Bearcat Wrap-up Podcast

Happy Friday!Thank you for all you have done this week to balance the celebratory events with our regular work to educate students. As far as I know, there has never been a week like this at Mena Public Schools when we have an international film crew doing a documentary and our Governor establishes her administration here to tour and operate. It has been quite a memorable week.Our performance targets are up-to-date and what is most notable is a 10.5 percent increase in discipline referrals in the last two weeks. That is really not a surprise considering what we have had going on here this week. Nevertheless, our district leadership PLC team will be looking into the possible reasons for this increase and work to return to the positive trends of previous weeks.Governor SandersGovernor Sanders and Secretary Oliva were our guests today and will be again at tonight’s homecoming football game. Early this afternoon the two of them spent some time at Louise Durham Elementary where they were hosted by several of our students and staff along with some student leaders from the other campuses. I want to thank Mrs. Sellers, Mrs. Buckley, and Mrs. Smart for putting together a Mena Bearcat-themed gift basket for the Governor and everyone who made the tour so enjoyable for her, the secretary, and their staff. They visited Tiffany William’s library, Jessica Dickison’s music class, and Tracy Floyd’s First Grade and were able to see the new security fence built using safety grant money.This is a day our students will remember throughout their lives and it is important for us to capitalize on this experience by teaching them about not only public service but about the pride of our community and the way we work together. Mayor Smith and Representative Maddox along with Sheriff Sawyer and Chief Stueart have worked with the Governor’s staff to put together a great day for our community.Budget InformationAs we approach the holidays the question about a Christmas Bonus always comes up. When I presented this year’s budget to the board in September, I did not include a bonus. When Mrs. DePriest and I calculated what a bonus of $1000 or $750 would cost, we projected a deficit at the end of the year. We will look at this again at the end of the year.Closing Tonight, the 2023 Mena High School Homecoming Queen will be crowned and the Governor of Arkansas will join our pregame traditions. Please come out and be a part of a special evening as our Bearcats take on the Fouke Panthers.Our Homecoming pep rally was really awesome today! It is great to have all the students come together like that, especially the elementary students. I am sure that several of them set a personal dream to become one of the student leaders they saw out on the court today - band, cheer, athletics, or court. We should have district pep rallies more often.We also say farewell to our British students and film crew this weekend. It has been a very special experience for our school system and town to have had this taking place. Thanks go to the Love Production crew of Oli, Emily, Jason, George, Jenn, John, Ryan, Nelson, Lilly, Sophie, Clare, Jess, Dave, Hannah, Glen, Alex P., Olly, Alex M., Jodie, Felix, Michael, Sahiba, Colleen, Adam, Kallum, and Jean for capturing a special period of time here at Mena Public Schools. We also send our thanks to the families in London for entrusting us with Dae-Jaun, Jude, Lily, Magda, Naomi, Poppy, and Richae while this film was being recorded. We look forward to seeing the final production!Volleyball senior night was last night followed by the last home game against Arkadelphia, which the Ladycats won in three sets. We wish them luck in the state tournament on Tuesday.Our FFA livestock exhibitors have had a great week at the Arkansas State Fair. Congratulations to Kylie Hughes for winning Reserve Grand Champion with her market lamb! We also congratulate Claire Walston for having the Grand Champion Hampshire Market Hog and Jaylie Huff for her Grand Champion Junior and Open Charolais Composite Bull! Kylie’s work earned her a spot in the Arkansas State Fair Junior Livestock Auction. If you have not experienced that, take a look.Here is a meaningful writing assignment for your students. It is the Holiday Cards for Our Military Challenge. Click here to see what to do. Remember that Monday the 23rd is our fall break so we will all come together again on Tuesday to make a strong surge of learning leading up to Thanksgiving Break.At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.Have a nice LONG weekend!! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Happy Friday!Thank you, again, for the hard work and effort in Week 9! As mentioned in the heading, our current state of progress is clearer and even though we have some data sets yet to be complete, our target dashboard is complete and useful for keeping track of our district’s overall progress. Our work is cut out for us as we strive to reach our performance targets.This week’s Wrap-up has no overall theme but will be a hodgepodge of information.The Right to ReadThe Right to Read film by Levar Burton was screened for the attendees of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators Fall Conference this week. The Right to Read is being referred to as “the greatest civil rights issue of our time” and the film focuses on the use of structured literacy and Science of Reading practices as the key to schools being able to give our disadvantaged youth access to the American Dream by making certain that they are able to read. It is important that each of us see this film and understand how it will impact our educational system, not just in Arkansas but around the nation as many states have already experienced.The Science of LearningWe are all familiar with the Science of Reading but be prepared for another research-based professional development called the Science of Learning. The Science of Learning, like the Science of Reading, is the understanding of how our brains really learn. The foundational theory and the “next big thing” in education is the Cognitive Load Theory.Sweller's Cognitive Load Theory is a well-known educational theory that focuses on how cognitive load, or the mental effort required for learning, impacts the learning process. The theory emphasizes three types of cognitive load:1. Intrinsic Cognitive Load: This is the inherent complexity of the learning material itself. Some topics or tasks are naturally more complex and demanding on cognitive resources.2. Extraneous Cognitive Load: This is the cognitive load imposed by the way information is presented or the learning environment. Poorly designed instructional materials or confusing teaching methods can increase extraneous cognitive load and hinder learning.3. Germane Cognitive Load: This is the cognitive load that is actually beneficial for learning. It represents the mental effort invested in making sense of the new information and integrating it with existing knowledge.The goal of Cognitive Load Theory is to reduce extraneous cognitive load and optimize germane cognitive load. This can be achieved through instructional design that presents information in a clear and organized manner, minimizes distractions, and provides appropriate guidance. By doing so, students can focus more on understanding the content and less on struggling with the presentation.Eric Saunders from DESE has published a book through Solution Tree called Stick the Learning. This book ties Cognitive Load to further concepts such as desirable difficulties. This sounds similar to terms familiar to us such as productive struggle and rigor. However, this is about balancing the Cognitive Load within your lessons so real learning occurs. Here are some takeaways:* Retrieving information from students is more effective than putting information in. ⅓ of the time should be providing new information and ⅔ of the time making them recall it.* CFAs should include formerly introduced standards along with new ones so the recall continues throughout the school year.* When planning lessons, do not let rigor override student ability, and do not let engagement strategies override the quality of the lesson.ClosingI want to thank Danny Minton, Charles Morgan, Craig Bentley, Mark Hobson, Kristine Albin, Dax McMellon, and Kallye Gates for putting together and being a part of our groundbreaking ceremony for the Hensley Activity Center this morning. Their work and their words are much appreciated.I also want to thank Patty Pate, our retired Gifted and Talented Coordinator, for helping Mrs. Simms put on our quiz bowl tournament. The tournament she helped organize raised over $3,000 for our GT program!The Bearcats take on Malvern in Malvern tonight. If you cannot make the trip you can stream the game live on the Bearcat Foundation YouTube page.Last night was a big night in Jim Rackley Gymnasium as our volleyball teams hosted Bauxite for a ‘throwback’ night. Janice Whorton, former volleyball coach, and Mena Middle School Counselor, was honored along with the 2014 state champion volleyball team. Both junior and senior Ladycat Volleyball teams won their matches.Next week will be a busy Homecoming Week and includes our book fairs at Holly Harshman and Louise Durham. We also have the Be Pro Be Proud truck coming to visit Mena High School. At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.Have a great weekend!! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.subst

Happy Friday!Thank you for all you have done this week to help us reach our district targets and work toward your professional goals, as well. As we wrap up another exciting week of exploration and discovery, our journey through the world of data has been nothing short of enlightening. Week 8 and the weeks to follow will be all about peeling back the layers and looking beyond the surface to reveal the intricate narratives and valuable insights concealed within the data we have. Making Sense of the DataWe recently received our building scores for accountability and over the next few weeks, we will be meeting together at various times to make sense of the data and what we need to do with it. The purpose of the Educational Support and Accountability System is to ensure high-quality education for all students and to make progress in closing any achievement gaps. As we delve into our data, we will have this same purpose. We want to work together to identify any areas where we may need to provide additional support and determine what that looks like at each level. District leadership team members met recently to work on district and building-level improvement plans. District targets for reading, math, science, engagement, and instructional practices will drive our actions with the intention of addressing areas of need both for staff and students. Building teams will work together to build their action plans so that the work corresponds to the needs in each building and with each area of instruction. For example, our district target for reading is 70% on level with an action plan that includes reading, writing, and vocabulary daily. That will look different in 7th grade than it does in 3rd grade and it will look different in PE versus social studies; so the work looks different, but the plan is the same. Students will have access every day to reading, writing, and vocabulary. To ensure validity in the work, we will look at trend data for multiple subgroups over a three-year period. Our focus is on growth and achievement. While the ACT Aspire is leaving us for ATLAS, the data is not. It is important for us to use the data we have for the purposes that it is intended. Summative assessments help us to see trends and instructional areas of growth or gaps. They also help us to see growth over time which can provide insight into our instructional practices. Once we review the data together, we will focus on three questions:* What instructional strategies can I use to help move my students to the next level?* How can my team embed Literacy and Numeracy skills in day-to-day instruction?* What resources do we provide to stakeholders to support growth and achievement, and how can we help them better understand how to use those resources?This is ongoing work that we will do together to the benefit of both staff and students. You work diligently every day to provide the highest quality instruction to our students. Delving into the data can help to focus the action steps that need to be taken and ensure we are using our resources effectively. The goal of the district leadership team is to make sure we support district staff in this work. We look forward to the next steps.Congratulations to Mena Middle School!I received this email on Tuesday…Dear Superintendent Smith,Congratulations! Mena Middle has been recognized by the Office for Education Policy (OEP) at the University of Arkansas as a school where students demonstrated high growth on the ACT Aspire!As you may know, the OEP creates an annual report entitled the Outstanding Educational Performance Awards where we recognize schools with high student academic growth. We think growth is the best indicator of the positive impact that your school is having on students.In our Middle School Level report published today,Mena Middle received the following award:High Overall Growth (Southwest region)RecognitionI apologize for not using this Wrap-up to recognize some very important people who have had their calendar recognition days recently. First, I want to recognize and thank our technology professionals for all that they do. Nathan Stone, Lorrie Henry, Chuck Cox, and Cindy Brevik are invaluable for all of their expertise and support. Since our current tech ticket system has been in place, there have been 1,480 technology problems solved or requests honored. Our ticket system began 22 months ago and that translates to 67 responses a month on top of their normal duties. That kind of response is terrific! Second, our custodial staff who are employed by Mena Public Schools are Rodney Dominguez, Keri Duer, Maddie Fletcher, Cheryl Goodner, Leo Barge, and Mitch Milne. These people are our front line against illness and they keep our buildings presentable. Our outsourced custodial team from SG360 complements what our district custodians do and we appreciate it very much. Third, every October is National Principals Month, and our team of Samantha Sellers, Tamara Smart, Todd Coogan, and Davi

Happy Friday!As we wrap up Week 7 and our first 31 days of the school year, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for everyone's tireless efforts in fulfilling our district's mission. Teachers, staff, and administrators are going above and beyond to meet our district’s performance targets and create an effective learning environment. This week, we have reached a significant milestone with the release of our state-issued school report card, a valuable tool for assessing our strengths and areas for growth.In addition to the state's evaluation, we have also gathered invaluable feedback from our community through a start-of-school survey. The insights we have gained offer a comprehensive view of how our efforts are resonating with the community and provide direction for our ongoing journey in educational excellence. Thank you for your continued dedication; you are the backbone of our district's success.State Report Card & ESSA School IndicesAll school report cards are out and can be viewed at myschoolinfo.arkansas.gov. I have also made a folder for all building reports to be viewed here. All earned a ‘C’ and PCVA remains a ‘D’. Mena Middle School and Louise Durham Elementary were ‘B’ schools last year. The decline is mostly because we dropped 6 points on the ACT Aspire. But, also, our chronic absenteeism cost us some points in their calculations and that also has an impact on the test scores. There is a report in the folder that is linked above that shows the chronic absenteeism amounts for each school.Remember that we have the new ATLAS system now and can build our own assessments from it to measure growth throughout the year on just about everything as we did with reading last year. It is very important that those of you who can build Common Formative Assessments (CFA) with ATLAS so that students are familiar with the style, format, and especially the rigor of those questions. The ATLAS system is replacing the ACT Aspire to use in measuring our academic attainment.We will continue to push toward our target performance for this year and have a better idea of how we will do at the end of the year, more than we ever did with the Aspire test. A Good StartHere is a summation of the Thought Exchange sent out through Thrill Share last week. (Summaries are created by Thought Exchange):Key themes and sentiments* Overall SummaryThe responses indicate that the majority of parents are satisfied with the beginning of the school year, with many praising the teachers, communication methods, and the positive impact on their children's attitudes towards school. Some parents have experienced challenges, such as issues with paperwork, communication, and specific concerns for children with special needs. Overall, the start of the school year has been largely positive, with a few areas for improvement.* Summary of the Highest Rated ThoughtsThe beginning of the year has been largely positive for the participants and their students, with many children enjoying school and feeling excited to attend each day. Parents appreciate the open communication with teachers and staff, as well as the structured routines that help set their children up for success. Some students are thriving and learning new things, while others are adjusting well and feeling safe in their school environment. A few participants mentioned the importance of having a good relationship with teachers and the impact it has on their children's motivation and happiness. However, one participant suggested providing chairs for grandparents who may have difficulty standing in waiting lines due to health issues.* Summaries of each of the categoriesAll of the thoughts were sorted into four key themes: Positive Experiences, Communication, Organization, and Supportive Staff. The following summaries explain those themes.Positive ExperiencesThe responses indicate that participants have had mostly positive experiences with their children's education this year. Many mentioned that their children are enjoying their classes and teachers, and that communication between parents and teachers has been easy and convenient. They also appreciate the structure and routine that the school provides, as well as the extra time that some schools have given for drop-off and pick-up. However, some participants have experienced issues with communication, paperwork, and overcrowded buses. Overall, the participants seem to be satisfied with their children's education this year.CommunicationThis response focuses on the topic of Communication, with participants discussing aspects such as emails, text messages, SeeSaw, Open House, and other methods of communication. Participants generally have a positive perception of Communication, noting that it is convenient, organized, and helps keep parents informed. However, some participants have noted issues with Communication, such as not receiving emails or text messages, or not being able to hear during Open House. Overall, Communication is seen as an impor

Happy Friday!Thank you for all the effort put into Week 6! It has been a productive week here at Mena Public Schools as our District Targets are beginning to come to light and building plans are being implemented. Our Walkthrough data is becoming very informative to us as to the teaching that is happening throughout the district. This information is helpful to all of us because if we know where we are going and we stay on the right path, we will reach our destination. In this week’s Wrap-up, I want to emphasize the importance of using data to guide decisions and tell you about a resource that may just about end all of your menial, time-consuming job tasks.Don’t Just Hope, KnowYou have heard me say it before, "Don’t just hope, know." It is more than just a catchy phrase; it is an entire mindset shift that we are adopting across our school district and within our PLC teams. Hope is terrific; it keeps us aiming high and dreaming big. However, when it comes to the fine details of shaping the futures of our young people, we need more than just hope in our arsenal.For our teachers, this is all about refining your craft. Do not just cross your fingers and hope your teaching style is resonating. Dive into the data, dig into those student assessments, and take a hard look at engagement levels. Knowing is power, folks! When you "know," you can focus in on what is clicking and what needs a bit more attention, elevating how we reach each student at their level.And let us not forget our administrators. This mantra is your friend, too. Data does not lie, and it helps you make decisions that are not just well-intentioned but well-executed. Whether you are pondering over funding priorities or gauging the real-world impact of our latest professional development workshops, data provides you with the roadmap. Follow it to set achievable yet challenging goals and to steer us steadily toward them.This is not just a minor shift; it is a transformation. We are swapping out a culture of hopeful guesses for one grounded in data-driven certainties. That leads to a heightened sense of responsibility, fine-tuned interventions, and better outcomes for our students. So when you hear, "Do not just hope, know," remember it is our rallying cry for an educational setting where we are all better prepared, continuously improving, and always pushing for success.Working Smarter, Not HarderOn Tuesday, our board approved an Artificial Intelligence policy, and on Thursday, Mrs. Buckley and I attended a workshop for district leaders about artificial intelligence. Robin Finley, Federal Programs and Technology Coordinator from Alma Public Schools presented to us. She also has a website called Teachtime to be a resource for teacher technology. Her presentation is at this link but I want to explain some more about how learning to use this technology will make your job easier in so many ways.You know I would have been a programmer in another life, so trust me when I say AI is not just for Silicon Valley. It has real, practical applications that can help us out in the classroom and the office.Here are some examples:1. **Grading**: You know how time-consuming grading can be. Tools like Gradescope can do the heavy lifting for us, even for written answers. That means more time for you to engage with our students.2. **Tailored Learning**: Platforms like Squirrel AI adapt to each student's learning pace. Imagine being able to give every student a personalized learning path without burning the midnight oil.3. **Resource Allocation**: AI, such as ChatGPT can suggest additional exercises or resources based on how our students are doing. It is like having an extra set of eyes that helps us focus our efforts where they are needed most.4. **Cutting Red Tape**: Think about all those admin tasks that eat into your day. AI chatbots can handle scheduling and FAQs, freeing you up to do what you love—teaching.#### Real Talk: Examples1. **Georgia State University**: They used an AI chatbot to field over 200,000 student questions. That is a lot of time saved, which they redirected to improve student engagement.2. **Newtown Public School District**: By using AI to sift through test scores, they pinpointed learning gaps and adjusted their teaching strategies. That is data put to good use.3. **Mena Public Schools**: ChatGPT can create programming code based on you explaining what you want your programs to do. This has been helpful to me in writing Google Apps Scripts to automate some of the data processing I use to create reports for our dashboard.#### Your Next StepsLook, AI is not some pie-in-the-sky idea; it is a tool we can use today to make our jobs easier and our teaching more effective. If you are intrigued but do not know where to start, our tech crew is here to guide you. I have asked Cindy Brevik to begin creating AI PD for us. Let us use tech to not just meet but exceed our goals for our students.Do you use AI already? If so, please use this Thought Exchange to giv

Happy Friday!Thank you for all you have endured this week to accomplish the mission of our school district! We are already a month into this school year and our pace and rhythm are starting to set in. Across our school district, teachers, staff, and administrators are putting in tireless hours and immense effort to create a nurturing and effective learning environment for our students. Our community recognizes and deeply appreciates this dedication, understanding that it takes a collective effort to shape the future leaders of tomorrow.Everyday ValorAt tonight’s football game against Riverview, we will take a moment to honor those who serve with a large American flag displayed from our city’s new fire engine. This is to commemorate 9/11 and honor those people. But let us feel just as proud of the service we are providing on a daily basis. As we mark another year since the devastating events of September 11, 2001, our hearts are heavy with the memory of the lives lost and the families forever changed. The images of firefighters, police officers, and ordinary citizens rushing into danger to save others are indelibly etched into our collective consciousness. These heroes, who emerged from the ashes of tragedy, exemplify the very best of the human spirit—courage, selflessness, and an unyielding commitment to put others first.But heroism is not confined to moments of national crisis. It is also found in the quiet, everyday actions of individuals who dedicate their lives to serving others. As the Superintendent of Mena Public Schools, I am privileged to witness a different kind of heroism that, while less dramatic, is no less impactful—the heroism of teachers who rescue young minds from the clutches of ignorance and despair.Just as the first responders on 9/11 navigated through smoke and fire to bring people to safety, teachers navigate through the complexities of human emotion and intellectual barriers to guide their students toward enlightenment and emotional well-being. They don't wear capes or badges, and they don't make headlines, but every day they enter their classrooms with a resolve as strong as steel. Their mission? To ignite the spark of curiosity, to tear down the walls of doubt, and to build bridges to a future filled with promise and potential.One of those heroes was honored today - Annita Hendrix. Annita teaches History for us at the high school and has been at Mena Public Schools for 36 out of a career total of 37 years! In today’s pep rally at the high school, Annita was recognized as this year’s winner of the Arvest Bank’s We Love Teachers Award. This was a surprise for her and we are very honored to have such a worthy educator in our community. Here is a short bio used in her recognition ceremony.District TargetsWe are still working on gathering baseline data for our academic targets for the year but our attendance and discipline targets are being tracked. There will be another website like the one we had last year that will be our staff and community dashboard. It is important that we all are aware of our progress as we advance through this school year. Here are a couple of graphs that are ready now.ClosingThanks to those who took the time to participate in last week’s Thought Exchange. Here are the results. The public exchange has not been created and released yet. That information was good but now that we are a bit further into the year, what other observations do you have that will help us with our planning? The Arkansas Department of Education, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education is offering equipment and materials grants for Advanced Placement (AP) courses. A grant may be requested for an AP course being taught at a high school that has not recently received a grant for the course. The application is here. Also, more grants have been added to this page I shared last week. Another opportunity that we have is The Writing Revolution. To connect the science of reading to writing, DESE is excited to partner for a third year with a team from The Writing Revolution to offer Advancing Thinking Through Writing. This synchronous course will be offered for the 2023-2024 school year and is open for all content teachers in grades K-12 to participate introducing participants to the Hochman method, an explicit set of sequenced strategies for teaching expository writing that can be integrated into any content. There will be multiple cohorts of training beginning this September. If you are interested in participating in this opportunity, please let us know and we will add you to the list! Districts interested in participating should assemble a team of educators and at least one administrator or specialist. Specialists could include but are not limited to instructional facilitators, gifted and talented specialists, content area leaders, and special education advisors. An administrator could include but is not limited to a principal, assistant principal, curriculum coordinator, or program adminis

Happy Friday!Thank you for all that you did this week to further establish a good tone and high expectations for the new school year. The back-to-school issues of the past do not seem to be as prominent this year, but I do not want to take anything for granted so, please, take a little time to give us some feedback on the start of school. We will be asking our community the same question in a different Thought Exchange to compare your thoughts to theirs. In this week’s Wrap-up, I will tell you about the progress that has been made toward our district goals, which will be referred to as targets this year. I will also give more insight into this year’s budget along with some other tidbits of information.Strategic PlanningThe district leadership PLC team has been working through the strategic planning process to develop this year’s performance targets. Strategic planning serves as the cornerstone for educational success, acting as a roadmap that guides schools toward achieving their long-term vision and mission. By setting clear objectives, aligning resources, and fostering a culture of accountability, strategic planning enables educational leaders to create an environment where both staff and students can thrive. This proactive approach not only helps in addressing current challenges but also anticipates future needs, ensuring that students are equipped with the skills and knowledge they require for lifelong success. Through strategic planning, we can cultivate a collaborative atmosphere that encourages innovation, nurtures relationships, and ultimately, elevates the quality of education for our students.Today we met with specialists from the DeQueen-Mena Educational Service Cooperative to set targets and establish the method and frequency of measurement. We also discussed observation and walkthrough details to look for to ensure high-impact instruction, fidelity to curriculum, and that all grade-level standards are being taught. There is a lot of background information leading up to all of these targets that cannot be put in one Wrap-up, but these are the targets we want to reach as a district. Each building will determine its current performance and its own target levels to either meet or surpass the district’s targets.* Attendance: 93.5%* Discipline Incidents: -10%* ELA: 70%* Math: 60%* Science: 50%* Four-Year Graduation Rate: 94%* Five-Year Graduation Rate: 98%The academic goals will be measured by the number of students meeting or exceeding grade-level standards. The starting point for ELA is based on our own methods from last school year, while the math and science are based on the ACT Aspire data. We will update attendance and discipline weekly, academics monthly, and on-track graduation quarterly. We will add Common Formative Assessments (CFA) as they are available through ATLAS and not all areas are ready at this time. Further details and information will be provided during PLC team meetings.Take Your Legislator to School MonthSeptember is Take Your Legislator to School Month. This is a significant initiative aimed at bridging the gap between educational institutions and legislative bodies. During September each year, Arkansas lawmakers are invited to visit schools in their districts to gain firsthand experience of the educational environment, the challenges faced by educators, and the needs of the student body. This initiative fosters open dialogue and mutual understanding between two entities that play a crucial role in shaping the future of education. By walking the halls, sitting in classrooms, and engaging with teachers, staff, and students, legislators can acquire a more nuanced understanding of educational realities. This, in turn, informs better policy-making, ensuring that laws and budgets are crafted with a comprehensive understanding of their impact on schools. It is an invaluable opportunity for educators to advocate for their needs directly, and for lawmakers to become more effective champions for education in the legislative arena.If you feel so inclined, contact John Maddox and Terry Rice and invite them to experience some time at Mena Public Schools. This is an especially important initiative this year with the impact of LEARNS becoming more realized.Budget InformationI have written before about our federal ESSER and ARP funds being depleted but I have not explained how our usual federal funds, the most prevalent being Title I, have been impacted over the last few years and how returning to life as normal will impact those funds, as well.In 2020 when schools shut down, the allocation of title funds for that year was not spent. This created a large carry-over amount for 2021 and because of ESSER and ARP, we could not spend all of those funds, either, so our carry-over amounts accumulated. This made it easy to approve requests for supplies and travel in the last two years but all of the added carry-over has been reduced to normal amounts. Another important factor impacting the amount of

Happy Friday!Thank you for all of your efforts this week. I hope that your routines are starting to be settled and that your students are getting back into the learning mode. We have had a good week at Mena Public Schools. Just as noted in last week’s Wrap-up, the district leadership PLC has met and is working toward establishing our district goals for the year. We are also planning this year’s budget. In this Wrap-up, I will provide some insight and information related to both of these tasks and other tidbits of helpful or useful information.Setting SMART GoalsSMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives that provide a clear and shared focus for a team's efforts. In the context of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), SMART goals serve as a framework for collective inquiry and action research, helping educators to focus their efforts on effective teaching and learning strategies that can be measured and assessed over time.This week, our district leadership PLC met to make plans for establishing those SMART goals. This team is made up of the administrators with the addition of our interventionists to operate as what PLC designers call a guiding coalition. It is designed to work as a PLC for the district to do collective inquiry and action research. We looked at the results of the Thought Exchange from our District Convocation. The AI in the program summarized the collective thoughts of everyone who responded. Based mostly on your feedback, it was decided that we would not use the ACT Aspire data from last spring to be our baseline, which means that we will have to establish a baseline from another source. This will require some more time so the September 15th timeline to build our data dashboard may have to be extended. Keep in mind that it is okay to slow down and push deadlines in order to have consensus and to be confident in what your PLC team decides. You know, sometimes to move fast you have to go slow. That is my best Yogi Berra impersonation. The Right to ReadThe Arkansas Right to Read Act is a state legislative initiative aimed at boosting literacy rates among K-12 students. The act mandates evidence-based reading instruction with a focus on phonics and phonemic awareness, especially in early grades. It requires regular student assessments to identify those at risk of reading difficulties and prescribes targeted interventions. Additionally, the act calls for professional development for teachers in the science of reading and encourages parental involvement to support children's literacy at home. The ultimate goal is to improve educational outcomes by ensuring that all students are proficient readers.This is the year that our Science of Reading status is to be reported to the state. That is your proficiency or awareness depending upon the grade level or subjects you teach. Budget InformationOur budget for this year is not finished but we are seeing that living within our means will be required. The millions of dollars in federal funding that were appropriated to us in the COVID response made it very easy for us to approve many expenditures because of the direct impact of that money and the offset of other expenses we would normally have to face. We no longer have those funds so all expenses will fall on the district, federal, and categorical funds we get every year and we will be watching budgets very closely.One expense in particular is professional development. We have been using Title I carryover and ESSER funds to accommodate your requests over the last three years. This year, Title I has all been allocated to salaries, supplies, and programs tied to literacy, which leaves our categorical professional development fund as the primary source for registration fees, hotel rooms, and travel expenses. In conjunction with the expenses for professional development is the cost of a substitute teacher for those who need one. This is an expense we have to work to reduce. Below are two graphs that show how our sub expenses compare to some schools around us our size and how we have trended through the years. We know you cannot help many of the reasons for substitutes but there are some that you can. Any requests to attend this year will be carefully considered before approval. Please help us try to bring this expense down. ClosingIt has been a great week for the Polk County Fair! Our students in 4-H and FFA who exhibit livestock, produce, and art have been really impressive with their winnings. Tonight is the premium sale. If you are not going to watch Bearcat Football, check the sale out to see the livestock projects being recognized as the best. There is a lot of hard work and effort that goes into those projects and it began months ago. Thank you to all of you who have been or are working the booth at the fair or have been out there supporting our students and our county. I really appreciate the teachers who coordinated the art exhibits from our elementary scho

Happy Friday!Thank you for all you did this week to successfully complete the first full week of our new school year. Getting through the first full week is tough enough without the added heat wave but we have dealt with it patiently and will be getting some much-needed relief from the weather next week. In this week’s Wrap-up, I want to share some insights gained from Mrs. Buckley’s first LEARNS workgroup meeting for school accountability and provide other tidbits that may be of interest to you.A Shift in the Purpose of AssessmentThe first assessments from the new ATLAS system will not be ready until September 15th but the planning for their use began months ago. After hearing the report from Mrs. Buckley about accountability, I can tell that our use of the assessments will be more about testing our teaching than it will be a reflection of student ability. We will not be using the interims as tests for grades in the gradebook. We will be using the interims like scientists or investigators to test strategies, and establish what is working and what is not to create best practices for delivering the curriculum to our students. I know that many of you operate in this way already, especially those who have worked for several years to establish strong PLCs. You use assessment to drive instruction by determining if students are learning grade-level standards and adjusting approaches when they are not. The buildings and the district will use these assessments in the same manner to determine if our overall instructional practices are getting results for our students. More on AccountabilityIn this first in-person LEARNS Accountability meeting, the focus was on student growth and accountability models. Arkansas has used the Value Added model for student growth over the last several years and while it is highly effective, there is room for improvement. Value-Added typically weighs individual student achievement in higher proportion than student growth which is not in line with the state’s goals for schools. To address this, the formula used will be adjusted so that student growth and achievement are more evenly weighted. Measuring growth in greater proportion provides a focus on student achievement over time and across groups, allowing for more specific data that can then be used to drive instruction. In the September accountability meeting, the focus will be on the School Quality and Student Success indicators. There are several factors included in the SQSS such as attendance, graduation rate, on-level reading, and community service, and for each indicator, it is important to know the purpose, how much impact it has on student success, and to what extent a school has control over that factor. If you are interested in offering input, review the SQSS factors at My School Info and share your thoughts with Mrs. Buckley. Employee Health Insurance There is some good news for us who are insured with the state’s public school employee insurance plan. The Arkansas Legislative Council’s oversight committee for the Employee Benefits Division (EBD) was presented with a budget proposal this week. On slide ten of this proposal, the numbers indicate a reduction in employee contributions for every plan. Some have more than others, so I encourage you to take a look at them. The EBD was restructured by the legislature two years ago because it was losing money. As a result, rates went up for both school districts and employees. An oversight committee was established to make sure that the state employees could rely on a sustainable insurance system and make budgetary decisions. This reduction in employee rates shows that the restructuring and the oversight seem to be working well on our behalf.Tech UpdatePlease be aware that our Chromebooks were updated this summer to the operating system needed to take ATLAS assessments. However, some of the programs we use for student interventions have had upgrades that require more than ATLAS and our Chromebooks may or may not be able to accommodate. Our tech crew is updating Chromebooks so we will be able to use all of these tools but this is taking some time and some of the older Chromebooks may not update any further. If that causes problems using our intervention software, we will get that fixed.ClosingOur Ladycat Volleyball season has started strong and we had a very good home opener last night. Our Bearcat Football season begins tonight at 8 o’clock in Bob Carver Bearcat Stadium. Please come out and support these teams and band members when you can. Hopefully, it will be a little cooler at kick-off with the later start. We are also hosting football and volleyball players and coaches, band members and directors, and parents from the Cossatot River School District, to give them the gameday experience. These are two new sports for this district. Please welcome them as soon as you have the opportunity. It was a really good week at Mena Public Schools!!At Mena Public Schools our students are prepar

Happy Friday!Thank you for all of the hard work and effort in the days leading up to last Wednesday and our students’ first day of school for the 23-24 school year! These first three days have been rather smooth with only minor issues that were easily resolved or are being resolved. This speaks to the foresight each of you used to prepare to begin school with our students as your focus.This Wrap-up will be short as I only have a few things to update you on. Our Academic GoalsThe building principals met with Mrs. Buckley and me this morning to review how the first days have been and to set some deadlines for creating our goal-monitoring dashboard. We will start to screen and pre-test students next week to develop baseline data to build from as we are not going to use the ACT Aspire data as our starting point this year. It is our goal to have all of our baseline data, building goals, and Professional Growth Plans (PGPs) completed by Friday, September 15th. Our interventionists have developed plans for the early assessments to be given to our students in multiple academic areas. This will give each PLC team in every building the data they need to start driving instruction. Last year, reading was our only academic goal but this year we will add math, science, social studies, and writing, to the list of academic goals with ‘on grade level’ being the threshold of concern. The buildings will establish their SMART goals and the district will use them to base our overall goals. We will continue monitoring behavior and attendance, as well. Speaking of attendance, Mrs. Buckley was informed by one of our DESE officials that attendance will likely no longer be included in the formula for the school report cards. We will know this for certain in the weeks to come. Also, DESE will be creating the definition of ‘on grade level’ for Arkansas this year, which means that our threshold could be too low or high depending on what those definitions are.Details of our academic goals will become clearer for everyone as we work through this beginning process.Attendance GoalsWe will continue to shoot for a 96% attendance rate for our students and focus on overcoming chronic absenteeism. Besides that, we will also create targets for employee attendance. Each building and department principal/supervisor has last year’s attendance and will be making plans for improvement. We each need to be doing at least as well as the students where attendance is concerned but we are also sensitive to the reasons employees miss work and will take that into consideration.ClosingThank you again for making the start of school a success! Come back Monday prepared to go full throttle at our mission and vision. At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.Have a nice, restful weekend! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Happy Friday!This is the last Friday of the school year and the last Wrap-up, too. Tomorrow will be graduation day for the class of 2023 and our culminating event to put our product into the marketplaces of the world. Although much of the fanfare takes place at the high school, each one of you who taught these graduates from Pre-K to twelfth grade, had the academic and social influence that it took to get them to this stage of life. Not only the teachers but also the paraprofessionals, food service workers, bus drivers, maintenance, tech support, and especially the secretaries. You all are responsible for this latest graduating class.Today, the seniors had their Senior Success Assembly at UBC where each one was recognized for their NEXT. This is the next step in their professional lives. All of them were recognized for the choice they have made to continue their education by remaining in academic institutions or continuing it by entering the workforce. There were several representatives from colleges, the military, and industry who were all there to welcome this class to their NEXT. Before the assembly, I had a conversation with Brad Castor, Director of the Rich Mountain Electric Coop, and he commented on the pride he felt for the school and that type of assembly. So, I want to thank Mr. Maxwell, Mrs. Ashcraft, Mrs. Hobson, and Mrs. Plunkett for organizing today’s ceremony. We should all be proud of the class we have produced but should take a lesson from them and determine our own NEXT. Nothing is ever done, complete, or perfect. We should always look for our next opportunity, strategy, technique, or idea, that makes us better in order to make an even better-prepared graduating class of 2024 and beyond.ClosingOur final report on our District Goals was given to the board Tuesday night and not much changed since the last report. We have stayed on track to meet expectations for discipline referrals and reading levels; however, attendance averaged 92.5 percent. I informed the board that even though we did not meet our attendance goal, the state average is usually around 85 percent. I also told them that our ACT Aspire reading levels will matter the most when school report cards come out next fall and we will not know how we did until sometime this summer. Nevertheless, we had an outstanding year and you should each be proud of our accomplishments and your contribution to these successes. Let us not be content, however, but strive to get even better in 2023-2024.In another portion of my report to the board, I was honored to inform them that Mena Middle School Math Teacher, Chelsea Johnson, was recognized by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as a High-Impact Teacher. This means that she was responsible for more than a year’s worth of academic growth in math for her students. This is a new designation by the department under the leadership of our new Secretary of Education, Jacob Oliva, and it is determined by ACT Aspire scores.Our Thought Exchanges are still open. Please take some time to respond to the two Thought Exchanges - one for reflecting on all of our goals and one for reflecting on the goal we did not attain - attendance. This will help us this summer as we plan for next year. These will close on Tuesday, May 23rd, with results shared on Wednesday the 24th.We will have our end-of-year celebration on Wednesday, May 24th, in the PAC at 11 am with lunch immediately after. Our lunch is being prepared by Christ Community Fellowship and it is sponsored by American Fidelity, RePops, Montgomery Shelter Insurance, Farm Bureau, Edward Jones, and Non-Stop Fitness.Please use this form to notify us if this is your 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, or 30th year at Mena Public Schools or if you achieved major accomplishments this year such as an advanced degree or credential. We also want to recognize accomplishments in your classrooms related to our district goals.Congratulations to our retirees! Yesterday was the reception for Malea Ellison and Staci Brooks at Mena Middle School and today there is a reception for Patty Oglesby and Brent Tibbs at Louise Durham Elementary.This will be the final Wrap-up for this school year but I will use this forum through the summer, if needed, to provide you with information and updates. Please keep an eye on your email.It was a really good week at Mena Public Schools!!At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.Have a great weekend!! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Happy Friday!Thank you for all you did this week! In case you missed it in our District Updates done by Ms. Albin’s journalism students, here is a message to teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week. Our Facebook has been full of posts about the appreciation shown to you all by our community partners and parents. It has been a really good week of appreciation, reflection, and planning to bring us to the final full week of school next week, along with the anticipation of summer and a new school year full of accomplishments!Speaking of accomplishments, our district goals continue to track well. The gap in discipline referrals is widening again but the end of school is always a challenge; so, keep your expectations high and your students busy. It is mathematically impossible for us to hit our attendance goal but our other two look to be attainable. I want to take this opportunity to get some feedback about our district goals. I have created two Thought Exchanges - one for reflecting on all of our goals and one for reflecting on the goal we did not attain - attendance. Please take some time to complete these. This will help us this summer as we plan for next year. These will close on Tuesday, May 23rd, with results shared on Wednesday the 24th.Investing The AppreciationProbably the most meaningful Teacher Appreciation action that took place this year was the increases in your salaries paid through state surplus and LEARNS. Our leaders are better at recognizing the need for good teachers in every classroom and every school and they have taken action. Now is the time to not just improve your standard of living but to also prepare for your future.In this Inc.com article by Elle Kaplan, she highlights the wisdom of Warren Buffet’s “20-Slot Rule”. This rule, “Improves your ultimate financial welfare by giving you a ticket with only 20 slots in it so that you had 20 punches--representing all the investments that you got to make in a lifetime. And once you'd punched through the card, you couldn't make any more investments at all ... Under those rules, you'd really think carefully about what you did and you'd be forced to load up on what you'd really thought about. So you'd do so much better.”Now, it is good for our local economy for everyone to upgrade their housing and their vehicles and even to purchase boats or ATVs, but the point of this article is that some investment should be in savings. In the past, many young teachers did not have the ability to save but with these new salaries, you will. Be looking for an email blast from American Fidelity. They will be giving you an opportunity to have in-depth discussions this summer about investments and savings beyond teacher retirement and I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity. Feed a BearcatAt the end of the year we always have meal accounts that are in the negative and thank goodness for those who donate or work for our Feed a Bearcat account. This year, however, the funds in FAB do not quite reach the full debt. This is not a solicitation for donations. We have another plan but when the FAB fundraisers are presented, please take notice. In the future, we are planning ways to help without having to make donations. Also, if you owe a meal balance for yourself or your own kids, please get those paid so we can close out those negatives.ClosingI want to recognize our Child Nutrition Team, especially Amy Bartow and Susan Bodey for the effort they have put forth on the district’s behalf. The latest news is a $20,000 grant from No Child Hungry and a portion of that grant will be used to buy new equipment for our schools. They will also continue our summer feeding while school is out. There is more about that and the additional backpack program supported by our community leaders in the next issue of RED Around Town, which I’ll provide a preview of in next week’s Wrap-up. Do not worry about buying eclipse glasses for your students! The solar eclipse is happening next April but people are already getting ready and one of the early preparation being sold are the protective eyewear to view the eclipse through. Mrs. Simms has already made arrangements to purchase these for all of our students at Mena Public Schools so there will be some made available when the time comes.Our Ladycat Soccer Team ended their season yesterday in the first round of the state tournament. Congratulations to those players for making it to the state tournament and having one of the most successful seasons in quite some time! Last week, our Ladycat Softball Team finished out their season in the first round of the regional tournament and I want to congratulate them on a great season that included a conference championship and conference tournament runner-up. Elliot Dugan, our track star who is the Class 4-A State Champion High Jumper, competed in the Meet of Champs against athletes from all classifications and finished sixth place. This is a tremendous accomplishment for a freshman!The Mena FFA

Happy Friday!Thank you for all you have done this week! All of the efforts we have put into our students have been recorded in the ACT Aspire testing portal. Testing our students satisfies what the state asks of us as far as our accountability to it, but we are still accountable to ourselves and this community for using our time and resources in the most effective ways to make sure our students (their children) are successful. The trending of our District Goals is about the same; however, I can tell the end of the year is near because discipline referrals have gone up for the second week in a row. We are still above our goal of a ten percent reduction, but only by a fraction instead of the fifteen to twenty percentage points that we have been seeing all year. Attendance went down a tenth of a percent and we will provide one last reading level report at the May board meeting.This week’s Wrap-up is full of news, information, and opportunity.Dr. Luis CruzWe are very excited to be hosting a statewide professional development session for educators with Dr. Luis Cruz. Dr. Cruz will present “Time for Change” at the PAC on Friday, June 16. The session will start at 9:00 am and will be a motivating, inspiring, and hopefully life-changing day for educators. Dr. Cruz will spend the day discussing transforming school culture. One must understand why teachers continue to hold on to the models or beliefs contrary to those put forth by their district or school. He will explore the human behavior and conditions that cause the underlying conflict among the four different types of teachers in a school: Believers, Fundamentalists, Tweeners, and Survivors. He will discuss how school leaders can work with each group to create a positive school culture and fully realize our district’s mission and vision. If you are planning to be in town on June 16th, please register for this professional development as one of your flex days. It is a statewide audience they are after so this will also be a great networking opportunity for those attending. You may register for the session in ESC Works here. 2024 Legislative Biennial Study of Educational AdequacyThe Arkansas House Committee on Education and Senate Committee on Education are conducting their biennial study of educational adequacy. The Policy Analysis and Research Section of the Bureau of Legislative Research (BLR) has been charged with facilitating the study. As part of that study, the BLR will survey all superintendents, charter school directors, principals, and classroom teachers in the state for needed information and input. Below is their schedule for sending out emails with the survey links to the recipients:* Teachers start May 8, 2023, and end May 19, 2023;* Principals start May 24, 2023, and end June 16, 2023;* Superintendents start May 24, 2023, and end June 16, 2023.The two committees on education make the funding recommendations to the House and Senate so it is very important that you respond to the survey if you receive one. We have been assured that all survey responses are confidential, and no one outside their research group will have access to the responses that are provided. Teacher Appreciation Day/WeekWe had Teacher Appreciation Day on May 2nd and are looking forward to Teacher Appreciation Week next week, May 8th through the 11th. I am thoroughly impressed by the things our parents and businesses do for you all during these dates each year. Teacher Appreciation Day garnered many positive comments about local teachers in our papers and on social media. Nationally, Teacher Appreciation has grown and there are many resources dedicated to making this time meaningful, not necessarily by gift suggestions but in the way the profession is being honored and elevated. For example, on Sunday, you may want to join the National Education Association, the National PTA, and Emmy award-winning actress Sheryl Lee Ralph from ABC's hit comedy series, Abbott Elementary for a Town Hall kick-off of Teacher Appreciation Week. There will be a lively discussion with teachers, education leaders, community leaders, parents, and students about critical topics facing public school educators and students and the solutions our communities need to ensure every student has access to a high-quality, equitable, and inclusive education, regardless of family income, race, or where they live. Sign up here to receive a reminder when it's time to tune in!Licensure Fee WaiverA commissioner’s memo came out this morning announcing that at its regularly scheduled meeting on March 3, 2023, the Professional Licensure Standards Board discussed the Executive Order to Prioritize LEARNS and voted unanimously to recommend to the State Board of Education approval of a waiver of first-time teacher licensure application fees. The Arkansas State Board of Education voted unanimously to accept the recommendation of the Professional Licensure Standards Board. This will be very beneficial to some of you in the REACH pro

Happy Friday!Besides the ending of April and the last full month of the 2022-2023 school year, this week also brought us closer to the end of our ACT Aspire testing window. The hay is nearly in the barn, as they say, and we will see how much impact we made on our students this year sometime in late June or early July. Thank you for all of the work you did leading up to this testing time and please continue to concentrate on this year’s District Goals using every bit of the time we have to ensure our students’ success.End-of-the-Year CelebrationMay 24th is the last contract day for most employees and it will be a day to celebrate accomplishments and milestones. Christ’s Community Fellowship has graciously offered to cook us lunch again and this year we will have some corporate sponsors to pay for our meal. This event will take place at the Performing Arts Center (PAC) at Mena High School. Before the meal, we will recognize the years of service to the district and retirements. It will be a little different this year as we will not have everyone come down front individually. For the sake of time, we will announce the names and years of service, along with other pertinent facts about the people. Afterward, all who were mentioned will come down front to receive their mementos and have a picture taken.To make sure we do not miss anyone, we ask that you use this form to notify us if this is your 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, or 30th year at Mena Public Schools or if you achieved major accomplishments this year such as an advanced degree or credential. We also want to recognize accomplishments in your classrooms related to our district goals.New Operations HeroOperations Hero is replacing SchoolDude around the state as the method for requesting maintenance. You use your school email account to sign in with Google and the link to the form to make a request is in the top-right corner. The form is much less daunting than the one in SchoolDude. The complete migration from SchoolDude to Operations Hero is taking place right now and all use of SchoolDude will end this month and it will no longer be available in June. Here is a document with several sets of training videos on how to use it.Our transportation system uses SchoolDude for trip requests so we are working on another solution for next year.Legislation and PolicyOur legislative session may be over but the wave of change in education continues. Our school administrators association has put together this list of educational acts that have now been signed by the Governor. This is the longest list of such acts that I can recall. There are a total of 131 new laws to be enacted. This also means that there will be new policies written for schools to accomplish the goals of these laws. This will take a lot of time for the legal team at the Arkansas School Boards Association, which provides the model policy service that all public schools subscribe to. Speaking of rules, there is a new website dedicated to LEARNS and it contains a lot of information about the new law and its impact. Some of the information includes updates on the rules-making process and the committees that will be putting the rules together. If you applied to participate, the website is a good way to keep up with the information. ClosingWe had a wonderful performance given by our choirs last night. Big thanks go out to all the singers and our Choir Director, Mrs. Tilley, for making that happen. Make sure to see our Bearcat Band spring performance in the PAC tomorrow night.We had a great group of Mena Middle School students compete in STEM Challenge today at Iron Mountain. This event is coordinated and sponsored by the DeQueen-Mena Educational Cooperative. It involves several science-based competitions in problem-solving and engineering. We had several winners and those announcements should be on social media soon.Ladycat Softball qualified for the regional tournament this week and continues to play for a conference tournament championship today. Ladycat Soccer continues its postseason successfully and has already qualified for the state tournament. This is the first state-qualifying girls’ soccer team at Mena in nine years! Bearcat Soccer has finished its season with its first winning season in several years. We also know that we have several track athletes who have qualified for the state meet next week.Please complete the DMESC user satisfaction survey.It was a really good week at Mena Public Schools!!At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.Have a great weekend!! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Happy Friday!This has been a very busy week for all of us with a lot of good news and results in all that has happened. Thank you for all of the progress you have made toward our district goals! I was happy to report to the School Board on Tuesday that 73 percent of our students are ‘on-level’ according to our methods of determination. This is a great testament to the work being done in all of the buildings and we should be proud of that feat. Yet, we still have work to do for those students who are not ‘on-level’ and we should always strive as educators to reach 100 percent of our kids! The testing window for the ACT Aspire is open now and our students will all be done testing soon but we will not know if we actually hit our goal where the ACT Aspire is concerned until this summer. I will continue to emphasize that while that reading level from the ACT Aspire has an impact on our schools’ report cards, it is not as thorough as our methods of assessment, not completely aligned with our power standards, based on one day in a student’s life, and based on a score of 22 on the ACT by the 11th grade. I look forward to the coming years as Arkansas determines its own definition of grade-level reading and we have assessments aligned to our current standards. As far as our other two goals are concerned, not a lot has changed. Our attendance did improve by one-tenth of a percent and our discipline is remaining on the same positive trajectory at 15 percent less than last year. I attribute our attendance improvement to the work done at Louise Durham. For the first time in months, their absenteeism has dropped below eight percent.Recognition of ValueAll of the good things mentioned above and in every weekly Wrap-up happen because of the people working in our schools. Not just here in Mena but all over the state. And even though there were disappointments in how LEARNS changed teacher pay, it is clear that leaders in our school district and state see the importance of educators and support staff and it has been shown over the last two years. I looked at last year’s Wrap-up for this week and it included information about a coming raise in pay for all staff members. Fortunately, we are able to do it again, and this time with more funding and higher amounts than last year. Girls of PromiseThis was one of the meaningful events I failed to mention in last week’s Wrap-up. Mrs. Billings took four Mena Middle School girls to this conference on April 7th. This is an initiative of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas, that exposes girls to opportunities and mentors in STEAM fields. The initiative’s goal is to increase the number of girls in higher-level STEAM courses and careers to put them on the path to achieving economic security as women. The annual Girls of Promise Conference is open to 8th-grade girls who are interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math in Arkansas! Students learned about various STEAM careers, enhanced their skills, and met women mentors excelling in their fields. This was a good initial action as the Middle School prepares for a new Project Lead The Way program.DeQueen-Mena Educational Service CooperativeBoth licensed and non-licensed employees who use the coop are asked each year to complete a user satisfaction survey. The DeQueen-Mena Educational Service Cooperative serves us and other schools in our area in so many ways that it is difficult to describe from one educator’s perspective what they do; so, they seek multiple perspectives to know how to improve. The coop plans and makes improvements based on your experiences with them and they do this using a user satisfaction survey. Please take some time to complete this survey. I know we pick and choose what surveys to respond to because there are so many put in front of us these days; but, the coop is a service that we need to make good use of and they need to know how we feel about their performance as an organization. I have filled out this survey and I would appreciate it if you would too.ClosingLast week the Arkansas Rural Education Association announced scholarship recipients and one of our paraprofessionals was chosen! Congratulations to Stacy Green for winning the Paraprofessional Scholarship and for representing our district so well!Congratulations to our softball team for winning the conference championship with no conference losses! Both baseball and softball will be competing in the conference tournament next week and all of our support is behind them.I want to thank Amy Bartow for managing our Fresh Fruits and Vegetables grant. This week was a special treat because there was enough extra money at Holly Harshman to provide large fruit trays to the students there. It was a nice treat for those kids.It was a really good week at Mena Public Schools!!At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.Have a great weekend!! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss th

Happy Friday!This is been a very busy week here at Mena Public Schools. Thank you all for all that you have done this week. Our goals are important, but to Wrap-up this week the primary thanks go out to everyone who is giving our students opportunities through numerous activities that took place.In this Wrap-up I will rehash information from the meetings that took place at each building this week and follow up with all the things we are doing that make learning fun and meaningful.SalariesThanks to all the staff members who came early and stayed late to hear about the salary schedule plan for next year. I want to give a basic summary of what I told you all for those who were not able to attend.For starters, our current salary schedule is based on a decades-old law that requires a lane of salaries for bachelor’s degrees and one for master’s degrees with a minimum salary for each. The lanes also had to have at least fifteen steps with a minimum of $450 (BS) and a $500 (MS) increase at each step. That law has been completely repealed with nothing to take its place. Many schools chose to go above the minimum expectations by paying more than the minimum amounts, adding more steps, or increasing the step amounts. The portion of a salary schedule that determines pay for administrators is up to the district and the law still requires that certified employees that work more than 190 days per year are paid for those extra days at their daily rate of pay. When Governor Sanders increased the minimum salary to $50,000, that caused the current salary schedules to be unaffordable for just about all schools in the state. The first response to this problem by all schools was to set next year’s salaries according to the LEARNS Act and freeze them at that amount. We have been advised against this plan and we need a salary schedule that will work in eFinance, our accounting system for the state. So, we have developed a salary schedule that looks just like the one we currently have but the numbers are different.To meet the LEARNS requirements, all salaries in the cells of the schedule that were $48,000 or below were replaced with $50,000. All cells above $48,000 have $2000 added to them to reach the $50,000 minimum and cover the minimum raise of $2,000. Administrator indexes were reduced to keep their increase close to $2,000 and everything else remains the same. We have added experience stipends for veteran teachers of $500 for 15 to 19 years of experience, $750 for 20 to 24 years, and $1000 for 25 years or more.The LEARNS Act provided no funding for classified salaries but we were given funds in our foundation funding to pay for those but the amount did not fully cover a $2.00 per hour raise. The legislature did find another source of funds for our employee insurance costs, which helped us to be able to afford a $1.50 per hour raise for classified employees. We will get over $900,000 in new funds from Governor Sanders and an additional $350,000 in foundation funding to help pay for these raises. The cost of the raises is still more than the new funding amounts but the district will be able to absorb that amount. Here is a link to the breakdown of costs versus revenue. All of these numbers are based on current staff. Making Learning Fun and MeaningfulOur students are out there having a blast right now. They are demonstrating their skills and apply knowledge outside of the classroom in showcases and competitions. I want to mention these things as a brag about our district and the staff members who are making all of this possible. If I have missed any, please let me know and I will get it in next week’s Wrap-up.* Lady Bearcat Softball is undefeated in conference play this season and will soon be in their district tournament. * We hosted the Area 14 Special Olympics this week with a tremendous turnout and a lot of fun for the kids, their parents, and the staff who put the event together. Thanks to the Spotlight Singers for opening the games with our National Anthem.* Bearcat Baseball won their 4th game this week against Cossatot River.* The junior high track meet this week was very well attended. We had young athletes from all over the region competing. * It was Senior Night for our girls and boys soccer teams on Tuesday. Both teams have had really good seasons as they get closer to the post-season. Our boys are in 3rd place and the girls in 4th.* Our FFA members are at the University of Arkansas this weekend to compete in their state Career Development Event competitions. Each contest winner qualifies for the national contest.* Three of our high school students had the opportunity to propose a new governmental policy to Senator John Bozeman. This was a great experience for learning the legislative process.* Louise Durham Elementary hosted a spring picnic for students and their families today with more than 370 tickets sold.* Today about twelve Mena Middle School students competed in the science fair at the University of Arkansas

Happy Thursday!We have a short week and a long weekend due to Good Friday. I hope you have had a good week despite the sadness that came from the loss of one of our students. Amanda Tolbert’s funeral was today. Despite the somber mood, it was very good to see many of our school staff attending to offer support and condolences to the family. Many staff members have poured their time, energy, and emotion into that situation, and the district thanks them for that effort. Even though we are suffering heartache over losing a student, it does not deter our mission that is set for so many more students now and in the future.According to our district goals data, our efforts in the classrooms and offices continue on the same trends as they were before Spring Break. Attendance and discipline have been updated to include the weeks before and after Spring Break. Attendance rates remain close to the same and we are continuing to beat our goal for discipline. Our reading goal will be updated by the 18th, which is when our next board meeting will be.In this week’s Wrap-up, I will continue with more of the vision for the state from Secretary Oliva and update you on further developments with our salary schedule and the new minimum.Vision for Education in ArkansasSecretary of Education, Jacob Oliva, spent a couple of hours with superintendents and business managers at the coop to outline his vision for the state. Last week, I wrote about what he plans for ELA. This week, I will share his message about math and the new Value-Added Growth report.MathMany of us remember how Common Core Math created a lot of controversies and how much of that was related to how math instruction changed to meet the new standards. The strategies used to teach math have evolved to become more conceptual in order to help students understand how numbers work. There were some side effects to this. First, parents did not understand the strategies because, in the past, we were taught procedures for math. Our new strategies were confusing and many parents could not help their children. Second, the focus on concepts decreased math fluency practice and many basic math skills have been diminished. Our students are not as capable of using math facts as quickly and accurately as they need to in order to be prepared for work and life. Based on this information, the Secretary has charged our state department staff with rebuilding math standards and, just as with ELA, assessing those standards according to what students should have learned and constantly progress monitor. The standards will have a balance between math concepts and fluency and they will be expressed in a way that is easily understood by parents.Value-Added GrowthThe Secretary had the data scientists and code writers at the department create a data dashboard for schools to use. The dashboard is much more robust than the reports we have from the ACT Aspire even though it uses the same data. After the ACT Aspire, the dashboard will use the data from the Arkansas Teaching and Learning Assessment System (ATLAS).The dashboard will display data in graphs and tables to help us understand the academic growth of a school, a student, and a teacher. We will be able to pinpoint areas of excellence and areas of need at every level. It will be a powerful tool for data-based decision-making. Here are a few slides with examples of the data display and types. I also think that based on the way this system is designed that it will be what the state uses to pay its performance bonuses to teachers.This data is not as valuable now because the ACT Aspire is not aligned with Arkansas standards but this will change soon. When standards are built to be clear and concise and assessments are created to assess how well the students learned the standards. The data we get from this system will be very meaningful and informative to improve teaching and learning.Salary ScheduleThis issue has evolved since my plan was laid out for the board a couple of weeks ago. Superintendents and business managers from around the state, and especially within our coop, have collaborated to come up with a salary schedule that remains very similar to what we have and honor the daily rate of pay based on the new minimum without having to suffer a large increase in unfunded amounts. I will be scheduling meetings in the buildings starting next week to explain this to everyone and answer questions.Legislative UpdateSince the session is about to end, there has been a flurry of new bills. Here are some you may be interested in:* SB510 - Irvin - TO AMEND THE CRITERIA CONSIDERED IN A SCHOOL DISTRICT'S REDUCTION IN-FORCE POLICY. The current policy for RiF is based on seniority. This bill changes that requirement.* SB512 - Irvin - CONCERNING SCHOOL DISTRICT PERSONNEL POLICIES; AND CONCERNING A SCHOOL DISTRICT COMMITTEE ON PERSONNEL POLICIES. This bill requires that PPC meetings be recorded and made public.* SB556 - J. Dotson - TO CREATE THE RELIGIOUS VIEWP

Happy Friday!I hope all of you had an enjoyable Spring Break. Whether you traveled or camped or just stayed at home to catch up on chores, I hope there was enough time to rejuvenate and prepare for the final stretch of this school year.Thank you for all you did in this returning week to help us reach our district goals. This data is not updated all the way to week 27 yet but it will be early next week. This week’s Wrap-up will contain information from the events of the week, including the things happening with LEARNS.Board MeetingOn Monday, we had our March board meeting. Here are the minutes if you have not read them yet. Instead of rehashing all that is in the minutes, I will emphasize one key piece of information that I gave the board and that is the impact of LEARNS and the impact of the new minimum salary. I also explained to the board that the plan presented in the minutes was not official yet and that I would bring something official to the April meeting for their approval. One thing we have learned from this session is that things change on a daily basis and things are constantly evolving.Career Ready CommunitiesOn Tuesday and Wednesday, a group of Polk County educators and community leaders met in a two-day BootCamp at National Park College in Hot Springs. The event was run by ACT Work Ready Communities and it focused on the alignment of jobs in the area and the skills needed to be successful at those jobs. The alignment is done through the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) program and businesses that adopt the NCRC as part of their hiring process will receive free support from ACT Work Ready Communities to develop job profiles. The team that went through the BootCamp will be educating local businesses about this system and assisting them in establishing it with the end goal of having a correctly skilled and correctly placed workforce. Secretary Oliva’s Visit to DMESCOn Wednesday, our new Secretary of Education, Jacob Oliva, came to the DeQueen -Mena Educational Service Coop to lay out his vision for education in our state. Aside from the financial concerns of paying for the new minimum salary, the meeting was very encouraging. There is much to share that I cannot put into one Wrap-up but for today, I will begin with his vision for English Language Arts.The Secretary provided some great insight to us as to why Arkansas has such a low number of students reading on grade level. Simply put, the reason is that it is based on the fact that ACT makes our test and according to ACT, college readiness means scoring a 22 on reading as a senior. The secretary went on to ask how many kids still get into and are successful in college who did not score that highly and said that Arkansas will determine its own definition of what grade-level reading ability means.We have one more year of the ACT Aspire, so we need to make sure our parents and community understand that not being on grade-level reading does not mean that they cannot read. We need to emphasize the means of measurement we are using for our district goals that our Interventionist Team has created and be prepared for our numbers and the ACT Aspire numbers not to correlate precisely. Furthermore, we need to emphasize that our assessment is ongoing while the ACT Aspire measures one day in the academic life of a student. I will be putting more information from the Secretary in future Wrap-ups and share in other ways when I have the opportunity. Project Lead The WayLet us congratulate Mr. Coogan and Mrs. Warner for the successful grant application to begin a PLTW program at Mena Middle School. Here is an excerpt from the letter announcing the successful grant application and providing some information as to what PLTW is about:I am pleased to inform you that your school has been selected as a recipient of the 2022 Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Grant from the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) funded by Walton Family Foundation. Congratulations!The selection committee was very impressed with your school’s commitment to advancing STEM education in 7th and/or 8th grade, and we believe that this grant will help further your efforts. We are confident that this grant will enable your school to continue to inspire and motivate students to pursue careers in STEM fields.Your school has been approved for funding to implement your requested courses in full.Learning AllyMrs. Salisbury informed us today that Mena has received more recognition for our dyslexia efforts through Learning Ally. Below is the announcement:On behalf of Learning Ally, I would like to congratulate you on being selected to be honored at our annual Spotlight on Dyslexia conference for your district’s tremendous work in advancing literacy outcomes. This award is intended to honor districts on the leading edge of best practices in making advancements in aligning to the Science of Reading, understanding the whole child when it comes to literacy, and effectively using Learning Ally’s soluti

Happy Friday!This week’s Wrap-up will be short so you are not left with a lot to think about as you start your Spring Break this afternoon. I will update you on our district goals and provide some other short pieces of information.* Thank you for all that you did this week to help us reach our district goals as we keep trending in the right direction. Even attendance inched up a little bit. Although I will not have any hard data to report on literacy at the next board meeting, the work being done at Louise Durham and Holly Harshman is indicating positive results. * The legislature has still not released our per pupil funding amount for next year; so, our revenues are still unknown. Secretary Oliva has been visiting coops and during his visits, he has said that we can expect the increase to be somewhere between $100 and $200 per student. This amount will have to cover the increased cost of insurance and a raise in classified employee pay.* Please apply to serve on one of the LEARNS rules-making committees. This is open to all who have an interest - certified, classified, board members, parents, etc. Here is a link to the Commissioner’s Memo with more information and the application in a Google Form. The form is short but you will have to submit a resume. Be a part of shaping the history of education in Arkansas!* Mena has been allocated nearly $168,000 for safety improvements and we submitted our plan to the state today. They intend to fund projects according to the priorities determined by Governor Hutchinson’s School Safety Commission. Mena has many of the priorities already in place so to meet the requirements of the grant, we will focus on secure fencing, door locks at Holly Harshman, better signage, front entrance security, and door prop alarms.* There has not been much participation in the Thought Exchange about LEARNS but it remains open until March 31st at the link above. Here are some results thus far.* Congratulations to Holly Harshman’s Principal, Mrs. Smart, for being recognized as one of Polk County’s Women in Business! You can see her story in The Polk County Pulse.* Congratulations to our baseball, softball, soccer, track, chess, theatre, and FFA judging teams for all of the successes this past week! It has been a fabulous week of performance for a large number of our students who showcased their skills and talents.At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.Have a great weekend and Spring Break!! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Before I get into the Wrap-up and the latest on LEARNS, I want to pay homage to one of our school district’s greatest supporters who has passed away, Buddy Bean. Mr. Bean was a Bearcat supporter for a long time and without him, our Ballfields at Union Bank Park would not exist. He assisted the district in other initiatives and improvements and has been honored by the Mena School Board for his benevolence. On behalf of our board members, administration, and staff, our prayers are with his family at this time.Happy Friday!No matter how eventful Week 26 has been, nothing is more impactful that your daily effort to reach students and ensure their learning! Thank you for all the effort this week because it mattered most. I know there is more happening now as spring approaches because our discipline referrals have seen a slight uptick. We are still way ahead of our goal but the gap between this year and last year is a bit narrower. The approach of springtime always makes kids more rambunctious but we should see discipline slow down again after Spring Break. So, let us keep our focus and do what is right for our students.Our elementaries are putting more ideas into action to address attendance and literacy with positive results already showing. I look forward to sharing the latest numbers after their efforts have more time to make an impact.The Evolution of LEARNSOn Tuesday this week, House of Representatives amendments to SB294 were approved by the Senate Education Committee and passed by the Senate to become Act 237. LEARNS is now the law that schools will work under if they accept any public funds to educate students. The primary amendments were those concerns I wrote about in last week’s Wrap-up dealing with Teacher Fair Dismissal and salary schedules. School districts will build some kind of salary schedule and the right to a board hearing is back in the law for employee termination or non-renewal.We are inching closer and closer to the clarity of what this law will mean for educators and students but there is still much uncertainty. There is still no appropriation recommendation for the adequacy of school funding, which is our foundation funding. Last week, I wrote that the amount of $8,129 per pupil was mentioned and that anything close to that would be great. This week I have learned that we may only get an increase of two percent, or $148 per student. Educational administrators are emphasizing to lawmakers the expenses that have increased for school districts and are not adequately funded such as the increased district cost for employee insurance increasing to $300 per month, per employee, when last year it was $199. We also have to supplement therapy services on a yearly basis because Medicaid does not cover 100 percent of what is prescribed to our students. During this session, there was testimony that Medicaid did pay 100 percent but that is completely untrue. While I was Superintendent at Horatio, we used district funds to cover gaps each year ranging between $14K to $16K. This year the Mena School District will be supplementing over $35K for therapies. We do not know exactly how much yet but our budget is already exhausted and this is an expense we cannot modify to make ends meet.Our maintenance and operations expenses are always above what is funded and the new requirements in LEARNS for early childhood are still a concern due to the staffing needs it will require. We also must provide a pay increase for our classified staff.All of our planning for next year’s budget is in limbo and we are only guessing until the legislature comes out with a solid amount of foundation funding. We are carefully watching SB149 to amend the foundation funding amount for the 2023-2024 school year to be $8,195 and for the 2024-2025 school year $8,370. In addition, the bill would increase the base classified hourly wage to $15.00. The Senate Education Committee voted to table this bill, however.Not all is bleak. There have been more bills filed that favor public education and level the playing field for us. For example,* SB369 – Senator Dotson – This bill sets forth a process for students to receive weighted credit for career education courses and converts the graduation requirement of a computer science course to a career education course.* HB1205 –Representative Wooten – This bill would require any school, whether public or private, that receives public funds to provide transportation to any attending student within thirty-five (35) miles.* HB1206 – Representative Carr – This bill would provide that any student who resides in Arkansas but is not attending a public school or a student who resides outside of Arkansas and transfers into an Arkansas district would be excluded from being calculated in the schools rating for two (2) years after starting to attend a public school in Arkansas. The sponsor pulled the bill to allow for additional amendments.* HB1238 – Representative Cozart – This bill includes adjustments to the

Happy Friday!Thank you for all you have done in Week 25 to meet your own professional goals, your students’ goals, and our district's goals. Our efforts are gaining dividends for our students each week as we progress through the year, but these past two weeks have made working in education more interesting because of the things happening in Little Rock. It appears that SB294 will become the LEARNS Act and completely transform our system of education.For decades educators have seen reform initiatives come and go. Because of this pattern, one of the commonly repeated mantras among educators is “This too shall pass”. Meaningful public education reform on a large scale really has never lasted in Arkansas or the United States, but there has always been a part of the reform that has staying power, such as standardized testing. Understanding that I have tweaked that mantra a little bit by saying, “This too shall evolve”, and this is true because we have seen it happening to LEARNS since it was released on February 20th. I will use this Wrap-up to inform readers about the latest evolution of SB294 that comes out of the many questions the language of the bill created and the testimonies given by so many people. Salary IncreasesThere has been a concern or question spreading across the state that teachers’ salaries will be capped at $52,000 but that is not in the bill. Teachers are guaranteed a minimum of a $2,000 raise. The base minimum teacher pay will be $50,000 and the state is paying for the raises in perpetuity. Separately, school districts will continue to receive adequacy funds, which increase every two years. This is what districts currently use for step increases. They will have this money to put in step increases in a manner they decide best suits their district. The $50-$52,000 is the starting point, not the ending point but school districts will have to build new compensation packages that can have steps for educational attainment and experience.I spoke with Secretary Oliva directly on Wednesday along with a few other coop superintendents and he explained that we would still receive the usual matrix per pupil funding, otherwise known as foundation funds, and that if we are making ends meet now, the new raise would not negatively impact us. We have also learned that there will be an increase in foundation funds so we will be able to afford classified salary increases. Representative Brooks stated this week that the new per-pupil amount would be $8,129, but he has since backtracked on that exact number. Our current amount is $7,413, so if we receive anything close to the $8,129 that was spoken, that will be a good increase to properly fund schools.Additionally, the bill says that school districts must spend 80 percent of the state foundation funding they receive for teacher salaries on teacher pay. They also must publish that information on their school website for transparency purposes so teachers know how much money local districts are putting towards teacher pay compared to what the state is sending them for those salaries. This year, Mena is at 85 percent and there are only two districts in the state who do not already meet this potential new mandate.VouchersThere has been much concern expressed about the voucher money going to homeschoolers without accountability. In the conversation I had with Secretary Oliva, I explained that sometimes parents in our district choose the homeschool option when faced with the consequences of their students being chronically absent. He stated that we could address issues like this during the rule-writing process and that there will be accountability for parents who use state funds for homeschooling. He shares the same concerns as we do.There are also accountability measures for those receiving Educational Freedom Account (EFA) funds. Money will never make it to the hands of parents. Funds will be put into an account specific to the student. There are “qualifying expenses” and “non-qualifying expenses” that the money can be used for. For private schools, payments will be made quarterly to those schools on behalf of the student. These funds will be audited annually. If someone is found to be misusing funds, their account will be closed and turned over to the Attorney General and Inspector General. There will also be a hotline for people to make anonymous tips for suspected misuse of funds. In year one of this plan, the ESA fund will be capped at $6M limiting the number of students who may access it.Additionally, all students who take EFA funds will be required to take a year-end assessment as determined by the state board. This could be the same assessment required for students attending public schools or a state board-approved nationally recognized norm-referenced test. The Dept of Ed will develop a process to publicly disseminate the aggregated reporting on those testing results.Amendments and RulesWe have seen the amendments we have asked for but there are a few concer

Happy Friday!Thank you for what you have been able to accomplish this week! Every week of this school year has resulted in positive results for our students demonstrated by our district goals data. I was very happy to report to the board Tuesday night that our on-grade-level reading percentage has reached 67 percent! This surpasses our goal of 60 and we still have several weeks of instruction to make a final push for our below-level readers and get them ready, and I do not mean ready for the ACT Aspire. I mean ready for what comes next.Speaking of the Aspire test, the one caveat I would make about our reading scores is that the way we are measuring on-level is much more thorough than the way the ACT Aspire measures it, and I worry about that. I feel much more confident in our methods telling us whether our students can read or not. I want to thank our team of interventionists for the work they are doing to bring us these numbers. It has not been simple.The rest of this Wrap-up will be about SB294 but I do want to provide one more bit of recognition for our district. I learned today that Holly Harshman has fully implemented 77 percent of Tier I behavioral interventions in our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) system. This is part of our effort to reduce discipline referrals. You can see what all that entails in this document. All of our campuses are getting great recognition for the progress they are making and this is the latest milestone.SB294The bill was released Monday afternoon and I emailed it to all staff on Tuesday. If you have not read the bill yet, here is a link to it along with the fiscal impact on the state. The bill is 144 pages. Breanne Davis of Russellville is the sponsor. Twelve of the 20 members of the House Education Committee and 55 of the 100 members of the House of Representatives are co-sponsors of the bill. You may check the current status and keep up with the progress at this link. The bill was given a ‘do-pass’ recommendation from the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday but with the expectations that there would be amendments made by the House Education Committee.There are a lot of good things in this bill but there are also a lot of questions about how to accomplish those things and how much funding will schools receive in order to pay for those things. I will touch on a few key points that raise concerns and are being considered for amendments.Early ChildhoodThis part of the bill is encouraging except that there may not be a full understanding of the costs associated with the language that is used. For example, Section 51 is an expanded requirement for dyslexia screening in grades K through 2. The time and personnel needed for screening would be an increased cost to a district because of the frequency required in the bill. Also, with current dyslexia laws in the state, this requirement would trigger interventions that we would not have the personnel for because so many kindergartners begin school with dyslexia markers. Not because they have dyslexia, but because they have had no introduction to letters, sounds, and other early literacy practices. Screeners are currently used to inform teachers and help make decisions about how to proceed, but we do not report this data to the state. I believe this is why this screening language is in the bill. We are asking that this portion be amended and clarified.Teacher Fair DismissalWe have asked for more specific language on due process and only to reduce the red tape and bureaucracy in the TFD Act. There are false ideas that repealing the TFD Act means that anyone may be fired for any reason, but that is not true. We feel that defining due process will help end that fear but keep enough of the old language out to make non-renewal or termination a simpler process.FundingIn the last Wrap-up, I explained how the teacher raises would be funded and that until we know how much foundation funding will be received, it is hard to put a price tag on the bill. That has not changed.I also explained in the last Wrap-up that the minimum salary would move to $50,000 but that the salary schedule law will be repealed meaning that there is no salary schedule. The only new information I have been sharing about this is that if Mena moved our base salary up to $50,000 and tried to keep the current salary schedule, we would be bankrupt within about 3 years. The Governor intends to accomplish this pay increase by giving schools enough money to get every licensed staff member who does not earn $50K per year that amount. Anyone who is earning more than $50K already will be given a $2,000 raise. This will be new money that is earmarked for salaries and will always be provided. When we are able to determine exact dollar amounts, such as our foundation funds, we will be better able to communicate with all staff what future salaries will be.LeadershipThis is a very large bill with a lot of uncertainty within it; so, the primary fear, especially f

Happy Friday!Thank you for all you have done this week to help us reach our district goals. We should have an update on our on-level reading percentage by next Tuesday’s board meeting to accompany the other data we are tracking and I look forward to sharing that with everyone soon. As we learn more about the LEARNS plan, it is apparent that our grade-level reading will be a very important part of our work for years to come; so, I will get right to the subject at hand for this week’s Wrap-up.Arkansas LEARNSSecretary Oliva zoomed with superintendents this morning to provide us with more information about the details of the Governor’s plan and I will share what he told us in this Wrap-up. He did explain that there are things he still does not know as more questions get asked but added that he and the department will work with school districts to make sure that this plan is successful.Before starting, he did warn us that there are still many nuances and uncertainties about this plan because it is not finished and will take multiple years to implement.* Early Childhood EducationThe major element of this is to relocate the Division of Early Childhood Education from DHS to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. A new Office of Early Childhood at DESE will oversee all of the Pre-K programs, including privately run systems, to ensure Kindergarten readiness. There will be no mandatory Pre-K but the state will create a dashboard for parents to inform them of effective early childhood education centers near their homes and provide information related to costs, accountability, curriculum, student-teacher ratios, etc. They will also work with faith-based, independent, and private programs to give guidance and assistance on these items of educational interest and establish ways to close gaps in service in areas that do not have high-quality early childhood. Secretary Oliva pointed out that we know that students who come to Kindergarten without being Kindergarten ready tend to stay behind grade-level reading standards. DESE will define Kindergarten readiness and that will be the mission of the Office of Early Childhood * Early LiteracyThe big question related to early literacy was the language related to the retention of those students who were not at grade-level reading ability by the Third Grade. Secretary Oliva was clear that this is not a mandatory retention policy. He went on to explain that students that went on to Fourth Grade and were not on grade level will be given a safety net in later grades so as not to fall further behind. He used examples such as extended reading blocks of time, being placed with the highest quality teachers, and focused RTI. Furthermore, parents will be provided with funds to pay for additional tutoring if their child is not able to read at grade level.DESE will develop a unified progress monitoring system for schools and the department to use and accurately measure students’ reading levels. This is encouraging because we have a concern here in our district about being accurate with our measurements to track our progress. Schools not meeting the level of expectation will be provided with reading coaches from DESE to improve reading instruction. Secretary Oliva stated his belief that 90 to 100 percent of our Third Graders should be on level when the system is put into place over the next couple of years. There is no doubt that we will see a renewed focus on our K through 3 literacy instruction with the Science of Reading establishing all of our teaching practices. DESE will be contracting with an outside agency to independently evaluate what their department and our schools are doing to reach this goal.There is a similar plan being built around numeracy, as well.* Career ReadinessWe saw the first step in this plan happen this week with the House Education Committee recommending a ‘do-pass’ for HB1329. This bill, if it becomes law, will require DESE to establish ways for students to take elective Career and Technical courses to substitute for core academic courses. The LEARNS plan contains within it the goal of creating a career-ready diploma for high school students who want to learn a trade or other skills not taking the traditional university route. School districts will be developing ways for these diplomas to be developed locally with local needs in mind. Core components of academics will still be required and the diploma must still provide a post-secondary pathway should a student want to continue a traditional post-secondary education at a later time. Community service will be a part of graduation requirements but DESE will give schools flexibility to define that because of the differences in resources available from district to district for community service opportunities. * Low Performing SchoolsLocal boards will be allowed to contract with other educational entities to run low-performing schools instead of suffering state takeover. A takeover is still an option but in

Happy Friday!Thank you for all you have done this week to help us accomplish our district goals! Of course, with school being closed four days last week, not much changed. But, we are glad to have had another full week of school for the spring semester and take further steps toward a great outcome for the year. On the bright side of last week’s closure, our absenteeism went down another two-tenths of a percent. In this week’s Wrap-up, I will write about the LEARNS initiative, address a new student discipline initiative aimed at our district goal, and talk a little about emerging technology that we need to prepare our students for.LEARNSThe biggest news of this week was the unveiling of our Governor’s educational reform plan called LEARNS. We have been introduced to the basic vision of the plan before and I shared that in every Wrap-up since its release in combination with a Thought Exchange for your thoughts and questions. I have shared your thoughts and the rankings with the legislators for our district and I am sure you have more thoughts and questions since the latest new information has come out. If you did not watch the press conference where the plan was announced and explained, you can watch it here. The plan does appear very ambitious and promising if all initiatives can be carried out but, as the cliche goes, “the devil is in the details”. The bill has not been released to explain how each goal will be accomplished so all there is now is speculation. There are a lot of rumors flying around but I am waiting on the bill before trying to explain in a context such as this Wrap-up how the plan might impact our current system. I will say that the math does not work out in order to pay a base salary of $50,000 and keep the current salary structure. In Sanders’ press conference, I believe she quoted new spending to be $173M, which would not cover an increase of $14,000 to educators’ base salary that is currently in law. In the Week 18 Wrap-up, I wrote that ‘our cheese will be moved’, and the $50,000 number strongly suggests that.At this time, the whole plan has to be researched by the Bureau of Legislative Research (BLR) to cross-reference current laws to determine how each one of the goals may be accomplished either through repeal or revision of the laws we work under. This will take some time so we should reserve judgment and opinion until the bill is released.All educational reform is controversial. There is promising language in this plan but we do not know how it can be accomplished without major changes in the system we are used to. We all want things to be better but we do not want things to change and that is why reform is a struggle. We should all be patient in this process and politely ask questions to our legislators as this progresses. I also want to add that I and other superintendents are bringing awareness to our leaders that school support staff deserve the same attention in the effort to improve educator pay. With that said, I want to highlight the loan forgiveness part of the plan. That is a great incentive for classified staff to earn a degree and become an educator.The Renew and Restore ProjectA couple of Wrap-ups ago, I wrote that we were working on another initiative related to student discipline. The details have been ironed out and we have partnered with the Polk County Juvenile System to create the Mena Public Schools Renew and Restore Project. This is a restorative justice system for category four or misdemeanor offenses committed by our students that happen on our campuses or at school events. Basically, we feel that major offenses by our students that result in law enforcement citations are not dealt with swiftly because of the overburdened justice system. We also feel that traditional consequences of a school are not influential enough to prevent further infractions. So, we have developed a way for students to experience true consequences in a way that restores their debt to our school and community along with ways to determine and deal with root cause issues. We feel that this plan is a great partnership with our legal system officials and a way we can support them and our community at large. A full description of the plan can be seen at this link.TechnologyIf you have been paying attention to certain portions of the news, you have heard about specific artificial intelligence called ChatGPT. This is an AI that you can have a conversation with and it will use a programmed neural network. I will give you an example of what it does. I asked it the question, “How has the Arkansas LEARNS initiative been received by citizens of the state?” Here is the response I got: I'm sorry, but as a language model AI, I don't have access to current information about the reception of the Arkansas LEARNS initiative. However, based on my training data, the implementation of education initiatives is often a controversial topic, and the reception of Arkansas LEARNS might have varied among different g

Happy Friday!Thank you for your patience as we were day-to-day this week in determining whether or not to have school. I know this left some of you in a lurch because you travel more than a few miles to get to work every day. I want to thank those who came in each day that could to take care of various chores and check out the buildings. Other than the inability to continue student learning, no other problems arose from this winter storm.The week’s Wrap-up will have very little in it regarding the events of the week so I will use it to remind all of you about why we have the current calendar and what to consider as we choose next year’s calendar.Calendar InformationDuring the last legislative session, Act 688 was passed giving schools the option to design their academic calendar around 1,068 hours of instruction instead of the traditional 178 days. Seeing that Mena Public Schools had a regular school day length that went well above 1,068 hours for the year, we saw the opportunity to make changes that would benefit students and teachers. During the push over the last decade for PLCs to be used in education, the point has been made over and over about research indicating that when teachers collaborate and plan together on students’ behalf, the students benefit academically even more than added days of instruction. There is also some research suggesting that more collaboration time increases teacher job satisfaction, retention, innovativeness, and feeling prepared. According to the Thought Exchange results at the beginning of the year, our assumptions were mostly correct. Our district goals data indicate close to the same results for students as we trend in the right direction, except for our attendance goal. Our absences did drop another tenth of a percent last week and our on-grade-level reading report to the board in January was a really good one. There is still much work to do but our calendar design was intended to help facilitate our overall school improvement.This week’s weather has shown us the downside to our calendar. When we told the state we would use an alternative calendar one of their rules was that we could not use AMI for days we have to close the school. Our anticipation was that we had enough hours “in the bank” so to speak that we would be alright. Well, after yesterday’s closure and assuming we will not have to close anymore, we will be short about four hours of instruction at the end of the year. So, I will be discussing with the district leadership PLC the possibility of making up this time on one of the non-instructional days we still have left in the calendar instead of extending the school year to May 25th. We have February 20th scheduled as a non-instructional day and that would be the first on my mind to change, but we will consider all of the ramifications before doing so. Also, keep all of these things in mind when voting on the 2023-2024 calendar next week.Another point that should be made about our calendar is that the schools that are using the traditional calendar, even though they are allowed to use AMI days, are not finishing the year any sooner than we are. In fact, some are completing the year at a later date. The state department made a ruling that since traditional calendars consist of 178 days of student interaction, AMI would be allowed. We know the many problems that come with using AMI to count the school day and did not feel that our students would be missing out without AMI as an option and I still believe that the alternative calendar is a better choice for students and staff. Making February 20th an instructional day is much better than adding a day at the end of May.LegislativeThe Governor’s big educational reform bill has still not been released. Thank you for more comments on Governor Sanders’ LEARNS initiative. Here is a link to what has been commented thus far and a link to the Thought Exchange for any new remarks you have. I am also providing a list of newly added bills of interest.* HB1323 - Creates a child mental health screening program in schools and childcare facilities for birth through age 19. * HB1333 - Amends the definition of a student under the AR concurrent challenge scholarship program. Includes students in grades 9-12 instead of 11-12. If this passed it will start the four-year Pell Grant clock earlier if a student uses the scholarship as a ninth grader. This may also become a problem if courses paid for with this scholarship do not transfer to the four-year institution and all scholarship funds are expended.* HB1329 - Creates a means by which public school students may substitute comparable elective coursework in CTE for a required core academic class.ClosingNext week, February 6 through 10, is National School Counseling Week in Arkansas. We have a tremendous team of counselors here at Mena Public Schools and I thank all of them for all the things they do for us and our community! Thank you, Mrs. Chaney, Mrs. Thacker, Mrs. Rose, Mrs. Lyle, an

Happy Friday!I want to begin by thanking our transportation department, especially all drivers, who struggled through the snow on Tuesday to get our students safely delivered home! Several of our staff members were out until after 5 pm Tuesday rescuing buses stuck in the snow: James Davis, Shane Torix, Danny Minton, Justin Head, Jason Hendrix, Josh Starr, and Alicia Moody. I want to thank all of them for what they did. I also want to recognize the work that Alicia Moody has done in learning and using our Transfinder and Samsara software. Now, all of our bus routes have been GPS tracked and mapped so that we can view all of our routes in real-time on a map similar to Google Maps. Along with the new radios, this helped us track where buses were and if they were moving or not. The weather did not do what the forecasters predicted, which caused us a lot of trouble. But with the help of our new systems and those who were willing to get out in the snow to pull buses to safety, no one was hurt and there was no serious damage to our equipment.Due to the shortened week, I do not have much new information to put in this Wrap-up but I will update you on a few things.DisciplineIt has been noted each week that our district goal for discipline is ahead of schedule by more than 20 percent compared to last year at this time. We have attributed that to the work being done in the buildings using the BX3 system, creating behavior matrices, positive behavioral interventions, and tracking the data. I want to break down the data further by category in today’s Wrap-up comparing the number of incidences in the 21-22 school year that have changed the most this year up to Week 19:* Bus infractions last year, 228, and this year, 182.* Disorderly Conduct last year, 56, and this year, 25.* Disregard of Directions last year, 32, and this year, 18.* Fighting last year, 16, and this year, 7.* Tardies last year, 54, and this year, 21.There is one category in which we are seeing an increase and that is Tobacco/Vaping, last year 16, and this year, 22.Rates of Detention have gone from 42 to 17; In-school Suspension from 248 to 210; Out-of-School Suspension from 42 to 26; and, the ‘Other’ category has dropped from 82 to 18. Improving discipline increases learning and we are continually looking for ways to make these numbers even better. We will soon be sharing news about another discipline system we are developing in partnership with our juvenile justice system which we are excited about. But there is no system that can overcome or replace the relationships between teachers and their students. Thank you for all the work you have done to make those relationships positive because your efforts are proving to be effective.LegislativeThank you for your comments on Governor Sanders’ LEARNS initiative. Here is a link to what has been commented thus far and a link to the Thought Exchange for any new remarks you have. I am also providing a list of newly added bills of interest.* HB1204 - Requires private schools to administer an annual statewide assessment; Requires private schools to admit any student that applies for admission and intends to cover private school costs with state funding. We would like this amended to include homeschooled students if accepting state funding. This bill is being supported.* SB81 - Amends the law concerning obscene material creating the offense of furnishing harmful items to minors. This bill would remove existing protections for public school staff and librarians surrounding material the bill defines as being harmful to minors and requires mandated reporters to hotline anyone who provided such materials to a minor.* HB 1122 - Following an amendment, this bill restores the school start date to the week of August 19th and repeals the prohibition of districts requesting an Act 1240 Waiver of the school start date. The amendment removed the language repealing the use of hours instead of days for student contact days when establishing the district calendar from the bill. This bill has passed both chambers and should be delivered to the Governor by next week.* HB 1205 - This bill would require any school, whether public or private, that receives public funds to provide transportation to any attending student within thirty-five (35) miles.* HB 1268 - This bill provides for a $10,000 salary increase for teachers, increases the base teacher salary schedule in future years to $50,000, and provides funding.* SB 172 - The bill would redefine recess to be a non-instructional duty for purposes of counting towards the maximum sixty (60) minutes per week teachers may perform without receiving additional compensation.Remember, this is just a short list of bills that may directly affect teachers or classified staff. If you want to view the entire list of bills related to education you may visit the Arkansas State Legislature webpage.ClosingWe have home basketball games tonight and are getting closer to the spring sports beginning. Congra

Happy Friday!Thanks for all you have done this week to improve our district goals. Of the three goals we have, we are making strides in two areas of emphasis - behavior, and reading. Attendance is still lagging. We reported these results to the board at Wednesday night’s meeting and you may read more details in the board minutes that Mr. Hobson released yesterday. The spring semester is well underway and so is our 94th General Assembly of legislators in Little Rock. I would like to use this Wrap-up to set some tone for the semester and provide you with some insight into the happenings at our state capitol. Three ConstantsThere is a documentary on Netflix titled Stutz. It is a documentary by Jonah Hill about his therapist, Dr. Phil Stutz. I have not finished the entire production but I have gleaned some good things from what I have watched and the best of what I have seen is Dr. Stutz’s three constants in life - the things we cannot escape: pain, uncertainty, and constant work. He explains that acceptance of these constants will help us deal with problems and I found them to be simple and profound in how we deal with the problems we face when working in the school business.PainWe understand this in the physical sense, especially as we get older and physical activity and age begin to work against each other. But in our roles as educators, emotional pain is definitely a constant. Whether it is from the struggle of maintaining positive relationships with coworkers, students, and parents or dealing with the disappointment of witnessing the failure of our students, pain is with us always. There has been much reported lately on the science of stress and how teachers vicariously experience the pain of their students and carry it with them in their personal lives. We have to recognize this as a constant and that it does not go away. But we counter that constant with the joys of education to keep balance in our lives. This is why it is important to use our PLC time to celebrate successes in the classroom and to talk about disappointments or problems and how to overcome them as our common enemy. We cannot use pain as an excuse to avoid solutions or a way to place blame on others. We call it out for what it is and face it. Just by doing that, we diminish its impact. UncertaintyNo one knows the future and this is why we find comfort in predictable routines. However, nothing is certain and routines can lull us into complacency and even create more pain when the results of routines are not productive. Knowing and accepting that uncertainty is always present is a good tool for dealing with surprises. We want to know what will happen before it happens. This is the primary reason you all ask for communication from your administrators. We can never communicate enough but that is because with our communication there is always uncertainty. We can never express ourselves with full confidence because of uncertainty and neither can you. By embracing and accepting this constant, we can improve our relationships and improve our understanding of each other. This constant also reinforces the need for a mission and vision. We may not be able to predict the future but we all should agree on the reasons we do what we do.Constant WorkMost of us will admit that this is a given throughout our lives but there is a part of each of us who expects to reach a point in our careers where everything is easy. I am afraid that that will never come to pass. I think that this is best explained by Kara Lawson, the Women’s Basketball Coach at Duke University. Here is a video of her explaining to her team that things never get easier. She says you overcome that fact by getting better and better at doing hard things. We have to be resolved to the fact that constant work will always be a part of our careers and really question ourselves and each other when tempted to make things easy. Are we really benefiting our students when we do?Little RockThanks to whoever it was that took the time to comment on the Thought Exchange related to the Governor’s LEARNS initiative. I have opened it back up and will keep it open throughout the legislative session to gain insight into thoughts and opinions as different bills on education come to the forefront of debate. I will not list all educational bills but you can go to the legislative homepage to view them. I will focus on bills that are consequential to your roles as teachers in the classroom. I will link the bill along with a brief description and let you know how our administrators’ organization stands.* HB1091 is a bill to treat a nationally recognized high school equivalency exam the same as a high school diploma for purposes of employment in Arkansas. We have not taken a stance on this until we understand the full intent of the sponsors.* HB1104 requires Arkansas to adopt Daylight Saving Time permanently if the Arkansas Secretary of State determines that federal law has been amended to allow such a change. We have

Happy Friday!I hope you have had a good week of return coming out of our Christmas Break! I trust that your time over the holidays was enjoyable and well spent with your family and friends. The first week of 2023 marks the beginning of the eighteenth week of the 2022-2023 school year and we have a lot of good work in front of us to close out this school year and reach our district goals.This week also marks the beginning of a new gubernatorial administration for our state and this means a new educational vision, goals, laws, policies, rules, procedures, and leaders at the state level. This began right away today as Governor Sanders proclaimed four executive orders, one of them being the resolution for her LEARNS initiative. I want to use this Wrap-up to provide you with some insight into what this may mean for us educators. The headline of this Wrap-up may be exciting to some of you and ominous to others. I think we will experience a little of both but, overall, if the goals of LEARNS are achieved it will mean good things for our state.LEARNSThis stands for Literacy, Empowerment, Accountability, Readiness, Networking, and School Safety and Governor Sanders released an executive order today instructing our new Secretary of Education, Jacob Oliva, to carry out this initiative. We have not seen the bill or bills of new laws that will be enacted to carry out this order but Secretary Oliva emailed all superintendents on Wednesday explaining that our state department would examine current practices in education to determine whether or not they meet these ends. One of the concerns of the initiative is related to empowerment, which is referring to school choice. Secretary Oliva did say that public schools should be the preferred choice for parents and that it is his focus to make that happen. However, another matter related to empowerment has been the potential for vouchers to be expanded giving parents taxpayer funds to help pay tuition for private schools and even use for homeschooling. We need to monitor how this develops and consider how it meshes with the accountability portion of this initiative because right now, there is no accountability for homeschooled students other than their own.The whole LEARNS initiative is encouraging and legislators have reached out to superintendents and administrators to learn more about the rules and regulations that bog us down as a way to reach these goals without having to overhaul our educational system. As I communicate with our state leaders, I would like to give you the opportunity to provide me with input; so, please take part in this next Thought Exchange.I should add here that Secretary Oliva was the senior chancellor for the Florida Department of Education and you may recall that in a past Wrap-up from February 25th, 2022, I mentioned how Florida was abandoning standardized tests to focus on progress monitoring. This could be an indication of things to come and it would be encouraging for this administration to do the same for the students of Arkansas.What We Are Asking ForWe have become very good at doing school but are we doing the most for student learning to happen and the most to give our local communities the workforce and entrepreneurs it needs to thrive? This is a question we have been asking for a while as the issue of school choice has become more popular. One of our conclusions has been the increased demands placed on public schools without additional financial and structural support to provide them. We have a very rigid system of standards and policies that have existed since 1983 and they squelch the numerous ways to provide individualized learning and fulfill specific community needs of students. They were developed for a ‘college for all’ concept but have created a disdain for learning, which is communicated very well for this generation in a video made by Prince Ea called What Is School For. This video encapsulates this generation’s attitude toward school. You should watch it. You will find truth in it but there are parts of it that may offend you or hurt your feelings. Nevertheless, we must strategize as educators not to fight this attitude but to make learning relevant again.This year’s Superintendent of the Year for Arkansas, Dr. Jared Cleveland of Springdale, gave a good outline of this rigid system and its history. He expresses the need for a more flexible system to service our local communities and still provide the academic rigor for a strong citizenry. We will use this premise to ask legislators for the freedom to compete if school choice is going to be a focus of this legislative session and this administration.These two things - the LEARNS initiative and the current public school plan to ask for a chance to compete will mean that the protected systems of education may not be protected any longer. Our cheese will be moved but there are three points in the parable to remember: * Thinking too much about your cheese might paralyze you, so just s

Happy Friday!As we finish up the fall semester of the school year, I want to thank you, again, for all of the hard work, patience, cooperation, intelligence, innovation, and vigilance you provided to educate our students throughout this half of the year. The weeks have flown by, as they always seem to do, so as we put a bow on the fall semester of 2022, remember to reflect on the accomplishments of this semester to prepare our minds for the next.Charter RenewalOn Wednesday, Mrs. Buckley, Mrs. Warner, and I presented our district’s application to renew the Polk County Virtual Academy (PCVA) charter. We testified before the Charter Authorizing Panel about the first five years of our conversion charter school. Mrs. Buckley and Mrs. Warner addressed the school’s successes and challenges and plans for the future. The panel unanimously approved a motion to grant us another five years of operation.We have adjusted the mission of the charter, however, to be more about individual student success. The original mission of the charter was to offer homeschoolers in our district a free public school virtual curriculum option. However, throughout the COVID pandemic, the image of virtual learning became less attractive as we discovered the difficulties it created for so many students. Now, PCVA will be used to provide flexibility for learners who need it for achieving whatever life goals they have in mind along with remaining as a viable option for area homeschooled students. Calendar PlanningWhen we return to school in January we will begin the work of planning the district calendar for the 2023-2024 school year. This year’s calendar is based on a minimum number of hours students must attend school instead of days. This was because of new legislation to give districts more flexibility in developing yearly school calendars. The feedback on the calendar at the beginning of the year was good since staff members had more time to prepare for students to come to school; but, since we have to create next year’s calendar before finishing out this year’s, we will not be able to see what the end of the year will be like. We will be finishing school earlier compared to past years but May is a busy month and we may miss not having those days to carry out all of the end-of-year activities. There are many considerations as we plan.Now would be a good time to have another Thought Exchange regarding the school calendar. If you would like to comment and read others’ comments on the question about next year’s calendar, please click the link.Recognition and InformationI attended the Mena Bearcats Wrestling match at Acorn Monday night and it was very exciting and energetic. Our wrestlers won several matches and all of them were fiercely competitive. It takes a lot of guts to compete in a one-on-one event like that in front of spectators and I am proud of each one of our wrestlers. There will be another match at Acorn in January and I encourage all to go see what it is like. In our board meeting minutes from Wednesday, you may have read the bus information report. We are considering purchasing new trip buses but I wanted to mention that Mrs. Moody and Mr. Davis in the Transportation Department have applied for a GoRED Grant. This grant provides funds to pay for new buses with cleaner emissions systems. If the grant is awarded, it will reduce our costs quite a bit. It is a complicated application and we thank them for the extra effort to bring additional funding to the district.Our recent band and vocal Christmas performances have been outstanding. The Third Grade program was a huge hit and drew a tremendous crowd. As always, Mr. Morgan brought out the best in our high school band, and Mr. Chaney’s debut directing our middle school band was terrific. All of our musicians and singers make wonderful sounds thanks to our wonderful directors!Our THRIVE and BX3 efforts have been going very well. The collaborative development of tiered systems for behavioral intervention has been helpful and once they have been in place for a while, our students will reap the benefits. Even though it may not feel like it at times, our district goals data indicate that discipline is down. I cannot help but attribute some of the positive data in our discipline to the efforts being put forth in these new programs.I want to thank Mr. Walston and Mrs. Catlett for their presentation to the board Wednesday evening on Work Ready Communities. Please take some time to familiarize yourself with what this means and help to support it. There is a shift happening in education. The ‘Skills Gap’ that exists in our workforce has created a renewed focus on giving high schoolers more opportunities to prepare for work as much as college. Having a Work-Ready Community will bring more relevance to the things we teach and add more attraction for businesses and industries to locate in Polk County. The floor polishing will continue this weekend and over Christmas Break. Thanks to all of our

Happy Friday!I sincerely thank you for everything you have done this week to educate our students despite some really rare and harsh distractions. I especially want to thank our security and law enforcement members for leading us through multiple bomb threats earlier this week without incident. Last year, on Wednesday, November 17th, there was a bomb threat made at the high school and there were two major differences in results from last year to this year: one, there was much less communication between students and parents keeping the crowds away; and, two, there was an arrest made.These positive outcomes happened because of reflection on past performance, learning from mistakes, making corrections, and improving training. We are especially grateful for the smart actions of the MMS office staff. If they had not taken the steps they were trained to take, law enforcement would not have made an arrest as swiftly as they did.This week’s Wrap-up has some news and updates but I would like to center it around our actions to stay on-mission as a way to deal with all of the distractions taking place now and in the future.Mission FocusedThere is a sentence in our mission statement that says, We exemplify personal accountability by celebrating successes and learning from failures without abandoning purpose. The way we all responded to the bomb threat on Tuesday was better than what we did before because we recognized mistakes or failures. When we recognize our faults in such an important task as dealing with an emergency, we certainly cannot give up and admit that we are not good at it because the consequences of giving up would be very terrible. We do not abandon our purpose because it is so important to others who may depend upon us.Having a mission also helps us to focus on others instead of ourselves. In many instances of emergency, there is a lot of chaos because people become concerned with their own survival. We depend upon trained professionals who have a specific mission and focus on that mission to help others. They bring order to the chaos and reassure the rest of us that we are safe or show us what to do so we can become safe.Our professional and personal mission(s) in life and work is how we restore and retain order when there is chaos. When we internalize these reasons for working or living, they help us to guide each other and ourselves toward the safety and comfort that is disrupted when unpredictable emergencies or tragedies take place.When we are in our normal routines, our professional mission in work helps us build strong professional relationships with those around us. It is important that our relationships with students and colleagues are mission-centered in order to keep an even keel. If our relationships are not mission-centered then they are only established by emotions, and we know how emotions can impact relationships when emergencies arise. When we lose sight of the mission and focus on emotion, we can say and do things that hurt ourselves and each other. So, stay mission-focused.CybersecurityMany of us are aware of computer ransomware and malware attacks that have happened close to home. Our hospital suffered such an attack not long ago and some school districts have, as well. But the latest attack on the Little Rock School District has caused great concern in the state. When the best way out is to pay a quarter of a million dollars to your attacker, which is what LRSD did, the rest of us want to make sure we are not faced with the same problem.So, starting in the next month and through the school year, Nathan and the tech team will be taking action to make our network more secure. Some things will not impact you, but some will. I am sure there will be new legislation coming from, as well, that will force new policies and procedures upon us. As for now, be aware that the district will be taking actions that will require your cooperation to bring about the best outcomes, which is to keep your data, district data, and our students’ data protected.ClosingThe Christmas concert performed by our choirs last night was outstanding! There has been much improvement in our choral students since their first performance earlier this semester. Thank you, Mrs. Tilley, for your efforts and we are looking forward to hearing Mrs. Dickinson’s elementary choirs.Our wrestling teams will be competing close to home next week at Acorn. We do not have any home meets in this first year; so, if you want to watch some of our matches, we will be wrestling at Acorn on Monday the 12th starting at 6 pm.This week, we finalized the budget for the remaining ARP funds to complete the polished concrete on all campuses and we added the dark stain to help the aesthetics of the floors. Also, the cost of the outdoor pavilions is now too high, so we have allocated all that is left to the floors. Our district goals continue in the same trends as they have in weeks past; however, I do want to call your attention to some good details

Happy Friday!I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have had a productive week. Thanks for all you did this week to continue our mission. Much has happened through the course of the week coming out of the break and I want to use this Wrap-up to share the positives and put the whole week into perspective.RecognitionIn the Week 13 Wrap-up, I wrote about the state recognition that has been received by our buildings, and this Monday, I received more good news from the Office of Educational Policy. Holly Harshman Elementary has been recognized with a Beating the Odds award for high ELA growth for the Southwest Region. Louise Durham and Mena Middle School also received this award with the MMS earning it for all subjects and making the state’s top ten in two categories, Overall and ELA! The full list of Beating the Odds award winners can be found here. This week, several school staff members helped a struggling mother of one of our second graders get out of The Executive Inn and into a house. When the request for assistance came, our people stepped up to fill the home with furnishings and housewares, have the electricity turned on, and deliver a stove donated by Washburns. Washburns is also donating a refrigerator. It is a happy story for a mom who lost her nine-month-old not long ago. She now has a home and one of our students has a better chance at success.I want to thank Mrs. Philpot for inviting me to do a lesson for her enrichment class of 9th graders on Wednesday. The lesson was on tying ties and they learned to tie a simple knot and a Windsor knot. We had a fun time learning a new life skill that I hope they will use frequently. I am glad that I was given this opportunity to teach kids a skill because early in my career, Mr. Duckett, former MHS ag teacher and administrator, used to tell me that when you are having difficulties in the job to just go grab a 9th grader and make them good at something.A very special thing happened in Pottsville last night as our Junior Bearcats and Ladycats Basketball teams took on the Apaches. In our boys’ game, one of our Bearcats was heartwarmingly helped by his teammates to score a basket before the game ended. He shot the ball over and over, then it went in just before the buzzer making both sides and both teams cheer for his accomplishment. He is a special kid, full of joy, and with the help of his teammates, he brought joy to the whole gym. It is nice to see empathy and compassion on display among our students.I want to thank our counselors for the recognition they earned for our District this week for their Comprehensive School Counseling Plan. This is a required submission to DESE and in an email, I received from Program Advisor, Rodney Ford, he stated, “Your plan was scored as well-developed, the highest ranking you can receive. Only 35 school districts received this designation. You have done a great job and I can tell that a lot of hard work went into your plan”. It is nice to have people in the state department recognize our counselors’ efforts.More Than a Nursing HomeWednesday was the official opening and ribbon cutting for The Greenhouse Cottages of Homewood, a rehab and senior care community located next to Holly Harshman Elementary. We already know they have been a wonderful neighbor to HHE, but going to the ribbon cutting gave me more perspective on the mission and purpose of that “nursing home” and our mission and purpose as a “school”.The Administrator of the community, Vickie Hughes, explained that each of the houses in the complex was named after some influential person from Mena to honor and memorialize those names and their service to the community. Besides the proper names such as the Coogan House or the Rowe House, she also called the names Bearcat House and Ladycat House. That is us. Our school is the largest contributor to the future good of our area.Just prior to Mrs. Hughes’s portion of the program, a gentleman from the Department of Human Services, John Ponvey, made some very meaningful statements. He said that a society can be measured and evaluated by the way that it treats its elderly and its sick, which is a modification of a quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. As he spoke about the impetus of The Cottages, he reminisced about visiting his grandfather in a nursing home and how institutional and depressing they were. Many of you can probably relate. They were not like home at all and definitely not suitable for people who were in cognitive and physical decline to feel comfortable like they are at home. He went on to explain that they chose Mena because not very many communities have what we have. He was referring to the values that are shared among us. Values that would ensure that the people who serve the residents of The Cottages would do so with dignity and honor and make the twilight of life more joyous. So, the vision of home and community and the values of our community resulted in this newest care facility in Mena.What does this hav

Happy Friday!Thank you for everything you have done this week to educate, discipline, deliver, and organize our students! We are already through the first quarter of the 22-23 school year and seem to be going in a very positive direction. I especially want to mention the staff attendance this week. It was very good. In fact, yesterday there was only one classroom teacher out with a sub for grades K through 5, and most of our secondary teachers out were for school business, which means they were still educating. By stringing together weeks of high attendance like this week, we will definitely see the academic growth of our students.This week’s Wrap-up contains an update on the legislative plans I shared with you last week and some other updates, but they are all centered around our need to engage ALL families in our district.District GoalsOur Board adopted the goals that were shared with you all in an earlier Wrap-up, so those things will be our focus for progress monitoring this year. I am sure you noticed certain other aspects of education that are not in the goals, such as a math goal, but our students’ attendance, behavior, and ability to read will enhance all other aspects of their education and our ability to deliver it. By the next Wrap-up, I hope to have a collection of databases to refer to for each one of the goals. They will be updated appropriately.Engaging AllI know there have been great efforts here to engage families in their children’s education and I want to reinforce the effort because it is so valuable to us. The subtitle of this Wrap-up is actually a quote from Heejae Lim, a Korean immigrant who has created a technology tool to expand the communication between schools and families. It is not necessarily her product that interests me, but her experience that led to the product creation and our effort to involve families in education. The more we are able to have families as a partner in their child’s education, the better we will be able to do our jobs.This week in our District Leadership PLC we discussed a section of Leaders Eat Last that referred to our tendencies to turn people into abstractions in our minds, especially parents and the community. Abstraction is the lack of personal connection that causes us to look at others as a statistic or a thing, not a person. This especially happens with large numbers of people. How many times do we reference “parents” as a singular group when each of them has their own personal connection to the school? We must foster that personal connection and make sure it is a good one by giving them facts about their child’s development and supporting them with ways to help their child succeed at home. Making each family and our community confident in us will help us in our effort to improve and get the support we need from them and our leadership in Little Rock.Here are some ways to manage abstractions that the author of our reading provided:* Keep It Real—Bring People Together. The Internet can’t give us deep and trusting relationships. Trust is formed in person.* Keep It Manageable: 150 max. Keep your groups at no more than 150 people to reap the benefit of the group’s cohesion and sense of tribal belonging.* Meet People You Help. Getting a visual and real-world experience of the impact of your work will reward you and motivate you to do even more.* Give Time, Not Money. We value the time and effort we receive more than money (read more on Drive by Daniel Pink).* Be Patient— 7 Days and 7 Years. It takes time to develop a bond of love and trust. No one knows how long it takes but it’s more than 7 days and less than 7 years.Consider who we may be leaving out. Thank you for all you have done to engage families so far this year and let building and district leadership know how we can support this further. We are working on plans to enhance the District’s connection, which we will share as the year progresses and the plans are developed.Senate Education Adequacy PlanIf you did reach out to any senators last week, thank you. They came out with their plan on Tuesday. You can look over it here. It is very similar to the House plan but there are some differences such as incentive pay for teacher effectiveness and demand and the equalization of ESA funds. Both of these have their pros and cons and will have to be closely examined during the upcoming session.ClosingI would like to recognize our Beginning Choir that performed last night. Their montage of music covering the decades from the 50s to today was very entertaining and quite ambitious for beginners. Thanks go to Mrs. Tilley for getting them ready. We look forward to more performances this semester.Our volleyball team will be in the state tournament in Brookland starting Tuesday. Good luck to Coach Lyle and his team as they represent our school and community on the biggest stage for their sport!Our Bearcat Football team will travel to Stamps this afternoon to take on the Lafayette County Cougars at 7 pm tonig

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com