Crotty: ‘Norphlet to maintain it (and) pay electricity bill’
By Brittany Williams
Staff Writer
SMACKOVER — The Smackover-Norphlet School Board gave the City of Norphlet permission to pursue an improvement project near the Norphlet ball fields.
Norphlet Mayor Jim Crotty said that the city hosts family reunions and birthday parties, where patrons use the concession stand and restrooms. American Legion, youth softball leagues and high school softball games are also hosted there.
The city was awarded a $135,740 grant from the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism to build a new concession stand and make the restrooms handicap accessible. A bigger concession stand equipped with state of the art stainless steel appliances and a new central air conditioning unit will be built where the current one stands, the mayor said.
“Our old concession stand, we’ve added on to it. The electrical’s bad (and) the plumbing’s bad. It’s just outdated and we’ve got an old single unit air conditioning in it. I talked to Perry Carr with ETC (Engineers & Architects) and submitted a plan. I had to go to Little Rock and meet with them,” Crotty said. “They will pay one half and we will pay the other … Hopefully by spring time, we’ll have that completed. It will be responsibility of the City of Norphlet to maintain it (and) pay the electric bill.”
District curriculum director Jennifer Lee recommended that the district apply for an Arkansas Department of Career Education grant to expand the district’s agriculture program. She said that the district already extended the program to Norphlet Middle School students.
“We also wanted to expand our program at the high school and we’re looking at the animal systems program of study that we would like to add on … This resolution will be part of my ‘start up’ grant that I’m going to be submitting,” Lee said. “Most of the grants for this have been between $18,000 and $24,000, so that’s what I’ll be asking for and it’ll cover about 85 percent of the new program costs. That’s our goal so in the 2018-2019 school year, we’ll be able to offer animal science classes.”
The board approved district superintendent Dave Wilcox’s recommendation to amend the district’s drug testing policy, allowing the district to randomly test high school student participating in extracurricular activities at the School Based Health Center.
“… Instead of contracting it to El Dorado, it’ll be the same cost and we would like to do it through our school based health center. That’s what the policy change is,” Wilcox said.
Board members also approved a mandatory adult cafeteria meal price increase, several addenda and hires; appointed Paula Robertson as the district’s surrogate parent and changed the dates for its September, October, November, January, February and March. While three student transfer requests were considered, only one was approved. The others were either denied or tabled until next month.
The Smackover-Norphlet School Board’s next meeting is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 25 in the central office board room.