Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Gurdon School Board Raises Salaries

Gurdon's School Board passed a motion to raise certified staff members' pay with a $800 across the board raise.

Non-certified staff members will be receiving a 4 percent raise and mileage will increase from $.23 to $.28 per mile.

Pat Talley, GPS teacher and Gurdon Education Association (GEA) representative, presented the GEA's voting results on which of two raise options the teachers themselves supported. The motion passed was option 2, which won by 1 percent.

Two other issues were voted on but failed to win a majority of votes.

Board member, Tommy Overby, was voted to represent the district in continuing discussions with the Crossroads Church concerning its interest in purchasing the district-owned land next to them on Kansas Road.

For the district to sell the property three requirements must be fulfilled. First, Pioneer Abstract will need to provide an execution of sellers affidavit. Next, there must be proof of the school district and finally, there must be an issuance of a warrantee deed.

Discussion of the new auditorium along with a preliminary draft blueprint were examined at the meeting. Discussion of placement on campus took place with the final debate being tabled to provide time for information to arrive by next meeting.

Superintendent Bobby Smithson expressed his opinion on administrative offices being placed in the new building. "I don't think it's a good idea to have the superintendent on high school property. Often persons with a problem will want to head straight to the superintendent than to the principal," he said.

Construction updates on the softball and baseball fields were presented to the board. The need for a sponsor for the score board(s) was mulled over.

Board member, Billy Tarpley was once again nominated as school board's voting delegate for the zGurdon School District to the Arkansas School Board Association's conference in Little Rock in Dec. Tarpley has been the only board representative from the district for the past few years. The conference will be on Dec. 6-7.