The Blytheville School Board voted unanimously to grant a renewal of the Air Evac services provided in the past to the district's faculty. At last month's meeting, the renewal of the Air Evac services was on the agenda, however, after some debate about getting rid of the service as a possible save in funding, the item was tabled until the September meeting.
Superintendent Bobby Ashley told the board that he sent a survey to the district's 357 employees, of which he got 221 responses, asking three questions concerning Air Evac. The questions were "Are you covered by Air Evac through a spouse that does not work at the Blytheville School District?" Also, "Have you paid for a membership in the last three years not knowing that Blytheville School District provided the benefit?" Also,"Do you want coverage if Blytheville School District is able to continue to provide the service?" The first question had seven responses of "yes", the second had 15 responses of "yes" and the third had 20 responses of "no." Ashley said that he reached out via email to the 20 employees who said that they did not want to receive the service. Three responded back that they misunderstood the question when they originally answered and the other 17 did not respond to his attempts to comment.
"We are trying to retain teachers and this is just a small gesture that we provide that doesn't cost us much. I think the 357 is going to be $17,850 for us to provide a service that, truth be known, can save their lives or a family member's life. I know last time I said I didn't know of anybody personally that had to use it. My understanding is there have been four. (Finance director Jennifer Johnson clarified that last year the district had three instances where the service was used.)…As superintendent, I'm going to leave it at this; folks I think our staff needs this service that we provide to them. I hope they never have to use it but if they did, I leave it with this here, $50 is what it cost each person…it cost us $50 and it isn't going to break our bank but if one of our employees had to use it coming out of their pocket it could probably break their bank," Ashley said.
School board president Tobey Johnson added that it would not be just of the district to recently award the teachers with an increase in pay and then turn around and take a benefit away from them.
"$50 per person is nothing," Johnson said.
Board member Billy Fair moved that the district accept the action items, which included the Air Evac renewal. Board vice president Barbara Wells asked Johnson if she asked for a motion or not and Johnson replied that she was "there."
In other business, the board discussed some of the district's financials, specifically money that was budgeted for partnering with organizations outside of the district. Wells asked Ashley if there were organizations that the district is in financial partnership with. Jennifer Johnson stated that the money that went to H.O.T.E.P. came from the NSLA grant.
She explained that the grant was part of a separate NSLA grant for after-school activity. Wells asked if the district provided transportation for their students when they went on trips and Ashley responded that they did not. Wells asked if the district was partnered with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)? Ashley said that the district was partnered with HBCUs both last year and this year.
"We take our students to colleges and historically black universities that traditionally they would not have an opportunity to go visit. We partner with H.O.T.E.P. and we don't provide ourselves the buses that take them, what happens is if they are going on a long distant one…they rent vans," Ashley said.
Wells stated that she has been researching on the percentage of what colleges Blytheville graduates attend. She stated that some of the colleges that are visited on those trips are too far away and students do not attend them. She also added that other school districts have students attend the trips with Blytheville students. Board member Michelle Sims stated that kids from outside the district that go on the trips pay their own way and Blytheville District money does not pay for those students.
"We've always had a large number of Blytheville students attend those tours. There has never been a large number of other students outweighing the group from Blytheville," Sims said.
Sims stated that a large number of students who go on the tours end up at one of the colleges. Wells stated that she disagreed with Sims and that they only had a small number of students that attended the colleges.
"Why would you even consider taking and going so far when these kids are not attending college. Right now they are basically in Arkansas and Mississippi. What is the purpose of that?" Wells asked.
Sims responded, "It is always great to expand and not just limit to just a small area…some of the kids in our area have not even gone outside Arkansas so to limit them and say that they shouldn't be exposed to opportunities in schools, as a matter of fact, one of the young ladies…I can't think of her name."
"Sharika Williams," Wells interrupted.
"Let's get off. No, you cannot call kids names out in a meeting. We need to talk about this at another time and we need to move on," Fair stated.
In other business, Ashley announced that the district would be looking into a two-hour delayed school start this year as an option in place of not attending school.
He explained that in the case of bad weather causing the district to not have school, it would be possible to look at starting school at 10 a,m. instead of closing school for the day.
gwilliams@blythevillecourier.com