Report Card - Arkansas School Boards...

The Journal of The arkansas school Boards associaTion

February 2012www.arsba.org

Report CardP.O. Box 165460Little Rock, AR 72216

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PAIDLITTLE ROCK, AR

PERMIT #2437

Why wait?Instead of spending their senior year taking electives, Bearden class president Jordan Wright and his fellow students each day are bused 18 miles to Southern Arkansas University - Tech for morning classes. Hell graduate high school with 12 credit hours earned in a college environment. Others are knocking out remedial courses or taking career prep classes such as welding and auto repair. The high school students are outscoring their college-aged classmates. And its all free for them and their families.

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4 February 2012 Report Card

The Journal of The arkansas school Boards associaTion

February 2012www.arsba.org

R e p o r t C a r d

News and Features

DepartmentsPresidents ColumnLetter from the Executive DirectorASBA News and NotesASBA CalendarAdvertisers IndexPaul Blumes ColumnCommercial AffiliatesMarketplace

10

Cover story / Why wait?Thanks to a pilot program at Bearden High School, seniors earn up to 12 hours of college credit by taking classes on the campus of nearby SAU Tech all paid for by the school district. Or they can knock out their remedial courses before they go to college, saving their families thousands of dollars and making it more likely they will earn a degree. They also can choose to learn a workforce skill.

Leaders gather to share lightAt ASBAs Annual Conference, 600 attendees shared stories, heard speakers and attended their choice of 23 breakout sessions, all under the theme of Its better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Bearden senior Jordan Wright reacts after losing an air hockey game at Southern Arkansas University Technical College in Camden. Through a pilot program, high school students get a taste of the college experience by taking morning classes on campus.

Executive Session with Steve Percival

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56779

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28 Crystal Bridges covering costsThe Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville offers student tours that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards. There is no admission fee, and the museum will reimburse schools for the costs of travel and substitute teachers. Free food, too.

Less remediation, more gradsBeardens pilot program is part of a larger effort to reduce the number of students attend-ing time-consuming and expensive remedial courses that discourage them from completing their degrees.

13

Report Card February 2012 5

It is hard for me to believe 2012 is upon us, and we are moving full speed ahead into spring. It seems as if only yesterday we found ourselves gath-ered in Little Rock to attend the ASBA Annual Conference.

You may recall the theme was, Its better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. During the conference I heard many side discussions concerning the possible origin of the phrase. As we move into 2012, it seems appropriate to revisit it and dig a little deeper into what it may represent to us as board members.

Many think that John F. Kennedy first spoke this phrase. While it did grow popular while he was in office, he is not believed to be the first to say it. The quotation is also widely attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt. But having searched the texts, it seems that, if it is to be at-tributed to an American, the best source would be Adlai Stevenson, who used a version of it when he spoke before the United Nations General Assembly in 1962 in praise of the first lady and her lifelong efforts to promote human rights.

Some authors say the phrase first came from Peter Benenson, an English lawyer who in 1961 founded Amnesty International, which still uses the phrase as its motto. Others attribute it to Saint Francis of Assisi, who said about 800 years ago, All the darkness in the world

cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.

Probably the phrases origin lies in a much older Chinese proverb, Dont curse the darkness light a candle. Most sources reference Confucius as its author, but then again, almost all ancient Chinese wisdom has been thus imputed!

Regardless of etiology, there is a rea-son certain sayings hang around: They strike a fundamental truth that resonates. The phrase It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness obviously relates to action and inaction. The point is, If something is wrong, do something about it rather than complain. This usu-ally is good advice; after all, who among us hasnt solved the worlds problems during happy hour with a few friends?

So what is the moral of all of this in our story? In our school board service, we can be faced with a type of dark-ness all our own that requires us to light our individual board candles. It does not matter what situation we are facing. All it takes is one positive thought to light your candle of hope. One candle may not be enough to light up an entire board room. But as long as you feel comfortable enough to take one step at a time, you will be able to walk anywhere in the room without bumping into anything in the dark.

Such is the power of positive thoughts and hope. You do not need to find a way of extinguishing all the dark-ness around you at once. All you need is one little candle, and the darkness, however overwhelming it may seem, wont be able to engulf you.

Just take one step at a time. Dont worry about how you are going to go the full distance. Trust in yourself and your abilities. By taking one step at a time, you will manage to go the full distance. Dont focus on the darkness all around you. Dont allow the darkness to scare you. It cant extinguish the light from your personal candle. Just keep your fo-cus, and you will know when and where to take the next step.

Have a great 2012, and let your lights shine!

Let your candle light the darkness

Paul HancePresident

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Fax: 501-375-2454E-mail: [email protected] / www.arsba.org

R e p o r t C a r dThe Journal of The

arkansas school Boards associaTion

Board of DirectorsPresident: Dr. Paul Hance, BatesvillePresident-elect: Maxine Nelson, Watson ChapelVice President: Jerry Don Woods, DardanelleSec.-Treasurer: Steve Percival, FayettevillePast President: Wayne Gibson, El DoradoRegion 1: Bob Warren, Elkins Region 2: Neal Pendergrass, Mountain HomeRegion 3: Dr. Donna Shaw, HighlandRegion 4: Jamie Hammond, Van BurenRegion 5: Clint Hull, PottsvilleRegion 6: Brenda McKown, BeebeRegion 7: Gene Bennett, South Mississippi Co.Region 8: Sandra Porter, BryantRegion 9: Rita Cress, StuttgartRegion 10: Debbie Ugbade, Hot SpringsRegion 11: Charles Tadlock, SheridanRegion 12: Rosa Bowman, AshdownRegion 13: Erma Brown, StephensRegion 14: William Campbell, McGehee

StaffExecutive Director: Dan FarleyExecutive Assistant: Michelle BurgessStaff Attorney: Kristen GouldCommunications: Suellen VannBoard Development: Horace SmithPolicy & Advocacy: Ron HarderAdvocacy & TAPS: Mickey McFatridgeStudy Circles: Connie Whitfield Diane VibhakarSpecial Projects: Ann MarshallFinance: Deborah NewellAdministrative Assistant: Angela EllisBookkeeper: Kathy IvyRisk Management Program &Workers Comp. Program: Shannon Moore, Director Krista Glover Amanda Blair Dwayne McAnally Ashley Samuels Jennifer Shook Misty Thompson Melody Tipton Tiffany Malone

General Counsel: W. Paul BlumeEditor: Steve Brawner

TO CONTACT THE MAGAZINEPlease contact Steve Brawner, [email protected]

Report Card is published quarterly by the Arkansas School Boards Association. Copyright 2012 by the Arkansas School Boards Associa-tion and Steve Brawner Communications. All rights reserved.

Vol. 5, Number 1 February 2012

Letter from the Executive Director

The power of relationships

We place a lot of emphasis in our board training on duties and responsi-bilities, what you can do and what you cant. Rarely do we talk about the soft skills you need to be effective as an individual board member and as a board.

Getting to know each other is a step in the right direction, though you have to be careful not to violate the Freedom of Information Act in the process. Under-standing each others strengths and weaknesses, your expectations and your working styles can help your board members achieve a harmonious relation-ship. That harmony can result in reach-ing informed decisions that are in the best interest of your school district and its students. It also can undergird the publics confidence.

Bickering boards do not inspire trust. Rather, they attract a lot of attention and not the kind they want or need, or that the public is willing to tolerate.

Often those negative interactions are based on perceptions that may be false. Each of us approaches things differently. When we understand that about each other (and ourselves), we often can find common ground. Or we can learn to disagree agreeably and look for areas of consensus.

Thats true of any group working together. Not everyone will approach a problem the same way. When you get to know everyone, you quickly appreciate the array of personality styles, none of which is superior to the others.

Horace Smith, ASBA board develop-ment director, did a couple of breakout sessions at our annual conference in December called True Colors: Person-ality and Board Working Relationships. Its one of many tools designed to help people understand what makes them tick and what makes the others tick as well. Horace ran the same exercise with our staff, and it was a revelation to many of us just how accurate the profiles were.

Board members and administrators who attended his breakout sessions in

December gave them excellent evalua-tions. Two said the session was awe-some. Several called it very informa-tive. One board member wants Horace to do the exercise with his board. A number of them said that, in addition to being insightful, it also was fun. How often do you hear that word in relation to board work?

Fact is it is fun to understand your own personality type and can be very helpful in understanding how you relate to others, and they to you.

An activity such as True Colors is a good one for a board retreat, but its certainly not the only kind of activity that can help you get to know and better understand your colleagues. In the Board Academies we have run in the past, we have used a study circle and posed the question: What was your school experience like? After using it dozens of times, I still am somewhat amazed at how insightful it can be. Small groups of people respond to the question, sharing with others what their own educational experience was like, which normally produces a dialogue, and that leads to a deeper understanding of each other.

With student achievement, fiscal affairs and policy duties, every board needs professional development oppor-tunities. All too often, the soft skills get overlooked.

Doug Eadie, writing in Five Habits of High-Impact School Boards, had this to say:

When you sign on to participate in governing your school district, you take on an awesome, high-stakes challenge, but theres no valid reason why you should not expect the governing experi-ence to be enjoyable and relatively pain-free at least a good deal of the time.

He goes on: Enriching your interper-sonal experience is another way of bringing more enjoyment to your governing work. - Dan Farley


ASBA News and notes

Continued, next page

Arkansas public schools seem likely to receive an additional 2 percent increase in foundation and categori-cal funding this fiscal session based on recommendations of the Legislatures Adequacy Committee and Gov. Beebes proposed budget.

The states public school budget would increase by $56 million. Founda-tion funding would increase from $6,144 per student to $6,266.

The co-chairs of the Joint Budget Committee, Sen. Gilbert Baker (R-Conway) and Rep. Kathy Webb (D-Little Rock), and the chairman of the House Education Committee, Rep. Eddie Cheatham (D-Crossett), said in

Schools to see $56 million hike

interviews that they expect the request to have little difficulty passing. Both Webb and Cheatham said they have heard no members indicate opposition to it.

That $56 million was the result of a year of study by the Legislatures Ad-equacy Committee, which this year was composed of all members of the House and Senate Education committees. The Adequacy Committee submitted its rec-ommendation to Governor Beebe, who included it in his budget proposal.

The reason the proposal seems likely to pass can be summed up in two words: Lake View. The Arkansas Supreme Court rulings requiring adequate and equitable funding in decisions involv-ing the now-defunct Lake View school district continue to guide state legisla-tors thinking when it comes to school funding.

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ASBA News and notes

Ed Week ranks state fifthArkansas ranked fifth in the latestQuality Counts report,

an annual study of schools by Education Week magazine and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center.

The study gave the state a total score of 81.6, a B-minus. Only Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Virginia scored higher. The national average was 76.5.

Last year, Arkansas ranked sixth. The state scored a 96.4, first in the nation, in the way it

aligns public education with pre-school, college and the work world. Arkansas student learning standards, testing methods and school accountability measures together earned a 94.4.

Arkansas was second with a B-plus 88 in the teaching profession category because of its support offerings, incen-tives and accountability measures.

In student achievement, the state received a D, a 66.3, which places it 34th in the nation. And in chance for suc-cess, it ranked 44th with a 71.8, a D-minus. That includes, among other factors, home life issues such as family income and parental education levels.

Fifteen get STEM funds Fifteen Arkansas districts along with the Northark Techni-

cal Center will share more than $1.5 million as part of Gov-ernor Mike Beebes STEM Works Initiative. The initiative is meant to increase student achievement in science, technology, engineering and math.

Nine of the districts each will receive $150,000 to help them transition to the New Tech Network. New Tech high schools emphasize project-based learning using technology and have seen success in other parts of the country. Those districts are Arkadelphia, Dumas, El Dorado, Highland, Hope, Marked Tree, Riverview (White County), Russellville and Van Buren.

Two other districts that already have New Tech high schools, Lincoln and Cross County, each will receive $75,000. Lincoln was featured in the November 2011 issue of Report Card while Cross County was featured in the May 2010 issue. Both were granted conversion charters by the State Board of Education Jan. 9.

According to Dr. Tom Kimbrell, Arkansas education com-missioner, about two dozen other districts are considering becoming New Tech schools.

Riverview joined four other districts in receiving funds for Project Lead the Way, which includes several introductory courses in engineering and biomedical sciences.

Riverview received $70,000 for pre-engineering. Other recipients were: Star City $111,000 for pre-engineering; Prairie Grove $94,000 for pre-engineering; Gravette $89,000 for biomedical science; Jonesboro $75,000 for pre-engineering; and the Northark Technical Center $75,000 for pre-engineering.

The awards were granted by the Governors Workforce Cabinet, which consists of the states major education and economic development agencies.

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As much as there are different opinions on K-12 and needs, level of accountability, progress thats being made or not, you know, different views, nobody wants our public school system in court state court or federal court, Baker said. So the specter of Lake View always stands tall, and folks want to stay away from that.

In fact, Baker said legislators fear that failing to OK the Adequacy Com-

mittees recommendation could make the state vulnerable to a lawsuit. For better or worse, we as the entire Legislature and governor are at the mercy of the result that the Adequacy Committee comes up with, he said.

The other potentially contentious education-related issue funding for lottery scholarships also is expected to receive little attention this session because a report by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education indicated the state will have adequate funds this year.

However, Cheatham expects lottery scholarship funding to become an issue during the 2013 General Assembly.

As a board member, have you ever worried about knowing enough about the law concerning executive session? Have you heard someone accuse your school board of violating execu-tive session law? Have you wondered if your board might be in an illegal executive session?

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In the November 2011 Report Card, the article Eight of 17 millage hikes pass incorrectly reported that South Pike County School District passed a four-mill increase to replace exterior windows at two elementary schools. The

Correction

district actually unified its millage after a consolidation with Delight at 41 mills. Previously, Murfreesboros millage rate was 44 and Delights was 40.

Bob Warren of Elkins has been ap-pointed ASBA Region I director, taking the slot held by Steve Percival, who was

Warren named Region I director

interactive webinar from 11:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Feb. 23 that will:

Review FOI law concerning open public meetings

Focus on executive sessions: why, how and when

Let you test your knowledge Give you an opportunity to ask

questions Arkansas school board members will

earn one hour of training credit for at-tending the webinar. The registration fee is $25 for each school board member. A limit of 25 participants may enroll, and an additional date will be set if more than 25 people wish to register.

Visit www.arsba.org to register.

elected secre-tary-treasurer at the Annual Conference.

Warren is a retired educator who was born in Fort Smith and attended school in Elkins. He at-tended South-ern State and the University of Arkansas. He holds a BSE and a masters in education. He and his wife, Peggy Jo, have three sons.

Warren


Cover/Bearden High

BEARDEN The idea started occurring to Superintendent Denny Rozenberg during an economic devel-opment summit in Little Rock: Make his students senior years more fruitful by letting them earn college credit or

pass remedial courses on the campus of nearby Southern Arkansas University Technical College in Camden. Soon afterwards, the Arkansas Department of Higher Education had OKd a pilot program, and SAU Tech was on board.

The result? After a year-and-half, some students are graduating high school with 12 hours of credit earned in a college environment. Others are passing remedial (now commonly called developmental) courses so they can start college on par with their peers. Others are learning workforce skills that will help them get jobs when they graduate. SAU Tech has seen its number

of freshmen from Bearden double. And its all funded by or through the district with no costs borne by students.

I love it, said senior Jordan Wright, who will enter his freshman year at Southwestern Assemblies of God Uni-versity with 12 credit hours. Its really great because I can get all my freshman courses that I have to take when I go to college. I can get them out of the way early, and it doesnt cost me anything.

Heres how it works on a day-to-day basis. On Mondays through Thursdays, virtually the entire senior class is bused 18 miles to SAU Tech. Students can take courses for college credit in world his-tory, college algebra, and English Com-position I and II that can transfer to any four-year institution in the state, or they can take remedial courses that other col-leges can choose to accept. Seniors and juniors taking career-oriented classes leave for Camden a little earlier and also attend class on Fridays.

Temeke Butler, a career coach who works with students from Bearden and nearby Stephens, visits the high school campus about twice a week and helps students plan their educational and professional careers. She also works with principal John Ed Goodman to make sure students are learning lessons and attending class; skipping class, in fact, is the quickest way for them to lose the opportunity and be back in a high school study hall. I dont want to find out about a kid whos failing when its too late to do anything about it, so thats where Temeke comes in, Goodman said.

Costs for the program are about $60,000, with tuition making up about three-fourths of that and transporta-tion the rest. Academic courses cost $1,100 to $1,200 per student, though the college gives the school a bargain basement price on books. The $3,200 cost to attend career classes in nursing, welding, auto mechanics, cosmetology, computer business technology, and radio and television broadcasting is reim-bursed by the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services.

The school paid its first-year ex-penses using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money as well as some Title I and National School Lunch

Why Wait?By Steve BrawnerEditor

Bearden High offers seniors a choice: Either get college credit, pass remedial courses, or gain a workforce skill

GETTING AHEAD. Instead of taking a senior year elective, Travontae Hall is earning col-lege credit in an English composition class at Southern Arkansas University Technical College in Camden. Opposite page, senior Gage Thompson takes a welding class.


Act funds, which Rozenberg expects to be sufficient going forward. If not, the Bearden School Board has made it a priority to pay for the program out of school funds.

So what are taxpayers getting for their money? In 2010-11, during the pro-grams first year of existence, 13 high school seniors were able to take up to 12 hours of general education courses, earning a 100 percent pass rate with a C or better the first semester and a 92 percent pass rate in the second semester.

Meanwhile, 13 of 14 students passed remedial courses in the fall of 2010, with similar success occurring in the spring of 2011.

This past fall, every one of the 23 stu-dents enrolled in both general education and developmental classes passed.

Twelve students this year are taking career classes that will prepare them for a job after graduation. One student in particular is well on her way to being a licensed professional nurse.

According to Rozenberg, that part of the pilot program is succeeding because the school has made it a priority. We used to send our vocational kids years ago in the afternoon, but when I started looking at that program, a lot of schools just dumped their kids in the afternoon you know, the kids that didnt want to be in athletics, that didnt want to be in this or that, they would shove them in the vocational, he said. But the kids that were sending in the morning, I noticed, wanted to be there.

Of the 38 students in the class of 2011 who participated in the pilot program, 16 attended SAU Tech this past fall, which SAU Techs director of community education, Robert White, estimates is probably twice the number that normally would do so. Ten of those have a 3.0 grade point average or better, while three were on the Chancellors List with a 4.0 and three were on the Deans List.

The relationship with SAU Tech is a good fit for Bearden, a rural south Arkansas school where 70 percent of students are on free or reduced lunch. According to Rozenberg, many come from families where the parents dont have college degrees. In a typical year, he estimated that a graduating senior

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By the numbers ...$60,000 Annual cost of the program to the district

$0 Annual cost of the program to students and their families50 Number of minutes students spend on a bus four times a week

100 Percentage of students who passed their fall 2011 remedial classes100 Percentage of students who passed their fall 2011 college credit courses

38 Members of the class of 2011 who participated in the pilot program16 Members of the class of 2011 now enrolled at SAU Tech as college students10 Members of that class with a 3.0 g.p.a. or better in college



class of 50 students produces 15-20 who go to college and eight to 10 who even-tually earn a degree.

Rozenberg said the program makes sense given Beardens class schedule. Because its on an eight-period day, many students enter their senior year already having earned the 23 hours the state says are needed to graduate and lacking only senior English and senior math. So now, if you talk to a high school principal and say, How do you keep that kid interested in high school? well, you start them down a college path, Rozenberg said.

Because the classes are held at SAU Tech and not at Bearden, students are traveling aboard a bus for almost an hour each day instead of sitting in a classroom. According to Rozenberg, thats well worth it. This way, students are exposed to a college atmosphere with classes taught by a college profes-sor, which prepares them for that experi-ence later. Added Butler, It also lets them see that college isnt a scary place, that they can actually get in here with regular college kids, and actually, my kids make better grades than the regular college students as high school students, which makes me very proud of them.

Rozenberg believes an actual col-lege education yields better results than having a concurrent class taught by a Bearden High teacher or enrolling stu-dents in an Advanced Placement course.

Weve been offering AP U.S. history here for over 10 years, and we have yet to have a kid pass the AP U.S. history test with a 3 or above, which means he receives college credit for it, or she, Rozenberg said. But I can put 20 kids in a college world history class, and 95 to 100 percent of them are going to pass the course and receive college credit.

He thinks that, with a little tweaking and some help from summer school, students could graduate high school with an associates degree.

Back when the idea was first becom-ing a reality, Rozenberg did have to do a sales job with some of his faculty and staff, but they quickly came on board once they were assured it wouldnt result in cutbacks.

One group that hasnt been hard to convince is the parents. Before the pro-gram started last year, the district hosted a public meeting where the plans were explained, but less than 25 percent of the parents showed up for it. Information was sent home to the rest.

According to Rozenberg, a National Guard officer who served in Afghani-stan, families werent given a choice as to whether or not they could participate.

Here was our thing, he said. Your choice is not to sit around the high school, unless youre not on track to graduate, and not to start getting ready for your career after high school. So thats not a choice. You cant come up as a student and say, No, I just want to stay and take high school credits. Im not really interested in college or reme-diation or vocational. Well, then, whats your purpose in going to school? No parents bucked it.

SAU Tech was instantly supportive as an institution, though some of the faculty members had to be convinced of the programs value.

One of the things that weve really touted is that the faculty and administra-tors on campus really bought into it, said SAU Techs White. You know, there was a lot of apprehension when you start talking about bringing high school students on a college campus, especially with college professors, but after the first year, actually the first semester, they were excited, happy and they told us to bring them some more.

The program is beginning to ex-pand. Fordyce High has begun to send students to SAU Tech, though not to the scale of Bearden, and other schools are considering it.

Rozenberg sees the fact that students are being funneled into SAU Tech after graduation as a positive for them and their families. Certainly, an SAU Tech education is cheaper than a four-year school. But Rozenberg pointed out that another plus is that students can gain two years of maturity getting their ba-sics while living at home before leaving for a four-year school.

And even if they advance their education no farther, simply getting the hours makes his students more mar-ketable to employers such as the local aerodefense industry.

If our kids graduate from Bearden with nine or 12 hours of college credit, and they go out in the workforce, well, that just puts them one step ahead of somebody that comes off the street, he said.

Cover/Bearden High

DIRTY HANDS, BRIGHT FUTURES. Erica Cardenas and Tyler Rollins work on a car dur-ing an auto mechanics course at SAU Tech. The two seniors said that, while they dont plan to have careers in auto repair, being able to fix a car will be a good skill to have.


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HIGHER EDS HIGHER UPS. Cynthia Moten, associate director of academic affairs at the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, and Shane Broadway, ADHE interim direc-tor.

According to Superinten-dent Denny Rozenberg, many Bearden students succeed in the classroom but dont excel at standardized tests. No matter what their grades are in high school, if they score below a 19 on the ACT in English, reading or math, theyll have to take a reme-dial course in college.

Which means they would have a lot of company. Ac-cording to a January report produced by the Arkansas Department of Higher Educa-tion, 49.3 percent of 23,176 students entering college last fall required at least one remedial course.

Thats the lowest since the 48.5 percent rate of 1994 and is far below the peak of 59.6 percent in 2002, but those courses still cost the state an estimated $51.9 million in the 2010-11 academic year.

Meanwhile, those courses had another big cost in future college graduates. Students in a remedial course are spending time and money treading water in classes that dont offer college credit, and for many, that can be a discouraging hurdle to over-come.

We know that the more time you add to the degree, the less likely youre going to finish because life hap-pens, and so the more that the student can come in, declare a major, and move forward, the more likely they are to be successful, said Cynthia Moten, ADHEs associate director of academic affairs.

Moten and ADHE Interim Director Shane Broadway said the jury is still out on how successful Beardens ap-proach will be in addressing the issue statewide. Because its a pilot program, four-year

institutions are not required to accept the results of the re-medial courses. The program might not translate to a larger high school that would have to bus hundreds of students to a college campus.

Still, both Broadway and Moten are optimistic about the programs early success. I think we like what weve seen so far out of the first year, Broadway said.

The state is beginning to take a more coordinated approach to college comple-tion at the same time that the issue is getting more national attention, and it is trying some innovative approaches in order to lower the number of students who need reme-diation.

Using a grant from Complete College America, ADHE is working to redesign remedial courses into mod-ules that are possibly as brief as two weeks so students can receive computerized instruc-tion only in certain subject areas rather than having to take an entire class. Working with the Southern Regional Education Board and the Gates Foundation, the state is

Less remediation, more graduates

studying developing transi-tional courses for high school seniors who arent prepared for college and then, if neces-

sary, using the module ap-proach once they get there.

Also being studied is the appropriate math course for students who are not major-ing in a science- or math-related major. According to Moten, getting prepared for college algebra and then passing it is an insurmount-able hurdle for some stu-dents. In fact, some students must pass two remedial courses just to be eligible for the course.


E X E C U T I V E S E S S I O Nwith

Steve Percival

If a school board members most important duty is to hire the superinten-dent, then Steve Percival is the right person in the right place.

Percival, who was first elected to the Fayetteville School Board in 1995, is the vice president of human resources at Washington Regional Medical Center,

By Steve BrawnerEditor

which means he is responsible for filling 2,200 positions, including medical staff. His wife, Karen, is the human resources director at the Walton Arts Center.

Recently elected as ASBAs secre-tary-treasurer, Percival has enjoyed an eventful 16 years in office, including two superintendent hirings, two recent major millage increase requests to build a new high school, the second of which passed, and several competitive races.

Report Card sat down with him in his office, which has walls covered with photographs he has taken, to discuss some of the challenges he has faced as well as to get some insights into how a human resources professional ap-proaches the task of hiring a superinten-dent.

You have been a school board member since 1995 and have faced an

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opponent every time except one. Why keep subjecting yourself to this?

It gets in your blood. It really does. In 95, for lack of a better rational reason, I guess, one of my goals was to give my son his diploma. He was just entering the first grade when I first got on the board, and I thought it would be kind of fun to be able to give him his diploma. I was able to give my middle son his diploma in 99 and missed my oldest son by a year. He graduated in 94. But it was always my goal, and I was able to give my youngest, Matthew, his diploma as president of the school board. I thought that was pretty cool.

Was that as special as you thought it was going to be?

Yeah, it really was. You know, it wasnt about anything other than just a family, personal goal I had. Ive been through 180, 190 school board meetings all together; thats not why I did that. I do all that because there are so many good people working in the district, and its nice to be able to support them. And its one of those things where some people say either youre part of the problem, or youre part of the solution. And there are so many people doing so much with so little. To be able to stay a part of them and help them and serve as president of the board for nine years, and just continuing to stay involved and support them, and watch Fayetteville become one of the best districts in the state and stay that way thats what keeps me going.

Then I got on the board of Arkansas School Boards Association a couple of years ago to be able to continue on with that. Id always said youve got to have skin in the game, and in order for you to be on the school board, you should have kids in the district so you have a vested interest. And had the opportunity with the Arkansas School Boards Association not come up, I probably wouldnt have run again. But thats a new venture, and so I can make a difference, I think, at that level now. So the timing is pretty good.

Fayetteville has gone through two major millage increase requests in the past few years. The first one failed,

and the second one passed. It seemed like with the first one, you tried to do everything right. You had community involvement. What happened there?

I did some analysis on that, and my conclusion was the reason we lost is because more people voted no than yes.

Thats not really a cynical answer. Its a legitimate one because we get a certain number of no votes no matter what you do. There are people who vote no against any tax increase for any reason, and youll never convince them otherwise. And so what we didnt do was motivate the yes voters to go vote. I did an analysis of the demographics, and of the voting people between the ages of 21 and 44, three percent voted. And in the 55-plus age group, 25-plus percent of them voted. And so the people who have kids in our school didnt vote. The people who dont have kids in our school did. And so we did a really bad job of and I was president (of the school board) at the time, so I take full responsibility for that one we did not do a good job making it personal for the people who had a vested interest in the outcome. And so I think thats why we lost.

What did you do differently the second time?

Well, this last time when we did vote, Vicki Thomas, the superintendent, did a great job engaging the community, engaging the staff, answering questions, being out there, making it personal to the yes voters, and making sure they understood its up to them to make the difference. We had some community-driven committees and a lot of meetings and a lot of getting out there, talking to people, and making sure they under-stood that no matter what grade level your students are in, your children are in, theres something in this thats going to make a big difference for you.

Your last re-election was very tight, and very low voter turnout.

(Laughs.) Yeah.

How close was it?I won by 115 to 113. I won by two

votes.Continued, next page

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Executive Session

Was it a difficult campaign?You know, I dont know. There are 8,328 registered voters

in my zone, and 228 of them voted. I had no idea that it would be that low. I did the yard signs, the postcards, and contacted people and networked with people. And I know my opponent was out there pressing the flesh and going to all of the PTA meetings and all that kind of stuff. And I dont get it.

I think, again, what youre facing is apathy to much of an extent. Things are going well. People seem to be content with the way things are going, and so its not even on their radar.

Did it bug you a little bit that turnout was so low?Uh-huh. It bugged me a lot.

Why?Because, and maybe Im making a correlation that may

not be relevant, but all of the studies show that student achievement increases with parental involvement. And that not only means helping the kids do their homework at night and all that. It means getting involved in the schools, under-standing whats going on. Were staring in the face of Com-mon Core. Its going to turn everything on its ear. And if theyre not sufficiently engaged to even understand a school board race, is there going to be an issue with them getting engaged on the other academic pieces as well, if they need to, in order for them to help their students?

On a personal level, did you think, Guys, Im devoting 25 hours a month to this? Cant you come out and vote, either for me or against me, but at least vote?

Not really. I mean, its my choice to do that. I do it because its good work, giving back to the community. And so, no, I really wasnt concerned about that kind of an issue. Its just one of those things. Id like to get this group en masse that didnt vote and say, Whats up with that? Every one of you got something from me at some point in the past telling you that I was running. Why did you just throw it away? That kind of stuff. I dont know. Thats a head scratcher.

You are a human resource director with 2,200 staff members. The most important thing that a school board does is hire and fire a superintendent. How has your professional experience helped you in your school board service?

One of the things Ive learned in HR when it comes to leadership is that it is all about leadership. And to that extent, leadership is all about trust. And, to that extent, trust is about two very important pieces of a persons delivery on the job. One of them is character, and one of them is competence. And so if I am competent to do my job, which means I am highly capable plus I can produce results, then thats one piece. But if I dont have the character to go with it, then it doesnt matter how competent I am. It just isnt going to work. The other side of it is, if I have character, which means I have high integrity and my intentions are honorable, then that helps engender trust. But it doesnt create trust if Im not competent to get the job done. So youve got to have both.

And so its equally important to have somebody who has both character and competence. And oftentimes, I think, we in business, or we in education, look at just the competence piece. Are they a good task performer; can they get the results; can they deliver on the task at hand? We tend not to pay as much attention to the character side. And I think there are big prices to be paid if you do that.

And so one of the things weve tried to work really hard on with Vicki and any other superintendent that we may or may not look for is to make sure theyre balanced between the competence side have they done it, have they been there, all that kind of stuff plus the character side. Do they have integrity? Are their intentions honorable?

What advice would you give to school board members as they consider their hiring decisions?

Be true to yourself. Be true to your district and what it is you need to get where you need to go. I think theres a tendency or a temptation to hire somebody, as opposed to hiring the right person. A lot of literature indicates that there is a growing shortage of really qualified, talented administrators. I think theres a temptation sometimes to hire somebody just so you can get the position filled not in a malicious sense, not in any kind of a sense other than its a real burden to a district to have that position open. And so just make sure that when you make a decision that its the right person for your district that has both the character and the competence to fulfill your mission in your community.

Where do you come down on the question of hiring the

superintendent from within the district versus hiring from outside?

Im a proponent of succession planning. I think that there is real value to that, to be able to identify people within your organization who have enough talent to go to the next level. Sometimes thats possible; sometimes thats not, just by the cast of characters you have in your organization. I think sometimes it works out really well if the CEO or

Continued, page 18

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Arkansas

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AlmaArkadelphiaAshdownAugustaBarton-LexaBatesvilleBeebeBentonBerryvilleBlythevilleBrooklandCabotCamden-FairviewCenterpointCorningCrowleys Ridge AcademyDe QueenDumasFarmingtonFlippinForrest CityFort SmithGentry

GravetteGreenbrierGreene County TechGreenwoodHamburgHarding AcademyHarrisburgHazenHelena-West HelenaHopeHoratioHot SpringsHuntsvilleJonesboroLake HamiltonLakeside (Hot Springs)LavacaLincolnLittle RockLonokeMagnoliaManilaMidlandMineral Springs

MonticelloNashvilleNettletonOsceolaParagouldPine BluffPocahontasRussellvilleSearcy CountySloan HendrixSouth Mississippi CountySpringdaleStuttgartValley ViewVan BurenViloniaWarrenWatson ChapelWest ForkWest MemphisWestside (Jonesboro)WynneYellville Summit

Rigor andquality

For more information about AdvancED Arkansas and the District Accreditation process, contact Emma Bass, Ed.D., Director at [email protected] or Phyllis Russell, Administrative Assistant at [email protected].

AdvancED Arkansas | Arkansas State University | P.O. Box 719 | State University, AR 72467 | Call 888.560.9622

The AdvancED visit from an external team of evaluators affirmed the quality standards the Beebe School District has in place. It verified to our staff and community that we incorporate rigor and quality in our educational system, and gave an objective look, providing valuable feedback to assist us in our continuous cycle for improvement.Dr. Belinda Shook, Superintendent, Beebe School District

ARkAnSAS SChOOl DiStRiCtS PURSUing/AChiEving DiStRiCt ACCREDitAtiOn FROm 2007-2008 thROUgh 2010-2011 thROUgh ADvAnCED:


superintendent will identify a year or two or three before they retire that this is going to be the person thats going to replace me. Because at that point, everybody knows. And so the rest of that time is spent training that person.

As a school board member, youre really only responsible for the super-intendent. So do you nudge the superintendent and say, Id like for you to be at all times thinking about the future, or how do you handle that?

Absolutely. I think its incumbent upon the board to make sure in the superintendents evaluation and goals that thats a part of it, that succession planning is a part of what they do. Again, some districts may be too small to identify somebody and groom them. At that point, thats just not an option. But in a district where they feel like they can, then sometimes its good to identify somebody. And with 239 school districts in Arkansas, youre going to have the whole spectrum of capabilities and ability to do that.

I guess its kind of thorny, though, in that if you hire from outside, then people within say, Why not us? And if you hire from within, then people say, Why him or her, not me? Is that right?

It can be if you dont have a good communication process in house to make sure everybody understands whats going on. The worst point or time to let people to know that is when youre making that hiring decision. You want it to be known clearly that these are our goals, were going to hire the best person. If you think its you, step up and explain to us why, and those kind of things, and well go from there.

Are you a proponent of using outside consulting services?

It can be helpful. Its kind of odd the way school boards are set up, when you have five or seven people elected from a population, most of them have nothing to do with academics, yet they are entrusted with the responsibility of running a school district, making policy for a school district. Then to expect them to be good employment people, recruiters, and stuff like that where does that come from? Sometimes they just do not have the resources, or the interest, or whatever it takes to know how to recruit for a superintendent. So I think there can be a real value in bringing that to the table and bringing that expertise that some districts just simply dont have.

You mentioned there is generally

considered to be a shortage of quali-fied superintendents out there. What

do you do then if you cant find somebody and youre stuck with an interim for a while? Youve got to pull the trigger eventually.

Thats a real challenge because the success of the superintendent is a function of the character and competence, but also the fit. You know, not everybodys going to do well in, for example, Bentonville. I understand that. Not everybodys going to do well in Dumas. So you may have all of the tools, but if its not a good fit, its not going to work. And so it is a real challenge.

Thats why I think its really good that a superinten-dent feel comfortable enough and have a good enough trusting relationship with his or her board that she can tell them two or three years in advance, That date out there is my last date. Youve got time to find a replacement. If they tell you in February that theyre leaving in June, boy, that is really, really difficult to do. Or, if we make a decision as a board in January that theyre not coming back, that makes it difficult too.

Is this your last term? Yes.

This is your last time to be a school board member. Youre not going to run again?

I dont think so. Ive got five years in the rotation with the ASBA, and thatll be 21 years. I guess maybe its time to cash in my pension. (Laughs).

I do all that because there are so many good people working in the district, and its nice to be able to support them And its one of those things where some people say either youre part of the prob-lem, or youre part of the solution And there are so many people do-ing so much with so little

Executive Session


Say this in an abuse caseby Paul Blume ASBA General Counsel

When a police officer or someone in-vestigating suspected child abuse shows up at the schoolhouse door, the first thing the principal wonders is, What in the world do I do now?

Thats followed by a quick shot of Maalox and a call to the schools lawyer. Do I let these people talk to the kid? Do I refuse? Do I let Mom and Dad know that someone is here to speak with their child and that it doesnt look good?

Fear not! Those questions are (most-ly) answered by state law, specifically Arkansas Code Annotated Section 6-18-513. Theres sort of a lot to remember, particularly if the principal is faced with the visit from the cop, etc., without no-tice or much of a formal introduction to the cop. Hi. Let me speak with Johnny Jones is about all youll get. But thats not quite enough information.

The principal must report to the par-ents, or at least try to, under the follow-ing circumstances:

1. If the school makes a report to any law enforcement agency concerning student misconduct;

2. If access to a student is given to a law enforcement officer other than a resource officer whos acting within the normal course of his duties; or

3. If the principal knows that a stu-dent has been taken into custody by law enforcement personnel during the school day or while under school supervision.

The responsibility for making these parental contacts can be given to a designee of the principal. There is no guidance in the law for who that may be, but obviously it should be someone who is certified and responsible.

Under the above circumstances, the principal or designee MUST make reasonable efforts to notify the parents (or guardian or whoever is actually re-sponsible for the child away from school and/or is listed on student enrollment forms as the responsible person). This notification may be by telephone. The report is to be made to the parent, etc., if the student has been reported to, taken

into custody of, or even interviewed by a law enforcement officer.

Then if the responsible adult cant be reached by phone, the principal or designee must make reasonable efforts to notify him or her to call either the principal or his designee, and must leave both a day and night phone number.

On the other hand, parental notifica-tion is not required:

1. If school personnel make a report or file a complaint based on suspected child maltreatment (as required under Section 12-18-401 and following); or

2. If an investigator interviews a student in the course of an investigation of child maltreatment.

A notification to the parents must not be made if an investigator interviews or requests to interview a student in the course of an investigation of suspected child maltreatment if the parent, guard-ian, etc., is named as an alleged of-fender.

So as I said up at the top of this thing, if a police officer or other investigator asks to interview one of your students, just that alone is not enough informa-tion. Ask the officer, nicely, the purpose of the interview. Youll want to notify parents of the interview, before, after or while it is occurring, if the reason does not fall into the last category. In fact, I recommend that you notify parents even in the situation where youre not required to do so. You dont want to have to explain to an angry mom why she didnt know about a police interview until she found out from her child when he got home that night. Err on the side of not getting chewed out by an angry parent.

In the situation whereby a parent, guardian or other person having lawful control of the child is a suspect, dont notify Mom, Dad or guardian, etc. The parent will be angry as all get out, but you can (truthfully) tell him that state law requires that you not make that call. Hell still be angry as all get out, but at least hell understand. Sorta.


Annual Conference

More than 600 Arkansas school board members gathered in Little Rock Dec. 7-9 for ASBAs Annual Conference, where the theme was, Its better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

As in past years, conference-goers attended general and breakout sessions, networked with fellow board members and hobnobbed with commercial affili-ate representatives.

The following new officers were elected during the Delegate Assembly: president Dr. Paul Hance, Bates-ville; president-elect Maxine Nelson, Watson Chapel; vice president Jerry Don Woods, Dardanelle; and secretary-treasurer Steve Percival, Fayetteville. The 2011 president, Wayne Gibson of El Dorado, became past president.

Hance told school board members that while darkness is a part of life, people can control how long they remain in it through their attitude and vision. With hope, you start the transformation of your situation, and ultimately you solve the problems and banish the dark-ness, he said.

Executive Director Dan Farley updat-ed the Delegate Assembly on the years events, including laws passed and not passed in the 2011 legislative session. ASBA worked with legislators to im-prove Act 1213, which requires school

board members to receive training in reading an audit report. Meanwhile, ASBA successfully opposed several bills that would have directly affected school board members, including one that would have allowed members to be recalled if a petition is signed by enough voters.

One of the questions that we repeat-edly asked is, If a recall election is a good idea for school boards, why is it not a good idea for all other elected pub-lic officials? Farley told the Delegate Assembly.

Leaders gather to share light


Annual conference draws 600 who agree: Its better to light a candle than to curse the darkness

PRETTY MUCH UNANIMOUS. School board members cast their votes during the Delegate Assembly, above. Opposite page, Kevin Carr, Malvern School Board president, right, and Malvern School Board member Jesse Clark listen during a general session.

2012 ASBA BOARD. Bottom, Rosa Bowman, Region 12; Erma Brown, Region 13; Dr. Donna Shaw, Region 3; Sandra Porter, Region 8; Maxine Nelson, president-elect; Dr. Paul Hance, president. Middle, Rita Cress, Region 9; William Campbell, Region 14; Clint Hull, Region 5; Jamie Hammond, Region 4. Back, Wayne Gibson, past president; Debbie Ugbade, Region 10; Steve Percival, secretary-treasurer; Brenda McKown, Region 6; Jerry Don Woods, vice president; Neal Pendergrass, Region 2; Charles Tadlock, Region 11. Not pictured, Gene Bennett, Region 7. Photo by Lifetouch.

With reports by the following members of the Arkansas School Public Relations Association: David Cook, Blytheville School District; Tara Thomason, Forrest City School District; Betsy Bailey, Searcy School District; Donna Creer, Little Rock Magnet Schools; and Alan Wilbourn, Fay-etteville Public Schools.


Gov. Mike Beebe told attendees during a general session that they have the toughest political job in Arkan-sas because of their proximity to the public and because they are dealing with peoples children. He announced he was proclaiming January 2012 as Arkansas School Board Member Recognition Month.

The governor reminded attendees of public educations special place in state government. About 50 percent of every general revenue dollar goes to public schools, with funding almost assured of staying at that rate because of the Arkansas Supreme Courts decision in the Lake View case.

Now the other kicker in all this stuff is that now with the Constitution, with

the Supreme Court ruling, and with our legislative public policy of this state, youre first, he said. Youre first to the point that we cant take a quarter away from you if it adversely impacts adequacy. In other words, the Court said if youve got to let every rapist out of prison, if youve got to close every nurs-ing home, if youve got to close every college in order not to take a penny away from K through 12 adequacy, do it.

Beebe praised districts for using one-time federal stimulus money on capi-tal outlays and equipment rather than operations, which has helped Arkansas avoid the fate of other states that chose not to do that and began reaping the con-sequences when the money ran out. Continued, next page

photo by Lifetouch

Dr. Tom Kimbrell, Arkansas educa-tion commissioner, told board members they must be prepared for the push back that will occur as their districts adopt the Common Core State Standards.

Among the coming changes will be a computer-based assessment system that will go online in Arkansas in 2014-15, with a pilot program beginning a year earlier. He advised schools to complete a readiness checklist along with a targeted communication plan.

Kimbrell said the Arkansas Depart-ment of Education would help schools adopt the right technology in order to make the transition work. The depart-ment has developed the requirements for minimum testing devices and will deliver broadband network specifica-tions in the fall of 2012. We dont want you just buying computers to test, he said. We want you buying technology devices that you can use in your class-rooms. Because we know todays kids dont learn like we learned.

Kimbrell said the department will have to re-plan and redevelop the tests after 2014-15 when it learns what it is doing well and what it needs to improve. School board members will have to be flexible and ready to explain the changes to patrons. Were just telling you this up front: It wont be perfect, and there will be bumps in the road, he said. We will do all that we can from the states perspective to prepare our schools and

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prepare our state to be successful. We just want you to understand and to com-municate to your community that this will be a transition period, and that we will have to be ready to change and to evaluate and to make modifications.

Kimbrell described a meeting he and Shane Broadway, interim director of the Department of Higher Educa-tion, had with five Taiwanese university presidents and that countrys minister of education in which the officials ex-pressed their interest in partnering with Arkansas so the states citizens could produce goods developed in their coun-try. Thats a totally different world than were used to, and it really did bother me when they began to brag about the fact that in the international competition in biology and physics and science and math, the United States never finishes in the top 15, but Taiwan finishes in the top five in all, he said.

Other speakers included Arkansas Teacher of the Year Kathy Powers and former two-term ASBA president Bill Fisher. The conference also featured a parliamentary procedure workshop led by Jim Slaughter.

School board members heard presen-tations in general and breakout sessions by the Gentlemen of Knowledge, a group of outstanding African-American male students from Rivercrest High School who were featured in the August 2011 edition of Report Card.

The group formed in 2010 after teacher Lindsey Spears and assistant principal Tom Bennett led a student voice project in which all minority students in grades 9-12 were asked what the district could do to improve their test scores. In large part due to the Gentlemen of Knowledge, scores on the 11th grade end-of-course literacy exam improved by 17 points in one year.

The nine students told school board members during a general session that they were frustrated by the achievement gap between white and black students and wanted to change the culture at the school. In our society today, we have young adults and teenagers that think its so cool to fit in, but for us nine, our best way of fitting in is standing out, junior Rakeem Stewart said. So being part of this group, thats what we came to do.

We came to make sure that everyone lived their life as themselves, not try to be something that theyre not.

The group has involved only minority students so far but plans to expand this semester. This January were going to branch out a little bit to show people that its not just African-American. Were not just like that, junior DeSean Gordan said. You know, were American.

The Gentlemen then led a breakout session along with Spears and Bennett. Spears said that while the project was created because test scores were low, Now its about school culture.

One of the Gentlemen said they had decided that they would do whatever it took to be successful. We changed some of the very basics, such as doing homework immediately after school instead of waiting until eating supper and spending some time watching tele-

vision, he said. We need to be models of doing what is right. We reap what we sow, whether that is positive or negative. Now, some of us are even organizing study groups. Both the teachers and the students are taking little steps that are in reality just common sense.

Breakout sessionsThe conference offered attendees 23

breakout session choices. In one, Dr. Kieth Williams, superintendent of Bald Knob Public Schools, said school boards succeed for many of the same reasons that football teams succeed, includ-ing team unity and common goals that are realistic, objective and measurable. Board members must keep a districts momentum moving forward by continu-ally thinking about what is in the best interest of all students, he said. Williams said all great schools and districts have

Annual Conference

James Staggs, the Bald Knob super-intendent who four-and-a-half years ago ended his retirement when his district experienced severe financial difficulties and faced a state takeover, was posthumously awarded the Dr. Daniel L. Pilkinton Award at the 2012 Annual Conference.

The award is given each year to recog-nize contributions to public education.

Soon after learning of the districts plight, Staggs helped lead a community fundraising effort and sales tax increase that saved the school.

Staggs died in September 2011, so the award was accepted by members of his family, including his wife, Linda, and his son, Jay.

Jay Staggs said his father learned about 10 years ago that he had a seri-ous illness while undergoing gall bladder surgery.

The doctor said, Youre blessed. Youve been put here for a reason, and I think Dad later found out through the Bald Knob situation what the reason was, Staggs said.

Staggs receives Dr. Dan Award

BITTERSWEET MOMENT. Linda Staggs accepts the Dr. Dan Award on behalf of her late husband James from then-ASBA President Wayne Gibson. Son Jay Staggs looks on.


good boards and superintendents who understand each others roles.

In another session, Suzanne Bai-ley, superintendent at Waldron Public Schools, along with Waldron board members presented a video highlighting the districts use of technology through smart boards, mobile labs and robotics. Additionally, the district is promoting more dynamic and engaging lessons within the classroom by utilizing data and has increased parental involvement by traveling to its member communities and promoting programs and opportuni-ties for parents.

Dr. Jerry Woods, Forrest Citys superintendent, and his communications director, Tara Thomason, described the districts two most recent millage cam-paigns one that was successful in 2008 and one that was not in 2011. The con-sensus of presenters was that there is no foolproof way to pass a millage increase and that each district, school board and community must make decisions based on their local situations.

Bentonville School Board member Rebecca Koonce and Superintendent Mike Poore discussed how a school district can respond to the challenges of increased accountability by relying on its board governance model.

Poore outlined three models: tra-ditional, Carver and the Bentonville model. Poore said the traditional model focuses on operational tasks and is char-acterized by long, tedious meetings. The Carver model focuses on the end prod-uct, is characterized by quicker meet-ings, and includes the mantra, What do we not do to mess this up?

The Bentonville model involves monthly committee meetings with ex-ecutive summaries of each provided to the board members prior to the monthly school board meeting. Each board mem-ber serves on at least two committees and chairs one of them. Every recom-mendation to the school board for action comes with a written executive summa-ry prepared by the district administrator who oversees that particular area. The focus is on data-driven decisions and board collaboration.

Mountain Home School Board mem-ber Neal Pendergrass and the districts

GENTLEMEN OF KNOWLEDGE. Above, Robert Cooney, a senior at Rivercrest High, speaks at a general session while fellow senior Terrian Tyler listens. The two are members of the Gentlemen of Knowledge, the student leadership group at Rivercrest committed to academic excellence. Left, Norma Jean Johnson, a member of the Little Rock School Board, encourages the Gentlemen after their presentation.



MASTER BOARD MEMBER AWARD RECIPIENTS. School board members who have completed 50 hours of professional develop-ment receive ASBAs Master Board Award. Pictured are, left photo, back, William Dixon, Mineral Springs-Saratoga; Danny Robbins, Manila; Betty Horton, Searcy County; Jim Halsell, Fayetteville; Kevin Carr, Malvern; Sylvester Holloway, Des Arc. Front, Donell Rus-sell, Mammoth Spring; Brad Cummings, Southside-Batesville; Tom Freehling, Eureka Springs; Miyoshi Smith, Drew Central; Rob-bie Weaver, Des Arc. Right photo, back, Chuck Shipp, Conway; Joe Felan, Benton; Troy Burleson, Lead Hill; James Baker, Osceola; Steve Bounds, Maynard; Nick Gatliff, Clinton. Front, Renee Skinner, El Dorado; Fonda Eaton, Harrisburg; Lisa House, Mountain View; Russell Lane, South Mississippi County; Jamie Hammond, Van Buren.

PINNACLE AWARD RECIPIENTS. Board members who complete 200 hours of professional development receive ASBAs Pinnacle Award. Top, from left, Joe Wishard, Bryant; Tommy Bennett, Blytheville; Raymond Latson, Ashdown; Curley Jackson, Drew Central; Randy Coleman, Alma. Front, Deanie Mehl, Fort Smith; Yvonne Keaton-Martin, Fort Smith; Dr. Paul Hance, Batesville; Debbie Briscoe, Augusta; Ira Lee Whitfield, Marked Tree; Craig Reeves, McCrory.

MASTER BOARD AWARD. All members of the Gosnell School Board have earned the Master Board Member designation, qualifying it as a Master Board. Back, Mitchell King, Ricky Gable, Gary Payne and Dennis Fulks. Front, J.F. Smith, Donnie Wright and John Weiss.

superintendent, Dr. Lonnie Myers, led a discussion on using a data wall to make decisions.

In a data wall, index cards affixed to a wall detail each indi-vidual students academic progress. The presenters discussed how seeing exactly where a student is scoring can help teach-ers identify and eliminate deficiencies.

The presenters described a step-by-step process on materi-als and test data needed, how to create and display each stu-dents card, and how to read and respond to what is displayed. They also addressed privacy issues, including how scores must be displayed in a locked room.

ASBA Communications Director Suellen Vann led a ses-sion providing media tips to school board members.

Vann, who served 11 years as communications director for the Little Rock School District, encouraged school board members to see the news media as an ally that can help tell the districts story. By developing relationships with reporters

Annual Conference

rather than being afraid of them, a school can turn a negative story into a positive one.

I always look at it like this: If theres going to be a story about my organization, I would like to have a say in how its represented, she said. I would like to have that opportunity. And most reporters who are being fair will give you that op-portunity.

Vann said that a history of trying to be helpful paid divi-dends when one local television station was preparing to run a story about some misbehaving middle school students. Vann gathered the information and answered the reporters ques-tions and then had a heart-to-heart talk with the reporter in which she explained that it was a good school that would be hurt by bad publicity. The station ended up killing the story.

Vann offered some other media tips. Among them: Be sure your information is correct, stick to the most important information and dont give the media too much to use, and


MORE MASTER BOARD MEMBER AWARD RECIPIENTS. Left photo, back, Mark Warford, Glen Rose; Scott Miller, North Little Rock; Steve Eastwold, Flippin; Danny Alsup, Gravette; Jim Singleton, Gravette; Dan Yates, Gravette. Front, Ricky Gable, Gosnell; Deborah Mathews, Fordyce; Barbara Wells, Blytheville; Sherry Hicks, Dardanelle; Robert Redfern, Danville. Right photo, back, Donna Barnes, Pine Bluff; Chandra Griffin, Pine Bluff; Brad Reddin, Danville; Keith Tyler, East Poinsett County; Beverly McPherson, England; Charles Coleman, Jonesboro. Front, Gregory Metcalf, Hazen; Michelle Cheek, South Conway County; Leslie Wells, West Memphis; Carrie Daniels, Strong-Huttig; Gheric Bruce, West Memphis.

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never use the words no comment because it makes whoever says them look guilty. She encouraged attendees to always tell the truth because if you dont, youre going to make yourself look bad, youre going to dig a deep hole, and youre going to hurt your district.

Vann said school board members need to be ready to speak positively about the district both to the news media and in public.

After all, she said, If you cant share the good news, who will?


Annual ConferenceAROUND THE CONFERENCE. Top, Miss Arkansas Kristin Glover chats with Stacey Mc-Cullough from Booneville at the Chenal Restoration booth in the Exhibit Hall. Middle left, Jeff Root with the Arkadelphia School Board, left, talks with Glen Irvin and Cortney Herbst with Harrison Energy Partners. Middle right, Bill Birch with BancorpSouth leads a break-out session on school board legal liability. Bottom left, Vir-cos Bruce Joyner, right, chats with Conway School Board member Carl Barger. Bottom right, ASBA Communications Director Suellen Vann, left, and Verdelle Bowie with Chartwells give out a door prize at the end of the second day of the conference.

MORE FROM EXHIBIT HALL. Middle left, Albert Brown with JBHM, left, chats with Mark Fincher from the South Mississippi County School District. Middle right, Mitchell King with the Gosnell School District, left, talks with Glen Woodruff with Wittenberg Delony & Davidson Architects. Above left, Diann Shoptaw with Educational Benefits, Inc. talks with a school board member. Above right, Dan-ville superintendent Miguel Hernandez, left, talks with Jake Nabholz of Nabholz Construction Services.


HERES THE POINT. Ray Beardsley with First Security Beard-sley Public Finance leads a breakout session about the warning signs of fiscal distress.


School districts that send students to the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville will be reimbursed for all costs thanks to a $10 million endowment from the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation.

The School Visits Program covers transport and substitute teacher expenses and provides a free lunch and pre-visit materials. Admission is free for all visi-tors year-round thanks to a $20 million gift from the Walmart Foundation.

The 200,000-square-foot museum was made possible by funding from Walmart heiress Alice Walton. The artwork is American and explores the countrys history. Among the most famous paintings are two depicting George Washington by Charles Wilson Peale and Gilbert Stuart and a collection of six portraits of the colonial Franks family by Gerardus Duyckinck I.

Beginning March 26, the museum will schedule the one-hour tours at 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. before it opens to the general public at 11. It will accommo-date 120 students a day.

According to Anne Kraybill, school programs coordinator, the tours will focus on five or six works rather than all the museums 450 pieces of artwork.

We never just transmit information, she said. Were asking them to tell us what they see, to start bringing in their own meanings, interpretations to it. We really want them to have an intimate experience with these works of art and really get to know them and really start to bring meaning to them.

The tours are aligned with the Common Core State Standards in four grades: grade 2 The Wild West; grade 5 America in Conflict, which focuses on the Civil War; grade 8 Reflecting on America, which consid-ers how an artist might interpret history differently than a newspaper would; and grade 11, Emerging Modernism.

Kraybill said the tours are intended to engage students so that they think criti-cally about the subjects they are seeing.

For example, War News from Mexico, an 1848 oil painting by Rich-ard Caton Woodville, depicts a group of white men reading a newspaper story about the advent of the Mexican-Amer-ican War while a woman and shabbily dressed African-Americans hover along the paintings background. The paint-ing gives students a visual depiction of womens and civil rights during the mid-1800s while also offering a chance to consider contemporary issues.

Kraybill recalled one discussion shortly after the assassination of Osama bin Laden in which a young student explained that the men were wonder-ing what the news meant for the United States international role.

Heres this fourth-grader whos contemplating those things, and to me, thats going to be a more engaged and conscientious citizen of this world, somebody whos able to really consider things rather than just make a rash deci-sion, and so thats what Im seeing, she said. Im seeing students be able

to slow down and really kind of con-nect the dots instead of having a tunnel vision, which is just really, I think, an important element of being an engaged citizen of this democracy.

The museum, which opened to the public Nov. 11, is a work of art in itself. Designed by architect Moshe Safdie, it is nestled in a ravine that was a favorite childhood spot of Alice Waltons.

Kraybill said that while students will pass by works of art depicting nudity, there wont be sexual or inappropriate material as part of the tour. That be-ing said, we are going to challenge our students to look at artworks that maybe are difficult subjects, she said. That includes a wool tapestry, A Warm Sum-mer Evening in 1863 by Kara Walker, depicting a historical event where Irish-men burned an orphanage because they were worried about how the abolition of slavery would affect their job prospects. Superimposed over the scene is a silhou-ette of a woman hanging from a noose.

The museum also will host training sessions so teachers can lead their own students on tours. A distance learning program for schools that cant make the trip is being planned.

According to Kraybill, the school tours program will work with the Uni-versity of Arkansas Department of Edu-cation Reform to measure the impact of field trip experiences. We want to be able to provide people with the data to say its not a waste of time, she said. We are going to be enhancing their critical thinking skills, their language skills, their language acquisition skills.

Crystal Bridges covering schools costs


World-class art museum will reimburse districts for travel, substitutes

WORKS OF ART. Top, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art covers 200,000 square feet in Bentonville. At left is War News from Mexico.


A-Lert Roof Systems / 810 North Main / Erie, KS 66733 / 620-330-2444All Storage Products, Inc. / P.O. Box 22266 / Little Rock, AR 72221 / 501-666-8600All-Clean USA / 3411 One Place / Jonesboro, AR 72403 / 870-972-1922Andrew Hicks, Architect / 209 North Pierce / Little Rock, AR 72205 / 501-219-1614Arkansas Department of Emergency Management / 8700 Remount Road / North Little Rock, AR 72118 / 501-835-3111Arkansas Out of School Network / 1501 North University Ave., Suite 465 / Little Rock, AR 72207 / 501-280-0577Arkansas School Boards Association / P.O. Box 165460 / Little Rock, AR 72201 / 501-372-1415Baldwin and Shell / P.O. Box 1750 / Little Rock, AR 72203 / 501-374-8677BancorpSouth Insurance Service / Ramsey, Krug, Farrell & Lensing / 8315 Cantrell Road / Little Rock, AR 72227 / 501-614-1170Beynon Sports Surfaces, Inc. / 16 Alt Road / Hunt Valley, MD 21030 / 410-771-9473Capital Business Machines / 924 Main St. / Little Rock, AR 72202 / 501-375-1111Central States Bus Sales, Inc. / 420 Lake Lane / North Little Rock, AR 72117 / 501-955-2577Chartwells School Dining Services / 502 Glenway Cove / Lebanon, TX 37087 / 614-443-4613Chenal Restoration DKI / 1419 Westpark Drive, Suite F / Little Rock, AR 72204 / 501-296-9690CLEAResult Consulting, Inc. / 8500 West Markham, Suite 303 / Little Rock, AR 72205 / 501-221-4003Construction Group Architects, PLC / 2725 Cantrell Road, Suite 107 / Little Rock, AR 72202 / 501-907-5500Crafton Tull / 901 North 47th St., Suite 200 / Rogers, AR 72756 / 918-588-4013Crossland Construction Company, Inc. / 833 S.E. Avenue / Columbus, KS 66725 / 620-429-1414Crow-Burlingame Company / 1901 East Roosevelt Road / Little Rock, AR 72206 / 501-375-1215CWI Digital Systems, Inc. / 10 Carter Court, Suite 200 / Allen, TX 75002 / 214-704-1674Davis Rubber Company / P.O. Box 3774 / Little Rock, AR 72203 / 501-374-1473David H. Frieze and Associates, Inc. / P.O. Box 8398 / Hot Springs, AR 71910 / 501-922-9704Diamond State Bus Company / P.O. Box 2587 / Conway, AR 72033 / 501-329-9874eBOARDsolutions / 5120 Sugarloaf Parkway / Lawrence, GA 30043 / 770-822-3636Educational Benefits, Inc. / P.O. Box 3487 / Little Rock, AR 72203 / 501-212-8926Energy Systems Group, LLC / 10025 West Markham, Suite 125 / Little Rock, AR 72211 / 501-223-2226First Security, Beardsley Public Finance / 521 President Clinton Ave., Suite 800 / Little Rock, AR 72201 / 501-978-6392Fisher Tracks, Inc. / 1192 235th St. / Boone, IA 50036 / 515-432-3191GCA Services Group / 4726 Western Avenue / Knoxville, TN 37921 / 888-588-0863Harrison Energy Partners / 1501 Westpark Drive, Suite 9 / Little Rock, AR 72204 / 501-661-0621Hellas Sports Construction / 12710 Research Boulevard, Suite 240 / Austin, TX 78759 / 512-250-2910ISCO / P.O. Box 680579 / Franklin, TN 37068 / 800-585-3785Jackson Brown King Architects / 12921 Cantrell Road, Suite 201 / Little Rock, AR 72223 / 501-664-8700James H. Cone / 10411 West Markham, Suite 300 / Little Rock, AR 72205 / 501-224-1058JBHM Education Group / 2525 Lakeward Drive, Suite 200 / Jackson, MS 39216 / 601-987-9187K-Con Inc. / 2728 Spruill Avenue / North Charleston, SC 29405 / 843-745-0434KLC Video Security / 1111 Texas Boulevard / Texarkana, TX 75501 / 903-792-7262Lifetouch National School Studios, Inc. / 6701 W. 12th Street / Little Rock, AR 72204 / 501-664-5550Merls Bus Sales, Inc. / P.O. Box 531 / Van Buren, AR 72957 / 479-474-2433Metro Disaster Specialists / P.O. Box 959 / North Little Rock, AR 72115 / 501-758-2845Meyer Roofing and Sheet Metal, Inc. / 636 Cannie Baker Road / Mountain Home, AR 72653 / 870-425-5182Midwest Dairy Association / 955 Paul Drive / Conway, AR 72034 / 501-505-8284Mobilease Modular Space, Inc. / 600 Strada Circle, Suite 216 / Mansfield, TX 76063 / 817-405-7086Morgan Keegan & Co. / 100 Morgan Keegan Dr., Suite 200 / Little Rock, AR 72202 / 501-666-1566Nabholz Construction Services / P.O. Box 277 / Rogers, AR 72757 / 479-531-7896National Bus Sales / 8649 South Regency Drive / Tulsa, OK 74131 / 800-475-1439, ext. 324National Playground Compliance Group / 205 South Garfield / Carlisle, IA 50047 / 515-989-0829National School Boards Association / 3136 West Holcomb / Houston, TX 77025 / 713-668-5342NEARK Adjustment Co. / P.O. Box 223 / Blytheville, AR 72316 / 870-838-00

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