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Bruno-Pyatt Elementary safe, for now

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EROS — The Ozark Mountain School District Board of Education met Wednesday, Jan. 22, in regular session. The agenda included a continued discussion on the future of the Bruno-Pyatt Elementary School here, and the consensus was not to talk about it again until October.
Last November, Superintendent Jeff Lewis presented and discussed information regarding Ozark Mountain School District's strategic plan. Millage extension and Bruno-Pyatt Campus enrollment issues were topics included in the discussion, according to that meeting's official minutes.
Lewis informed the board that the Bruno-Pyatt Elementary campus was operating at a deficit of approximately $436,000 using last year's M and O expenditures and this year's salaries of employees. Lewis agreed to send out an informational letter and survey to parents only of the BPES in regards to the future of the campus.
The school district notified patrons of the Bruno-Pyatt Elementary School that the school would hold kindergarten registration much earlier than normal for the 2025-26 school year.
The announcement, appearing on the school's Facebook page noted: "Registration will be from 9:00-3:00 on Jan. 14, 2025, on the Bruno-Pyatt campus.
"Again, it is of utmost importance that we have a count of our Kindergarten students for the 2025-26 school year by January 14, 2025."
Lewis brought up the matter late in the Jan. 22 meeting.
"I heard from some folks on things that we've been discussing in the past, Lewis said, looking at some papers laid out in front of him. They apparently included some information about the school's enrollment over the past 10 years, showing the trend of decreasing numbers of students. A recent survey questioned whether
parents would leave their child in the district if the Bruno-Pyatt campus was to close. Out of the 29 students, 15 will stay, 10 said they will leave, and four are undecided.
"I do think it is too soon. I don't think we're ready for this... (he was careful not to suggest the possibility of closing the school), but there are going to have to be some changes," the superintendent told the board.
He noted some of the school's teachers have resigned and he thought combining some grade levels could be done. It's not ideal, but it's been done in the past.

He reported that the early kindergarten registration netted zero students. That doesn't mean that between now and next August we are not going to have some new kindergarteners.
Something else he suggested is having meals prepared at another campus in the school district, either St. Joe in Searcy County or Western Grove in Newton County, and brought to the school located in Marion County. That would save the expense of a staff position salary and the cost of maintaining equipment.
Lewis told the board he would push School Choice "as hard as we can push it."
He said there is the possibility of getting a transportation modernization grant that would allow the district to purchase some SUVs to transport small numbers of students.
"I agree that we need to exhaust all options before we do anything," Lewis said.
Some board members asked if there was a possibility to get a pre-kindergarten program at the school. Two programs are the state operated ABC program, which does not have any new slots available, and the federally funded Head Start that the school had, but was withdrawn due to the school not meeting certain requirements.
Another suggestion was to hold pee wee or class B team basketball games at the school to re-connect with the community.
Lewis recommended the school board take no action at this time and revisit the subject at the October 2025 board meeting. That would be well after the start of the 2025-2026 school year.
The Wednesday night meeting began with Lewis announcing that the school district's financial adviser Dan Lovelady with First Security and Aliza Jones, the school district's contracted consultant to help planning new facilities, will be at the next regular meeting set for Feb. 20. They will discuss extension of the school district's current millage and meeting school district needs. Some of those needs include building roofs, new heating, air-conditioning and ventilation equipment and some construction at the St. Joe School's bus garage which needs some modifications to allow mechanics to work on new and larger school buses.



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