SPRINGDALE — The School District has added two to its roster of administrators this month.
Don Eichenberger, longtime teacher and coach in Springdale, began last week as an administrative assistant for the Alternative Learning Center’s branch at Springdale High School.
Superintendent Jim Rollins, addressing the School Board at its Tuesday meeting, said a recent fight involving several girls convinced him a full-time administrator was needed. The branch is on the high school campus but operates under the direction of the center on Meadow Avenue. It serves freshmen.
Police reported a fight Oct. 26 between five girls began after an exchange of messages on a social networking site the night before. The worst injury appeared to be a pencil jabbed into one girl’s leg, police said.
“We had some ninth-grade girls who had an issue with a boyfriend,” Rollins said. “That incident caused me to reflect.”
Eichenberger has been with the district for 23 years. He’s been a history teacher and an assistant boys basketball coach at Springdale High School.
“I’m very excited about the opportunity to provide a safe and supportive environment for our kids,” Eichenberger said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Love said Eichenberger is well trained to provide academic leadership.
“He has some instructional strategies that a lot of other teachers haven’t been exposed to,” Love said.
Springdale High School also has gained an assistant principal. LaDena Eads, who had been assistant principal at Central Junior High School, began the high school job Nov. 5.
Springdale High’s enrollment on Oct. 1 was 2,132, up from 1,932 last year. Passing the 2,000-student threshold allowed the school to add a fourth assistant principal.
In turn, the district hired Anne Martfeld to fill Eads’ place at Central. Martfeld had been an assistant principal at Rogers Heritage High School. Before that she had taught at Har-Ber High School. She had been wanting to return to the Springdale district.
Mid-school year changes in administration are unusual, Love said.
In other news from Tuesday’s meeting, comptroller Kelly Hayes said a financial audit done for the district for the last fiscal year yielded no findings. The audit was done by Hudson, Cisne and Co. of Little Rock.
“The audit went very smoothly,” Hayes said. “I was very pleased with the outcome.”
The district ended the fiscal year with a balance of $16.9 million, equal to roughly 10.6 percent of revenue received during the year. An ending fund balance of between 6 percent and 16 percent is generally considered appropriate, according to Hayes.