Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Parents Question Nevada School Board

An executive session at the start of Thursday night's Nevada School Board meeting lasted almost two-and-a-half hours.

Once the session ended, however, the board was able to get through the district's business fairly quickly.

The session involved a student discipline problem and could not be discussed in an open hearing.

When normal business resumed, former board member Herbert Coleman explained about Communities United, what it was and what it is attempting to do.

He said people in the Oak Grove community have been working to get grants to make improvements. A grant was obtained for a day care facility, but residents have had no luck in getting further funds.

One of the projects is to remodel the old Oak Grove gymnasium, though several are on a list to be accomplished.

Because of the difficulty rural communities have in getting grants, Coleman said, he contacted churches in 23 other areas. Representatives banned together, thereby creating Communities United.

The organization, he informed the panel, is working together as a political group to force change. Tax money from rural areas, he said, is going to North Arkansas, and not being used in areas such as Oak Grove where it is badly needed.

All of the candidates the organization supported in the recent election were victorious, Coleman told the board.

"We are not against the school," he said. "Schools are the nucleus of communities. If we can help, we will and will follow the chain of command if there is a problem."

The idea, he said, is to work for changes for the betterment of all, because now, the voices are not being heard.

Leo Holliman, president of the group, agreed with Coleman's statements. He told the board Communities United is its friend and will work to help build the school.

At this time, Coleman said, the group is compiling a list of all its members and making sure they are all registered to vote. In this manner, he said, politicians will have little choice but to hear the voices of the communities involved and give rural areas the recognition they need and deserve.

From there, Superintendent Rick McAffee told the board he wasn't proud of the test results for students in grades seven and 10 last year. At this age, he said, the students realize the test results won't count against them and it's hard to get them to take the tests seriously.

This year, though, to help get the students pumped up for the state mandated tests, a pep rally was held and students were tutored to prepare them for the exams.

The 1997 scores for the seventh grade were a composite 38 percentile, with this year's scores climbing significantly to 52 percentile.

For sophomores, the '97 scores were 43 percentile overall, with an improvement to the 50th percentile this year.

In other business, he told the district's governing body $362,000 was received in tax revenue for October, and this was down about 7 percent from 1997's revenue. But, he added, the tax revenue collected from July through September was up

9 percent, so everything is pretty much balanced out.

The board's final order of business was the hiring of Lottie Ferguson as lunchroom supervisor. This is a temporary position, which will become full-time once a required background check is done. McAffee said it takes about six months to get a background report back from the FBI.