Staff members of Bentonville's Thomas Jefferson Elementary School took a break from preparing for the new school year to give back to their community on Wednesday.
They broke up into eight groups, each of which traveled to a different organization. They got tours or heard presentations to learn more about charities such as Clothed with Compassion or Sharing and Caring of Benton County. They also were assigned tasks at their respective locations.
The Thomas Jefferson Elementary School staff broke up into groups that spent time Wednesday at one of the following organizations:
• Autumn’s ReRide Youth Ranch, Bentonville
• Clothed with Compassion, Bentonville
• Ozark Regional Transit, Springdale
• Samaritan Store, Rogers
• Scott Family Amazeum, Bentonville
• Sharing and Caring of Benton County, Bentonville
• Teen Action Service Center, Rogers
• Trike Theatre, Bentonville
Source: Staff report
"We want our staff to be part of the community and the community to be part of us," said Diana Dunn-Berry, a counselor at the school who helped organize the day's activities. "It takes a community to raise these kids."
On Monday, the day before school starts, the groups will convene and present to each other what they learned Wednesday and how they'll use their experiences to create project-based lessons for their students.
Each group of staff members included a teacher from each of the school's grade levels.
One group of eight staff members, including Principal Karrie Arbuckle, received an unusual assignment that took them out of Benton County.
The group traveled to Ozark Regional Transit headquarters in Springdale, where they received a tour and an overview of the organization. They got to see inside a new bus that runs on compressed natural gas, one of four the transit system bought in May. They heard from two transit system officials about the organization and some of the challenges it faces.
Then they were asked to brainstorm ways the transit system could raise its visibility and grow its ridership numbers. After about two hours of brainstorming, they compiled their suggestions in a document they forwarded to transit system officials.
The group started by identifying the transit system's image as the most important thing to address.
"I think changing the perspective on public transit is huge," Arbuckle said.
The group agreed raising awareness of public transportation would help the community, including Thomas Jefferson Elementary's parents.
"Just last year I had three parents who told me they couldn't get to parent-teacher conferences and would have to do it by phone," said Cortny Collett, a second-grade teacher.
The group also suggested putting signs on the buses encouraging riders to post on social media what they thought about the services. The school staff members noted there are only a few reviews of the transit system available online, and they are mixed.
"They could get some people who ride a lot to write some good reviews for them," said Debbie Pschierer, a first-grade teacher.
Other suggestions included offering sample rides at community events, increasing the number of bilingual drivers, and stressing the benefits to the environment of riding buses instead of driving cars.
Joel Gardner, the transit system's executive director, said when he started the job two years ago, most people he talked to perceived public transit as being only for certain people -- mainly the poor, the elderly and the disabled. Now, he said, he's starting to see more people wanting to get out of their cars.
"We had the old mentality of, transit is for this block of people that I am not. That mentality is starting to change," Gardner said.
David Engle, a fourth-grade teacher, suggested the transit system hire a consultant to write grant applications and reach out to others who have received grants to get some advice.
Dunn-Berry wasn't able to attend the gathering at Ozark Regional Transit, but said she enjoyed the places she saw Wednesday.
Clothed with Compassion, for example, did a great job educating school staff members about poverty and what a new set of clothes means to someone, Dunn-Berry said.
"I've heard several staff members come in and say they're so excited about what they learned. That's important," Dunn-Berry said.
NW News on 08/13/2015