School's '21 opening
now is out of reach
Construction of the new Jacksonville Elementary School has fallen behind schedule and won't be ready for opening in August 2021, the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School Board learned last week.
Tony Curtis, vice president of Baldwin & Shell Construction Co.'s Central Arkansas team, said the combination of wet weather and the coronavirus that resulted in the slowdown of business operations statewide has hindered the project to the point that construction and moving in cannot be completed by August.
A January 2022 opening date is more likely, he said. The new Jacksonville Elementary will replace Warren Dupree and Pinewood elementaries. It and the new Jacksonville Middle School are being built on the site of the now demolished old Jacksonville High School.
Curtis said that builders were unable to complete initial foundation and utility work on schedule. The middle school building, however, is on track to open in August 2021, Curtis told the School Board.
Waivers granted
for storm-lost days
The Board of Education last week granted waivers of the state-required 178-day school year to four districts because April 12 storms knocked out power for several days to some households where students and teachers were supposed to be doing their schoolwork.
The Hermitage district received a waiver of four days, as did the White Hall School District. The Warren and Fordyce districts each received a waiver for five of the required 178 days.
"We are requesting a waiver of the 278 days due to the fact that [alternative methods of instruction] could not continue without homes having power," Fordyce Superintendent Judy Hubbell wrote to the Education Board.
Students and teachers statewide have been working from home on computers and other devices as a result of schools being closed in mid-March because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Property tax goes
up in districts' deal
The Lead Hill School District has acquired a bit of territory from the Ozark Mountain School District in north-central Arkansas.
The land exchange approved by the Board of Education last week, done at the request of the two districts, will mean a 2.5 mill property-tax increase for the residents of the affected territory -- described as two peninsulas accessible only from Missouri or by ferry across portions of Bull Shoals Lake.
About two dozen students live in the territory and they attend schools in Missouri on a tuition agreement, representatives of the Arkansas districts said. Ozark Mountain has been providing the transportation to Missouri for the students. Lead Hill will take on that busing responsibility.
The 2.5-mill increase is a reflection of the higher tax rate in the Lead Hill district as compared with Ozark Mountain.
Pandemic resetting
meeting times, rules
The statewide closure of school buildings to stem the spread of the coronavirus that causes the contagious and potentially deadly covid-19 has resulted in some changes in meeting times and dates for governmental bodies.
Also affected are the ability for the meetings to be held in-person and for members of the public to attend.
The School Board for the Pulaski County Special School District is meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday on an online platform that will enable the members to interact. The public can view the session on the district's YouTube channel.
The Little Rock district's Community Advisory Board that typically meets on the third Thursday of the month is meeting on May 28, the fourth Thursday.
Pulaski County Election Commission members are meeting together at 5 p.m. Wednesday but are asking the public to view the meeting on YouTube or Facebook.
"Anyone attending the meeting in person must wear a face covering at all times, exercise physical distancing and will be subject to scanning by an infrared thermometer. Any person exhibiting signs of fever will be excluded from the in-person meeting and may participate remotely," the meeting notice states..
One of the commission's agenda items is the approval of the Little Rock district boundary lines for school board election zones.
Principal in Clinton
looks on light side
Mike Smith, the principal at Clinton High School, is using humor to keep students, teachers and the community engaged in the Clinton system at a time when students and teachers cannot physically be in their classrooms.
Smith makes the daily announcements, broadcast on the high school's Facebook page, from a variety of unexpected locations. He recently celebrated Wednesday "Hump Day" in a pasture where he could interact with camels, Titus and Sampson.
On other days, he was in a baby-blue convertible at the Sonic Drive Inn, playing his cards at a gambling table, pretending to levitate, receiving a shot in the school nurse's office and doing chemistry experiments in the science laboratory.
Each post is attracting more than one thousand views.
Metro on 05/17/2020