State board shifts meeting location
The Arkansas Board of Education and its committees are meeting several days this week in a new location to accommodate heating and air conditioning system repairs being made in the Arch Ford Education Building.
The temporary meeting site is the boardroom in the Pulaski County Special School District administration building, 925 E. Dixon Road, Little Rock.
The Education Board will hold its regular monthly business meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Agenda items include recommendations to classify the Guy-Perkins and Maynard school districts as "fiscally distressed," a review of the Covenant Keepers Charter School in Little Rock, and an update on the state-controlled Little Rock School District.
The board will meet for dinner and a work session at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Doubletree Hotel, 424 W. Markham St.
The Education Board will reconvene at 9 a.m. Friday for Arkansas Department of Education reports.
Additionally, two special committees of the board will meet this week.
The Special Committee on Pulaski County Boundaries Study will meet at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
The Special Committee on Academic Distress will meet immediately after the end of Friday's Education Board meeting.
The agendas for the meetings are available at: edboard.arkansas.gov.
Live video streaming of the meetings will be available at http://flash.aetn.org/adeplayer.html?source=rtmp://flash.aetn.org/live/adelive&type=live.
Winners awarded in finance contest
Economics Arkansas recently presented cash awards and prizes to 130 students in grades four through 12 whose school teams earned first- and second-place regional honors in the 10-week Stock Market Game.
Almost 6,000 Arkansas students participated in the spring 2015 session of the game, in which students invest and attempt to increase a hypothetical $100,000 stock portfolio. During the fall 2014 session, more than 4,000 students participated.
The first- and second-place winning schools for the spring session were:
Elementary/Middle School
• Region 1 - George Elementary School, Springdale, and Thurman G. Smith Elementary, Springdale.
• Region 2 - East End Intermediate School, Sheridan, and S.C. Tucker Elementary School, Danville.
• Region 3- First and second place - College Hill Middle School, Texarkana.
• Region 4 - Bradford Elementary School and Greene County Tech Middle School.
• Region 5 - Raymond and Phyllis Simon Intermediate School, Conway, and Warren Dupree Elementary, Pulaski County Special.
• Region 6 - 1st and second place - Hardin Elementary School, White Hall.
Junior High
• Region 1 - Huntsville Middle School and Raymond E. Wells Junior High, Greenwood.
• Region 2 - Subiaco Academy and Hot Springs High.
• Region 3 - First and second place - South Arkansas Christian School, Lewisville.
• Region 4 - First and second place - Beebe High School, grades nine and 10.
• Region 5 - Benton Junior High School and Vilonia Junior High.
• Region 6 - First and second place - Watson Chapel Junior High.
High School
• Region 1 - Sacred Heart Catholic School and Bentonville High.
• Region 2 - First and second place - Hot Springs High.
• Region 3 - Camden Fairview High and Dierks High.
• Region 4 - Trumann High and Pangburn High.
• Region 5 - First and second place - Little Rock Christian Academy.
• Region 6 - First and second place - White Hall High.
Also recognized were faculty members Susie Thompson, Little Rock Christian Academy, in the category of Overall Adviser; Graham Goodloe, Mabelvale Middle School, Little Rock School District, in the category of Teacher Division; and Lillian Hemphill, Watson Chapel Junior High School, Watson Chapel School District, in the category of Portfolio Adviser.
County schools get new security chief
Bennie Bowers Jr. is the new director of security and safety in the Pulaski County Special School District, replacing Mark Warner in the job.
Bowers, who will be paid an annual salary of $90,817, retired from the Michigan State Police after 25 years of service, where he was a lieutenant and assistant commander of the State Police Detroit Post.
He has a bachelor's degree in general studies and a master's degree in educational leadership from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich.
He also attended the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, where he played college football for four years.
He has participated in numerous leadership development courses throughout his career, including training in homeland security, terrorism for emergency responders, civil disorder response, emergency management and community disasters.
He is a gang awareness trainer.
Metro on 05/12/2015