Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Nevada Schools receive face-lift

When students return to Nevada School Monday, Aug,. 20, they will be in for a surprise.

During the summer, maintenance crews have been painting the school's interior, giving it a whole new look. The walls have gone from a yellow to a sky blue.

In addition, the gymnasium floor got a facelift as well. Along with being stripped, the Blue Jays were given a fresh coat of paint, as was the "N" at center court. There is also a new meaning to "in the paint" at the free throw lines, as they, too, were painted.

The boundary lines went from being white to black, which will make them more visible to fans and players alike when the season starts in October.

With all this work finished, Jim Cross, maintenance and transportation director for the district, told the Nevada School Board, at its regular monthly meeting, Thursday, July 26, there is more to be done.

The maintenance crews are working on the air conditioning system, making sure it's in good shape for the start of school.

He said teachers have used the walls outside their classrooms as places to display the work done by students. This year, the teachers won't have to tape the work on the wall, as bulletin boards have been put up for this purpose.

"I'm anxious for the teachers to get back and respond," Cross said. "I want to see what they think. This should be a good experience for them."

However, before students set foot in the redecorated facility, teachers will be coming in for workshops to help get them ready for the 2001-2002 academic year.

Blake Epperson, Nevada High School principal, said the workshops will be held Aug. 2-3, with the primary focus being on the standardized tests students will be given in September.

Open house for the district will be from 4-7 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 14.

Summer, Nevada Superintendent Rick McAfee said, is always a busy time for the district, with maintenance work being done crews can't do when school is in session.

He told the board of changes in the Arkansas Department of Education's certification regulations for teachers. Now, a person wanting to teach doesn't have to have a degree. Instead, he said, they must take and pass a multiple choice test.

The way the test is written, he said, two of the answers are automatically discarded as being wrong, leaving a 50-50 chance for the person taking the exam.

In most cases, McAfee said, the person only has to score 60 in order to pass the test and become a teacher.

However, he said, there are two sides to the story, and just because a person is certified doesn't mean they'll be a good teacher. There are those in the profession with several college degrees who are unable to get their message across to students.

McAfee cited a college instructor whose students have a 74 percent failure rate in his class.

"I hope there will be a blended approach," he said.

Nationally, though, there is a shortage of one million teachers as the school year approaches.

Districts in some states are offering bonuses to attract teachers. Some also pay for the teacher to move to their area and furnish housing for new teachers.

"We have been fortunate," McAfee said of the Nevada district, "to find quality people for our positions."

On the topic of personnel, the board accepted the resignation of Amy Chambers, a fourth grade teacher who accepted a position in another district, but hired Kimberly Grieps to take her place.

It also hired Alicia Steelman as a teacher who will be utilized to help reduce class size. Each year, McAfee said, the district gets a grant to hire an instructor so class sizes can be made smaller.

In other business, he said the district's audit report for 2000 was clean with no findings in either 1999 or 2000.