JASPER — The Jasper School District Board of Education reviewed the annual school district student handbook and the district's extracurricular activities handbook being prepared for the 2024-2025 school year at its regular monthly meeting held Monday, June 17. It also reviewed updated Arkansas School Board Association Policies recently released to the state's school districts for adoption.
The meeting was opened, however, with the election of board officers. It was unanimous that officers will remain the same for the 2024-2025 school year. The board officers are: Joel Brasel, president; Stacy Root, vice president and Quentin Rylee, secretary and legislative liaison.
Superintendent Dr. Candra Brasel updated the board on several subjects, but focused on the eligibility requirements for the Merit Teacher Incentive Fund.
This was started under the LEARNS Act, Dr. Brasel explained. She distributed to the board members a four-page handout explaining the fund and its eligibility requirements.
Teachers will receive bonuses if they have a three-year average student growth score across all subjects in the top 5% of all teachers statewide, they hold a current Arkansas teaching license, they have an annual rating of effective or highly effective in the Educator Effectiveness System, or they have a three-year average student growth score in the same tested subject area that is in the top 25% of all teachers in that subject area statewide, they hold a current Arkansas teaching license and they have an annual rating of effective or highly effective in the Educator Effectiveness System.
A teacher's growth score is the average of all students' growth scores assigned to that teacher. Student growth scores are calculated by the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) using students' prior state assessment score history to compare the annual growth of students with similar prior learning and growth trajectories.
There are other eligibility categories including: Teachers serving as mentors, teachers in an area identified as experiencing a critical shortage and teachers in geographical shortage areas.
Jasper School District received funds for meeting eligibility under the growth and for teachers in an area identified as experiencing a critical shortage categories, Dr. Brasel said.
The three year average for growth included the 2021, 2022 and 2023 school years. Test scores are not available for 2024.
Seven teachers Dr. Brasel cited for eligibility were Stephanie Rose, Brenna Journagan, Casey Blakeman, Tabitha Kolb, Sarah Villines, Amber Davis and Tina South. Due to a technicality, South did not receive the merit pay, Dr Brasel lamented, saying even though South had met the three years of growth eligibility, she had moved into an administrative role. Dr. Brasel said she argued South's case, but to no avail.
Assistant Superintendent Kim Liggett gave the monthly academic report. She said staff is working this summer holding collaborative meetings. Teachers of different grades and courses have been scheduled to meet on certain days. They are looking at standards, curriculums and assessments, Liggett said, noting they are working from 9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Dr. Brasel announced that ESports is now an AAA sanctioned activity. This is an opportunity for students who are not involved in other activities, but enjoy video gaming. The new activity can help participants become eligible for college scholarships. She turned the discussion over to Pat Summers, Kingston coach\dean of students\operations manager.
Summers explained colleges are looking for students who like video gaming as it ties into a wide array of computer sciences.
Coaches are being sought at each of the campuses, summer said. There will be several teams and they will play for state championships. Computer labs will handle most of the games that will be played. Some of the technology will be provided by the state.
Games will be scheduled after school on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. There will be fall and spring seasons. Summers said one downside is students will have to choose how they schedule games so they do not conflict with their other extra-curricular activities.
The board gave approval to establish an ESports team.
The board next learned about the General Education Provision Act (GEPA). This law requires U.S. Department of Education grantees to describe the steps the grantee will take to ensure quotable access to and participation in the federally-assisted program by addressing the special needs of students, teachers and other program beneficiaries. The statue highlights barriers that can impede equitable access or participation: gender, race, national origin, color, disability or age.
The school district is a grantee as it receives a large portion of funding from federal programs. The district is required to acknowledge their acceptance and compliance with each of the federal program's provisions.
It must also issue an annual statement identifying a remedy to an identified barrier to a federal program.
Dr. Brasel said this year the school district will focus on removing barriers to its special education population.
The school district will ensure that special education students will have their needs met in the general education classroom, as much as possible.
There are some students who are pulled out for resource time, however, this cause them to miss grade level instruction.
The statement and assurances documents were approved by the board.
The school district recently received recommended policy changes from the Arkansas School Board Association to be implemented in the upcoming school year.
These recommendations appeared in board members' information packets for review. Many did not require board action. Some changes in polices were in regards to sex-based harassment, marijuana possession, electronic devices, honor roll, alternative learning and waiver for construction projects.
The approval of handbooks prior to the start of the new school year involves review of the current school district policies and making changes as prescribed by new laws or recommendations.
The extracurricular activities handbook sets out requirements for participation and responsibilities, team responsibilities, discipline policies, activity department policies and general information concerning athletics.
Several changes in language were pointed out by Dr. Brasel.
Disciplinary actions for inappropriate comments made by students was also addressed in the policies.
ESports will have to be added to the handbook, Dr. Brasel noted.
School Choice related changes are being addressed by AAA rules.
The general handbook for students and parents covers all policies of the school district from enrollment to civil rights provisions.
Dr. Brasel said efforts were made to reduce the volume of pages in this year's handbook by removing redundancies.
Several notable changes were noted by Dr. Brasel. Some address discipline for inappropriate uses of social media.
"We've got to cut down on some of this from happening," the superintendent said. "This gives us some room to take some disciplinary action if this is happening in school."
The handbook will include the ASBA changes that the board approved earlier in the meeting.
Both handbooks were approved with the recommended and prescribed changes.
Moving on to approval of purchases, the school district will gain be providing students with the classroom supplies this school year.
Expenditures for a math, $78,316, and the Benchmark curriculum products were approved.
Last month the board approved a quote for new school furnishings, but that shopping list of items had grown and was retuned to the board in June for approval. The items to be purchased from Moser Corporation for all three campuses totals $23,503.67.
The board approved removing tile flooring at the Oark cafeteria and then grinding and polishing the floor surface. Some school logos will be added. The total cost will be $13,500 plus tax.
In other action, the board approved the list of 2024-2025 stipends and other rates of pay and the approval of a general disclosure statement for doing business with a school employee.
The Jasper Key Club was approved for an out-of-state trip to St. Louis June 21-23.
