At Monday night's Blytheville School Board meeting, State Rep. Monte Hodges (D-Blytheville) and several students from Blytheville High School gave a presentation to the board about civil discourse training that they attended last month.
Superintendent Bobby Ashley stated that he also attended the training and it was beneficial to the students. He welcomed Hodges and the students to present on it.
Hodges stated that he was proud of the work that was going on in the Blytheville School District and that he had a vested interest in the district as both a 1990 graduate and a parent of a student at Blytheville Elementary.
"We are glad to be here…to share a little bit about the civil discourse training. We all could learn a little bit about civility. We see it on a national level how our political figures don't get along and that is why they can't get anything done…We need to let them attend this training…how this all came about was there was some tension between Alma School District and Blytheville School District in the playoffs, some racial tension. It was during the presidential election and some things were said at one of the games and so when people came home and started sharing their concerns about what transpired, I immediately got on the phone and called Alma's legislator…and we talked about it and rather than just ignore it and pretend like it didn't exist, we said, ‘Let's do something that can bring about some good and some positive and who better to start with than the kids,'" Hodges said.
Blytheville's group of students who attended the training included, Destiny Marshall, John Grace, Sandi Gillespie, Shakiah Williams, Lizzie Langston, and Christi Fultz. The students discussed learning some lifelong skills from the training. One thing many of the students mentioned was that the training helped to teach them how to listen to someone even when they disagree with their opinion. Students at the training were separated from their school groups and placed into different groups with students across many different schools, including Alma School District. One Blytheville student stated that they had long and thought-provoking conversations within their groups about heavy conversations on topics like race. She stated that she also had some preconceived notions about the Alma students opinions on race that she discovered were not true.
Now it is up to the students who attended their training to go within Blytheville School District and help teach what they learned to their fellow Blytheville students and teachers. Ashley stated that the organizers of the training will be checking back with the group in the future to see what progress they have made inside their district and the students have already begun making plans to meet with the teachers.
In other business, board member Desmond Hammett stated that he had read some articles concerning the three charter schools that had to go before the state to present information about their plans to raise test scores. Hammett asked curriculum director Sally Cooke if she would be presenting the same information to the state that she previously presented to the board. She stated that she would be presenting the information the board has been given as well as some additional information in the January meeting with the state.
"What could possibly be, let's say worst case scenario, from the state department around the "F" school letter grade of Blytheville New Tech?" Hammett asked.
Cooke explained that the meeting would be concerning the qualification of the school as a charter and that worst-case scenario could always be that the district loses the classification of the charter; however, she stated that she was not concerned that the meeting would result in that outcome. Cooke said that most of the time whenever you go before the state their biggest concern is wanting to know what the district is doing to improve.
Hammett asked if the district was looking into dropping the New Tech curriculum. He stated that he saw that some districts were going away from the charter and wanted to know if the district was considering that alternative at this time.
Cooke stated that calling New Tech a curriculum was kind of a misnomer; however, she stated that she didn't see the district leaving the "New Tech curriculum" at this time. She added that if you "walked outside of New Tech" and you took the five best groups that were working on how students learn, you would find that they all have similar answers.
"I think if you went to national conferences and found the top five companies that are providing research-based things that are working with students, you are going to find them very similar. They want them to be able to collaborate, they want them to be able to think critically, they want them to be able to use technology in a way that promotes them into the 21 century. They want them to be able to be able to walk out the school door and participate in society," Cooke said.
Blytheville's meeting with the state is scheduled for January; however, at this time, the district has not been given an exact date.
gwilliams@blythevillecourier.com