Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

CAPS closing in on some goals

As the start of a new school year begins, members of Concerned Adults-Prescott Schools (CAPS), is getting closer to its goals.

One of the major goals is to be actively involved with many aspects of the school system as a parental advisory committee.

In its Aug. 2 meeting, held at Prescott High School, Todd Richards said those interested could pick out which classes and committees they want to help out in. The more people who get involved, the better it will be, he said.

These advisory groups will be in class with teachers, helping where they can and also observing what goes on in the classrooms.

Initially extracurricular activities wasnt included on the list, because, as Willie Wilson, dean of students at PHS said, it wasnt known if CAPS would consider booster clubs as advisory committees. This section was included with the other classes and activities.

Eric Barbaree, CAPS member, said there are 51 names on the CAPS list and everyone whos signed up needs to be involved. I think our goal should be 100 members.

Questions were raised about who would keep up with entering information about student discipline into the computer system. Wilson said Karen Jobe already keeps up with this, and the information goes into the Arkansas Public School Computer Network (APSCN). Everything, he said, is included but the names of the students.

I plan to have a record of infractions at least monthly, he said. The EAST Lab has facilitators who will help (Jobe) keep up with the records.

When asked how rule infractions are handled, Wilson said teachers fill out a slip and send it to the office. This includes a brief description of the infraction. These records must be kept under state mandate. The records include the type of offense, the racial makeup, the nature of the offense, the number of suspensions the student(s) has. It will be in broad categories, not specifics.

George Haynie said teachers need to turn in student absences on a daily basis and not hold onto them.

Wilson pointed out this is done, but last year there were problems with the states computer system. For some reason, the states system spit out the absences and considered them all excused. Theyve corrected this problem, he said.

He continued saying if a teacher has a problem controlling their class, they should call for help, then bring the culprit(s) under control with the proper discipline. A lot, he said, depends on the personalities in the classroom.

With Prescott being a small district, its nearly impossible to keep all the troublemakers and class clowns separated. Wilson said the district does its best to do this. We can identify all of them except the freshmen, because we know their personalities. But we cant avoid all problems.

Laurie Pilgreen said there are times when the teachers are to blame for the problems, not the students. She pointed out there have been instances when teachers didnt show up for class on time themselves or didnt seem to want to do their job when they were there.

Wilson admitted there have been instances where this happens and said those teachers have been dealt with.

From there the discussion went back to the advisory group aspect of CAPS. Wilson said it will be up to CAPS to set its own guidelines as such a group. These guidelines should be submitted to PHS Principal Carroll Purtle to make sure they meet school criteria.

Were in uncharted territory, he said. Parents want to be told whats going on. The advisory groups can make suggestions on how to make departments better.

Richards said Tim Estes, a new science teacher at PHS, has asked him to tell students what he does (equine dentistry) and show them how science applies.

A guideline committee was formed and will report back at the next CAPS meeting. It was also discussed CAPS members have some kind of identification while in their advisory capacity. Bobbie Brown will bring designs to the next meeting as well.

Members of CAPS dont want to be seen or viewed as being out to get teachers and administrators, but as being partners in education. Herman Brown suggested finding a way to send positive reinforcement to the teachers. One idea was to design certificates of appreciation and present them at school board meetings.