By Marcus McClain
NEA Town Courier
The Blytheville School Board announced that three seniors from the graduating class will be receiving a full ride scholarship to Philander Smith College in Little Rock.
Superintendent Veronica Perkins shared that at a rural education conference she was able to visit with the college president, Roderick Smothers.
“He shared that he wanted to extend to three of our students what he’s extended to about five other superintendents across the state,” Perkins said. “On top of that, another organization agreed to provide an additional scholarship because [the students] will need pieces to transition to college and dorm life. We’re working to determine who those three students are, and we will report back once they’ve been selected.”
The board also discussed and approved the Solution Tree Professional Learning Communities proposal. This will begin the second year of Blytheville’s involvement with Solution Tree PLC at every level with the exception of the Primary School, which has already completed four years of the service. While the Primary isn’t a part of this accepted proposal, they will receive six days of the service left over from the previous year.
Perkins and board member Carlony Lewis recently attended a PLC conference in Washington to further dive into the service. “I was very pleased, even with the school, but it's got to be done correctly,” Lewis said.
“Our trip was really enlightening. Seeing collaborative communities really working well with students being the forefront of the process and teachers working together to create unit assessments and track progress, it can work,” Perkins added. “But there does have to be implementation with fidelity. And when they ask for data, [PLC] and provide it and see week by week how students are performing on units. So they’re not waiting for the end of year for summer school pieces. In real time, you are trying to meet students' needs. It can work, but it has to be that we’re committed to the process.”
The accepted proposal for this second year will cost approximately $443,000 that will be paid for through the district’s ESSR funds.
Additional action items also included the Tier 1 Math Curriculum for $25,506, student assurance services for $21,680, the ‘22-’23 community eligibility provision to continue allowing students to east free and the Mckinney-Vento Grant Homeless Grant to assist students in need.
Additionally, the board recognized the ‘21-’22 teachers of the year at each campus of the district, Tabitha Hartgen was awarded at the Primary School, Jayce Jacks received the elementary school award, Audrey Parker achieved the high school award and Debra Siegler was presented as the middle school and district-wide teacher of the year.
The board also appointed Takelia Carter as the primary school principal and Ricky Everett as middle school principal for the ‘22-23 school year.