Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

GPS Off To Smooth Beginning

Everything has begun smoothly for the 1998-99 school year at Gurdon Primary School.

Rita Roe, GPS principal, shared this with members of the Gurdon Rotary Club at its regular meeting Thursday, Sept. 3.

She said many improvements at GPS were made possible because of the generosity of the Cabe family and foundations. With grants from Cabe foundations, she said, the school has a new physical education building on the grounds, purchased new tables and chairs for the cafeteria and helped fund a reading program for the school children as well.

Austin Capps, Roe added, has also been helpful as he donated money to purchase a sound system for the PE building.

This year a total of 341 students are enrolled at GPS.

Roe said these students are getting the best curriculum the district can find, working to improve spelling and math skills. In fact, GPS is one of two schools in Arkansas to utilize "trailblazer math."

In this program, she said, students are allowed to work on problems in groups, with solid thinking required to reach the correct solution.

There have also been technical changes at GPS. The school is now on the Internet and all teachers have computers. Plans, Roe said, are to hook these computers to televisions for classroom display of the lessons.

Students are now going to the computer lab one day per week, with all children able to take advantage of changes in the title I program. The changes allow all students to use chapter I resources.

Roe also urged the Rotarians to support the proposed 3 mill increase at the Sept. 15, school election.

This measure, she said, will allow the district to continue making improvements and progress.

"We have a good district and system," she said. "We need to continue moving forward because there is still a lot to be done."