Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

At Nevada: It's Business As Usual

It was business as usual for the Nevada School Board Thursday, Oct. 15.

The board had no major decisions to make during its regular session, but did address several issues.

It began with the board being reorganized as this was the first meeting following the September school election. Doug Cogbill was installed as president, with Jerry Bishop the vice president and Beverly Curtis the new secretary. Don Callicott and Nelwyn Almand are the two members at-large.

Nevada Elementary Principal Natalie Sherwood informed the panel a team of teacher returned from a leadership training seminar where they learned about strategic planning. This seminar, she said, will open the doors for the team members to attend other endeavors as it was a prerequisite for several other areas.

Parent-teacher conferences will be held Thursday from 4-7 p.m., she said, and Red Ribbon Week is underway this week as well.

Superintendent Rick McAffee discussed the Smart Start program proposed by the governor's office.

He said with this testing system, the district will be held responsible for students and their academic performance, while also making the teachers responsible for how and what children learn.

Part of the problem, McAffee said, is the current Stanford 9 test is given early in the fall, shortly after school opens. It was originally given near the end of the year and students then performed better. He said the retention rate over summer is lower for the Stanford 9 tests now.

The concept of Smart Start, he said, still doesn't compare apples to apples, as it bases its comparisons on specific grades instead of following student groups throughout their academic careers.

As McAffee told the board, this year's fourth grade may be extremely bright and set a high standard on the test. Next year's fourth grade may do as well on tests, but the district would be held responsible, even though different students were tested.

The fairest way to do the testing would be to test this year's fourth grade and next year's fifth grade to see how this particular set of students are doing and hold the district accountable accordingly.

McAffee said if a child is not able to perform on grade level (at the grade they are in), and 50 percent of the students aren't in the 50th percentile, the district could be placed on academic probation.

Should this not improve, he said, the state could take over the district.

Historically, he told the panel, the State of Arkansas designs tests and doesn't look at the end result or product. The tests don't take the change of students into account each year.

"We use a sound teaching process," he said, "and it will pay off in the long run."

Another problem with the Smart Start program, he said, is it doesn't take home schooling into account, and this isn't fair to public school districts. These students, McAffee said, should be under the same scrutiny as those in public schools.

But, he added, Gov. Mike Huckabee is protective of home schooling.

Callicott questioned the idea of breaking kindergarten classes into class sizes of 15 students each, saying it could improve students futures in school and will allow more direct teaching contact.

Sherwood said the district would have to add more teachers to handle the smaller class sizes.

McAffee said it would also cost about $90,000 to pay the additional teacher salaries and benefits, but will look into the idea.

Currently, kindergarten classes at Nevada have 22 students per class.

Transportation director Jim Cross said the new bus the district bought will be invaluable during basketball season. This bus, he said, will be able to haul all three teams and their gear at once.

In the past, the district had to take two buses to out-of-town games to handle the load.

Students in the Future Homemakers of America organization will be attending an annual cluster in St. Louis, Mo. Later on. They will be going with other such groups from Southwest Arkansas. There will also be three adults making the trip to chaperon the Nevada group.

In a final order of business, the board passed a plan for matching funds on health insurance.

The Personnel Policy Committee was given the plan which details how all employees will be given what amounts to $51 a month increases to cover the rise in insurance cost.

This increase in salary will be in a non-taxable area as it goes to pay insurance premiums.

With the board passing the measure, teachers will make their votes in a secret ballot for it to go into effect this year. Otherwise, it will be effective next year.

However, McAffee suggested the board make the increase retroactive to the first of this school year, with the board's approval.