LITTLE ROCK — Pine Bluff hires superintendent
Linda Watson, the former superintendent of the Little Rock School District, is the unanimous choice of the Pine Bluff School Board to head that district on a long-term basis.
Watson, who left the Little Rock job in January 2011, has been serving as Pine Bluff’s interim leader since last summer.
The School Board in December took the beginning steps to search for a person to fill the job on a more permanent basis.
On Thursday, the board voted to rescind its earlier vote to hire the McPherson & Jacobson executive recruitment and development company of Omaha, Neb. The board followed that up with a vote to offer Watson the superintendent’s job.
Pine Bluff board member Andrea Roaf-Little said Friday that Watson agreed to accept the offer. Salary and other terms of Watson’s contract remain to be set by the board.
NBA great to give keynote address
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the National Basketball Association’s all-time leading scorer, will talk about the importance of science, math and technology education when he gives the keynote speech for the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts’ Open Book Celebration.
The celebration will be held at 6 p.m. April 25 at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock.
The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Science and the Arts Foundation is hosting the fundraising event, which will highlight the mission of the public residential school for juniors and seniors.
Tickets are $150 per person. Sponsorships are also available.
More information is available on the school’s website: asmsa.org.
Teachers earn national status
A total of 312 Arkansas teachers - including 20 in the Bentonville School District, 21 in the Little Rock School District and 28 in the Springdale School District - recently earned certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards.
The Arkansas teachers with new national certification brings to 2,329 the total number of teachers with that credential in the state. Nationally, 102,237 teachers have the designation.
The Little Rock School District has the most nationally certified teachers in one Arkansas district at 210, followed by Springdale at 111, Rogers at 105, Bentonville at 100 and Fort Smith at 88.
A teacher earns national certification through an intensive, multi-year process of performance assessment and peer review.
The state and some school districts supplement the annual pay of teachers who receive the credential.
Black History quiz teams sought
The Arkansas Black History Quiz Bowl Association is seeking teams to compete in the 2013 Black History Quiz Bowl to be held Feb. 16 at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.
Teams from schools, churches and other youth organizations are eligible to participate. There will be two divisions of competition: Division I for students in grades six, seven and eight; and Division II for grades nine through 12.
More information about the event is available by calling Frank Bateman at (501) 913-2136 or by e-mail to [email protected].
Two teacher licenses revoked
The Arkansas Board of Education last week revoked the licenses of two teachers.
The board revoked the license of Stacy Stracener. According to information provided to the Education Board by its attorney, Stracener pleaded guilty in December to 11 counts of first degree sexual assault and two counts of second degree sexual assault in Lonoke County Circuit Court.
The board also revoked the teaching license of Jack Woodrow James Jr., who sought to surrender his license. There is no provision in Arkansas law for surrender of a teaching license, making the revocation necessary.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 01/20/2013