On Monday, the Blytheville School Board met for their first meeting in January, more than a week after the school's "Leadership Group" went before the state to make the case that the high school's charter designation should be renewed even after the high school received an "F" in its ESSA rating.
After intensive questioning at the meeting, the state decided to take no action against Blytheville on the condition that they report back to them in December with noticeable growth. School Board President Tobey Johnson, who attended the Little Rock meeting, stated that she had never felt more proud than she did of the "leadership group" as they answered questions.
The most heavily debated topic of the night concerned the board's travel budget. The board went slightly over the $40,000 budget, $40,377, and Superintendent Bobby Ashley felt the board needed a guiding policy for how to spend the money. Board member Michelle Sims voiced concerns that the travel budget was too high and needed to be cut back since the board only needed to have six hours of training.
Board member Erin Carrington suggested that each member be allowed $5,000 to spend for the year; however, once that money had been spent, the member would no longer be allowed to spend any more. Ultimately, the board decided to allow its members to go to any state training, the tri-state annual training, and one national training. Sims and Carrington voted against the motion; however, board member Tracey Ritchey, board member Billy Fair, and Johnson voted for the motion making it pass.
Board member Desmond Hammett, board member Henrietta Watt and Board Vice President Barbara Wells were not in attendance at the Monday night meeting.
In total for the fiscal year, Carrington spent $3,198.24 on travel, Hammett spent $12,122.05, Fair spent $6,268.27, Johnson spent $4,147.54, Sims spent $2,412.86 and Wells spent $7,688.12, totaling in $40,377.
The board also received a report from Baldwin & Shell's Eric Euler who stated that completion of the gym has been pushed back around six weeks due to the constant rain; however, he expected the time to be recovered when things got dryer.
The board was also recognized for national school board appreciation month. All the building principals spoke about their appreciation for the board.
The middle school and high school art teachers even presented artwork as a gift to the board. The middle school gave each board member a piece of artwork made by a student and the high school gave a large canvas painted by the high school art teacher.
The board received a report from the leadership of the district's Alternative Learning Environment, which went into great detail about the difference between basic studies and ALE. They also discussed potential improvements that could be made to help create more success within the program.
After entering executive session for nearly an hour, the board came back into session to accept their personnel recommendations, which included "Appointment of Certified Employee", "Resignation of Certified Employee", "Appointment of Classified Employees", "Resignation of Classified Employee" and "Extension of Superintendent's Contract." The board voted to accept the personnel recommendations; however, Carrington abstained from the vote. She later told the Courier that she felt the board did not have enough information on one of the personnel recommendations, which led to her abstaining.
gwilliams@blythevillecourier.com