Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Emmet School District awaiting Charter fate

Doubts about receiving approval to become a charter school were expressed at the Emmet School Board meeting, Monday, March 1.

Superintendent Dr. Gene Ross informed the board Emmet is on the list to be consolidated, but things could be different if the district receives charter status.

Should the district be consolidated, he said, it would have to make a new application. Ross pointed out the consolidation would be administrative with the students remaining at Emmet.

The effort to become a charter school, he said, started more than a year ago. Emmet offers 57 credits and is meeting the standards, he informed the board, and also offers a pre-K program.

"I didn't think the consolidation issue would pass, but it did," he said. "We want to improve the educational opportunities for our students. That's why we applied for charter status, but the application isn't looking good and we need a back up plan."

Ross said the district would have to run ads twice before April 1, announcing which district it plans to consolidate with. Discussion about which district to consolidate with included both Blevins and Saratoga.

Should Emmet merge with Blevins, Blevins would be the dominate district, while Emmet would be the lead district in a joining with Saratoga.

A lawsuit has been filed to stop the consolidations, Ross said, and Emmet could join it for $1,000. Still, he added, Emmet would have to choose a consolidation partner in case the suit doesn't go before the court by April 1. If Emmet does nothing, the state will make the decision on which district it's consolidated with. In all likelihood, the state would be deciding between Hope and Prescott.

Several times during the discussion Ross pointed out the consolidation would only be administrative and the students would remain at Emmet. There would be one superintendent for two districts, with the school board apportioned according to population.

Emmet's fate as a charter school was to be decided Monday, March 8, by the Arkansas Department of Education. The board agreed to have a special meeting/public meeting Tuesday, March 9, in the Emmet gym to either discuss the consolidation effort, or celebrate becoming a charter school. This meeting is to begin at 7 p.m.

In other business, Floyd Pollock, Emmet Elementary School principal, said there are 167 students enrolled in the elementary school.

There were 43 days in the third nine weeks, which ends March 12, he said. Students will be out of school March 19, with testing beginning March 30 for the Benchmark exams, and April 2 for the Iowa Basic Skills Test, which replaced the SAT-9. The Iowa test is for fifth graders.

In the interim, teachers are using different types of motivational techniques to encourage the students to do well on the tests.

Frank Henson, Emmet High School principal, said there are 124 students currently enrolled in EHS.

Students, he said, are working on basic skills, with eighth and 11th graders being given pre-tests.

Members of the state vocational-technical department visited Emmet, he said, to examine the school's program. The exit interview went well.

Softball season for Emmet begins March 23, he said, and the district did well hosting the district basketball tournament.

Emmet, he said, received word on the Oracle Internet Academy and has been approved. This is an advanced placement (AP) technical class where students involved can earn college credit, or can work toward certification in the computer industry. The district will receive $111,000 in software and materials, while being required to pay out $2,250. Programs taught will be database and Java program languages. Steve Kelly will be the instructor.

The board voted to move the April meeting from the first to the second Monday in the month, as April 5 falls on the first day of Spring Break.

Ross said Emmet made $1,139 from the district basketball tourney, with the school's major expenses being the trophies and referees. The rest was volunteer effort.

The board approved textbooks for the vocational education program, along with texts for the next five years for other courses.

Ross said there have been some changes with the ADE concerning inventory. In the past, all items valued at $500 had to be inventoried, but the limit has been raised to $1,000. This information, he said, is on the APSCN computer network.

The board was given the option of reporting all items valued at $500 or raising it to $1,000, and opted for the higher amount.

It also approved five field trips for students in the coming weeks. Four are to Hope, with the other to Fulton.