Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Annuals to be "consolidated" among Gurdon schools

Gurdon School Board members approved at the Tuesday, November 18 meeting, to try one year of consolidating the Gurdonian year book with Cabe Middle School and Gurdon Primary.

Gurdon Primary School has had it's own yearbook since the early 80's and has always fared well with sales. Cabe Middle has had it's own yearbook for past few years.

However, the school board has recently been looking at the yearbook account and trying to see what could be done to get it out of the red.

"Our high school yearbook sales just hasn't been good for the past few years at high school. We currently owe the publisher $4,175 for previous years. The deposit for the current year is $2,400 with $2,056 available in the yearbook fund. We have got to come up with something to bring it up and possibly do something to help parents," said Gurdon Superintendent Bobby Smithson.

Apparently the administrators from all three schools, Rita Roe, Libby White and Leonard Gills, had been discussing the combination and had no real problems with it.

Roe said, "I think this is something we should try. It can't hurt the primary school, because we don't make a profit off of our yearbook's anyway, we don't try to."

White agreed with Roe's comment and added, "It might help to boost sales if we could get the yearbook's to the students before school is out in the Spring."

Board member Mark Sanford agreed with White and said, "I remember when I was in school it was exciting when yearbook's came in so everyone could sign yours. If the kids aren't getting them until the next year, that kind of defeats the purpose especially if you are a senior."

White suggested taking pictures of Spring sports early and using a group shot of the seniors in their caps and gowns as soon as they arrive. This would allow plenty of time for the books to be published and delivered before school ends.

The board voted to accept the consolidation.

Smithson said, "I don't think this is a bad idea. Now if a parent has a student in all three schools, they only have to purchase one book. I also feel this will boost our sales. We can try it for one year and if it doesn't work well, then we can go back."

At last month's meeting Coach John Pace addressed the board with some problems he had discovered with the No Pass, No Play Policy the board adopted last year. After some reviewing and listening to Pace's concern, the board decided to compose a committee to try and fix those flaws.

The committee is made up of: Jesse Runyan, David Williams, Leonard Gills, John Pace, Randy Stiffler, Wendy Plyler, Bonnie Beals, Shelia Butler and Cindy Duke.

However, a few questions arose and it was suggested by Reed some clarifications be made on the policy to deter any confusion that could occur during the reading.

Pam Runyan was on hand to give an update on the Gurdon Primary School.

"We have been very busy as usual. We made it through Red Ribbon Week with lots of exciting events to teach the children not to do drugs and how bad they are for you. One day the students had a "I CAN say no to drugs" day and they all brought canned goods to school. These canned goods were then taken to the Courage House in Arkadelphia.

"Also, as recently seen in the newspaper, Runyan's third grade class brought the most pennies for the Rice Depot fundraiser.

"GPS third graders also recently performed at the PTO meeting, Rotary, and the Central Arkansas Development/Senior Adult Center. They sang songs from their Fall Festival program.

"GPS fourth graders recently learned CPR from Micah Hastings, who is a Gurdon High School graduate and now is works for the American Red Cross," said Runyan.

Ann Clingan gave a report to the board on what has been taking place at Cabe Middle School. Clingan said Dillard's fifth grade class had been gathering books for one of the Spanish speaking students at school.

"The student has learned to speak English very well and is brushing up on her reading. The students decided to help her out by bringing her some books to read," said Clingan.

Dillard also started a marble jar. The jar would get five marbles in it if the class was good, if the students weren't and one marble got removed, the class didn't get rewarded. So far Clingan reported the marble jar doing well.

Clingan said her classes have been learning all about the many different wars that the United States has fought in. In the process one class had to learn the first part of the "Midnight Ride of Paul Revere." One Hispanic student who sometimes has trouble pronouncing words volunteered to recite the poem.

Clingan said, "She pronounced every word perfectly. I have never been so proud of a student before. All of her classmates stood and clapped for her when she was finished."