Education notebook

LITTLE ROCK — No votes, so five

named to board

Nobody voted in the Danville School District’s Sept. 18 School Board election - not even the five candidates running unopposed for the board’s five seats.

As a result, the Yell County Quorum Court had to vote Monday to appoint the candidates to their board seats.

Danville Superintendent Mike Hernandez said a couple of factors caused some confusion and a lack of voting in the nearly 900-student district.

Since there were no contested races, all the voting for School Board members had to be done in early or absentee voting. No polling places were open on Election Day.

Typically, incumbent board members retain their seats if no one files for their positions. That was not the case this year because all the seats were vacated. Each seat was opened for election in the aftermath of altering election zone boundaries to equalize zone populations based on the 2010 U.S. Census.

Danville voters were not the only ones caught unaware. The Quorum Court also had to appoint three members of the Western Yell County School Board, Hernandez said.

Flu shots offered at public schools

The Arkansas Department of Health, the Arkansas Department of Education and local school districts across the state are offering seasonal flu vaccinations to children in grades kindergarten through 12, beginning Oct. 8.

The vaccinations are not required for children to attendschool but are recommended. They will be available in mist and injectable forms at school clinics.

Students will be given consent forms to take home to their parents with the dates of the flu vaccination clinics. Signed parental permission is required for a child to receive the vaccination.

If a family has insurance, the state Health Department will ask the insurance company to pay for the vaccination. There will be no charge to families for the vaccinations regardless of whether they have insurance coverage.

More information is available on the Department of Health website: healthy.arkansas.gov.

NLR schools get

a literacy grant

The North Little Rock School District is the recipient of a $473,691 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to improve literacy skills.

The grant is one of 46 awarded nationwide and the only one in Arkansas.

The award is funded under the Innovative Approaches to Literacy Program to promote literacy learning among young children and motivating older children to read.

Part of the funding must be used to distribute free books to children and their families.

The grant program is a two-year commitment, and the North Little Rock School District can expect a similar dollar award in the second year.