The White Hall School District Board held its regular monthly meeting Tuesday with all members present to discuss and decide on several items on their agenda.
Those items on the agenda under consideration were previous contracts that the district wanted to continue including EARS an audiology and speech-language pathology program provided by Arkansas’s Children’s Hospital, Occupational therapy services, and physical therapy services.
The next item up for discussion was about appointing someone from the board or the superintendent to represent the board as a board member of the Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative (ARESC). The board voted for Superintendent Gary Williams to be that member and he spoke with Deltaplex News about the ARESC board’s purpose.
The board also approved unanimously the purchase of three new buses all amounting to $125,920 each amounting to a total of approximately $377,760. Williams explained that those purchases will be made through ESSER funds.
Arkansas School Board Association model policy updates for the district and the student handbook for the upcoming school year were also under consideration and approved without contest.
Another important topic was up for discussion involving 109 student school choice applications that were approved to add to the district’s over 3,000 students. Williams told Deltaplex that only three of their students have used school choice to leave the district.
During the instructional report from Debbie Jones the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum which highlighted a summer credit recovery program that launches this summer with an enrollment of sixty-six students total, she mentioned eleven students on the elementary level were retained, and one on the middle school level.
She went on to report this to the board.
Jones also mentioned Suicide and Bullying training for teachers to help build relationships and collaborative teams in all the buildings across the district.
On that same subject, Williams touched on that training and the bullying numbers during his report which included that there were 101 reported and confirmed bullying incidents and 83 suspensions with an emphasis on students at the middle school level.
Williams also spoke with Deltaplex about the program and bullying in the youth explaining that the program is for all ages.
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The last item on the agenda for consideration was the reappointment of Dr. Raymond Jones who is also board president as disbursing officer and that was approved. The disbursing officer is the designated person responsible for signing off on financial transactions.
In other meeting business, the board heard the administrative reports beginning with finances. Chief Financial Officer Tracy Samples gave the report for May stating that last year’s balance was $6,619,981.95 and the current balance is $7,582,765.84. The difference amounted to $962,783.89.
Assistant Superintendent for Facility and Transportation Dr. Cedric Hawkins reported on facilities and transportation highlighting summer projects underway including new transportation software to help improve efficiency, the construction of an annex to the high school, and the onboarding of a new HR solution recruiting and hiring software solution Frontline.
During the board’s executive report, they certified two resignations, hired six new teachers, had one certified transfer, one classified resignation, and one classified new hire.
