Armorel sees first spike in cases this year

The Armorel School Board is imploring its students to stay home if they are sick.

During Monday night’s meeting, board members learned there are 74 students in quarantine; more than half of those are a result of two positive cases from last week.

Armorel superintendent Tiffany Morgan said last Wednesday afternoon, a number of students had to quarantine after a student was positive for Covid. Then, the next day, another positive case resulted in more students being forced to quarantine. Until the spike, Armorel had not seen a significant number quarantine since school began.

The school nurse reported if Armorel had a mask mandate, only 39 students would be in quarantine. Currently, Armorel has five positive cases among students and staff, according to Morgan.

“Everything had been going really well from what I’m hearing,” board member Jeff Hopper said. “We’ve had someone show up to school knowing they were sick.”

He said one sick student attending school could impact his or her classmates.

“This isn’t five years ago, if you’re sick, go home and stay home,” Hopper said. “There’s 40 kids out because someone was sick, and they decided they would go to school. That’s frustrating but what can you do.”

Morgan said the district will continue to make adjustments.

“We may have to tighten back up in the classrooms,” Morgan said. “It’s going to be a little harder with the masks not being in place.”

The board agreed to allow staff eight Covid days and if they do not use them, they will receive $88 per day for the unused days.

Meanwhile, Armorel will bid out three parcels of land because the current five-year leases expire on Dec. 31.

One parcel is leased to Armorel Planting, while Langston Enterprises farms the other two.

School board president Scott Jowers asked Morgan to check with the district’s attorney to determine if it is best to bid the parcels individually or as one. The board is also considering whether to continue with a five-year lease structure or add an option to extend it to 10 years.

In other news, Morgan reported the new buses arrived last week, and the board agreed to sell the old buses to an individual at scrap cost, $1,000 each.

The board also agreed to install new flooring at the administration building.

Meanwhile, the board approved the statement of assurance; the 2021-22 budget; the minority recruitment plan; the bid from EFS GeoTechnologies to revisit rezoning for school board because of the 2020 Census numbers; and hiring Friends Tree Service to trim two trees and remove another.

Before Monday night’s regular board meeting, Armorel held its annual public meeting and the Title I meeting, with Morgan, high school principal Tony Crowell, elementary principal Joey Carr, and federal programs coordinator Lea Speight giving reports.

Armorel has increased to 430 students this year, including 232 in elementary and 198 in high school.

Morgan said among the district’s goals are both Armorel Elementary School and Armorel High School to receive “A” ratings on the state accountability report by increasing student performance in reading and math; increasing student attendance; and increasing community service hours.

On the last ESSA report card, in 2018-19, AES received an “A” while AHS received a “B”.

Morgan also provided an update on district facilities. The new elementary building was completed in the summer of 2020 and contains two safe rooms. The parking lot expansion has been completed as well. Morgan expects to begin construction on a high school safe room in three to five years.

She reported the district was granted $376,999 in ESSER III funds, and Armorel plans to use 80 percent of the money to upgrade air quality by replacing 45 HVAC units, a project that is underway.

The other 20 percent will go towards student learning loss, according to Morgan.

Crowell said his goal is for AHS to become an “A” school, and he believes it is close to doing so.

He reported on the school’s curriculum and programs.

Meanwhile, Carr said AES beat the state averages in Literacy, Math, and Science on the 2020-21 Aspire scores. Seventy-six percent of students were Ready or Exceeding in Literacy; 62 percent in Math; and 42 percent in Science.

In her report, Speight said the district received $40,438 in ESSER I funds; $167,679 in ESSER II funds; $80,858 in Supplemental ESSER funds; and $376,999 in ESSER III funds.