The Gosnell School Board met in regular monthly session Monday evening beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the School Administration. The board introduced and welcomed new Zone 2 Board Member Doug Johnson to those in attendance and discussed future district plans.
District Superintendent Bonard Mace said, "It was very exciting to welcome a new board member and I am quite confident that he will really add a lot to the team."
District leaders presented academic reports to the board, beginning with Elementary Principal Dr. Debbie Wammack discussing a new initiative known as EAST (environmental and spatial technology) lab.
Womack said, "EAST is an educational model that provides new ways of learning for modern students. EAST focuses on student driven service projects accompanied with the use of teamwork and cutting-edge technology. EAST schools are equipped with classrooms containing state-of-the-art workstations, servers, software and accessories, including GPS/GIS mapping tools, architectural and CAD design software, 3D animation suites, 3D printers, virtual reality development and more. Students identify problems in their local communities and then find ways to use these tools to develop solutions."
More information can be found at EASTinitiative.org
Wammack also said that her team had visited Harrisburg and Sulfur Rock Elementary Schools' EAST classes, applied for a grant in September 2016, will host a school visit on January 2017 and plans to implement EAST classes next year at Gosnell Elementary School.
Kevin Evans, Gosnell Assistant Superintendent, briefly dicussed the direction of instruction within the district. He spoke about being "focused."
He said that the district has gone through a process throughout the last 18-months, which has received the approval of district, instructional, building and teacher leadership teams. The district bought and distributed to every teacher a book from a leading author about the topic this past summer and the district is taking steps to implement it into their day-to-day instructional model.
Elizabeth Brice, of Special Services, informed the board that beginning Nov. 30, the district's Gifted and Talented program will begin being reviewed by the State of Arkansas. The board also approved this year's Equity and Cycle II reports. The reports are used to verify that the district does things fairly, equitably and on schedule. There are nine cycles within a school year.
Four "1599 Contract disclosure" approvals were given by the board, though they were not scheduled to expire. The board must give prior approval before a district employee, a spouse, a close family member or a board member does business with the district. In the event that the contract is valued at more than $10,000, then Commissioner approval must be obtained from Little Rock. None of the contracts reviewed Monday evening reached that threshold.
The board approved contracts with Gosnell High secretary Lori Keen, Jackie Camp (whose husband owns Hinson Fire Extinguishers and does the district's fire extinguishing services as well as vent-a-hood services in the district cafeterias), Laura Davis (whose husband Jeremy owns Davis Lawn, that sprays the baseball, softball and football practice fields) and lastly, School Board President Donnie Wright (who owns NET Systems that provides security, telephone and computer series to the district). When Wright's contract came up for discussion, he recused himself from the room and did not vote.
Board members also reviewed their 10-year facility plan for the district. Two years ago the board approved a fresh air initiative in the elementary schools and last year one was approved for the junior high. They hope to approve one for the high school this upcoming year. Costs are expected to be in the area of $1.5 million to replace the entire HVAC system and to make changes that bring the buildings and systems into current code standard. Their 10-year plan was approved last year, but the district is hopeful that the funding will be approved in the state legislature during the 90-day session that begins in January 2017.
Board members were also reminded of the Arkansas School Board Association State Conference to be held in Little Rock on Dec. 7-9. The board named board member Lee Ketchum as their board-voting delegate to the conference.
Lastly the board decided to reschedule the November and December board meetings for 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 21 and Dec. 12.
thenry@blythevillecourier.com