March Will Be A Busy Month

Thursday, February 27, 2014

I don't want to jinx us, but do you realize we have been in school for three straight weeks with no days out for snow? It feels good to have students and teachers all back doing what they love to do -- teaching and learning. As February comes to a close, and hopefully the snow comes to a close as well, there are several things we hope will excite you about March.

The first thing to keep in mind is the naming of our new high school, which should come in March. We have had a great response from the community on our efforts to solicit meaningful names. Students, parents, political officials and residents have all pitched in with their thoughts on the name of the school as well as the mascot. Bentonville High School students are specifically involved in helping us consider and review the names being brought forth. The entire process will lead to a delivery of names for the Board of Education to consider at the March 6 pre-agenda meeting.

Right behind that will be a community meeting for residents to see the draft design of the new high school. This event will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. March 10 at the auditorium at Old High Middle School. Board members, staff and consultants will be there to share the plans. We are excited about how this building is coming together. We have a great committee working on this and have shared the concept with high school staff for their feedback. We have utilized our consultants to create a design that will promote a collaborative learning environment, all while staying on budget. We hope the work that was done on the 2010 millage leaves you confident the Bentonville School District will use the dollars you have generously provided to build a new high school and that it will be dealt with in a very judicious fashion.

Both of these milestones for opening our new school are important. Please know our target is still to have children using this school in August of 2016. This school will serve grades 9 through 12 and our School Board will be determining the rollout of grades in their March deliberations. As the newspaper recently shared in an editorial, this is a true second high school. The next critical event comes in June when the Site Guaranteed Maximum Price gets established. Then, in July we break ground and share the completed design to the public.

I will leave you with one very fun family thing to share that will be culminating this week in our K-4 schools. It is the One Book, One District program that happens each year, which brings each child K-4 together to read the same book. This year, our K-4 students are reading the book "The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester" by Barbara O'Connor. Some of our 5-6 students are reading "Zach's Lie" by Roland Smith. They will tackle this book after our state testing in late April. If you are a parent of a child in this K-6 grade bracket I thank you for your engagement in reading these books with your students. There is no more important activity for us to engage in with our child than reading with and to them. I have been told by our K-4 parents they are learning more from their child than the child is from the parent. Now that is pretty cool.

I know I am personally enjoying my conversations with students who are reading these books. Remember to check in with your school for all the various culminating activities. For elementary, the final event will occur at 1 p.m. Sunday at Crystal Bridges. Check with your middle school for their plan to wrap up in May.

NW News on 02/27/2014