Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Facility study team to check Nevada schools

Nevada school will be undergoing a preliminary facility study this week.

Rick McAfee, Nevada superintendent, told the Nevada School Board, at its June meeting, a team will visit the school for a look-see before the full team comes down later and does a full study. The facilities, he said, are in good shape, but the parking lots could be a problem area as there are some soft spots because of the recent rains.

McAfee explained the process as it currently stands for the facilities study. The state has hired a company to examine all 1,700 school buildings in Arkansas and make a determination on what will be needed to bring them up to an equitable standard. The information will be downloaded into a database and be available over the Internet.

"The legislature," he said, "will be looking at a $1-$3 billion tax increase to make all schools comply with the law." The taxes to be increased will be the state's sales tax and income tax. The recent sales tax increase only brought in about $300 million.

The preliminary team will be at Nevada for approximately half a day to look the campus over.

McAfee said the district got lucky with the recent storms. A total of 14 trees were blown down at the superintendent's house, with the house suffering some minor damage.

The gym wound up with about an inch of water on the floors that had to be removed. McAfee said the rain came in through the fans, with the wind blowing in some small limbs and leaves as well. Crews worked to get the water squeegeed off the basketball court. An insurance adjuster was sent down to assess the damage.

The district, McAfee said, is insured through the State of Arkansas, and has a $500 deductible.

The board wasted no time in approving five colors for shirts under the district's new school uniform policy. The acceptable colors are: blue, black, white, yellow and red. A survey was sent to interested people and members of the uniform committee, and these colors were their recommendations.

The board also approved generic changes to student handbooks for the 2004-2005 school year, with the new uniform policy to be added. McAfee said any other changes can be fine tuned later on, but the handbooks had to be approved in June to be in compliance with state law.

Sandra Browning, Nevada Elementary School principal, said a definition of Saturday school needs to be included in the handbooks.

Policies for seventh and eighth grade students, McAfee said, also need to be upgraded so punishment for infractions would be brought in line with high school policies.

Board President Mack Bridges questioned the discipline policies and asked about teachers notifying parents when a child misbehaves.

Browning said notes are sent home with the children, along with calls being made to the parents. Calls are made during a teacher's conference period, and if the teacher has to leave the room, someone is supposed to be there to watch the students.

This is normally done by teacher's aides. However, McAfee said, there are no aides at the high school level. In the event a teacher from NHS has to leave their room, the teacher next door is asked to watch the students.

The policy changes, he added, are for the parents who tend not to respond to teachers or the school at all. Most, though, parents come to the school if their child is causing a problem. Studies, he said, show discipline policies work better when parents support the schools and school policies.

Browning said most parents want to be called if their children are causing problems.

Athletes for the Blue Jay sports program next year will have to foot the bill for their physicals. McAfee said area doctors who had been providing their services at no cost to the student-athletes have decided not to do it anymore. "It's not the school," he said, "doctors are refusing to give physicals at the school."

Checks have been written for the July and August payroll, he said, and the district is still $60,000 ahead of where it was at this point last year. Part of the reason is the federal balance is higher than before. The district, he said, will end with a positive balance.

The board approved hiring Charlotte Bryant as a special education teacher for 2004-2005, and hiring Tequilla Witherspoon as secondary math teacher.

The board will meet again July 15, when it will be presented with what McAfee called the "visionary" budget for the next two years.