Education cooperative serves area schools

By Carol Rolf

LITTLE ROCK — Dawson Education Service Cooperative is committed to the mission of serving children, its director said.

Located in Arkadelphia, the cooperative serves 24 school districts in seven counties - Clark, Dallas, Garland, Hot Spring, Howard, Pike and Saline - plus one school district in Grant County.

Gurdon native Becky Jester serves as director of the cooperative, which is one of 15 such entities in the state established in 1984 by the Arkansas Department of Education. Jester has a Bachelor of Science in education degree and a Master of Science in education and administration degree from Henderson State University. Her superintendent's certification is from the University of Central Arkansas.

The cooperatives serve to provide support to the school districts in their region, as well as provide professional development opportunities and act as a consortium for purchasing certain services and supplies. The cooperatives also provide technical computer support services to the schools in their areas.

"'Serving the Schools, Serving the Children' is our motto and we are committed to this mission," Jester said. "Our two main purposes are to provide professional-development courses for the teachers and administrators in our area and to provide technical assistance to their schools."

Jester said teachers and administrators "come all year 'round" to participate in professional-development classes. "The law states that each teacher, each certified personnel, have 60 hours of professional development a year," she said. "We have 3,400certified personnel in our area. That's a big job.

"We have at least one workshop a day," Jester said, adding the facility has five different training rooms set up for this purpose. "If some school in a county needs us to come to them, then we go there."

Jester said the cooperative has employees from all across the area - Sparks, Gurdon, Delight. "In addition to the teachers who come here for workshops, our employees (numbering 156 total) come here, too," she said. "They all have to eat, buy gas and sometimes, shop. We bring a lot of money into the local economy."

The cooperative has several different departments - Arkansas Public School Computer Network, Career and Technical Education, Distance Learning, Early Childhood/Special Education, Literacy, Math, Science and Technology. Special programs it addresses include Arkansas Better Chance, Behavior Intervention, English as a Second Language, Gifted/Talented and the Arkansas Local Education Agency Resource Network or AR Learn.

"Every year, we try to look around and start something new," Jester said. "Our latest program is AR Learn, which is a professional development workshop especially for special education teachers."

Jester said refreshments are served at all workshops. "In addition to our staff of trainers, we have a wonderful support staff," she said. "That staff is in charge of setting up those refreshments."

"I tell everybody here, it's a calling to work at Dawson Co-op. It's not just a job. I feel we are really blessed with good folks and good schools."

Tri-Lakes, Pages 62 on 05/07/2009