Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

School Board recognizes work done by students

Recognitions kicked off the March meeting of the Prescott School Board.

Students were recognized for their DAR essays about the Lewis and Clark expedition, with Tom and Mary Alice Blevins recognized for donating a Curley Wolf blanket to the district. The students who received certificates of appreciation were: Cass Martin, Shelbi Cottingham, Morgan Ridling and Will Wingfield. Cottingham and Wingfield were state winners with their essays.

Janet Gordon, principal at Prescott Elementary School, said March has been busy with the testing and getting ready for the parent-teacher conference. The teachers, she said, have been saying the conference will be a piece of cake compared to the testing.

Students worked on the Benchmark and Iowa Skills Test. The Benchmark, she said, determine if a school goes into school improvement or not because of the results, as the state gets the school's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) from these grades.

The tests have been sent to Riverside Publishing, Questar, with the scores promised back by this summer.

Gordon said the PES Destination Imagination team is going to state in April. The team consists of Lexi Karlovec, Laura Maxwell, Alan Roberson, Brian Harris, Andrew Maxwell, Bailey Smith and Addie Byers.

She told the Board Emily Dickson had a "letter to the editor" published in the Picayune, and that the paper has agreed to publish students's work each week until school is out.

Jamie Barnes, McRae Middle School principal, acknowledged the tests are done with grades 4-7 being tested. "The teachers are relieved," she said.

The teachers, she added, didn't let the testing get in the way of the education process. "We're proud of the way they worked and the way the students behaved during the testing."

Everyone, she said, is ready for spring break.

Carroll Purtle, Prescott High School principal, said PHS will be adding creative writing to its curriculum. The plan is this will be done through distance learning, with there being four classes daily.

Willie Wilson, dean of students at PHS, lauded the PHS DI team for winning the regional contest and going on to state.

He said there will be some other curriculum changes for the 2005-2006 school year. Advanced English II will be replaced with Pre-AP English, while Advanced English III will be replaced with AP composition. AP literature will continue to be offered to seniors.

The pre-AP courses, he said, will eventually trickle down to the middle school.

According to Wilson, there has been a "substantial" decline in tardies. This is because several students were placed in ISS for having too many tardies.

Since the February meeting, he said, there has been one fight with three people involved. All were suspended with the time being determined by their involvement in the fight.

Agnes Morrow presented the report for the Prescott District Education Association (PDEA). She said the PDEA received an Arkansas Education Association Local Development Grant for $450 for the "Read Across America Program". This is the first time the PDEA has received such a grant.

Patricia Roberts attended a National Education Association (NEA) meeting in Baton Rouge, La., in February. She was one of only four from Arkansas to attend.

Roberts and Earnestene Johnson have been part of a working committee to help count votes for the newly elected president of the AEA and will be delegates to the NEA Conference in Los Angeles in July. Roberts was the chairman of the committee.

Several members, Morrow said, plan to attend the Representative Assembly in Little Rock on April 8-9. The Assembly will begin Friday at 6 p.m., with education issues to be discusses and voted on.

She closed saying the PDEA is ready to take applications for the Dorothy Odom Scholarship, given annually to a graduating senior from PHS who is going into the educational field. The scholarship is for $250.

Brandi Karlovec, with Prescott Association for Challenging Education (PACE), said members of the group went to the Agate Conference, where they heard Maureen Niehart, a child psychologist, speak on nurturing psychological readiness, setting realistic goals and stress reduction for students.

They brought back a grant for $1,000 for the PES gifted and talented program.

Karlovec said the PES DI team finished second out of 11 schools in the recent contest and will be going to state. The local team competed against some performing/visual art magnate schools. The MMS team finished third and will also be going to state.

The Board approved travel for James Cannon to Biloxi, Miss., for the Region IV agri meeting. Jody Coward and Larry Newsom were approved to go t the Nike Coaches Camp in Robinsonville, Miss., May 13-15, with Linda Benton approved to travel to the Viking Culinary Art Center in Memphis June 13-15.

In personnel matters, the Board approved renewing contracts for all non-certified personnel. All certified personnel, except for Brandon and Stephanie Martindale were renewed. The Martindales, who are over the band program, were rehired with 220-day contracts, instead of 240-day contracts.

Resignations were accepted from Vanessa Fife and Ruby Hart, two bus drivers and for two arena custodians.