Jeff Neil was approved as the president of the Pea Ridge School Board at the meeting Monday, June 10. Neil replaces John Dye who was defeated in his bid for re-election by Mindy Cawthon, who was in attendance at her first board meeting.
Elected vice president was Ryan Heckman and Sandy Button was elected secretary. Jenny Wood will continue to be the disbursing officer.
A representative from C.R. Crawford told board members the construction is still on schedule. In answer to a question from a board member, he said there is a shortage of sand because of the flooding of the Arkansas River, but that should not affect the construction project.
After going into executive session for slightly more than 45 minutes, the board:
• Hired Hailey Strickland Ferguson, Primary SPED para pro; Casey Ludolph, Intermediate teacher; Shirley McCann, Middle School SPED para pro; Matthew Pohl, band director; Ellen Coffelt, Primary School SPED para pro; Dylan Kinney, Middle School teacher/coach; James Hurt, eighth-grade science teacher; and Shane Edens, HVAC technician;
• Transferred Brian Timmons, SPED para-pro to SPED teacher; and Sierra Warner, Primary teacher to Primary TOSA;
• Accepted the resignations of Melissa Woods, Primary teacher; Rudy Sanchez, Middle School teacher/coach; Joyce Sharp, Middle School teacher; George Parnell, ISS teacher; Jessica Hartman, Intermediate teacher; Amy Carter, director of Staff Development and Accountability; and Heather Phillips, Primary School teacher;
• Approved student transfers out to Bentonville for Emily and Olivia Washaliski, 11th grade;; Isaac Randall Whitehill, ninth grade; Kelsey Jo Whitehill, eighth grade; and Morgan Wachtel, ninth grade; and in front Bentonville, Ashlynn Short, seventh grade.
Assistant superintendent Keith Martin told the board there is a $333,000 food service balance which will be "drawn down" with the purchase of a couple of convection steamers for the Primary and Intermediate schools. "It's the most nutritional way to cook vegetables," Martin said. The steamers are $35,530.36 and are from Food Equipment Brokers.
"I want to commend Mrs. (Julie) Ferguson and her staff for doing a great job," Martin said.
Neil said: "I want to publicly commend Mrs. Ferguson ... from where that has started to where it is now, she and her staff deserve a ton of credit."
Martin also said the food service staff members are continuing their training and running the summer food program. He said there were about 160 students fed lunch and about 100 fed breakfast. "It's a great program."
Martin said about 25 to 30 children come in on the bus and that students are also picked up from two day cares. "Those kids are coming into kindergarten. It's great training for them," Martin said.
Board member Jenny Wood said she wanted to clarify that it was recently discovered that a teacher's contract was being used for superintendent Rick Neal and that his contract was renewed in January but was changed to a superintendent's contract. "There are more accountability details in there. We did not up his contract, we renewed his contract, which we did in January," she said. "We realized we needed to do the superintendent's contract differently."
General News on 06/19/2019