Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Student Handbook Changed With Self-Discipline Policy

Students discipline thyselves.

This is exactly what has happened in the Nevada School District.

At Thursday night's regular monthly meeting of the Nevada School Board, a new detention policy was adopted. This policy was primarily put together by the students. It will also be placed in the student handbook for the coming year.

These discipline policies concern after school detention and Saturday detention. There will be two after school detention classes per week, on Tuesday and Thursday. Twice a month there will be Saturday D-hall.

The weekday detentions will be held from 3:15-4:15 p.m. Students assigned to the detention class must bring work, pencils and paper with them, or they will be given "busy work" to keep them occupied.

In addition, these students will also be responsible for their own transportation home following the class.

Parents will get at least one day notice their students have been assigned to a detention class, and told the district will not provide transportation home for their child(ren).

The Saturday detention will be held from 8 a.m. until noon.

Again, students are required to bring work with them and are responsible for their own transportation to and from detention on Saturdays.

Students tardy for D-hall will not be allowed into the class and will be given another day, added to their toll already.

Another change to the handbook concerns absences. After a student has missed six days of classes in a semester, their parents will be receiving a letter from the district.

The seventh absence during a semester will put the student out of compliance with the law and make it more difficult to complete a grade level successfully.

Once this seventh day is reached, the issue will be turned over to an attorney.

However, there are three classes of absences in the district. Class A absences will be excused and work can be made up. These absences will not count against the six allowed days.

The Class B absences will see the student in question allowed to make up the work, but will count toward the six allowed days. Class C absences are unexcused absences, where the work cannot be made up and also count toward the six allowed days.

In other business, the board was informed of a handbook change for elementary students which will not allow students to wear "sagging" pants.

Hardy Herrington, NHS principal, said nine students attended the school's ACT classes, while 13 seventh and eighth graders were in the school's youth program.

Superintendent Rick McAffee told the board Jim Cross, maintenance supervisor, was at a mandatory bus maintenance workshop as required by state, but the building is coming along nicely.

He said carpet squares are being laid in the library using a variety of glues to see which works the best before the carpet is permanently put in place.

Additionally, the squares will be easier and less expensive to replace once damaged or worn. The same thing will be done in the band hall.

There is a major problem concerning education in Arkansas, McAffee said. When President Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas, 52 cents of each tax dollar was being spent on education.

Once Clinton left the governor's office, this spending has declined to 46 cents from each dollar and is resulting in cuts.

Turning to the topic of the new funding formula, McAffee said other than transportation, Nevada will be all right.

Where transportation is concerned, it costs the district $165,000 per year to operate buses over the 306 square miles in the district. However, under the formula, $92,000 will be lost from state aid and must be made up from local revenues.

He said the governor's office is aware of this flaw in the plan and it should be addressed by the end of the next academic year.

However, the General Assembly will convene in Feb. 1997, and no one knows what will come out of this legislative session, McAffee said.

"We'll have to look at the numbers and play it as close as we can," he told the board.

Two members of the Nevada family resigned their posts. James Hastings is retiring, and Jamie DiCicco recently gave birth and will be accepting a job in Magnolia.

McAffee recommended hiring Candace Bland to replace DiCicco as English and journalism instructor at NHS. The board agreed.

Davis Benton had been approved to make a trip to the Southern School Board Conference in San Antonio, Texas, but told the rest of the board he declined, saying the money could be better used in the district.

Benton was also again selected to be vice president of the Arkansas School Board Association. The ASBA recently met in Bella Vista.

The Nevada board approved Benton being named as ASBA vice president and recommended he accept the position. He will be representing eight counties in Region 12 in Southwest Arkansas.

Turning to the topic of finances, McAffee said the projected budget was close this year. However, payroll for July and August has not been taken out of the budget as yet.

Next year, he said, districts in Arkansas will work on a 12 payment plan instead of the current 11 paychecks per year for teachers.

For the better news, McAffee said the check arrived for $31,000 to purchase new air conditioning for the gymnasium.

The district will be letting bids for four 15 ton units and installation.

These funds came from an energy grant which was pushed through by Rep. Percy Malone.

With Janice Porter retiring from the district's financial office, McAffee recommended making Jeanette Butler and Martha May as co-directors of finance. One of these ladies will handle the payroll, while the other works with the accounts payable. This is in addition to their current duties.

Both were raised to level six on the increment scale for salary.