GOSNELL— Monday night, the Gosnell School District held its annual Report to the Public in the Administration Building Board Room.
Members present were President Donnie Wright, Doug Johnson, Greg McGuirt, Cody Mace and Lee Ketchum.
Members Michael Jacques and John Weiss were absent.
Assistant Superintendent Anita McKinney stated she was “very excited” to see the scores.
McKinney noted the district as a whole was better than other Mississippi County schools in 11 categories; six in elementary and five in secondary school.
“We outperformed the state (of Arkansas) as a district in over half of our tested areas,” added McKinney.
Overall Gosnell Elementary outperformed 75- percent of other schools in the State of Arkansas. Grades third and fifth finished in the top 20 percent.
McKinney added that fifth-grade math scores were 12th in the state.
Whereas, the sixth grade finished in the top 10 percent of the state.
Gosnell High School outperformed over 50 percent of the state of Arkansas.
McKinney noted that the seventh grade was first in all five categories on the county level and top 25 percent in the state.
According to McKinney, Gosnell High was named one of the best high schools in Arkansas by the U.S. News.
Elizabeth Bryce informed the board on Federal and State Programs and Special Services.
Bryce stated there are 124 students in gifted and talented; 80 students in the district that fall under 504 services; 53 students that fall under homeless services and six students that fall under migrant services.
Bryce noted the six students who fall under migrant services are in the school mainly for agricultural purposes. According to the report, migrant children are defined as those who have moved from one school district to another or from one state to another during the last three years to seek or obtain work in categories such as fish farms, fruit/vegetable farms, harvest worker, livestock worker, food processing, dairy work or poultry work.
Gosnell Elementary School has 582 students enrolled with 53 certified staff and 15 support staff.
Gosnell Elementary principal Tina Godsey stated that the elementary’s 2022 Public School rating is a B and that 2023 ratings have not been released.
“Gosnell Elementary scored higher than the state average in 16 of 20 areas on the ACT Aspire summative for Spring 2023,” reads the Gosnell Elementary Report to the Public handout.
Godsey noted that parental involvement has increased and the elementary school has planned several events throughout the school year to help increase parental involvement.
In the High School, there are 607 students enrolled.
Gosnell high school principal Keelen Newsom stated the high school’s public school rating was 67.14, which is .13 higher than the state average, and is a C.
His goal is to have the high school’s public rating at an A.
“My overall goal is for us to improve by 6.08 and become an A school,” stated Newsom. “That’s what I would like to become.”
The rating scale is A- 73.22 and above; B - 67.96-73.21; C- 61.10- 67.95; D- 52.95-61.09; and F- 0-52.94.
Superintendent Len Whitehead thanked the principals and assistant principals for attending the report to the public and stated they are all doing a “fantastic job”.
On agenda items, the board unanimously passed the budget for the school year of 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.
Whitehead stated the 2023-24 budget is the same as the previous year's budget except for the LEARNS ACT money which was $553,000.
The board also approved the local and state standards and curriculum after McKinney’s recommendations.
Whitehead addressed enrollment stating the district has grown.
“I am excited to report that we have seen some growth this year in our student enrollment,” Whitehead exclaimed. “It looks like we are up about 26 students as of right now. This is a real positive. This is the first real growth that we have seen in many years and so I think we are starting a new trend and hopefully we’ll trend upwards for many years to come.”
Whitehead stated last year the enrollment was 1,164 students and this year enrollment is 1,190 students K-12th.
Another agenda item addressed allowing the Gosnell flag football league to use J. W. Rea Field.
Whitehead stated this league is for first through third graders and that the league has its own insurance.
He added other teams are participating in the program and “about 70 kids” are involved in the league. The league will run from September through November.
The board passed a motion to waive the facilities use fee and allow the Gosnell football league to use the facilities.
Whitehead informed the board they could receive their school board training at the Arkansas School Board Association regional meeting on Oct. 12 at Rivercrest in Wilson.
Lastly, Whitehead informed the board of two resignations within the district. The board accepted both resignations.
Bryce informed the board that the district needed to “reinstate” the bus route to “safely transport” students with disabilities.
Bryce recommended Kim Zecman be hired as the special education bus driver for the Dell bus route.
Zecman has been employed within the district for seven years as a special ed paraprofessional. She has also been a bus monitor and a substitute bus driver.
The board unanimously approved the hiring of Zecman as the Special education bus driver.