9/15//2010

Superintendent Update

We travel to Mountain View this week for a 7^th grade and junior High Football games.  It takes about two hours to drive there.  There is not good road and I thought I would travel to Clinton, Shirley then Mountain View.  The High School is on the east side of town.  Out teams will be competitive and therefore we should see some good games.

Volleyball this week will be at Conway St. Joseph on Thursday starting at 4:30 and there is a Junior High tournament in Conway this weekend.

Friday night’s football is at home this week and is against Glen Rose.  Glen Rose will bring a crowd as their team is doing well, so we need all the supporters we can get.  Our visitor’s bleachers should be open and we plan to use the visitor’s parking lot for them.  There still is a lot of construction around the football field.  Our first goal is to make this area as safe as possible.  Please keep out of fenced areas and there will be pathways provided for you.  Handicapped parking will be closest to the main entrance located on the west side of the field house.  The best way to get there will be to drive around the back of the high school.  We will open up as many parks as possible.  There will be parking on both sides of the Middle School, north of the baseball field and west of  the administration office.  The area in front of the high school and beside the gym will be congested and the early arrivals will get these few parks. 

We had our regular school board meeting in the Elementary Library Monday evening.  The meeting went for about 4 hours and covered many topics.  The meeting started with a presentation by Jack Truemper of Stevens Inc.  The Board passed a resolution on the correct procedures to conduct our Qualified School Construction Bond.  This Bond was sold to finance our Middle School Construction Project.  It was a new type of loan that has the Federal Government paying our interest.  This will save the School District a significant amount of money over the life of the loan.

The Board also approved the refinancing of our largest loan.  This bond sale is being conducted in an effort to save us on interest payments as the bond market has unexpectedly low interest rates at this time.  If we are lucky and get the benefit of this low interest, this will free up monies to help us renovate parts of the High School.  It could be as high as $180,000.  If we do not receive a good interest rate we can always decline the offer.

A lengthy discussion was held between the Board and NOACON personnel.  NOACON is the construction company building our Middle School construction project.  The Board is doing everything it can to ensure that we have a quality construction project.  The pay request for NOACON was approved.

The consensual items were next on the agenda.  The board approved the minutes of the last meetings, financial report and student transfers into the district from Conway S.D. and Vilonia S.D.

The annual school budget was approved.  This budget included a flat pay increase for classified staff salary schedules of $770.00 and certified staff salary schedule of $1675.00.  A pay increase was also given for my position as superintendent.  I am very appreciated of this pay increase and for their generosity.  The administrators were also given a cell phone allowance of up to $100.00 a month. 

The purchase of a new Kyocera copier for the administration office was approved.  This was to replace an existing copier that now has an expired lease.

During the education section of the meeting the principals presented reports for the start of the year.  They focused on the activities of the teachers in the areas of curriculum development, the excellent start of the year and the work being done to continually improve our students.  The certified staff assignment lists were reviewed by the Board and approved.

We had a new hire of Mrs. Stitch as a teacher for second grade.  This was required as our student numbers went above State maximums.  We also hired Nicole Martin for the High School as a para-professional to assist with ALE, remediation and intervention.  This is being paid for using NSLA/Title money. Kera Goss was employed as a long term substitute for Mrs Porters class while she is on maternity leave.  Mr. Don Creasey was employed on a month to month basis to oversee the construction project.  He is responsible for quality control.  The Board also approved a contract with the Arch Ford Educational Cooperative to supply a one day a week computer technician for the Middle School.  Please welcome our new staff and make them feel welcome and appreciated.

I hope this information helps keep you up to date.  If you have questions please let me know.

Have a great day.

John Gray