By Brittany Williams
Staff Writer
STRONG — The Strong-Huttig School Board approved the hire of a part-time improvement specialist, a big technology purchase and declared two vacant zones at its meeting Monday.
Prior to the board meeting, school board members heard from superintendent Jeff Alphin, principals, an improvement specialist and Gifted & Talented coordinator during the district’s Annual Report to the Public.
Alphin gave demographics, enrollment numbers and curriculum information for the Strong-Huttig School District. This year, 313 students are enrolled in Strong-Huttig schools. Because enrollment is under 350, the district is required to apply for a Petition of Waiver to the Arkansas Department of Education under Act 377.
Under Arkansas House Bill 1263, the petition would provide a waiver prevent a consolidation from ADE under certain conditions. Without it, according to ADE, the district can’t conduct business involving “a legal liability, encumbrance or contract, including employment contracts, to be paid out of future revenues or current reserves of the district” without approval.
Alphin, school board president Cindy Smith, principal Dr. Wendell Colen, school improvement specialists and the districts attorney Phillip Stone will make a presentation to the State Board of Education Oct. 13 in Little Rock.
The Strong-Huttig School Board declared Zones 1 and 7 vacant. “No candidates filed for these zones in the September school (board) election,” Smith said.
The board also approved minutes from last month, budgets and policy updates at their rescheduled meeting.
High school improvement specialist Shirley Kyle proposed a large, district-wide to purchase new technology with Title I Funds during Monday’s meeting. It has been preapproved by the ADE Fiscal Unit.
“It comes to $142,605 and we’re wanting to order approximately 258 laptops. They’re approximately $500 each. We’re going to do 123 at the elementary and 135 for the high school.”
The laptops will have eight gigabytes of RAM built into them, making it easier for students to access the internet and education programs like Plato, she said.
Kyle said, “They’re going so slow because we have so many people trying to get on at the same time that it takes up a lot of the class period. The reason we need more RAM is to speed up that process.”
Alphin said that schools have worked around this issue by limiting the number of classes using the district’s server and internet. The district will continue to use its current supply of computers as long it can.
The technology overhaul will also include earbuds, servers, projectors and SMART Boards — interactive whiteboards that use projections, intuitive design and dual-touch controls make it easy for educators to turn lessons into learning experiences that users touch with their hands or SMART Ink pens. Earbuds would be used to listen to personalized computer lessons and control noise in the classroom.
“There are five classrooms that did not have projectors in them. We went ahead and looked at those … two for elementary and three for the high school,” Kyle said. “Our servers are old and they don’t have as much space to put memory in. We really need this (so) students can save what they’re doing on the servers. We’re getting one for the elementary and one for the high school.”
After an executive session, the school approved this purchase and the hire of Rebecca Bolding as part-time elementary school specialist.
The Strong-Huttig School School Board’s next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17 in the high school library.
Brittany Williams may be contacted at 870-862-6611, extension 131 or by email at [email protected].