Arkansas Arts Academy hires high school principal

ROGERS -- Arkansas Arts Academy chose one of its own to be its new high school principal.

The board of directors on Thursday unanimously approved promoting Heather Wright from science teacher to principal. She replaces Barb Padgett, who resigned last month after 10 years on the job.

Wright taught at the school from 2007 to 2010, starting there when it was called the Northwest Academy of Fine Arts. She left in 2010 to focus on her family, but returned to teaching at the school in 2015.

Northwest Academy of Fine Arts, a high school, merged with Benton County School of the Arts, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school, in 2009. The entire K-12 school was renamed Arkansas Arts Academy in 2014.

The school received 14 applications for the high school principal's job. Two committees interviewed the top four candidates. The committee members were unanimous in choosing Wright for the board's consideration, chief executive officer Mary Ley said.

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"She had really tracked the weaknesses of the school and came with solutions for the school," Ley said.

Wright presented her ideas to the board at Thursday's meeting. Among her proposals is to implement what's called a flexible-modular, or flex-mod, class schedule, where the school day is broken down into segments of 20 or 30 minutes each. Classes meet for different amounts of time based on what best suits the subject matter.

"They don't have to meet in the same class at the same time every day. And not every biology class has to be an hour and a half. Some can be an hour, some can be 30 minutes," Wright said.

Pea Ridge High School began using this type of schedule in fall 2015. Wright said it prepares students for the real world.

"Really, it's more about what the real workplace looks like in time management," she said. "Not every day is going to look the same."

Wright also hopes to increase the school's visibility in the community, communicate better with parents and encourage seniors to pursue internship opportunities.

Duke Wells, an Arkansas Arts Academy junior from Rogers, said students cheered at a recent assembly when they learned Wright was being recommended for the principal's job.

"I think it's great," Wells said. "I think it's comforting to the students. It's something new, but it's not that new, because we're familiar with Miss Wright."

Padgett resigned about a week after the start of this school year. School officials didn't give a reason for her departure, saying it was a personnel matter. A statement issued by the board explained accepting Padgett's resignation "was in the best interest of the school community."

About 250 students are enrolled in the academy's high school. U.S. News & World Report ranked it the second best high school in the state this year, after Haas Hall Academy in Fayetteville, based on measures such as proficiency scores and graduation rates.

In other business, the board unanimously approved firing Tamy Lynn Pershing, who was in her third year at the school as a sixth-grade language arts teacher. The board made the move without discussion.

Pershing and her husband, Douglas Jay Pershing, were arrested last week in connection with the sexual abuse of two toddlers. The alleged abuse wasn't school-related.

The arrests stemmed from allegations Doug Pershing had inappropriate contact with a 4-year-old girl and a 2-year-old girl and that Tamy Pershing had been aware, but failed to report it to law enforcement. Prosecutors haven't filed formal charges against the Bella Vista couple.

Douglas Pershing, 54, was arrested in connection with sexual assault, a felony. Tamy Pershing, 46, was arrested in connection with failure to notify by a mandated reporter (a teacher) and endangering the welfare of a minor, both misdemeanors.

NW News on 09/08/2017