COMMENTARY: School Enrollment Still Increasing

— The Springdale School District continues to experience a significant growth in our student population.

We began school for the fall semester of the 2012-13 school year with 19,276 students in kindergarten through 12th grade and 600 students in our prekindergarten program (total enrollment: 19,876). We anticipate our enrollment will continue to increase; by the 10th day of school, we expect to have about 20,000 students.

Our enrollment creates a challenge but we welcome the opportunity to serve those students and prepare them to be successful contributors to society.

It is our goal in Springdale every classroom feature a quality curriculum and a teacher who cares for every student. We are committed to preparing each student to leave our school system prepared for the challenges of higher education or the immediate work force.

In spring 2012, about 65 percent of our 1,100 graduates from Springdale High School, Har-Ber High School and the Alternative Learning Environment (ALE) went on to pursue higher education. Our 2012 graduates earned $18.9 million in scholarship offers from colleges all over the nation. We annually send more students to the University of Arkansas than any other district in the state.

The accomplishments of our graduates are a tribute to the 1,300-plus teachers, pre-K through high school, who have positively impacted the students’ lives and inspired their success.

It also is essential that we provide a clean, safe and orderly environment for our students. Our maintenance and custodial departments work conscientiously every day to make that happen. Our transportation department does a superb job of ensuring safe passage to and from school for more than 14,000 students who ride our school buses.

Our Coordinated School Health program and school nurses address the physical and emotional needs of the students in our care. Our food service department provides nutritious meals, serving breakfast to more than 5,000 students and lunch to nearly 15,000 students.

For some students, the meals they have at school will be the most nutritious they will have that day; for some, those will be the only meals they have. With that in mind, special partnerships were developed that now provide snack packs that are sent home with those students for the weekends. We deeply appreciate the participating businesses and nonprofit organizations that make that vital service possible. In Springdale, it is all about the children.

Summer maintenance projects enhanced the condition of our existing school facilities, and this fall we opened our new Sonora Middle School. Dr. Shawna Lyons, the principal, and her staff have done an excellent job of having that new school ready to welcome its first students.

We also welcome Dr. Tamekia Brown as the new principal at Central Junior High School. The faculty is excited about the opportunity to work with Dr. Brown, who spent the summer of 2012 getting acquainted with the students she will serve and their parents.

During this school year, we will be focusing on the adoption of the Common Core State Standards for grades three through eight. The Common Core has been much in the news lately, but while our curriculum has changed, our mission and goals have not. Our emphasis has and always will be to provide individualized instruction that is designed to help each of our students achieve to their highest personal potential.

I wish the best of school years for all of our Springdale students. I also extend a special invitation and encouragement to all parents and community stakeholders to join us as partners in service to these marvelous young people. We truly cannot do it alone; fortunately in Springdale, we have never had to.

Dr. Jim Rollins is the superintendent of the Springdale School District.

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