Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Emmet, Blevins board meet to discuss consolidation

Time is a commodity the Emmet School District doesn't have.

After voting to administratively consolidate with the Blevins School District at a public hearing/special school board meeting Tuesday, March 9, the two boards met at Emmet Wednesday, March 10, to begin procedures for the consolidation.

Members of the Blevins board toured Emmet's facilities before the joint meeting began.

Emmet Superintendent Dr. Gene Ross said Emmet had a good public meeting on Tuesday with a crowd of about 300 people. During the meeting, he added, they went over the information available, along with the pros and cons of each district being considered for consolidation.

It was also discussed why the application to become a conversion charter district was denied by the Arkansas Department of Education.

A show of hands, Ross said, showed the vast majority of Emmet residents favored an administrative consolidation with Blevins, while the board's vote was unanimous for Blevins.

Other districts considered were: Prescott, Nevada, Hope, Saratoga and Spring Hill.

Donnie Davis, Blevins's superintendent, said he appreciated the interest Emmet showed in a merger with Blevins. "I'm sure your board has questions, and we appreciate you making arrangements to host us. We're trying to get the word out quickly. All we've heard from out campus has been positive."

Richard Snell, a member of the Emmet School Board, said when people hear about consolidation, they think Emmet will be going to Blevins, and it needs to be explained this is only an administrative consolidation.

Davis said Blevins had a public meeting recently, with Rep. Chris Thomason on hand to explain the situation, and now they understand the students won't be going anywhere. "People think about Lewisville's consolidating districts to pull schools together.

The boards got down to brass tacks with Ross giving Blevins's representatives the lowdown on the Emmet District. Emmet, he said, has about 300 students in K-12, and a pre-K for four-year-olds. The pre-K has been made possible from a grant and the district has a certified teacher running it.

In addition, Emmet has a $50,000 modern school grant obtained because of low test scores, though, Ross pointed out, Emmet is not in academic distress.

At the end of the academic year, on June 30, he said, Emmet should have a balance of about $1 million. All buildings at the complex are new or have been remodeled recently, while the district has a relatively new bus fleet and offers 57 credits in high school.

There are 30 certified teachers on staff, and Emmet offers two foreign languages, Spanish and French, though Spanish III and French are done via distance learning.

Ross said Emmet started a band program this year, hiring a band director, who is becoming certified as a special ed teacher as well. The band participated in the Emmet Christmas Parade and the Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade.

Emmet is having work done on its baseball field, getting dirt filled in on the far end where there was an eight-foot drop.

Davis said Blevins doesn't have a band, but does have an instrumental music course. Ross pointed out the district spent about $15,000 on instruments, but several parents either rented or purchased instruments for their children.

Davis informed the Emmet board about Blevins. He said there are 476 students enrolled, and all staff and faculty are certified. Blevins had to start a third kindergarten because of the increased numbers and had to pull a teacher from the Title I program to handle it. This instructor wasn't certified for kindergarten, but is working on it.

Blevins, he said, doesn't offer a pre-K program, but does have Head Start. "Head Start isn't a kindergarten prep program. We may want to pattern after Emmet's pre-K."

Blevins also has eight buses in its fleet, and travels the northern third of Hempstead County, while coming within three miles of Prescott to pick up students.

Blevins offers 55 courses, but none are Advanced Placement classes, even though three teachers are certified to teach AP courses. Davis said he heard the Educational Cooperative may apply for distance learning labs for all school districts, as there's a new law for such labs for districts without them. However, Blevins would have to install a T-1 phone line for the computer systems and Davis wasn't sure who would pay for it.

Residents of Blevins, he said, have asked if there would be a name change, or if they could remain the Hornets. They were told this is an administrative consolidation and each school would maintain its mascot and name.

There are several areas the two districts don't match up on and the interim board will have to work this out. One of these areas is the salary schedule. Blevins pays 20 steps , while Emmet has 16. Each district pays differently on the insurance programs, and Emmet has an incentive program for its teachers to keep them in the classroom and miss fewer days, while Blevins doesn't.

Blevins pays its personnel on the 10th of each month, while Emmet pays on the first Friday of the month.

Under the administrative consolidation, the funds Emmet currently has can only be used for Emmet during the first year. After this, the monies will be commingled and spent at the discretion of the new board.

The boards discussed the possibility of rotating the meetings between the two schools to give patrons of both districts the opportunity to see what's going on.

Meanwhile, the application for the administrative consolidation must be submitted by April 1 for approval by the ADE.

Blevins's board and patrons, Ross said, approved the consolidation unanimously at a meeting Thursday, March 11. The merger will officially take place July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.