Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Emmet School Wins Lawsuit Over Claim

Emmet's school district got some good news from the legal community.

At the Emmet School Board meeting recently, Superintendent Dr. Gene Ross said the district won an out-of-court settlement with its former insurance company for the old gym being burned down. The district received $121,836 from the company.

According to a letter to the board from Dr. Ross, once it had been determined the gym had been burned by arson on Nov. 19, 1996, the school was told by the insurance company Arkansas Department of Education Self-Insurance Program the school had replacement cost coverage, but later refused to pay replacement costs.

Instead, the company paid $408,700 for losses on the building.

On April 7, 1997, the board hired Nate Coulter to represent the district in its suit against the insurance company, with suit being filed Aug. 4, 1997.

It took months of negotiation before the settlement was reached and the total payment came to $530,536. This, the letter states, paid $47 per square foot for the 11,288 square foot building.

The new gym covers 15,222 square feet and cost a total of $896,858.

In other business, the student population in the elementary school was 167 on the last day of school, while there were 97 in high school.

Students will be involved in three summer programs at the district, including the ABC program with 12 students enrolled, a K-3 summer program, also with 12 involved, and Shots for Success to help get students ready for the SAT-9 tests.

The Shots for Success program is geared toward reading and math, the two main areas where the scores need to be raised at Emmet.

All programs run from 8-11:30 a.m. and end June 26.

Cheerleaders will be involved in an on-campus cheerleader camp Aug. 3-5. The camp will be conducted by representatives from the University of Central Arkansas in the Emmet gym.

Six members of the senior class this year, Dr. Ross said, earned scholarships totaling $16,000. This is impressive, he told the board, as there were only nine graduates.

The board approved renting the house owned by the district to a woman with two children. The children, Ross said, will be enrolled at Emmet next year.