Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Prescott School Board learns from EAST students

Members of the Prescott School Board were given a lesson in what students can accomplish.

Jody Almand and Manual Stuart, two thirds of the Prescott High School EAST Lab team (the other is Josh Brown who wasn't able to attend the board's regular monthly meeting), showed them the program they developed for Central Baptist Church's Vision Mission program.

Almand did the talking while Stuart operated the PowerPoint program.

The trio, with help from other students in the EAST Lab class, developed a database to keep track of the eyeglass inventory for mission workers. The mission has 5,000 pair of glasses it gives to the residents of a small Mexican village south of Mexico City.

Almand explained how they developed the program, using Access, a program none of the trio had worked with before.

In a nutshell, they created a database from scratch using information from the eye doctors involved and what was needed to keep track of the glasses.

Normally, the missionaries could help about 150 people a day, but with the program the three developed, they can double their capacity.

Almand said the program was set up where most of the work could be done from the number keypad. It has a maintenance menu which will allow workers to add new glasses to the inventory, as well are removing them from it as they are handed out.

They took the program to the EAST conference, entering it into competition. The judges, Almand said, told them the program didn't benefit local residents and thought it had been assigned.

In EAST competition, the students are required to come up with their own project ideas. Prescott High School Principal Carroll Purtle had asked the three if they could help the vision mission out. They replied they could, and did.

Pearl Bailey followed with a report from the Prescott District Education Association (PDEA).

On May 6, she said, the PDEA hosted a meeting for the District III Council, with each school giving a summary of its accomplishments over the year.

The Prescott PDEA, she said, was "proud of the school board's efforts" in giving the certified personnel a $3,000 raise and giving the non-certified employees a raise as well.

One of the local PDEA members has been chosen to attend a workshop in Florida as a representative of the Educational Support Personnel.

The PDEA also gave out its academic scholarship, with Nicole Billingsley being the recipient.

Willie Wilson, dean of students, said there are still some discipline problems, especially with repeat offenders.

Next year, Wilson said, he and Purtle plan on doing an extensive intervention with these students and being more proactive.

During the summer, they plan on talking with parents of students repeat offenders in the eighth grade and work to get the students motivated to do better in their classes.

The students, he said, are getting ready for arena scheduling. This is scheduling where they pick the courses they want as it's done at college. If a class is full, the student must go to their next choice.

Parents will also review their children's schedule for the 2003-2004 school year.

Overall, he said, discipline problems at PHS were down by 23 percent over last year, and no students were expelled.

Nine student signed up for Advanced Placement (AP) History, and will earn college credit if they pass the course. The district plans on adding more of these AP courses in different areas, such as science and math.

Javetta Dilworth spoke to the board, thanking them for giving her a second chance and allowing her to return for her senior year and graduate.

Dilworth had been in trouble, but Purtle stepped in, worked with her and her parents to get her back on track and in school.

When she returned to PHS, she took college prep courses and did well enough to earn the Potlatch Scholarship for $5,600. A total of 75 students applied for the scholarship, which went to Dilworth and Jarrod Norwood.

"I've been able to achieve a lot of my goals," Dilworth said, "and I can now go to college. I plan on studying Sociology so I can help trouble youth."