SNSD town hall tense at times

Parents curious about academic improvement, athletic upgrades

Smackover-Norphlet School District administrators fielded numerous questions from parents and members of the community at a town hall meeting on Thursday, April 8. Pictured from left to right are SNSD Superintendent Jason Black, Norphlet Middle School Principal Larry Beasley, Smackover High School Principal Bernadette O’Guinn, SNSD Athletic Director David Osborn and Preschool Director Tammy Willis. (Marvin Richards/News-Times)
Smackover-Norphlet School District administrators fielded numerous questions from parents and members of the community at a town hall meeting on Thursday, April 8. Pictured from left to right are SNSD Superintendent Jason Black, Norphlet Middle School Principal Larry Beasley, Smackover High School Principal Bernadette O’Guinn, SNSD Athletic Director David Osborn and Preschool Director Tammy Willis. (Marvin Richards/News-Times)

The Smackover-Norphlet School District held a school board and town hall meeting on Thursday, April 8.

The Smackover-Norphlet School Board meeting had one issue on the agenda: whether or not to make wearing face masks optional for students and staff.

The school board took a survey from parents, students, community members and other interested parties on their feelings about masking before coming to their decision. Superintendent Jason Black said the majority of those surveyed wanted to make wearing a mask optional.

After about five minutes of discussion among school board members, they voted unanimously to end mandated masking for the district.

“That has to be the shortest school board meeting I’ve ever participated in,” Black said.

After the school board meeting ended, the Hobgood Auditorium was readied for the town hall meeting also taking place that night by the district. It was the first in what Black said would be ongoing community meetings regarding the school district.

By time the town hall meeting started, roughly 50 people were in attendance, the majority maskless.

Black opened up the town hall by announcing the school board’s decision to make wearing masks optional for students and staff. He said there are some teachers that were not in favor of the mask-optional outcome.

“This is definitely something we will continue to navigate, we are not going to be able to please everyone,” Black said. “There were 58 teachers that did not want to go maskless. Some are in that age bracket where COVID is still a big concern for them. We are going to do our best to navigate this going forward.”

Black, who is now two years into his tenure, also established his expectations and goals for the night’s meeting. He read one of the bullet points listed from the town hall agenda given to those in attendance.

“SNSD will strive to be a district of excellence that competes at the state and national levels in all academic and extracurricular activities,” Black read. “We know there are a lot of concerns and questions out there and so we are here to talk and address them as best as we can.”

The town hall was formatted as a panel discussion, and included input from Black; Larry Beasley, Norphlet Middle School principal; Bernadette O’Guinn, Smackover High School principal; David Osborn, SNSD Athletic Director; and Tammy Wills, preschool director.

One of the concerns that was posed at the meeting was around teacher retention and hiring.

This concern became a running theme for the night as parent after parent asked questions similar in nature. Many parents wanted to know what the district’s efforts were for hiring and retaining certified math teachers for the middle and high school.

“This is not directed at any particular school… I used to be on staff here and I’m still friends with a lot of teachers,” one parent who came to the front of the auditorium to address the administration said. “I know a lot of teachers are looking in other districts and it is breaking my heart. I know some are already applying elsewhere. What are we going to do to fill these positions?”

“Right now we are in the process of interviewing,” O’Guinn answered. “I have several candidates that we will be taking a further look at. Our goal is to get licensed teachers here and to do that, we are focused on starting the hiring process early this year and making sure we are competitive from a salary standpoint.”

The Smackover-Norphlet School Board did raise salaries for district employees last Month. The raises included an increase for licensed salary schedule pay by $1,250 per year and for classified pay by 75 cents per hour.

For a close to an hour, the questions from parents centered around concerns over attracting new and qualified teachers to the district and how students are performing academically compared to other local school districts.

The exchanges between parents and administrators became tense at times. At some points, a few attendees would yell out responses to what an administrator would say instead of coming up to the designated microphone in the front of the auditorium to raise their concerns.

Black at one point did remind attendees the importance of having a respectful dialogue and to listen to one another. He also admitted that the school district had strides to make in the areas of bringing in new teachers and raising academic performance.

“My kids go here as well,” Black said. “And if something is not good for my kids, that means it is not good for your kids either. I understand your concerns and promise you we are working hard to get it fixed. In the meantime, our kids are not doing poorly. In actuality, we are doing just as good if not better in some places.”

After an hour or so of exchange on the topics of teacher retention and academic performance, administration shared with attendees current plans to get new lights and possible turf for the Buckaroo’s football field and try to address other areas of the athletic department that need upgrades.

“The thing about the turf is, yeah it would be great, but getting new lights is the most important thing right now,” Osborn said. “Turf would be great, though, and it would allow us to potentially add sports like soccer for little to no cost.”

Black also shared possible plans to renovate Hobgood Auditorium and make it into a versatile venue that could be used as both an auditorium and gymnasium.

Beasley also entertained a question around the idea of improving school lunches and making them more appealing to students.

“I ate the school lunches sometimes myself and even I think there are some improvements that can be made there, so I will see what possible improvements, if any, can be made with school lunches,” he said.

The town hall went on for close to three hours and Black said he and the administrators knew some of the concerns and questions that were going to be pressed that night.

“We’re sitting here to eight and nine o’clock at night and knew we were going to be peppered with some controversial stuff,” Black said. “But we also knew we wanted to give you all the opportunity to address it and voice your concerns. We need help now, the shoe is on the other foot as well. How do we get more community and parent involvement?”

One parent responded to Black to in part, explain her frustration.

“Mr. Black, I know you probably feel that I came at you rudely but I don’t feel like I have; I’ve been a part of this community… So it is not all negative and I’m not trying to be all negative, but hearing what’s going on with the teachers is a concern, and when you ask questions, you keep hearing the same thing over and over again,” she said.

Black thanked the parent and all who attended for their input and said that the town hall is one of the first in the area for any school district, and it was something he has wanted to do since he took on the role of district superintendent. He also encouraged the parents to, while voicing their concerns, also share how a space was provided for them to share their thoughts and opinions directly with administrators to begin the process of moving forward and improving the school district.

Black concluded the town hall by urging parents to work with the district to improve it.

“If we work together as a community, we are going to get better,” he said. “If you leave and talk about the good things, our efforts and how we want good people here, things will get better. We need you all. We will continue to move forward no matter what, but we got to have you all.”

Some parents shouted out their thanks for organizing the town hall and poked fun lightheartedly at the administrators, leading to a burst of laughter from the entire auditorium and the note on which Black thanked everyone for attending and ended the meeting.

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