Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Emmet School Board Changes Homecoming

Changes were made to the Emmet homecoming ceremonies at the regular meeting of the Emmet School Board Monday, Nov. 6.

Girls basketball coach Traci Jones suggested having a daytime ceremony to go along with the evening events where the queen is actually crowned.

Another change was to allow members of the queen and her court's family be the escort if they so choose. The old rule was the queen and her court had to be escorted by members of the boys basketball team.

During the discussion, board member Jon Saladin asked if homecoming was strictly for athletes, or for the entire body. He was told any female student in school could be named queen.

The board questioned whether or not the queen would be crowned twice if an afternoon ceremony was held, and how an afternoon event would affect the evening's gate receipts.

Superintendent Dr. Gene Ross said having daytime festivities would ruin a day of school, as most of the girls have to leave at noon to get ready and have their hair done for the night event.

Emmet High School Principal Shade Gilbert said plans called for the pep rally to be held at seventh period.

In the end, the board decided to have a pep rally at 1 p.m. and let school out at 2 o'clock. If the students want to have a parade, it would be done after school, and not be the district's responsibility.

The queen will officially be crowned during the basketball game between Emmet and Taylor.

In other business, the board approved buying another processor and monitor so video surveillance equipment could be set up in the new home economics building, and later on in the elementary school addition. Two cameras will also be placed in the gym behind the concession stand as well.

This will cost the district $3,468. Dr. Ross said this system will allow the district to add more cameras on in the future, as it is capable of handling 16 cameras.

The processor and recorder will be placed in the principal's office.

Floyd Pollock, elementary principal, said there are 188 students enrolled in grades K-6.

He told the board standardized test scores are in and overall the students did well. The fifth grade had an aggregate score of 59 in reading and 75 in math. This earned the students a pizza party to be sponsored by the PTO before Christmas.

Two field trips were approved for elementary students. One will be for the sixth grade to visit the Henderson State University planetarium on Dec. 5, with the other to send the second grade to Mid America Museum in Hot Springs Nov. 28.

The board approved the use of the cafetorium so the First Baptist Church can provide a free Thanksgiving dinner to the community.

This will be held Sunday, Nov. 19, with the public invited to attend.

There will be no charge for those attending, and the church will be responsible for cleaning up afterwards and supervision.

Ross said there had been several applicants for substitute teacher for the district.

He told the board the district was reaching the "bottom of the barrel" as it was running out of volunteers to be substitute teachers. The board approved all who applied to be used as substitutes when needed.

High school students were approved for three field trips to the Perot Theater in Texarkana, and three others to an Southwest Arkansas Arts Council event in Hope.

This is for the gifted and talented program, as one of the trips will be dedicated to the learning of art and music.

The seventh and eighth graders will be making a trip to Narrows Dam on Lake Greeson De. 6, to learn about hydroelectric power.

The board also approved six fund raising events, as most were only to be done on campus. The student council will sell T-shirts to raise money for homecoming activities. It will also sell corsages for homecoming.

The junior class will be selling chances on a muzzle loading rifle to help raise funds for the class dance. It will also host a spaghetti supper before one of the basketball games in January.

The cheerleaders will be hosting a mini-cheerleading camp and charge $15 per person to attend. Those participating in the camp will be brought in to cheer at one of the Eagle's games.