SPRINGDALE -- A new district academic coach fulfills a desire by the School Board to have an employee focus on pushing high school students toward high achievement, the board's president, Randy Hutchinson, said.
Deputy Superintendent Jared Cleveland introduced Nandra Campbell as the Springdale School District's new academic coach during the monthly School Board meeting Tuesday night. Campbell has worked for the school district since 1994. She spent three years as a third-grade teacher at Parson Hills Elementary School and in 1997 joined the Westwood Elementary School staff, where she's the assistant principal.
Springdale School Board
• Randy Hutchinson, president
• Jeff Williams, vice president
• Kevin Ownbey, secretary-treasurer
• Michelle Cook
• Danny Dotson
• Kathy McFetridge
• Mike Luttrell
Source: Springdale School District
"We've worked for quite awhile to get this new position in place," Cleveland said. "It's been quite a process. Not just anyone can do this work."
The School Board also approved a small increase in pay for staff and changing report cards for elementary schools.
Work will begin this week on planning how Campbell will operate with staff, parents and students in her new role, she said. One goal will be to help families know how to prepare for college, she said.
The School Board is interested in students earning high scores on the ACT, becoming National Merit finalists and improving graduate rates, Hutchinson said. The idea is to have someone who spends all of their time and energy making sure Springdale children have those opportunities.
"It's going to take awhile, like a coach taking over a team," Hutchinson said.
The job is described as being for someone who understands the district's need for increasing students who are ready for college and careers.
Superintendent Jim Rollins has a motto of "teach them all," but with as many as 70 percent of students coming from low-income families, their needs seem to take much of the district's focus, he said.
The new academic coach will organize a support system to assist families of advanced students, including identifying students for advanced work and ensuring they have an academic plan from eighth grade through graduation, Rollins said.
"We need a great program for our advanced kids as well," he said.
The School Board voted 4-0 to increase the base of the salary schedule for teachers by $200, which was $46,816 for a teacher with a bachelor's degree and no experience and $49,340 for a teacher with a master's degree and no experience.
The salary schedule builds in additional pay for teachers as they gain experience or education. The salary adjustment is retroactive to July 1, 2015, and will be distributed this month, said Kelly Hayes, the district comptroller. The revised salary schedule will be carried forward for the 2016-17 school year.
School Board members voted similarly on a 0.35 percent increase for all classified salary schedules, which would include custodians, bus drivers and kitchen staff.
Elementary schools will send parents report cards with more detailed information about their child's progress in school with the new report cards, said Kathy Morledge, assistant superintendent for elementary schools. Parents can receive a digital or printed copy.
The new report cards were tested at Walker and George elementary schools this past school year, Morledge said. The new cards added a place for teachers to report to parents the language development of children who are learning English.
Students will receive a rating for specific subjects, such as literacy, but parents will also see a breakdown of specific skills that were used to generate the overall rating, Morledge said. A kindergarten report card lists 22 specific skills for literacy, including "recognizes and produces rhyming words."
NW News on 06/15/2016