Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Enrollment About Same In Prescott Schools

Enrollment in the Prescott School District is about where it was at the end of the 1999-2000 school year.

Ron Wright, superintendent, said the district has about 1,130 students at this time, with more having enrolled since the last update. If this growth continues, he told the Prescott School Board at its regular monthly meeting Tuesday, Sept. 19, the district could up substantially.

Prescott High School Principal Steve Britton informed the board PHS has the top website in the nation for high schools. The site, he said, was recognized by myschoolonline.

Britton also discussed ACT scores, presenting figures from the Arkansas Department of Education on how Prescott has done in the past five years.

The composite total, he said, was 20.3 in 1995-96, and was 19.2 last year for seniors only. With all students taking the ACT added, the composite was 21.4 for the 95-96 year, and 20.7 last year.

The statewide average for 1999-2000 was 20.3, while the national figures were 21.0 for seniors only.

For all students taking the ACT test, the state score was 21.2 in 1999-2000 and 22.0 nationally.

Britton said faculty at PHS is stressing the importance of completing all core courses to its seniors, and trying to get them not to "slide" (take easy courses) during their senior year.

"I know our students are capable of doing better," he said. "We encourage them to take the ACT annually to get comfortable with its format. We want our students to give their best effort every time they take the test."

Sandra Jones, Sally Nix and Agnes Morrow attended a Leadership Academy workshop at Fairfield Bay recently.

Some of the ideas they brought back are to let people in the district know what will be taught.

First and foremost, the idea is to have all instructors talk with one another about what they taught and what the students should be able to do as they advance in school.

Part of the problem, Morrow said, is teachers don't know what was taught the year before to the students they now have and wind up repeating many of the same lessons.

The goals of the program are for teachers to know what should be taught and what is being taught by others.

Parents and students knowing what the student is responsible to learn within their grade level, and district administrators are to make sure the goals for teachers, parents, students and the community are being met.

Jones said too many teachers stay in their own cubbyhole and don't know what's going on elsewhere in the district, and this needs to change.

Nix said teachers need to figure out how to link hands in communication from K-12 and reduce the duplication of effort.

In addition, she said, parents, the community and industrial development people should be involved in the communication process so everyone can work together and make the necessary changes.

Some suggestions on how to get the message out and across, she said, would be to have bulletin boards in the hallways, develop a school-wide email system, have periodic dramas/plays/skits highlighting academics, public meetings, teacher's meetings and skits and mini-parades showing what has been learned before football games.

The district will be required to spend $215,120, according to Virginia Wieser, on special education.

She said Prescott has 225 students a year in special education on average.

The budget, she said, is based on last year's student count, though there are fewer special education students in the district this year.

Most of the budget, she said, is used to pay personnel, though the budget does include purchasing a new computer.

The budget, Wieser told the board, is tighter this year than it was last year. The board approved it.