Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

NHS Tabbed For Assessment Program

Nevada High School has been selected to participate in the National Assessment of Progress Program.

NHS is one of only 1,200 schools in the nation to be invited to be involved in this program. According to NHS Principal Blake Epperson, students in grades four, eight and 12 will be assessed as to their progress in history, reading and writing.

He passed this information to the Nevada School Board at its regular monthly meeting Thursday, March 15.

Epperson also said the school's Future Business Leaders of America Club (FBLA) did well in the regional contest in Arkadelphia recently, and 18 students will be competing in the state contest on April 20. In addition, 60 NHS FBLA members will be attending the state convention at this time.

Three Nevada students finished first in their categories, Epperson said, while six each finished in second and third place. Along with this, Nevada High had a student win the Who's Who in FBLA competition.

Jim Cross, transportation and maintenance director, said the road conditions from the winter's ice storm have left the roads in bad shape, and this has resulted in about $3,000 in damage to the district's bus fleet.

Cross said Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown has been working with the district to get the roads repaired as quickly as possible.

The district has been experiencing another, more unusual problem  possums. Cross told the board his maintenance crews have trapped three so far. Two were caught in the bus garage and one in the lunchroom.

Nevada Superintendent Rick McAfee told the panel there could be problems with the proposed teacher pay raises.

He said the bill presented to the Legislature by Gov. Mike Huckabee is based on a projected growth rate of 6 percent, while the state's growth is currently at 4.8 percent.

In addition, McAfee briefly discussed an ethics bill being considered by the General Assembly. The problem with it, he said, is determining who will set the ethical guidelines.

Another possible problem, he added, is once this bill is passed by the House and Senate, gets signed by the governor, it can still be changed. The law would then go through several other entities which could make changes school districts would have to live by.

The district also sold four buses by means of sealed bids. Bus No. 2 sold for $675, while the high bid on bus 6 was $745. Bus 15 brought a bid of $655, while number 18 had the most bid on it at $1,029.

The board accepted these bids, with reservations on bus 6 as the district doesn't have a title for it.

The winning bidder will be given the option of either buying it without a title or letting another bidder have it. The next highest bid for the bus was $718, followed by a bid of $425.

The board also accepted a transfer into the district from Stamps, while denying a transfer to Emmet.

On the denial, McAfee said the student's family is looking for a place to live in Emmet and will be moving there soon.

He said if the board allowed the transfer, the district should make a tuition agreement with Emmet so Nevada would receive state aid on the student.

However, the transfer was denied for lack of motion to approve.

The final order of business was to approve contracts for all certified faculty and staff members for the 2001-2002 academic year.