Science fair event set for this week
The Pulaski County Special School District's STEM team is hosting the 2018-19 Science and Engineering Fair in the Museum of Discovery at 500 President Clinton Ave. in Little Rock on Monday.
The event will be from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Judging will be from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Awards will be presented from 1 to 1:30 p.m.
This is the culmination of science fairs held across the district for third-through-12th grades. The Monday event will feature 25 projects from three participating middle schools and 102 projects from 16 elementary schools.
Winners in this event will advance to the 37th annual Central Arkansas Regional Science and Engineering Fair at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on March 1.
NLR district plans achievement talks
The North Little Rock School District will hold community meetings Monday in Ridgeroad Elementary School at 4601 Ridgeroad and on Feb. 18 in Boone Park Elementary School at 1400 Crutcher St.
Bobby Acklin, the district's superintendent, and Deputy Superintendent Karli Saracini will join campus leaders to discuss the levels of student achievement at the schools and to solicit parents' help in raising the achievement, district spokesman Dustin Barnes said.
The conversation can also be used to identify the barriers that have hindered success and consider ways to remove those, Barnes said.
Both sessions will begin at 5:30 p.m. and will include student presentations.
Ex-candidate new hire at association
Gwen Combs, a former Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas' 2nd Congressional District, has been hired by the Arkansas Education Association to be a unified services director.
In that role, Combs is assigned to assist the affiliate Little Rock Education Association, which is the union of teachers and support staff employees in the Little Rock School District.
Combs resigned last month from the Little Rock district, where she was a teacher for more than 10 years, most recently for 3½ years at Stephens Elementary and previously at Forest Heights STEM Academy, Don Roberts Elementary and Dunbar Middle School.
She is also a former teacher at Beebe High and is a U.S. Air Force veteran.
Combs finished second to former Arkansas Rep. Clarke Tucker of Little Rock in a four-person race in the May 22, 2018, Democratic primary.
Article expounds on schools' names
Arkansas is home to four of 22 public schools recently identified by the national Education Week publication as being named for politicians who signed the 1956 "Southern Manifesto."
That document was a statement of opposition to school integration after the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., decision.
John L. McClellan High and Fulbright Elementary in the Little Rock School District, Wilbur D. Mills High School in the Pulaski County Special School District and J. William Fulbright Junior High School in the Bentonville School District are the Arkansas campuses on the list produced by the weekly that describes itself as "American Education's Newspaper of Record."
The article goes into some detail about Fulbright and McClellan, who "have public records extending beyond their views and actions on civil rights in the schools."
Fulbright, for example and noted in the article, is known for his work in foreign relations and for the prestigious Fulbright international scholarship program. McClellan distinguished himself for efforts to investigate organized crime and subversive activities during the Cold War.
The article doesn't delve into Mills' record, but he was chairman of the House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee for 16 years. He also was a main player in a highly publicized sex scandal.
Janine Parry, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville's J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, is quoted in the article, as is Little Rock Superintendent Mike Poore. Parry noted that Fulbright was "constantly balancing what he knew was good public policy with what his constituency could tolerate."
The article notes that Little Rock's McClellan High is about to be replaced with a new school of a different name in 2020. The current McClellan campus is to become a newly built kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school.
Mills High was replaced this school year with a new building of the same name. The former Mills High campus has been converted into the new Mills Middle School.
Metro on 02/03/2019