Dollarway High School welcomed around 330 students into the Cardinal family on Wednesday morning as school officials gave them a warm back-to-school celebration.
Students at Dollarway High School were full of excitement after receiving a standing ovation from pompom-wielding faculty, teachers and community supporters when they entered the building to take on their first day of school.
“We’re off to a good start already here at Dollarway High School,” said Yolanda Prim, Dollarway High School principal. “We’ve got our supporters out today … we came and we had that spirit and we had that spirit squad, and we took our students on in. And we’re in class already, first day, 8 a.m. We’re on point.”
Prim was joined by supporters from the Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative and Dollarway School District Superintendent, Barbara Warren to cheer students on as they collected class schedules, got directions and caught up with old friends before the bell.
“It was a fun start,” Warren said. “We had several different community people here. Arkansas River Cooperative, which of course is our education service cooperative. They had probably seven people here. So they’re great supporters of ours.”
According to Warren, she was very pleased with how smoothly those few minutes of transitioning went and gave her compliments to Prim for successfully completing the task before the first bell.
“Kids were all hype, and we had pompoms. You know, just smiling and having a really good little time,” Warren said. “Just a fun start to say we love you and we care about how you’re just walking to school.”
Taking a stroll through the campus, Warren was energetic with everyone, students included, that she encountered. Whether re-directing a lost freshman to their first class of the day or thanking Dollarway retirees who turned up to support the festivities, she was adamant that the school would have a good year.
With new beginnings come new changes, and Dollarway School District has opened their doors for the 2018-19 school year with a few of their own.
A freshly-painted mural now sits on one of the walls of the school’s hallways just across a row of lockers that reads S.O.A.R (Students of Achievement and Responsibility).
Under the creative direction of Paulette Bell of Robert F. Morehead Middle School, four images were presented to the Dollarway School District in hopes of adding an inspirational flair to the high school’s halls. The current design was selected from among the four images and free-handed onto the wall earlier this week.
The school has added a new program to their curriculum, a Behavioral Intervention Lab, geared towards students with behavioral concerns.
In the lab, students will undergo an intervention to determine the cause of their behavior issues and provide necessary assistance as they see fit.
Prim, who took pride in showcasing the school’s progress throughout the years, said the district’s mobile app was something that she had just recently used herself.
Through the app, parents and students can find their school’s school supply list, a calendar of upcoming events, notes and live feed.
Prim also noted that events listed on the app’s calendar could be sent via text message to a person’s phone or saved on their phone’s calendar for future reference and notifications.
