Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Emmet board deals with end of the year activities

Emmet's School Board met following a joint session with the Blevins School Board earlier in the evening Monday, May 3.

The board discussed getting the baseball field either sodded or seeded, with Jon Saladin, board president having to be reminded this issue could not be discussed in executive session. Saladin had mentioned talking about what to do with the baseball field to another member of the board during the meeting.

He was informed such a discussion would be in violation of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Under the FOIA, only personnel issues can be discussed in executive session, and no decisions can be made there. All decisions must be made in open session.

In the end, dealing with the field was tabled until the June meeting,

Shalah Honeycutt, PTO president, said parents are concerned with the need for a fence around the playground. The PTO, she said, would provide the labor if the district would purchase the materials. She was told to get estimates on what a five-foot chain link fence would cost and report back to the board at its June meeting.

Honeycutt also asked for a storage building, saying if the district has the land, the FFA could help put the building up as a project. Emmet Superintendent Dr. Gene Ross said the district has a building behind the home economics building, but it's full of junk.

It was agreed to look at the existing building, see what needs to be done and what's there worth salvaging, then decide what to do.

Floyd Pollock, Emmet elementary principal, said the enrollment was 164.

"There's a lot going on now," he said, giving the board an update on activities occurring at the end of the year. Graduation, he said, is May 21 for the seniors, while the kindergarten graduation is scheduled for May 24. Semester tests are May 24-25, with the last day of school being May 25.

In discussing the summer program, Pollock said the ABC program, a K-3 program and a tutoring program for grades 4-6. The summer programs will run from May 27 through June 24.

Frank Henson, Emmet high principal, said there are 124 enrolled at EHS, adding there is also a lot going on at the high school level.

He asked the board to exempt six or seven seniors, though they didn't have the grades normally required for exemption. Henson said there were extenuating circumstances in each of the cases. The board agreed to the exemptions.

Ross suggested the board handle all of the field trips at once as there were several. The field trips included visiting Magic Springs, a trip to Little Rock for the FBLA and FCCLA, kindergarten and first grade students going to the Recycling Center in Prescott and visiting the new library, second graders going to the Recycling Center and Hope bowling alley, junior and senior high athletes going to Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia for a basketball camp, the Library Club going to Wild River Country, and FFA students attending the state convention in Hot Springs. However, FFA students also asked to attend a show camp in Wilburton, Okla.

The board agreed to all of the field trips, and volunteered to pay half the cost of those attending the FFA camp in Oklahoma for all who qualified.

Ross said there were some fund raisers to be addressed, including a cheerleader camp and pee wee basketball camp. The pee wee camp was approved for July 5-9, while the cheerleader camp was tabled until the June meeting.

The reasoning behind the cheerleading camp being tabled is the gym floor is scheduled to be worked on during the summer and needs a minimum of a month to cure. With the pee wee camp ending in July, there wouldn't be enough time for the floor to cure by the time the cheerleader camp was held.

The board approved summer programs for the elementary and high schools. There will be a college ACT prep test course for high school students, while the ABC, k-3 and 4-6 programs for elementary school were affirmed.