001We would like to welcome everyone out to our November 11th, 2025 schoolboard meeting for Springdale Public Schools. Uh, thank you all for being here. Um, going to start the meeting just a little bit differently. Um we've had kind of a tough few days with some um people in our Springdale family that I just want to take a minute to just kind of recognize those families. Um we had a a staff member last week who was in a um car accident with his wife and small child. Um unfortunately um his wife um passed away from that accident. Her service was um today I believe in Oklahoma. So, we have several people that are traveling for that. And so, we just want um to take a minute to let them know that we're thinking about them and
002praying for him and um of for him and his his son today. Um we also had um one of our administrators who had a child in a car wreck over the weekend um and was airlifted to Little Rock to Children's with a broken back and had surgery yesterday. And so, uh, we just want them to know the same that we're, um, thinking and, uh, praying for them as well. And then we also had a couple, um, student athletes get transported by ambulance to, um, the hospital to Children's Friday night at the game. Uh, one with a neck injury and a concussion, I believe, was released the next day. Another one with a ruptured spleen who's still in the hospital. um and we are um hoping that he gets to go home tomorrow. So, kind of
003just a lot going on the last few days and I thought that um we would just take this moment to let them all know that we're thinking about them and praying for them and um if there's anything that we can do as a board to help, that's what we're here for. So, if you would, um, I just would love to take like 30 seconds and just do a moment of silence and, um, recognize those families and, um, just honor those families. Thank you. Um on a little bit uh lighter note, um it is Veterans Day. Um we would love um to recognize anybody in our audience um that is a veteran. If do we have any veterans? If you if we do, we'd love for you to stand up. >> [applause] >> Thank you for
004your service and all that you have done and all that you continue to do. Um we're extremely blessed in Springdale and you know as I was sitting here talking about some of the things that have happened over the last few days I kept me mentioning the children's hospital and we're super blessed to have them in our backyard. So, um, anyways, without further ado, I'd like to call Hernand Sanchez, our student rep, um, to the podium. He's from Archer Learning Center, and he is going to lead us in the pledge. So, if you'd stand, >> I pledge allegiance to the flag >> of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Um, if you
005want to give us a little rundown of what got you where you are today and plans for the future and if we have any questions, we'll try to make them easy. >> Well, my plans for the future are actually to run my own shop, like automotive shop. Um, after school I want to try to go to WTI to become an automotive technician. And currently, right now, um, I'm trying to start up a business with car detailing, car audio, and at at my school, they they helped me like they they helped me a lot. They g they gave me a bunch of offer opportunities um with touring colleges like looking at businesses and like letting me know that I have more options and like telling me like you know like you got this and yeah. >>
006Are you a senior? >> Yeah, I'm a senior. >> Okay, very good. Do we have any questions for Mr. Sanchez, >> can you tell everybody how what schools you attended? >> Um, I have attended I'm trying to think right now. I remember at first I for elementary I attended NAP and then from there I went to JL Kelly George Junior High, Springdale High School and now I'm at Archer. Anybody >> else? What about favorite class and teacher? >> Favorite class? I'd have to say that's my US US history class that's taught by my favorite my favorite teacher, M Mr. Hill. You're >> not saying that just because he's here, right? >> No, no, no, no. [laughter] >> He's a pretty fun teacher. I I like I like having him as a teacher. and he makes
007history fun. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> That's awesome. >> Anybody else? >> Parents, are anybody here? >> Uh, yeah. My dad, he he's here. >> Well, we appreciate you taking the time to come start our meeting off. And there's anything we can ever do for you, let us know. and wish you all the best with your future endeavors and graduation at the end of this year. We'll see you there. >> Thank you for having me. >> An archer graduation. Have >> you ever been to the graduation for? >> Um, no I have not. >> You're in for a treat. >> Plugs. It's a good time. [laughter] >> Thank you for being here. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Cleveland. Do we have any changes to our agenda? >> Yes, sir. We've had a request just for one
008slight change. If you don't mind, uh Dr. Lines has something she needs to do tonight, I think, to uh take care of her daughter. So, we want to make sure that we honor her in that. So, letter H under celebrations and reports, if you don't mind, would you mind to have that uh go up? And this is if Mr. Shoalter is okay with it to have her be A and then Mr. Show Walter B1. Is that okay? >> Okay. Sure. >> Motion to approve the agenda as as amended. >> Second. >> So motion by Mrs. Creek and a second by Mr. Ramos to approve the agenda as amended. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Agenda passes. I will turn it over to Dr. Cleveland for celebrations. >> All right. Well, Dr. Lines, I guess
009you're first. Thank you. Oh, is this on? Can you hear me? Okay, perfect. I'm up on my toes. Okay, there you go. Um, thank you for being here tonight. Tonight, uh, Dr. Cleveland and the board. The vision for grants in the Springdale Public School District number 50 is to provide the Springdale educational community with information on grant availability as well as grant writing expertise to further fund educational opportunities for our students. And so with that, um I think on the next slide you will see we have been awarded the Walton Family Foundation grant. Um, and this is the official approved announcement from the Walton Family Foundation um to fund empowerment teams in Springdale School District. And so it's a two-year grant for 400 for $749,000. Um, and so I think that's probably right now their
010largest awarded. Um, usually they stick under $500,000. Um, but we we had a good good plan in place. Um and this is to strengthen our um empowerment teams which is the three E enlistment, enrollment and employment. So on the next slide you will see um it will fund three positions. So a position at each high school um for the enrollment. So the enrollment lead will work with the CTE contact and the um enlistment contact to uh support students in course planning um guiding them through college applications, scholarship, financial aid um coordinating um with Mr. Fontnopoulos on workshops, test prep, parent nights for information. Um, and then collaborating with the junior highs and middle schools on building understandings around those college and career pathways. Um, it will also fund stipens for points of contact at our
011middle schools and our junior highs. And these points of contacts will just serve as a um kind of a capacity building position where they will get the information, meet with the um enroll the empowerment um teams and then just disperse that information to their staff, to their students, to parents um and just acting as a bridge. So, and then both of those come with also grant-f funded um materials and supplies for two years. So, thank you. Do you have any questions? >> That's awesome. >> Thank you. >> Oh, next up, >> Damon. Are you going to come with the show? >> All right. I get my readers on because I can't read without them. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Emerson, members of the board, Dr. Cleveland. Tonight, um, we want to celebrate, if we can go
012to that next slide, Mr. Shoalter being selected as region 5 core director of the year. I want to read this to you here. Alan Shoalter has been the director of choirs at Southwest Junior High School in Springdale, Arkansas since 2005. For three years prior, he was the director of choirs at Plasky Academy in Little Rock. Allan earned his bachelor degrees in music education, music performance from University of Central Arkansas, where he studied studied under John Irwin and Wolf Gang Wolf Gang Oestas. He has served as a clinician throughout Arkansas and Missouri and has garnered consistently superior ratings for his four choirs at coral performances and assessments. his he was named region five director of the year in 2011, 2015, 2018, and 2021 and was awarded the Southwest Junior High School teacher of the year in
0132013 and 2024. His students routinely earn memberships in the AR all region choirs as well as Swat Swatka and ACDA National Honor Choirs. His choirs have performed at the Arkansas Allstate Music Conference, the battleship USS Missouri, St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, and at the National Conference of the American Coral Directors Association in Kansas City in 2019. Allan lives in Springdale with his wife Karen and their cat Molly May. I want to say I was trying to think of what I really wanted to say. I was telling Allan this earlier and all I could come up with was this. This is what I could really center this around. Many choir directors can hear in their heads what they want their choirs to sound like. Many, many of them. And [clears throat] that before their choirs actually
014sing it. However, there's only a special few and Mr. Schoalter is one of those who have that special innate ability to not only communicate this sound but also connect this sound to each and every student in their classroom. So much so that they are all working together as a team to reach that goal. And that's a special gift. There are many that have that. This is one of the many reasons why his choirs are so amazing and why he's being recognized here tonight. Mr. Shoalter. Good evening. Uh first of all, I'd like to thank my wife Karen. 24 years of marriage. U as long as I've been a teacher. Uh she's the best teacher I know. She's a third grade teacher over at Shaw. And most of what I've learned about being a teacher is
015from watching her. Like to thank my administration, Dr. Gladen, and the staff at Southwest been very supportive. And uh we are also very thankful for that brand new facility that we have at Southwest. Our rehearsal facilities are top-notch. They're they're fantastic. And uh I'd also like to thank our vertical team, Mr. Panalto at Harvard all the way down to uh Helen Tyson, Miss Ford and Miss Franco. We're working together to better prepare these kids for high school and beyond if especially if they decide to go on and sing in college. There are a lot of scholarships available for music and we want them to be able to uh audition for those. Um, and just real quick, our philosophy, you know, we believe that choir encompasses many disciplines, math, art, poetry, diction, history, and more. It
016also teaches teamwork and self-sacrifice for the whole group. We believe anyone can be involved in choir. And uh, our choirs at Southwest, you know, we just performed yesterday for our Veterans Day assembly. If you look at them, it's just a cross-section of our entire student body. And that's what we believe it should be. You have any questions for me? >> Is it is there a next step or anything? >> Sometimes there is with stuff like this, >> right? >> This one had a >> I don't think so. >> I think this is this is as far as it goes with there. I think there's a possibility maybe for the high school director of the year to get a state director. Yes, sir. >> Congratulations. >> You've won how many awards, Mr. Don? I mean, I
017was trying >> to keep up with it. >> One, two, three, four. >> Four. So far, this fits, right? >> Yes, sir. >> I I don't know anybody else. >> I'm not sure anybody. >> That's pretty awesome. I got to tell you, when we did the opening, your choir made all the difference in in that room. Y'all remember? It was so >> It was beautiful. And so, I I personally appreciated that. It was uh very special. I'll never forget that grand opening in Southwest. So, thank youly for what you contributed in terms of kids contributing. >> Thank you, sir. >> Pretty special. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Have a good night. [applause] >> Okay. Next thing we do like to do is also has to do with choir. We have carolling in the courtyard on
018Friday, December 5th from 5:30 to 8:30 at Springdale High School. This will be our second year at the courtyard in Springdale High School and we're super excited about that. We're going to have Santa Claus. We tried and tried and tried and we he's accepted. He's going to be there. So, all of you out there that you want to make a wish, just get over there and make a give him your list. And then a photo booth will be there. This year we're also we normally have hot dogs and hamburgers, but this year we're going to have all kinds of food trucks there and it's going to be a lot of fun and the choir is going to take care of Clint Pianto and his choir kids are going to take care of hot chocolate for
019everyone and just a lot of other fun stuff there. Any questions about caroling on the courtyard. It's going to be awesome. Okay, the next part, last part that I have here is a parent engagement piece. And as you know, Springdale Public Schools has experienced a decline in enrollment this year. To better understand and address this trend, we're proposing [snorts] a series of parent interviews at enrollment, midyear, and exit. These interviews, these conversations will give us valuable insight into why families choose to enroll, stay, or leave, helping us identify both the challenges we need to address and the strengths we should build upon. More importantly, these interviews strengthen trust and cooperation with our families. When our parents feel heard, they're more likely to stay engaged and recommend our schools to others. And as we all know,
020word of mouth is super powerful. The feedback we gather from these interviews will help us turn data into understanding and understanding into action. Ensuring that Springdale schools continue to provide the best educational services anywhere in the state. Tonight, we wanted to provide you with this information as we move forward with these efforts. And I wanted to take you through here the entry interview. And we've worked >> [snorts] >> uh for some weeks on these just three basic questions. How'd you hear about Springdale schools? And they'll have some choices that they can just bubble in. And I won't go through all those, but you can see those choices there. What factors were most important in your decision to enroll your child in Springdale public schools. We have those choices there. And then what influenced your decision
021to choose your child's specific school within the Springdale public school district. And you can see those choices there. proximity to home, school reputation, school programs, and so on and so forth. And then also during the school year, we think it's important that we get input back from our parents uh once each semester to engage them and in in in communication and trust and continuous improvement on our part. And we'll do that with text, email, school newsletter, uh district website, and then also really lean on parent teacher conferences so that we get everyone's input. And those three questions are, what is the one thing the school district does well? What is the one thing that the school district could do better? And what is the one thing you wish your child's school district better understood about
022your family or community? And then also with that, we will incorporate some five-star customer service training with our staff in our buildings. And then last uh but not least is the exit interview at unenrollment. And then our questions there will be six. So it's 336. And our questions there are what is the primary reason your family is choosing to unenroll and you can see those move first one I'd like to go over just moving to another district city state or country transferring to another public school enrolling in a charter or private school withdrawing to home school seeking smaller class sizes or in a different learning environment and so on and so forth there with those choices and then what factors influenced your decision most and we can see those choices there as well academics teacher
023staff school safety diversity university, extracurricular, special education, support services, location and convenience, transportation, and so on and so forth with those as well. And then what did your child enjoy most about their experience in your schools? And what areas could we improve to serve you better and better meet the student and family needs? And would you consider returning to our district in the future? If yes, what changes would make you most likely to return? And then last but not least, do you have any additional comments or suggestions you'd like to share? So, um, we've spent, again, several weeks putting this together and, um, I'm excited about this to get some input back from our, uh, community to, uh, see how we can better improve our school district. Any questions that you have. It's also allowed
024me to meet some really great people across the country who've experienced some similar, uh, things as well and really get some phenomenal ideas from them. I'm a big don't recreate the wheel. Find people who know what they're doing and then make it better than what they did. So, any questions? >> How often do these go out? You said >> um this this one would go when families enroll. So, these three questions. This one would be twice once each semester probably at parent teacher conferences would be the best idea. And then so that's twice a year for those three questions. And then this one is only when parents unenroll. Yes. Any questions or concerns? Okie do. Thank you very much. >> There she is. >> Oh, I'm so sorry. Are we out of order? >> Are
025we out of order? >> Okay. >> Apologize. [laughter] That's all. Hey, since you're there, if it's all right with our president. Hey, if it's all right, >> let's roll. We're good. >> You know what? We're >> gonna fast forward. >> I apologize, y'all. >> Well, good evening, Dr. Cleveland, and good evening to the board. I am, as you can tell, very excited about this. Um, our ESL team recently attended the Arkansas Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, or ARC Tissaw Conference in Little Rock. And this year, Arkansas hosted the Southeast Regional Conference. We were able to present several sessions and highlight the great work of our teachers and students at the conference. One specific highlight of the conference was the recognition of one of our amazing ESL team members as the Arkansas Arc
026Tissaw Educator of the Year, Miss Judy Hopson. I'm going to just share a little bit. It was interesting when they announced um Miss Judy as the winner. They asked everybody knowing that Miss Judy had such an impact on the Esau institute and the ESL Academy which trains trains all of our teachers to get Esau certification. There were about 300 members in the room and they asked anyone who had attended either of those institutes to raise their hand. Over 75% of the crowd raised their hand to show the type of impact that Miss Judy has had on all of the educators, not only in our district, but across the state. So, I'm going to read just a portion of the letter that nominated her for this award. Judy Hopson has spent her life supporting multilingual students
027and families. Over the multiple decades of service, she has not only worked tirelessly at one full-time job supporting students and teachers, but also has mentored teachers through obtaining ESOL endorsements through multiple universities and has been a stable and constant member of the ARC Tissaw board. She has touched the lives of countless students, families, teachers, and administrators across the state of Arkansas. There is no other Judy Hopson in the state and probably in the country. She is more deserving than any educator. The phrase lifetime learner doesn't just desri doesn't just describe Judy Hopson. It defines her relentless pursuit of excellence in multi-learner education. Judy's work transcends the typical support role. She is a pillar of pedagogical expertise and a true TE-sol leader for Springdale schools and the state of Arkansas. Every day, Judy dedicates herself to
028elevating the practices of teachers. She doesn't just respond to needs. She proactively mentors, coaches, and equipss educators with the latest, most effective research-based strategies. The depth and breadth of her impact have created a ripple effect, influencing the instruction provided to thousands of multilingual students and shaping the careers of countless teachers. So, we'd like to thank Judy for all of your years of dedicated work and service. Thank you. I don't make a speech, but I will say that when I was given the opportunity in 1995 to start our ESL program in Springdale that it was like giving me a a a shot like a I always say it was addiction. It became an addiction to me to be able to work with multilingual learners. So I could have retired in I think 1999 but I continued
029on and really didn't retired to quit working. I got retired because the University of Arkansas had asked me to come and help them start their um there's program for endorsing teachers in ESL and then I helped them and then Arkansas Tech and John Brown University and then in 2017 Mary Bridgefor asked me to if I could just come back and work part-time and here I am. I'm still working. So we just it is my it's my blessing. I'm blessed. I really feel very blessed that I have this opportunity. So thank you very much. >> There's Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones is going to step in for Miss Tisher this evening and introduce Mr. Brad. All right, board. Dr. Cleveland, thank you uh for the opportunity to share uh today. It's a celebration. It's my pleasure to
030introduce and share Brad Lemons. I've known Brad for many years. He's a foreign language teacher at Springdale High School. And the first thing that comes to my mind is about Brad is he is an absolute rockar teacher in his classroom. He makes learning come alive. He's got full of energy. He's his His kids are 100% engaged. He's a fabulous, fabulous teacher. He's an excellent man. Um it's my honor to know him, not only as a teacher, but uh but as a person as well. And I just love being up here to celebrate him. And not only is he all those things, but he's also the Arkansas Foreign Language Teacher of the Year, uh which is a great honor. Uh selected among his peers. And I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Brad Lemons. Thank you
031so much for this opportunity to be here today. I was nominated for this award by our executive director director of our organization uh Miss Rosalie Chetum. And also thanks to a glowing review from Dr. Remington Meyers, my colleague Melinda Pittz, and a former student of mine who's entering her 15th year as a Spanish teacher. I was awarded the Arkansas Foreign Language Teachers Association Teacher of the Year. But I really want to share too, this was recently renamed after Gianella Armstrong Edund, who was also a former Spanish teacher over at Springdale High School. She tragically lost her life earlier this spring. And so it is with my great honor that I am accepting her first award in her name in her memory. And so I will go on to compete in Chicago for the regional uh
032teacher of the year. >> Very good. answer the question. >> Oh, did you have [laughter] >> You're good. [laughter] >> That's awesome. [laughter] Year. You can do that. >> You do, sir. >> I guess we're going to go, >> Mr. Fonopoulos. You're going to be at the microphone for a while. >> That's okay. >> That was awesome. [laughter] >> Hello, board. Hello, Dr. Cleveland. Uh, I tell I wanted to uh emphasize uh Mr. Scho Walter. Uh, yesterday I had the privilege to go to Southwest Junior High School [clears throat] and do their veterans assembly and uh his his his young men were out there. They were fantastic. Uh, they did America the Beautiful. And I believe we had some grandmas and grandpas, some moms and dads want to uh enlist right there. Uh when they
033were done, they were beautiful. So again, talent just awarded everywhere. Everywhere. Um okay, so we're talking about National Merit Semi Finalist uh tonight. And we've got uh eight of these guys that we're going to bring up here in just a second. So what is a National Merit Semi-finalist? It is someone who about this time of the year, last year when they were juniors, took their PSAT NIM squat test, which is the National Merit uh scholarship qualifying test. Um they need to score in the top half percent of their state, which uh for us state index of about 213. Uh this last year as they were juniors, [clears throat] those scores came back. We had eight qualify. Um, and so now as a senior, they are considered the National Merit Semi-finalist. And this just opens up
034scholarship opportunities that I don't even know if they really understand. I I I talk to students all the time about um, and you know this as parents. Sometimes students, you don't know what you don't know. And when they get these scholarship moments like this, um, they don't know what they don't know. And I come back and they come back to me, Mr. respond. I didn't know this that if I go to the University of Arkansas, hey, I didn't know that that this scholarship was going to pay for that. And it just goes on and on. It just opens up so many wonderful doors. So, what's up next for these kids is they're going to now get with their counselors at their schools [clears throat] and they're going to take uh another test like it to
035make sure that this didn't happen in a vacuum, which of course it doesn't. It happens because these kids are um number one coming from uh parents that are fanning their flames. They got great teachers in front of them all their all their careers coming up through Springville as you know. Um we've got great administrators uh throughout our buildings that are promoting these teachers and you guys setting things. I a little thing that we forget about what we just you guys opened up u the Springdale uh professional development center right there next to Hartland Honda. An incredible learning place for these kids as we boot camp now. I mean it's it's it's so cool. Way to go. So that's what uh they're going to do. We don't have many students in our in our history that
036do not make it from semi-finalist to finalist. They'll know that probably about March. And then of course if they accept the scholarship offer that the National Merit uh Scholarship Corporation gives them then they would be called scholars at that point. Um so it's in that spirit I want to introduce these guys uh and I want to get a picture with Dr. Cleveland and their plaque. Can we do that? Um, so let's do these maybe one at a time and then when we get done we'll just kind of stand here, answer some questions, we'll recognize who their moms and dads are and we'll and we'll go from there. Um, let's go to the next slide. Claire B. This is what the plaque looks like. And uh, Claire, if you can come right down here. >> I
037don't know. Let's see. How do you want to do? You tell us what you want to do. [laughter] >> All right. >> Okay. >> Just kind of hang out right here. [laughter] >> Okay. Next would be Oh, look at Claire. She went to Huntter Central Harbor. We're going to ask you a couple questions here in a minute. Okay. All right. Uh Casey Elliott, are you here tonight? Where's Casey? THERE'S CASEY. >> [applause] >> HE GOT REAL TALL. >> UM, >> is Hunt Tester Central Harbor. We see a little trend there. Um, Miss Bonopoulos says hi, by the way. Um, next is Wrigley Graham. [applause] Um, John Tyson Elementary, Shaw, Hell Stern, Central Harbor High School. Uh, Caroline Netzel. Caroline is hot. Hell central and harbor. Next, let's look at Sage. The same sweater. It is
038the same sweater. We didn't [laughter] >> Can you call or something? That's right. Love that. >> Awesome. >> Okay, let's see next. Andrew Shell Hammer. [applause] Helster and Don Tyson. Uh, let's see. August Norman, are you here? August. [applause] Lee Elementary and Don Tyson School for Innovation and then uh is Willow here? No. Is Willow not here? And then August. Is that it? Is that all of us? >> That's it. Okay. Uh so let's turn around here and let's ask some questions. Where are we going to college? What's it look like? Uh, I want to go to university. >> Chris, what are you going to do there? >> Get a degree in aerospace. >> What are you going to do with that in the future? >> Yeah. How about baseball? Where's that at? >> I
039thought I thought you were still doing that. >> Okay. We can do that forever. >> All right, sir. Now, where you going? >> I'd like to go to the University of Tulsa. >> What are you going to do there? >> I want to get my bachelor's in science and nursing. Okay. >> What kind of nursing do you want to do? >> Uh, eventually I want to become a nurse. >> All right. Casey, what are you doing? >> Um, I'm planning on attending West Point. >> Wow. >> West Point. What do you want to do with that? >> Uh, well, I'm planning to get likeology and >> Okay, cool. >> All right, Caroline, what are you going to do? Um, I don't know where I'm going to college yet, but I want to study law and
040hopefully do immigration law. >> Immigration law. Cool. And you don't know where you're going to go yet? >> Okay. Say, what do you want to do? >> Um, I my first choice would be Rice. Um, >> now why Rice? >> It's closeish. Um, >> what do they have there that you want to do there? >> Uh, I'm applying for chemistry. um specifically like chemistry of dyes and pigments. >> Okay. >> Um but yeah, >> Mr. Shell Hammer, what do you want to do? >> Um I don't know where I want to go either yet, but I want to study um hospitality management and food science and someday open my own restaurant. >> Really? That's awesome. Little culinary artist, are you? >> That's cool. That's cool. Okay. All right. August, what do you want to do?
041Uh, I'm looking at going to either University of Colorado at Boulder or MIT and majoring in astrophysics. >> Okay. All right. Awesome. Turn around and face this board and let them ask you a question. Board, if you got a question for any of these guys and gals, any of these future leaders? >> No. >> Thought that would make me look intelligent. [laughter] >> Can I buy 10% into your future right now? >> 10? Exactly. Can I buy 10% of your future right now? Tell us about a teacher who's made a big impact on >> All right, let's do that. >> You're the vice president. >> Have you got a teacher in mind that just comes to your mind? Anybody? >> Uh, I would say that my last year my AP US government teacher, uh, Miss
042Arnold, uh, she's no longer teaching anymore, but she made a really big impact and, uh, made me love a class that I was expecting to kind of just tolerate. Uh, and I think that she's been a very big impact in the person I am today and, uh, my love of learning. I love the honesty of it. >> Anybody else? >> Mr. Mazan back there. >> Mr. Taught all of us at Arbor and I think he helped us a lot with our writing which has come real handy for this college application season. >> That's awesome. >> That is awesome. >> What about your parents? What did What's something that your parents taught you to work hard and like obviously you're all really high achievers. My mom is a teacher and so she's kind of braced me
043to work hard in school and do school even when I don't want to during the summer. Um, but she's just helped me a lot to grow and be smart. >> She taught the other students. >> Yes. [laughter] >> That's the connection. >> Well, as I said, this doesn't happen uh in a vacuum. And if the parents are here, can we pause for a minute? stand and let's recognize you please. [applause] >> And uh this is your uh 202526 National Merit semi finalist. How about him? Let's go. >> I'll be right back. >> Tell your neighbor that you like them. Here we go. >> I know it's ready. >> Oh, yeah. [laughter] Um, I just love like >> I think you guys are still doing good. >> Here we go. >> Thank you. Uh, advanced placement
044over the last five years. So, what I wanted to do here was just show you some of our growth because this is a really positive. I was really excited about these numbers as they've been growing over COVID since since since CO if we can um and we can brag about this um in 2021. You can take a look at that and see that 1300 students took an AP exam and 19 or 1300 I'm going to say this right 1300 students took an exam and they took 1900 exams which is to say many students took more than just one and then in 2025 look at that number how it's growing and then down below you can not only see that number growing but it's growing with wealth 640 40 more one threes are being made. 341
045more fours are being made. 86 more fives are being more. That means I got to go out and hand out more of those high- five signs. This year we handed out over 200 high five signs >> all over the all over our city and Fedville and Rogers wherever the students might be living. So that's cool. Um and again that just that just shows us our growth in in in AP. I would say this too. We have more students percentage-wise taking AP classes and that are passing them with threes, fours, and fives than we've ever had. Which is to say the right kid is in the right place. If you want to get a certificate at the end of the year, we've got that for you at this school district. If you are work ready, we've
046got that for you at this district. collegebound. We've got that for you at this district. Enrollment or enlistment. Again, each student, it seems like, is finding their spot more and more. That's what those years tell me. I think it's I think that's a really cool testament to our district, to the focus, to the intentionalness of this board, of our administrators. And so it's in that spirit I wanted to introduce all of those teachers that were at the what we would call the global mean and or at above the pass rate. That is to say a global mean is going to be normally that they're going to be at about about a three or higher. And again the pass rate is a kid that makes a three or four or five. And again, these are those
047teachers that were either at or above the global mean or at or above the global pass rate. Uh, and I'll read their names. And as I read their names, and if you guys were here, please come on down. Uh Audrey Danahower, Milan, Jilka, Ryan Brazil, Travis Frink, Ignacio Bonia Zamora, Jod Doherty, Jenny Young, Natalie Campbell, Lisa Spears, Emily Nichols, Curtis Worley, Erica Roberts, Philisan, Valerie Hul, Edmund Bacon, Melinda Pittz, Norah Scatabo, Amy Taylor, Shelby Oliver, Michael Aaron Hinthower, John Holmes, and Robert Day. And this is just again, I wish I could have included more people. There's so many people that are almost there, and I want to include them, but I can't in this list. We got to cut it off somewhere. And so if board, if you have any questions for any of these
048educators from all of our schools across our district, I think it's worth giving them a round of applause. [laughter] >> That's awesome. >> Could they just tell us what subject and maybe how long or school or just a little >> Go on down the line. Robert started >> uh Robert D. I teach AP World at Harvard year 36. Thank you. >> Erica Roberts. I teach Harbor to AP psychology in year 15. >> Shelby Oliver, AP US History and AP human geography at SOI and year 8. >> I'm Valerie Hook. I teach Spanish language at SOI. This is my second year. I'm William. I teach physics. This is my ninth year. >> I'm young. Um I teach JP Lang and I guess in teaching I've been 17 years. >> Um my name is Ninja. I teach
049computer science 18. >> My name is Phil Mazan and I teach AP seminar at Harvard High School. This is my 26th year. >> My name is Melinda Pitts. I teach AP Spanish language and culture. at Springfield High School and this is my 13th year at SH. My name is Norris Sco and this is my 25th year teaching at Springville High School and I teach AP Spanish literature and I also teach the international vocal program in Spanish for Spanish literature and I love teaching especially AP Spanish. >> I'm an interur uh 15th year teaching. I teach AP US history at Har And again, this isn't done without the leadership that they have in their school buildings. Margaret Robinson at Harvard with Paul Greet, uh Noah Bick there at SHS and Jason Jones, and then of course
050over at the Don Tyson School of Innovation, which is growing by leaps and bounds, uh Amy and and what they're um Dr. uh help me. >> Yes, Dr. Hawk, I lost my mind just for a second, but I got it back again. It's it it it it doesn't happen on a in a vacuum. happens because of the great leadership pushing these people. Probably sometimes a little bit of a grumble from that. But um there is uh at the end what we have here which is absolute huge growth. Kids getting to college with college credit already under their belt. So I think it's cool. >> Very cool. >> Thank you for all you do. Thank you for being here too. Appreciate it. >> Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate you. >> Good evening
051board and Dr. Cleveland. I am going to continue celebrations if that's okay with you. Um I'm here tonight to recognize our schools that were um recognized by the Office for Educational Policy. Um the OEP each year um issues two different awards to schools who have high growth on the Atlas summit of assessment. Um one being beating the odds which means that their school population is greater than 66% free reduced lunch and then overall growth. And so these schools work really hard at taking um our students and growing them to the next level. So I want to congratulate John Tyson Elementary. They received beating the odds for high ELA growth statewide. They made the top 10 list, high overall growth for the Northwest region, and high ELA growth for the Northwest region. I know Dr. Poke
052is here, so we'll give her a round of applause. Um, Harp Elementary, beating the odds, high overall growth, Northwest region. Hell Middle School, best overall growth. um statewide. So, they made the top 10 list as well. So, let's give these schools a round of applause for their [applause] hard work. And Karen Johnson is here as well representing Hster. Thank you, Miss Johnson. Um next, I want to recognize our schools that receive school recognition funds. Um, pursuant to the Arkansas Code, the Arkansas School Recognition Program was created to promote financial awards to public schools that experience high student performance and high student academic growth. They authorize rewards in amount up to $100 per student who attends a public school in the top 5% of all Arkansas public schools and student performance or student academic growth. And
053they also award up to $50 per student enrolled um in a public school or public charter school between the top 5% and the next 5% or schools in the top 6 to 10% of all public schools in Arkansas in student performance or student academic growth. So, I want to congratulate Don Tyson School of Innovation top five performance um for the amount of $183,000 $831.84. So, congratulations DTSI and I believe Miss Harrison is here. Good job. Hell Stern Middle School received um $25,62459 for top 16 six to 10% performance and $79,74026 for top 5% growth. It's amazing. Shaw Elementary top 6 to 10% performance and top 6 to 10% growth. Each category earning them $26,000. $26,975.70 and Tyson Elementary topped 6 to10% growth $24,7185 for a total of $367,866.14. So way to go schools. And I
054know that we've been celebrating a lot of recognitions this evening and I just want you to know that all of the hard work that our principles and teachers put in day-to-day payoff. Um, as you know, this year we have a new accountability system and with the new accountability system we receive a district letter grade and so I'm very proud to report that um, Springdale School District has a district letter grade of a B. So, we're super proud of this accomplishment and our goal is to receive an A for next school year. So, great job everyone. [applause] Good evening, board. I just have one item on your agenda. Um you'll remember that over probably the past couple years or so as we are looking at new policies we've started bringing them to you first um sort
055of as an introduction so that you all have time to look at them and give any feedback that you need before we seek your approval. Um so on your agenda tonight is just the introduction of a policy and some accompanying forms that go along with it. Um it is not a personnel policy. So it is one that you can um approve at any point in the year without going through those timelines. It is um model policy 7.5 purchases and procurement. the issue came up, Miss Hopkins brought to my attention that the threshold for uh that the state said we had to receive bids on had gone up and so we were needing to increase our policy from um 25,000 to 26,500. Um, when we looked at what the model policy said, um, it actually just
056has kind of a self-increasing language in there that the policy says whatever the state threshold is, that's what you use. So, we're not coming back to you every time that it's increased. Um, this particular policy is not one that we had have converted over to model policies yet. It's the next section. And so, in updating this policy, we went ahead and converted it over to the model policy. So that's what you'll see in your packet. It looks like a completely new policy because the words are new because it's model policy, but the the processes are still what we have always done other than the change of the bid state bid threshold amount. In the model policy packet with this particular policy, there are some forms that they recommend um for when you're soliciting bids. You'll
057see those linked in there as well. And so, um, our goal would be next month to ask for your approval of both the policy 7.5 and the forms that go along with it for final approval next month. So, if you have any questions now, I'll be happy to answer them. If you have any questions over the next month, um, please reach out to me and, um, we'll bring them back with any revisions that need to be made in December for your approval. >> One policy, three forms. Yes. Any other questions tonight? >> Are we still working our way through all of our policies? Are we getting close to >> We're getting close. >> We done with all that. >> Yes, we're getting close project several years ago. >> Oh, I feel like I've uh started
058the project when I started working here almost 10 years ago, but um yes, we're getting close. Um so we've got seven and eight. That may be it. Um but we've done the the big um chunks of that being the personnel policies um we're done with. So now we're kind of coming back on some of the financial um policies would be the next section. >> They take a break on change of laws for a while maybe. >> Yeah, that's the thing. You get them updated and then there's changes and then there's changes. So it's job security or something. But yeah, we're still working on that. >> Okay. Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you. Good. I'm not that tall. Good evening, school board members and Dr. Cleveland. My name is Valerie Hannah and I serve as
059the SEA president as well as an educator here in Springdale. Uh we had an awesome time in Hot Springs this last week connecting with educators from across the state at the representative assembly. Uh thank you for approving our associates and request to have Miss Day as a presenter uh for numerous PD sessions. Uh she was so amazing that they actually have requested that she come up with a part two to the PD that she presented um for the future andor even to take to the national level. Um uh we were able to bring nine of our delegates uh to sorry I lost track. Um to our to the assembly and we were able to present several new business items. One of which was an to set up an a Aea AIA task force to keep
060our members ab breast of a new front of AIA and the collaboration with the AI task force at the national level as well. Um the next was a new business item to research translation design devices that will better help us communicate with our educational support professionals. Um and that was passed with unanimous support. Uh we are excited for this way to allow us to better serve our diverse population of educators as well as our families and our community. Um we like most of the nation are very concerned for our students and our community and feel the direct impact for the cuts on SNAP and the rising costs. We are working with generous community organizations and members and we are urging our legislatores legislators to do what is right for our community instead of playing games
061with people's livelihoods and health. Last month we also had a wonderful PD at our monthly meeting uh put on by our by our UNISER director on tests and merit pay. Uh it was eye opening to learn how many things that we as educators could be doing right now to prepare for our evaluations. It seems like a lot of times it's that uh after the evaluation is done then we start doing the things. Um but there are so many things that can help us demonstrate the artifacts and to grow in our pedage goji. And finally if you didn't know there's only eight more days till Thanksgiving. Thank you. >> There patron comments comments. That brings us to our consent agenda. Do we have any questions about the consent agenda? Entertain a motion. >> Make a motion.
062>> Second. A motion by Mr. Ramos and a second by Mrs. Cook to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion passes. Miss Hopkins. >> Good evening board. Dr. Cleveland. Um the first item on my section of the agenda is to seek approval of the financial statements for October. Um those were included in your packet. Just wanted to uh point out just a couple of things. Um our collections to date for property taxes current are about 2.3 million ahead of where we were this same time last year at the end of October. And of course, just a reminder that um November is usually our largest tax collection month. So um we'll we should see quite an influx for um deposits this month on that. Um also wanted to note that on the
063building fund revenue for um the month of October, it also included our partnership reimbursement for our HVAC systems at George Elementary. And so uh right now that's the only active uh partnership agreement that we've I mean that we have sent reimbursement for. So um as you are are all aware we do have some partnership agreements that we have made but we have not started the construction process on those. Um on the um expenditure side of that, our first payment on our debt service was uh due on on November 15th. And so those payments have been submitted. So you'll see those reflected in next month's financial statement. Are there any other questions? Are there any questions on the financials? >> I don't have any. entertain a motion. >> Motion to approve the October 2025 financial statement.
064>> Second. >> There we go. A motion by Mr. Ramos and a second by Mrs. Cook to approve the October 2025 financial statement as presented. All those in favor? >> I opposed. >> Thank you. Um the last item that I have is to seek approval to do business with Mr. John Venzant. Um attached in your board packet is the contract disclosure form as well as the resolution that I would seek approval on. Um he has performed some music arranging services for Southwest Junior High. Of course, that's a very specialized um job or you know, I I certainly couldn't even begin to figure out how you would do that. So, um we are just seeking approval to pay him for the services that he rendered in that respect. >> Make a motion to approve the related
065transaction resolution with John L. Second. >> A motion by Mrs. Creek and a second by Mr. Hutchinson to approve the related party transaction with John Venzant. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion passes. >> Thank you. We have anything else for anybody? Dr. Cleveland. >> With that meeting is adjourned. Thank you for all the That's a