitor them.

Superintendent Dr. Gene Ross said the idea of an old timer's game is a good one, but it needs to be limited to just men and women.

He suggested having the game the same night as the Spring Festival, Friday, April 28, with two games played.

By doing this, he said, more people would be on hand for the games and in attendance for the festival.

However, he added it isn't a good idea to tear up the tennis courts for basketball at this time as he would like to see tennis offered as an extracurricular activity in the future.

Kayla Smith, representing Emmet's cheerleaders, asked the board if the school could purchase cheerleading uniforms next year.

She said cheerleaders have trouble raising the money needed to purchase uniforms and attending a cheerleading camp.

The cheerleaders, she added, have been using the same uniforms for the last three years.

Ross said the district could get plain uniforms with "Emmet" and an eagle on them if they can be found at a reasonable price. Otherwise, he added, it would be a strain on the budget.

This year uniforms were purchased for the boys and girls basketball teams, with each player getting two outfits  one home and one away.

The board authorized Ross to do a cost study and buy the uniforms if they can be found at a reasonable price.

Pollock said students in the elementary school have been doing practice tests getting ready for the SAT-9 test.

He informed the board of the results of the recent Nevada County Spelling Bee, saying Emmet's students did well in it.

Henson told the panel the 17 seniors this year is the largest senior class the school has had in several years.

Senior high students have also been doing practice tests to get ready for SAT-9 testing.

Field trips to St. Michael's Health Center for CPR training for ninth graders and the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope for the journalism class were approved by the board.

Textbooks were approved for Family and Consumer Sciences for the 2000-2001 year.