NLR forums set on zones, preschools
Changes to elementary school attendance zone boundary lines and the locations for preschool programs will be discussed at community forums planned for April in the North Little Rock School District.
Dates, times and places for the forums are:
6-8 p.m. April 8, Lakewood Middle School auditorium.
11 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 9, First Assembly of God sanctuary.
6-8 p.m. April 10, First Baptist Church/Main Street sanctuary.
11 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 10, First Baptist Church/Scipio Jones sanctuary.
District leaders are considering a change in its capital improvement program to assign children who would attend the Redwood Early Childhood Center to Glenview and Seventh Street elementary schools beginning in the 2015-16 school year. Other district schools would continue to serve preschool children.
Plans to convert Pike View Elementary into a pre-kindergarten center would be abandoned and the campus used for another purpose.
Nine schools listed for inflated grades
Nine Arkansas high schools were identified for grade inflation in a recent report to the Arkansas Board of Education.
The schools are those in which 20 percent or more of their students earned grades of A or B in Algebra 1 and geometry but did not receive a passing grade in those subjects on the state’s End-of-Course exams on their first attempts.
Arkansas Code Annotated 6-15-421 requires the Arkansas Department of Education to create a grade inflation report.
The identified schools are Arkansas School for the Blind High School, Arkansas School for the Deaf High School, Bay High, Blevins High, Bradley High, Cedar Ridge High based in Newark, Central High in the Helena-West Helena School District, and Prescott High and Riverside High based in Lake City.
Ashdown gets nod for music program
A nonprofit foundation supported by the National Association of Music Merchants, in conjunction with a research organization at the University of Kansas, recently honored the Ashdown School District as one of the 376 Best Communities for Music Education in the nation.
The Best Communities program is designed to recognize efforts by teachers, administrators, parents, students and community leaders to make music education part of the core curriculum.
George Junior High Middle School and J.O. Kelly Middle School in the Springdale School District and Southside High School in the Fort Smith School District received the Support Music Merit Award from the same organizations.
Schools and districts are evaluated based on funding, staffing of highly qualified teachers, commitment to standards and access to music instruction.
Elementary lauded
for tech program
Sonora Elementary School in the Springdale School District is the recipient of this year’s Timothy R. Stephenson Founder’s Award for its Environmental and Spatial Technology program, also known as EAST, in which pupils use technology to resolve community problems.
Sonora Elementary students are the youngest to ever win the award, which was presented this month at the 15th annual EAST National Conference in Hot Springs. The school received the award for operating a program that most exemplifies the Environmental and Spatial Technology model.
Other finalists for the Founder’s Award were Greenbrier High School, Hot Springs High, Joe T. Robinson Middle School in the Pulaski County Special School District and Springdale High School.
North Little Rock High School, East Campus, won the National Service competition for its community farm.
Arkansas, Pages 16 on 03/30/2014