Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Uniform issue passes at Nevada

Students at Nevada School will be dressing the same for the 2004-2005 school year.

This is because voters in the Nevada district approved going to school uniforms for next year at the September school election.

Nevada Superintendent Rick McAfee said the district will have to create committees to discuss what the uniform should look like, how much it should cost and where they can be purchased. These committees will report back to the Nevada School Board with their recommendations.

The uniform issue vote passed 80-60.

McAfee said parents will be included on the committees, as will teachers and students for each age group. "Hopefully the committees will be ready by February or March. We'll send letters to parents and are in the process of getting the report to the Arkansas Department of Education."

The newest member of the Nevada School Board is Brandon Rhodes, who will serve a four-year term. Rhodes replaces Don Callicott from the Cale region.

The board was reorganized in September as well, with Mack Bridges moving to the president's seat. Todd Brown is the vice president, with Jerry Bishop the secretary.

McAfee told the board, at the September meeting, with the restrictions and cuts the district's gone through, it's hard to maintain a positive cash flow in October. "We may have to borrow to make the salary fund," he said. "We should get about $400,000 in November, but we may need a short-term loan."

The September taxes received, he said, were down about $30,000 from last year because people aren't paying their taxes early.

Because a new state law restricts districts from entering into contracts of more than $75,000 without state approval, he said, the cap for the loan amount would be $74,000. The board agreed, giving McAfee permission to apply for the loan if it's needed.

The district, he said, gets about $137,000 a month in taxes, but no funds are received from the state in July and this causes fiscal problems. "I don't expect it to be a problem after this year," he said.

This is because when the district restructured its indebtedness, it was able to free up more ready capital while it extended its payout to 23 years. However, the bonds could be paid off earlier.

Additionally, the district has cut $200,000 from its salary budget and not replaced several teachers who have retired or left for other districts. Because of this, McAfee said, the end of the year balance should grow unless there are some unexpected expenses.

He then informed the board one of those unexpected expenses could occur this year, as natural gas prices are expected to double. Along with this, he said, while the district reduced its operating budget, the state has added 1 percent to districts for teacher retirement, bringing the local contribution total to 13 percent.

This, he said, cuts into the district's savings and made the total budget for the 2003-2004 school year $3,014,542. The largest part of the budget is for teacher salaries.

Sandra Browning, Nevada Elementary principal, said grandparent's day was well attended to get the year started, and the students celebrated the results of the Benchmark exams.

Students were rewarded with refreshments for their efforts if they passed one part of the test. The fourth graders who passed got a pizza party. If they passed both parts, they got a limousine ride to Texarkana where they had lunch. A total of 26 students made the trip to Texarkana.

Blake Epperson, Nevada High principal, said the district has four exchange students this year, two from the Ukraine, one from Germany and one from China, who came by way of Hong Kong.

The Civics class, he said, has been studying what makes a good citizen, and NHS is in the process of developing a newsletter.

Epperson said the idea is to have the newsletter come out monthly and send it to parents and patrons of the district. It will include a schedule of events, along with items of interest.