Bearcat Wrap-up Podcast

Happy Friday!

Thank you for what you have been able to accomplish this week! Every week of this school year has resulted in positive results for our students demonstrated by our district goals data. I was very happy to report to the board Tuesday night that our on-grade-level reading percentage has reached 67 percent! This surpasses our goal of 60 and we still have several weeks of instruction to make a final push for our below-level readers and get them ready, and I do not mean ready for the ACT Aspire. I mean ready for what comes next.

Speaking of the Aspire test, the one caveat I would make about our reading scores is that the way we are measuring on-level is much more thorough than the way the ACT Aspire measures it, and I worry about that. I feel much more confident in our methods telling us whether our students can read or not. I want to thank our team of interventionists for the work they are doing to bring us these numbers. It has not been simple.

The rest of this Wrap-up will be about SB294 but I do want to provide one more bit of recognition for our district. I learned today that Holly Harshman has fully implemented 77 percent of Tier I behavioral interventions in our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) system. This is part of our effort to reduce discipline referrals. You can see what all that entails in this document. All of our campuses are getting great recognition for the progress they are making and this is the latest milestone.

SB294

The bill was released Monday afternoon and I emailed it to all staff on Tuesday. If you have not read the bill yet, here is a link to it along with the fiscal impact on the state. The bill is 144 pages. Breanne Davis of Russellville is the sponsor. Twelve of the 20 members of the House Education Committee and 55 of the 100 members of the House of Representatives are co-sponsors of the bill. You may check the current status and keep up with the progress at this link. The bill was given a ‘do-pass’ recommendation from the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday but with the expectations that there would be amendments made by the House Education Committee.

There are a lot of good things in this bill but there are also a lot of questions about how to accomplish those things and how much funding will schools receive in order to pay for those things. I will touch on a few key points that raise concerns and are being considered for amendments.

Early Childhood

This part of the bill is encouraging except that there may not be a full understanding of the costs associated with the language that is used. For example, Section 51 is an expanded requirement for dyslexia screening in grades K through 2. The time and personnel needed for screening would be an increased cost to a district because of the frequency required in the bill. Also, with current dyslexia laws in the state, this requirement would trigger interventions that we would not have the personnel for because so many kindergartners begin school with dyslexia markers. Not because they have dyslexia, but because they have had no introduction to letters, sounds, and other early literacy practices. Screeners are currently used to inform teachers and help make decisions about how to proceed, but we do not report this data to the state. I believe this is why this screening language is in the bill. We are asking that this portion be amended and clarified.

Teacher Fair Dismissal

We have asked for more specific language on due process and only to reduce the red tape and bureaucracy in the TFD Act. There are false ideas that repealing the TFD Act means that anyone may be fired for any reason, but that is not true. We feel that defining due process will help end that fear but keep enough of the old language out to make non-renewal or termination a simpler process.

Funding

In the last Wrap-up, I explained how the teacher raises would be funded and that until we know how much foundation funding will be received, it is hard to put a price tag on the bill. That has not changed.

I also explained in the last Wrap-up that the minimum salary would move to $50,000 but that the salary schedule law will be repealed meaning that there is no salary schedule. The only new information I have been sharing about this is that if Mena moved our base salary up to $50,000 and tried to keep the current salary schedule, we would be bankrupt within about 3 years.

The Governor intends to accomplish this pay increase by giving schools enough money to get every licensed staff member who does not earn $50K per year that amount. Anyone who is earning more than $50K already will be given a $2,000 raise. This will be new money that is earmarked for salaries and will always be provided. When we are able to determine exact dollar amounts, such as our foundation funds, we will be better able to communicate with all staff what future salaries will be.

Leadership

This is a very large bill with a lot of uncertainty within it; so, the primary fear, especially for small schools, is the impact of unintended consequences. Throughout the state’s history, there have been rules and laws that resulted in school closures. This is the primary concern of this bill since it is so large and there are so many parts of it without clear methods for implementation.

In our Leadership PLC, we just finished a book by Simon Sinek called Leaders Eat Last. He points out that one of the big mistakes that leaders make is to make an abstraction of the people they lead. This means that we forget each person as an individual and only consider them as a part of a larger group, lessening personal connections. I have used this example before when focusing on our efforts to make sure our community is confident by not making our parents or our students an abstraction. I hope that our leaders in Little Rock have not made this mistake and are making an abstraction of schools and the people in them. Each district has its own unique culture and traditions and, in most of Arkansas, each school is the heart of the community and without it, the community would lose its spirit.

Closing

Again, this is a large bill and there is much more than can be covered in this Wrap-up. There are a lot of good things within this bill that will enhance education in Arkansas. We just need clarity and we need to be involved in the rule writing if it becomes law. We are sending amendments to legislators that will be presented by our administrators’ association. I suggest you read it for yourself and ask your own questions. Here is a summarization of each section made by Lucas Harder, ASBA attorney.

Here is the latest from the Thought Exchange and it remains open at this link.

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

Have a great weekend!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Happy Friday!

Thank you for all you have done this week to help us reach our district goals. We should have an update on our on-level reading percentage by next Tuesday’s board meeting to accompany the other data we are tracking and I look forward to sharing that with everyone soon.

As we learn more about the LEARNS plan, it is apparent that our grade-level reading will be a very important part of our work for years to come; so, I will get right to the subject at hand for this week’s Wrap-up.

Arkansas LEARNS

Secretary Oliva zoomed with superintendents this morning to provide us with more information about the details of the Governor’s plan and I will share what he told us in this Wrap-up. He did explain that there are things he still does not know as more questions get asked but added that he and the department will work with school districts to make sure that this plan is successful.

Before starting, he did warn us that there are still many nuances and uncertainties about this plan because it is not finished and will take multiple years to implement.

* Early Childhood Education

The major element of this is to relocate the Division of Early Childhood Education from DHS to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. A new Office of Early Childhood at DESE will oversee all of the Pre-K programs, including privately run systems, to ensure Kindergarten readiness. There will be no mandatory Pre-K but the state will create a dashboard for parents to inform them of effective early childhood education centers near their homes and provide information related to costs, accountability, curriculum, student-teacher ratios, etc. They will also work with faith-based, independent, and private programs to give guidance and assistance on these items of educational interest and establish ways to close gaps in service in areas that do not have high-quality early childhood.

Secretary Oliva pointed out that we know that students who come to Kindergarten without being Kindergarten ready tend to stay behind grade-level reading standards. DESE will define Kindergarten readiness and that will be the mission of the Office of Early Childhood

* Early Literacy

The big question related to early literacy was the language related to the retention of those students who were not at grade-level reading ability by the Third Grade. Secretary Oliva was clear that this is not a mandatory retention policy. He went on to explain that students that went on to Fourth Grade and were not on grade level will be given a safety net in later grades so as not to fall further behind. He used examples such as extended reading blocks of time, being placed with the highest quality teachers, and focused RTI. Furthermore, parents will be provided with funds to pay for additional tutoring if their child is not able to read at grade level.

DESE will develop a unified progress monitoring system for schools and the department to use and accurately measure students’ reading levels. This is encouraging because we have a concern here in our district about being accurate with our measurements to track our progress. Schools not meeting the level of expectation will be provided with reading coaches from DESE to improve reading instruction.

Secretary Oliva stated his belief that 90 to 100 percent of our Third Graders should be on level when the system is put into place over the next couple of years. There is no doubt that we will see a renewed focus on our K through 3 literacy instruction with the Science of Reading establishing all of our teaching practices. DESE will be contracting with an outside agency to independently evaluate what their department and our schools are doing to reach this goal.

There is a similar plan being built around numeracy, as well.

* Career Readiness

We saw the first step in this plan happen this week with the House Education Committee recommending a ‘do-pass’ for HB1329. This bill, if it becomes law, will require DESE to establish ways for students to take elective Career and Technical courses to substitute for core academic courses.

The LEARNS plan contains within it the goal of creating a career-ready diploma for high school students who want to learn a trade or other skills not taking the traditional university route. School districts will be developing ways for these diplomas to be developed locally with local needs in mind. Core components of academics will still be required and the diploma must still provide a post-secondary pathway should a student want to continue a traditional post-secondary education at a later time.

Community service will be a part of graduation requirements but DESE will give schools flexibility to define that because of the differences in resources available from district to district for community service opportunities.

* Low Performing Schools

Local boards will be allowed to contract with other educational entities to run low-performing schools instead of suffering state takeover. A takeover is still an option but in LEARNS there is now one more step to be taken at the local level before the state takes over.

* School Safety

Funding will be available for schools to improve safety. However, the funding is prioritized according to the priorities set forth by the Governor’s School Safety Advisory Council. One of the top priorities schools must use funds for is the hardening of the schools through controlling access to buildings and students. Door systems and fencing will be the starting point for safety efforts followed by the addition of trained individuals who can respond to threats in a fast, effective manner. The good news is that our schools at Mena already have many of the top priorities in place.

Schools will also be provided with more mental health support by providing more training for current staff on threat assessment and increasing the number of mental health professionals available to assist the schools.

There will also be an alert system for teacher licensure when educators are placed on administrative leave for the investigation of abuse. This is to prevent the individual from leaving the state to work in another state.

* Teacher Salary and Incentive Pay

The minimum teacher salary will be increased from $36,000 to $50,000 putting Arkansas in the top five states for teacher pay. For the 2023-2024 school year, all teachers will also receive a $2,000 raise from this year’s salary. There will no longer be a law that dictates a mandatory salary schedule but that does not mean that salary schedules will no longer exist. Whether or not Mena has a salary schedule will depend on what can be afforded and that will not be known until the foundation funding amount is released.

We were told by the Secretary that the money needed for the new minimum and the $2,000 raise will come from a separate fund and we will continue to receive foundation funding as we have in the past. This makes the overall teacher pay situation much more tenable and gives schools a mechanism through foundation funds to increase classified salaries.

The state will facilitate a bonus program for educators to earn up to $10,000 more per year based on growth. We were not given any more details about that but I will add that the state’s facilitation of this program makes better sense than schools doing it. It will be more fair and consistent this way. The only insight we have on this system is that the senate proposed a system of incentive pay similar to Louisiana’s.

Schools will also have an option to opt-in to a 12-week paid maternity leave program with half the pay being provided by additional funds from the state.

* Contracts and Teacher Fair Dismissal

Contracts will remain at 190 days for teachers. There was a rumor of 195 days. Also, we will be allowed to continue with our modified calendars that are based on a minimum number of hours instead of days.

People who go into the teaching profession will have more opportunities for scholarships and loan forgiveness. Again, I encourage all of our non-licensed staff to consider earning a degree in education because it will be practically free and the pay will be worth it.

Superintendents’ contracts will be required to have performance targets built within. There was not much detail as to how that would look and the Secretary could not elaborate because he did not know.

Many teachers are afraid that the repeal of the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act would mean that they could be fired for no reason but that is not the case. Due process is still a requirement. The change in TFD will be more about the bureaucracy and red tape involved. The process should be much easier and still provide protections and opportunities for teachers and administrators to improve before being terminated or non-renewed.

* Parent Empowerment

The Secretary said that the local school should be the school of choice for every parent and he wants to ensure that through the implementation of Arkansas LEARNS. He went on to say that when the school cannot meet the needs of a child the parent should be given the tools necessary to make a change. That does not mean that the state will be giving parents money to educate their own children. He said the “Universal School Choice” part of LEARNS would be implemented over the next few years as the plan will take time to develop.

* Societal Forces (CRT)

The Secretary did not speak much about this except to say that this language was intended to be more preventative than reactive. Our emphasis will be to teach students how to think, not what to think. I believe this is what we do at Mena Schools and most schools in our state and do not feel that we will have to face a lot of new policies based on this facet of the plan. Just be a teacher, not an activist. Be kid-centered and not idea-centric. There will be a section of K-5 prohibited topics related to adult-level concepts and ideas such as sexual orientation. There were no more specifics about this topic.

Closing

That ended his discussion with us and there were still many questions unanswered. The Secretary stated that he was open to creating work groups to develop the rules and procedures of the LEARNS plan and the bill that will create it. He is open to collaboration and wants to take every step to ensure the success of our educational system.

Here is the latest from the Thought Exchange and it remains open at this link.

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

Have a great weekend!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Happy Friday!

Thank you for all you have done this week to help us accomplish our district goals! Of course, with school being closed four days last week, not much changed. But, we are glad to have had another full week of school for the spring semester and take further steps toward a great outcome for the year. On the bright side of last week’s closure, our absenteeism went down another two-tenths of a percent.

In this week’s Wrap-up, I will write about the LEARNS initiative, address a new student discipline initiative aimed at our district goal, and talk a little about emerging technology that we need to prepare our students for.

LEARNS

The biggest news of this week was the unveiling of our Governor’s educational reform plan called LEARNS. We have been introduced to the basic vision of the plan before and I shared that in every Wrap-up since its release in combination with a Thought Exchange for your thoughts and questions. I have shared your thoughts and the rankings with the legislators for our district and I am sure you have more thoughts and questions since the latest new information has come out. If you did not watch the press conference where the plan was announced and explained, you can watch it here.

The plan does appear very ambitious and promising if all initiatives can be carried out but, as the cliche goes, “the devil is in the details”. The bill has not been released to explain how each goal will be accomplished so all there is now is speculation. There are a lot of rumors flying around but I am waiting on the bill before trying to explain in a context such as this Wrap-up how the plan might impact our current system. I will say that the math does not work out in order to pay a base salary of $50,000 and keep the current salary structure. In Sanders’ press conference, I believe she quoted new spending to be $173M, which would not cover an increase of $14,000 to educators’ base salary that is currently in law. In the Week 18 Wrap-up, I wrote that ‘our cheese will be moved’, and the $50,000 number strongly suggests that.

At this time, the whole plan has to be researched by the Bureau of Legislative Research (BLR) to cross-reference current laws to determine how each one of the goals may be accomplished either through repeal or revision of the laws we work under. This will take some time so we should reserve judgment and opinion until the bill is released.

All educational reform is controversial. There is promising language in this plan but we do not know how it can be accomplished without major changes in the system we are used to. We all want things to be better but we do not want things to change and that is why reform is a struggle. We should all be patient in this process and politely ask questions to our legislators as this progresses. I also want to add that I and other superintendents are bringing awareness to our leaders that school support staff deserve the same attention in the effort to improve educator pay. With that said, I want to highlight the loan forgiveness part of the plan. That is a great incentive for classified staff to earn a degree and become an educator.

The Renew and Restore Project

A couple of Wrap-ups ago, I wrote that we were working on another initiative related to student discipline. The details have been ironed out and we have partnered with the Polk County Juvenile System to create the Mena Public Schools Renew and Restore Project. This is a restorative justice system for category four or misdemeanor offenses committed by our students that happen on our campuses or at school events.

Basically, we feel that major offenses by our students that result in law enforcement citations are not dealt with swiftly because of the overburdened justice system. We also feel that traditional consequences of a school are not influential enough to prevent further infractions. So, we have developed a way for students to experience true consequences in a way that restores their debt to our school and community along with ways to determine and deal with root cause issues. We feel that this plan is a great partnership with our legal system officials and a way we can support them and our community at large. A full description of the plan can be seen at this link.

Technology

If you have been paying attention to certain portions of the news, you have heard about specific artificial intelligence called ChatGPT. This is an AI that you can have a conversation with and it will use a programmed neural network. I will give you an example of what it does. I asked it the question, “How has the Arkansas LEARNS initiative been received by citizens of the state?” Here is the response I got:

I'm sorry, but as a language model AI, I don't have access to current information about the reception of the Arkansas LEARNS initiative. However, based on my training data, the implementation of education initiatives is often a controversial topic, and the reception of Arkansas LEARNS might have varied among different groups of people in the state. Some might have supported the initiative, while others might have criticized it. The effectiveness of the initiative and its impact on the education system in Arkansas would be the factors that would likely determine its overall reception.

That may not be all that impressive but consider the logic and how new the information is at this time. Here is another example of an assignment that was given to Tim Walston to interview a superintendent about facilities. I answered all of the questions with ChatGPT and only added a sentence to each response specific to Mena Schools. Be aware of this in your coursework. Nathan and his team are aware of ways to make sure actual student responses are what you are getting and they will soon be sharing those.

I bring this all up not only to make you aware but to focus on opportunities for our students to be future-ready. Right now, Kilroy Blockchain, the company that created FLO and has moved to Mena and NWA, is conducting a pilot virtual internship involving the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Three schools have been invited to join: Mena, El Dorado, and Farmington. The goal of the project is to create AI software that can recognize a dead chicken from a live one. This is not a far-fetched idea as demonstrated by this whitepaper from the National Library of Medicine.

I bring all of this up to encourage young people to take opportunities to learn these new technologies and understand how to apply them to solving problems.

Closing

It is Career & Technical Education (CTE) Month this month and I want to express how thankful this district is for the hard work of our CTE teachers demonstrated by such successful CTE programs. We have high participation and a commendable level of success in the competitions that have been taking place this spring. The competitions are just one way of bringing relevance to the career focus content our students receive in CTE courses. So much so that our legislators are proposing a law, Bill 1329, to create ways for students to earn core credit through CTE courses. Congratulations to those students and teachers for all they have achieved!

The LEARNS release will be all I provide about legislation this week. Seeing the complete bill for the plan is what is now on all educators’ minds.

Next week our basketball teams will be competing in the District Tournament hosted by Pottsville. Good luck to our Ladycats and Bearcats as they enter the post-season. Our junior high basketball season came to an end this week and we congratulate both teams and coaches for a great season.

You may vote on calendar options for next school year here. This form will also be sent out in an email to all employees.

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Happy Friday!

Thank you for your patience as we were day-to-day this week in determining whether or not to have school. I know this left some of you in a lurch because you travel more than a few miles to get to work every day. I want to thank those who came in each day that could to take care of various chores and check out the buildings. Other than the inability to continue student learning, no other problems arose from this winter storm.

The week’s Wrap-up will have very little in it regarding the events of the week so I will use it to remind all of you about why we have the current calendar and what to consider as we choose next year’s calendar.

Calendar Information

During the last legislative session, Act 688 was passed giving schools the option to design their academic calendar around 1,068 hours of instruction instead of the traditional 178 days. Seeing that Mena Public Schools had a regular school day length that went well above 1,068 hours for the year, we saw the opportunity to make changes that would benefit students and teachers.

During the push over the last decade for PLCs to be used in education, the point has been made over and over about research indicating that when teachers collaborate and plan together on students’ behalf, the students benefit academically even more than added days of instruction. There is also some research suggesting that more collaboration time increases teacher job satisfaction, retention, innovativeness, and feeling prepared.

According to the Thought Exchange results at the beginning of the year, our assumptions were mostly correct. Our district goals data indicate close to the same results for students as we trend in the right direction, except for our attendance goal. Our absences did drop another tenth of a percent last week and our on-grade-level reading report to the board in January was a really good one. There is still much work to do but our calendar design was intended to help facilitate our overall school improvement.

This week’s weather has shown us the downside to our calendar. When we told the state we would use an alternative calendar one of their rules was that we could not use AMI for days we have to close the school. Our anticipation was that we had enough hours “in the bank” so to speak that we would be alright. Well, after yesterday’s closure and assuming we will not have to close anymore, we will be short about four hours of instruction at the end of the year. So, I will be discussing with the district leadership PLC the possibility of making up this time on one of the non-instructional days we still have left in the calendar instead of extending the school year to May 25th. We have February 20th scheduled as a non-instructional day and that would be the first on my mind to change, but we will consider all of the ramifications before doing so. Also, keep all of these things in mind when voting on the 2023-2024 calendar next week.

Another point that should be made about our calendar is that the schools that are using the traditional calendar, even though they are allowed to use AMI days, are not finishing the year any sooner than we are. In fact, some are completing the year at a later date. The state department made a ruling that since traditional calendars consist of 178 days of student interaction, AMI would be allowed. We know the many problems that come with using AMI to count the school day and did not feel that our students would be missing out without AMI as an option and I still believe that the alternative calendar is a better choice for students and staff. Making February 20th an instructional day is much better than adding a day at the end of May.

Legislative

The Governor’s big educational reform bill has still not been released. Thank you for more comments on Governor Sanders’ LEARNS initiative. Here is a link to what has been commented thus far and a link to the Thought Exchange for any new remarks you have. I am also providing a list of newly added bills of interest.

* HB1323 - Creates a child mental health screening program in schools and childcare facilities for birth through age 19.

* HB1333 - Amends the definition of a student under the AR concurrent challenge scholarship program. Includes students in grades 9-12 instead of 11-12. If this passed it will start the four-year Pell Grant clock earlier if a student uses the scholarship as a ninth grader. This may also become a problem if courses paid for with this scholarship do not transfer to the four-year institution and all scholarship funds are expended.

* HB1329 - Creates a means by which public school students may substitute comparable elective coursework in CTE for a required core academic class.

Closing

Next week, February 6 through 10, is National School Counseling Week in Arkansas. We have a tremendous team of counselors here at Mena Public Schools and I thank all of them for all the things they do for us and our community! Thank you, Mrs. Chaney, Mrs. Thacker, Mrs. Rose, Mrs. Lyle, and Mr. Walston!

Have a great weekend and even though Phil saw his shadow, let us hope for no more winter weather!

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Happy Friday!

I want to begin by thanking our transportation department, especially all drivers, who struggled through the snow on Tuesday to get our students safely delivered home! Several of our staff members were out until after 5 pm Tuesday rescuing buses stuck in the snow: James Davis, Shane Torix, Danny Minton, Justin Head, Jason Hendrix, Josh Starr, and Alicia Moody. I want to thank all of them for what they did.

I also want to recognize the work that Alicia Moody has done in learning and using our Transfinder and Samsara software. Now, all of our bus routes have been GPS tracked and mapped so that we can view all of our routes in real-time on a map similar to Google Maps. Along with the new radios, this helped us track where buses were and if they were moving or not.

The weather did not do what the forecasters predicted, which caused us a lot of trouble. But with the help of our new systems and those who were willing to get out in the snow to pull buses to safety, no one was hurt and there was no serious damage to our equipment.

Due to the shortened week, I do not have much new information to put in this Wrap-up but I will update you on a few things.

Discipline

It has been noted each week that our district goal for discipline is ahead of schedule by more than 20 percent compared to last year at this time. We have attributed that to the work being done in the buildings using the BX3 system, creating behavior matrices, positive behavioral interventions, and tracking the data. I want to break down the data further by category in today’s Wrap-up comparing the number of incidences in the 21-22 school year that have changed the most this year up to Week 19:

* Bus infractions last year, 228, and this year, 182.

* Disorderly Conduct last year, 56, and this year, 25.

* Disregard of Directions last year, 32, and this year, 18.

* Fighting last year, 16, and this year, 7.

* Tardies last year, 54, and this year, 21.

There is one category in which we are seeing an increase and that is Tobacco/Vaping, last year 16, and this year, 22.

Rates of Detention have gone from 42 to 17; In-school Suspension from 248 to 210; Out-of-School Suspension from 42 to 26; and, the ‘Other’ category has dropped from 82 to 18.

Improving discipline increases learning and we are continually looking for ways to make these numbers even better. We will soon be sharing news about another discipline system we are developing in partnership with our juvenile justice system which we are excited about. But there is no system that can overcome or replace the relationships between teachers and their students. Thank you for all the work you have done to make those relationships positive because your efforts are proving to be effective.

Legislative

Thank you for your comments on Governor Sanders’ LEARNS initiative. Here is a link to what has been commented thus far and a link to the Thought Exchange for any new remarks you have. I am also providing a list of newly added bills of interest.

* HB1204 - Requires private schools to administer an annual statewide assessment; Requires private schools to admit any student that applies for admission and intends to cover private school costs with state funding. We would like this amended to include homeschooled students if accepting state funding. This bill is being supported.

* SB81 - Amends the law concerning obscene material creating the offense of furnishing harmful items to minors. This bill would remove existing protections for public school staff and librarians surrounding material the bill defines as being harmful to minors and requires mandated reporters to hotline anyone who provided such materials to a minor.

* HB 1122 - Following an amendment, this bill restores the school start date to the week of August 19th and repeals the prohibition of districts requesting an Act 1240 Waiver of the school start date. The amendment removed the language repealing the use of hours instead of days for student contact days when establishing the district calendar from the bill. This bill has passed both chambers and should be delivered to the Governor by next week.

* HB 1205 - This bill would require any school, whether public or private, that receives public funds to provide transportation to any attending student within thirty-five (35) miles.

* HB 1268 - This bill provides for a $10,000 salary increase for teachers, increases the base teacher salary schedule in future years to $50,000, and provides funding.

* SB 172 - The bill would redefine recess to be a non-instructional duty for purposes of counting towards the maximum sixty (60) minutes per week teachers may perform without receiving additional compensation.

Remember, this is just a short list of bills that may directly affect teachers or classified staff. If you want to view the entire list of bills related to education you may visit the Arkansas State Legislature webpage.

Closing

We have home basketball games tonight and are getting closer to the spring sports beginning. Congratulations to Ladycat Basketball for breaking into the Arkansas High School Sports Network Class 4A Top 10 this week!

We are very happy for our classified staff members in the REACH program who made the Dean’s List for the fall semester: Caleb Tilley, Jamie Grogan, Jordan Bailey, LaShea Holder, Melody Rowe, and Stacy Green!

There are still about thirty employees who have not completed their intent form for next year.

The 2023-2024 Mena Public Schools official calendar options should be released next week.

Thank you for all you have done this week and have a great weekend!

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Happy Friday!

Thanks for all you have done this week to improve our district goals. Of the three goals we have, we are making strides in two areas of emphasis - behavior, and reading. Attendance is still lagging. We reported these results to the board at Wednesday night’s meeting and you may read more details in the board minutes that Mr. Hobson released yesterday.

The spring semester is well underway and so is our 94th General Assembly of legislators in Little Rock. I would like to use this Wrap-up to set some tone for the semester and provide you with some insight into the happenings at our state capitol.

Three Constants

There is a documentary on Netflix titled Stutz. It is a documentary by Jonah Hill about his therapist, Dr. Phil Stutz. I have not finished the entire production but I have gleaned some good things from what I have watched and the best of what I have seen is Dr. Stutz’s three constants in life - the things we cannot escape: pain, uncertainty, and constant work. He explains that acceptance of these constants will help us deal with problems and I found them to be simple and profound in how we deal with the problems we face when working in the school business.

Pain

We understand this in the physical sense, especially as we get older and physical activity and age begin to work against each other. But in our roles as educators, emotional pain is definitely a constant. Whether it is from the struggle of maintaining positive relationships with coworkers, students, and parents or dealing with the disappointment of witnessing the failure of our students, pain is with us always. There has been much reported lately on the science of stress and how teachers vicariously experience the pain of their students and carry it with them in their personal lives.

We have to recognize this as a constant and that it does not go away. But we counter that constant with the joys of education to keep balance in our lives. This is why it is important to use our PLC time to celebrate successes in the classroom and to talk about disappointments or problems and how to overcome them as our common enemy. We cannot use pain as an excuse to avoid solutions or a way to place blame on others. We call it out for what it is and face it. Just by doing that, we diminish its impact.

Uncertainty

No one knows the future and this is why we find comfort in predictable routines. However, nothing is certain and routines can lull us into complacency and even create more pain when the results of routines are not productive. Knowing and accepting that uncertainty is always present is a good tool for dealing with surprises.

We want to know what will happen before it happens. This is the primary reason you all ask for communication from your administrators. We can never communicate enough but that is because with our communication there is always uncertainty. We can never express ourselves with full confidence because of uncertainty and neither can you. By embracing and accepting this constant, we can improve our relationships and improve our understanding of each other. This constant also reinforces the need for a mission and vision. We may not be able to predict the future but we all should agree on the reasons we do what we do.

Constant Work

Most of us will admit that this is a given throughout our lives but there is a part of each of us who expects to reach a point in our careers where everything is easy. I am afraid that that will never come to pass. I think that this is best explained by Kara Lawson, the Women’s Basketball Coach at Duke University. Here is a video of her explaining to her team that things never get easier. She says you overcome that fact by getting better and better at doing hard things. We have to be resolved to the fact that constant work will always be a part of our careers and really question ourselves and each other when tempted to make things easy. Are we really benefiting our students when we do?

Little Rock

Thanks to whoever it was that took the time to comment on the Thought Exchange related to the Governor’s LEARNS initiative. I have opened it back up and will keep it open throughout the legislative session to gain insight into thoughts and opinions as different bills on education come to the forefront of debate.

I will not list all educational bills but you can go to the legislative homepage to view them. I will focus on bills that are consequential to your roles as teachers in the classroom. I will link the bill along with a brief description and let you know how our administrators’ organization stands.

* HB1091 is a bill to treat a nationally recognized high school equivalency exam the same as a high school diploma for purposes of employment in Arkansas. We have not taken a stance on this until we understand the full intent of the sponsors.

* HB1104 requires Arkansas to adopt Daylight Saving Time permanently if the Arkansas Secretary of State determines that federal law has been amended to allow such a change. We have no position on this bill.

* HB1122 requires that the first day of school for public schools be on or after the Monday of the week in which August 19 falls, not earlier than August 14, or later than August 26. We will still be allowed to structure a calendar based on hours instead of days. This bill is supported.

* HB1152 provides that the first $50,000 in income received by a public school teacher or open-enrollment charter school teacher is exempt from income tax. This bill is supported.

* HB1156 requires public school districts to make certain designations regarding a student's gender in certain settings. It is to ensure that when students are taken on trips that they are grouped in rooms, such as a hotel or dressing room, according to their gender given at birth. My understanding This bill is supported.

Closing

Congratulations to the artists at Holly Harshman Elementary who won awards from Economics Arkansas for their artwork. I received their artwork in frames to hang in HHES along with some prizes.

We ask that all employees complete their notice of intent before February 18th. Here is a link to the form. This is not a binding document but it helps us plan for next year.

Our PPC is still working on the calendars for next year and those will be sent out for a vote by the staff once the options are fully developed.

Again, thank you for all you have done this week, and have a nice weekend!

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Happy Friday!

I hope you have had a good week of return coming out of our Christmas Break! I trust that your time over the holidays was enjoyable and well spent with your family and friends. The first week of 2023 marks the beginning of the eighteenth week of the 2022-2023 school year and we have a lot of good work in front of us to close out this school year and reach our district goals.

This week also marks the beginning of a new gubernatorial administration for our state and this means a new educational vision, goals, laws, policies, rules, procedures, and leaders at the state level. This began right away today as Governor Sanders proclaimed four executive orders, one of them being the resolution for her LEARNS initiative. I want to use this Wrap-up to provide you with some insight into what this may mean for us educators.

The headline of this Wrap-up may be exciting to some of you and ominous to others. I think we will experience a little of both but, overall, if the goals of LEARNS are achieved it will mean good things for our state.

LEARNS

This stands for Literacy, Empowerment, Accountability, Readiness, Networking, and School Safety and Governor Sanders released an executive order today instructing our new Secretary of Education, Jacob Oliva, to carry out this initiative. We have not seen the bill or bills of new laws that will be enacted to carry out this order but Secretary Oliva emailed all superintendents on Wednesday explaining that our state department would examine current practices in education to determine whether or not they meet these ends.

One of the concerns of the initiative is related to empowerment, which is referring to school choice. Secretary Oliva did say that public schools should be the preferred choice for parents and that it is his focus to make that happen. However, another matter related to empowerment has been the potential for vouchers to be expanded giving parents taxpayer funds to help pay tuition for private schools and even use for homeschooling. We need to monitor how this develops and consider how it meshes with the accountability portion of this initiative because right now, there is no accountability for homeschooled students other than their own.

The whole LEARNS initiative is encouraging and legislators have reached out to superintendents and administrators to learn more about the rules and regulations that bog us down as a way to reach these goals without having to overhaul our educational system. As I communicate with our state leaders, I would like to give you the opportunity to provide me with input; so, please take part in this next Thought Exchange.

I should add here that Secretary Oliva was the senior chancellor for the Florida Department of Education and you may recall that in a past Wrap-up from February 25th, 2022, I mentioned how Florida was abandoning standardized tests to focus on progress monitoring. This could be an indication of things to come and it would be encouraging for this administration to do the same for the students of Arkansas.

What We Are Asking For

We have become very good at doing school but are we doing the most for student learning to happen and the most to give our local communities the workforce and entrepreneurs it needs to thrive? This is a question we have been asking for a while as the issue of school choice has become more popular. One of our conclusions has been the increased demands placed on public schools without additional financial and structural support to provide them.

We have a very rigid system of standards and policies that have existed since 1983 and they squelch the numerous ways to provide individualized learning and fulfill specific community needs of students. They were developed for a ‘college for all’ concept but have created a disdain for learning, which is communicated very well for this generation in a video made by Prince Ea called What Is School For. This video encapsulates this generation’s attitude toward school. You should watch it. You will find truth in it but there are parts of it that may offend you or hurt your feelings. Nevertheless, we must strategize as educators not to fight this attitude but to make learning relevant again.

This year’s Superintendent of the Year for Arkansas, Dr. Jared Cleveland of Springdale, gave a good outline of this rigid system and its history. He expresses the need for a more flexible system to service our local communities and still provide the academic rigor for a strong citizenry. We will use this premise to ask legislators for the freedom to compete if school choice is going to be a focus of this legislative session and this administration.

These two things - the LEARNS initiative and the current public school plan to ask for a chance to compete will mean that the protected systems of education may not be protected any longer. Our cheese will be moved but there are three points in the parable to remember:

* Thinking too much about your cheese might paralyze you, so just start looking.

* Nothing lasts forever, so keep your eyes open for approaching changes.

* You can always find new cheese, and the minute you start moving things will get better.

I will add that staying mission-focused will help us deal with the change and mean the best outcomes for our students. I will keep you all up-to-date on this session but you can also go to the Arkansas State Legislature home page to read the bills that impact you in some way.

Closing

There will be a report given to the Board on Tuesday for our district goals. I have been given the good news from both MMS and MHS that last semester had fewer numbers of F’s, especially multiple F’s, than has been seen for a long time. Also, speaking of the Board, January is School Board Member Appreciation Month so please thank our members for their service if you have the opportunity.

Here are the Thought Exchange results for the question about next year’s calendar. The PPC is working on the 23-24 calendar now and it will be proposed at the February Board meeting unless finished by Tuesday.

Congratulations to all of our basketball players, wrestlers, band members, and chess players for all of the success they have had this week and over the Christmas Break!

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Happy Friday!

As we finish up the fall semester of the school year, I want to thank you, again, for all of the hard work, patience, cooperation, intelligence, innovation, and vigilance you provided to educate our students throughout this half of the year. The weeks have flown by, as they always seem to do, so as we put a bow on the fall semester of 2022, remember to reflect on the accomplishments of this semester to prepare our minds for the next.

Charter Renewal

On Wednesday, Mrs. Buckley, Mrs. Warner, and I presented our district’s application to renew the Polk County Virtual Academy (PCVA) charter. We testified before the Charter Authorizing Panel about the first five years of our conversion charter school. Mrs. Buckley and Mrs. Warner addressed the school’s successes and challenges and plans for the future. The panel unanimously approved a motion to grant us another five years of operation.

We have adjusted the mission of the charter, however, to be more about individual student success. The original mission of the charter was to offer homeschoolers in our district a free public school virtual curriculum option. However, throughout the COVID pandemic, the image of virtual learning became less attractive as we discovered the difficulties it created for so many students. Now, PCVA will be used to provide flexibility for learners who need it for achieving whatever life goals they have in mind along with remaining as a viable option for area homeschooled students.

Calendar Planning

When we return to school in January we will begin the work of planning the district calendar for the 2023-2024 school year. This year’s calendar is based on a minimum number of hours students must attend school instead of days. This was because of new legislation to give districts more flexibility in developing yearly school calendars.

The feedback on the calendar at the beginning of the year was good since staff members had more time to prepare for students to come to school; but, since we have to create next year’s calendar before finishing out this year’s, we will not be able to see what the end of the year will be like. We will be finishing school earlier compared to past years but May is a busy month and we may miss not having those days to carry out all of the end-of-year activities. There are many considerations as we plan.

Now would be a good time to have another Thought Exchange regarding the school calendar. If you would like to comment and read others’ comments on the question about next year’s calendar, please click the link.

Recognition and Information

I attended the Mena Bearcats Wrestling match at Acorn Monday night and it was very exciting and energetic. Our wrestlers won several matches and all of them were fiercely competitive. It takes a lot of guts to compete in a one-on-one event like that in front of spectators and I am proud of each one of our wrestlers. There will be another match at Acorn in January and I encourage all to go see what it is like.

In our board meeting minutes from Wednesday, you may have read the bus information report. We are considering purchasing new trip buses but I wanted to mention that Mrs. Moody and Mr. Davis in the Transportation Department have applied for a GoRED Grant. This grant provides funds to pay for new buses with cleaner emissions systems. If the grant is awarded, it will reduce our costs quite a bit. It is a complicated application and we thank them for the extra effort to bring additional funding to the district.

Our recent band and vocal Christmas performances have been outstanding. The Third Grade program was a huge hit and drew a tremendous crowd. As always, Mr. Morgan brought out the best in our high school band, and Mr. Chaney’s debut directing our middle school band was terrific. All of our musicians and singers make wonderful sounds thanks to our wonderful directors!

Our THRIVE and BX3 efforts have been going very well. The collaborative development of tiered systems for behavioral intervention has been helpful and once they have been in place for a while, our students will reap the benefits. Even though it may not feel like it at times, our district goals data indicate that discipline is down. I cannot help but attribute some of the positive data in our discipline to the efforts being put forth in these new programs.

I want to thank Mr. Walston and Mrs. Catlett for their presentation to the board Wednesday evening on Work Ready Communities. Please take some time to familiarize yourself with what this means and help to support it. There is a shift happening in education. The ‘Skills Gap’ that exists in our workforce has created a renewed focus on giving high schoolers more opportunities to prepare for work as much as college. Having a Work-Ready Community will bring more relevance to the things we teach and add more attraction for businesses and industries to locate in Polk County.

The floor polishing will continue this weekend and over Christmas Break. Thanks to all of our maintenance staff and Mr. Minton for keeping that project moving and taking the steps to keep those crews from disrupting too much of our day-to-day. American Concrete Concepts is a great company to work with, too.

Closing

Come out to the Union Bank Center tonight and support our Bearcats as we take on Clarksville. We will also be having the chili supper fundraiser for the Dover Family organized by Coach Bentley, Aramark, and the entire football team and staff.

As mentioned, this will be the last Wrap-up of the semester. We will be together again next week but as we enter the Christmas Break, take time to rest and enjoy your time off. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Happy Friday!

I sincerely thank you for everything you have done this week to educate our students despite some really rare and harsh distractions. I especially want to thank our security and law enforcement members for leading us through multiple bomb threats earlier this week without incident. Last year, on Wednesday, November 17th, there was a bomb threat made at the high school and there were two major differences in results from last year to this year: one, there was much less communication between students and parents keeping the crowds away; and, two, there was an arrest made.

These positive outcomes happened because of reflection on past performance, learning from mistakes, making corrections, and improving training. We are especially grateful for the smart actions of the MMS office staff. If they had not taken the steps they were trained to take, law enforcement would not have made an arrest as swiftly as they did.

This week’s Wrap-up has some news and updates but I would like to center it around our actions to stay on-mission as a way to deal with all of the distractions taking place now and in the future.

Mission Focused

There is a sentence in our mission statement that says, We exemplify personal accountability by celebrating successes and learning from failures without abandoning purpose. The way we all responded to the bomb threat on Tuesday was better than what we did before because we recognized mistakes or failures. When we recognize our faults in such an important task as dealing with an emergency, we certainly cannot give up and admit that we are not good at it because the consequences of giving up would be very terrible. We do not abandon our purpose because it is so important to others who may depend upon us.

Having a mission also helps us to focus on others instead of ourselves. In many instances of emergency, there is a lot of chaos because people become concerned with their own survival. We depend upon trained professionals who have a specific mission and focus on that mission to help others. They bring order to the chaos and reassure the rest of us that we are safe or show us what to do so we can become safe.

Our professional and personal mission(s) in life and work is how we restore and retain order when there is chaos. When we internalize these reasons for working or living, they help us to guide each other and ourselves toward the safety and comfort that is disrupted when unpredictable emergencies or tragedies take place.

When we are in our normal routines, our professional mission in work helps us build strong professional relationships with those around us. It is important that our relationships with students and colleagues are mission-centered in order to keep an even keel. If our relationships are not mission-centered then they are only established by emotions, and we know how emotions can impact relationships when emergencies arise. When we lose sight of the mission and focus on emotion, we can say and do things that hurt ourselves and each other. So, stay mission-focused.

Cybersecurity

Many of us are aware of computer ransomware and malware attacks that have happened close to home. Our hospital suffered such an attack not long ago and some school districts have, as well. But the latest attack on the Little Rock School District has caused great concern in the state. When the best way out is to pay a quarter of a million dollars to your attacker, which is what LRSD did, the rest of us want to make sure we are not faced with the same problem.

So, starting in the next month and through the school year, Nathan and the tech team will be taking action to make our network more secure. Some things will not impact you, but some will. I am sure there will be new legislation coming from, as well, that will force new policies and procedures upon us. As for now, be aware that the district will be taking actions that will require your cooperation to bring about the best outcomes, which is to keep your data, district data, and our students’ data protected.

Closing

The Christmas concert performed by our choirs last night was outstanding! There has been much improvement in our choral students since their first performance earlier this semester. Thank you, Mrs. Tilley, for your efforts and we are looking forward to hearing Mrs. Dickinson’s elementary choirs.

Our wrestling teams will be competing close to home next week at Acorn. We do not have any home meets in this first year; so, if you want to watch some of our matches, we will be wrestling at Acorn on Monday the 12th starting at 6 pm.

This week, we finalized the budget for the remaining ARP funds to complete the polished concrete on all campuses and we added the dark stain to help the aesthetics of the floors. Also, the cost of the outdoor pavilions is now too high, so we have allocated all that is left to the floors.

Our district goals continue in the same trends as they have in weeks past; however, I do want to call your attention to some good details for attendance. This link will take you to a breakdown of attendance comparing last year to this year. Notice that MMS and MHS both have better attendance than a year ago in all grades. This is very good considering that secondary students have more control over how often they attend school. This also reinforces the fact that illness among our younger students has hurt our attendance. We do, however, still have students who are chronically absent and we continue to look for ways to address that problem.

Our basketball teams have been having a great season thus far. Both of our senior teams are in the Alma Tournament through this weekend and we have home games next week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Please come out and support the Bearcats!

Also, congratulations to our Quiz Bowl team for earning a second-place award in the Mineral Springs invitational meet this week!

On a more somber note, we have many Bearcats close to us who are suffering in some way. There are students and staff members suffering illness or the loss of a loved one. In our shared values we have stated service to others as a top priority in our mission to create a kind community. There will be opportunities for all of us to help both public and private. So, please, when you see the opportunity to help, consider it an obligation.

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Happy Friday!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have had a productive week. Thanks for all you did this week to continue our mission. Much has happened through the course of the week coming out of the break and I want to use this Wrap-up to share the positives and put the whole week into perspective.

Recognition

In the Week 13 Wrap-up, I wrote about the state recognition that has been received by our buildings, and this Monday, I received more good news from the Office of Educational Policy. Holly Harshman Elementary has been recognized with a Beating the Odds award for high ELA growth for the Southwest Region. Louise Durham and Mena Middle School also received this award with the MMS earning it for all subjects and making the state’s top ten in two categories, Overall and ELA! The full list of Beating the Odds award winners can be found here.

This week, several school staff members helped a struggling mother of one of our second graders get out of The Executive Inn and into a house. When the request for assistance came, our people stepped up to fill the home with furnishings and housewares, have the electricity turned on, and deliver a stove donated by Washburns. Washburns is also donating a refrigerator. It is a happy story for a mom who lost her nine-month-old not long ago. She now has a home and one of our students has a better chance at success.

I want to thank Mrs. Philpot for inviting me to do a lesson for her enrichment class of 9th graders on Wednesday. The lesson was on tying ties and they learned to tie a simple knot and a Windsor knot. We had a fun time learning a new life skill that I hope they will use frequently. I am glad that I was given this opportunity to teach kids a skill because early in my career, Mr. Duckett, former MHS ag teacher and administrator, used to tell me that when you are having difficulties in the job to just go grab a 9th grader and make them good at something.

A very special thing happened in Pottsville last night as our Junior Bearcats and Ladycats Basketball teams took on the Apaches. In our boys’ game, one of our Bearcats was heartwarmingly helped by his teammates to score a basket before the game ended. He shot the ball over and over, then it went in just before the buzzer making both sides and both teams cheer for his accomplishment. He is a special kid, full of joy, and with the help of his teammates, he brought joy to the whole gym. It is nice to see empathy and compassion on display among our students.

I want to thank our counselors for the recognition they earned for our District this week for their Comprehensive School Counseling Plan. This is a required submission to DESE and in an email, I received from Program Advisor, Rodney Ford, he stated, “Your plan was scored as well-developed, the highest ranking you can receive. Only 35 school districts received this designation. You have done a great job and I can tell that a lot of hard work went into your plan”. It is nice to have people in the state department recognize our counselors’ efforts.

More Than a Nursing Home

Wednesday was the official opening and ribbon cutting for The Greenhouse Cottages of Homewood, a rehab and senior care community located next to Holly Harshman Elementary. We already know they have been a wonderful neighbor to HHE, but going to the ribbon cutting gave me more perspective on the mission and purpose of that “nursing home” and our mission and purpose as a “school”.

The Administrator of the community, Vickie Hughes, explained that each of the houses in the complex was named after some influential person from Mena to honor and memorialize those names and their service to the community. Besides the proper names such as the Coogan House or the Rowe House, she also called the names Bearcat House and Ladycat House. That is us. Our school is the largest contributor to the future good of our area.

Just prior to Mrs. Hughes’s portion of the program, a gentleman from the Department of Human Services, John Ponvey, made some very meaningful statements. He said that a society can be measured and evaluated by the way that it treats its elderly and its sick, which is a modification of a quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. As he spoke about the impetus of The Cottages, he reminisced about visiting his grandfather in a nursing home and how institutional and depressing they were. Many of you can probably relate. They were not like home at all and definitely not suitable for people who were in cognitive and physical decline to feel comfortable like they are at home.

He went on to explain that they chose Mena because not very many communities have what we have. He was referring to the values that are shared among us. Values that would ensure that the people who serve the residents of The Cottages would do so with dignity and honor and make the twilight of life more joyous. So, the vision of home and community and the values of our community resulted in this newest care facility in Mena.

What does this have to do with our school? We are an institution for humans who are in cognitive and physical incline. We deal with the beginning of a person’s life, and as Mr. Ponvey spoke about the need for a feeling of home and community instead of the depressing institutional feel of nursing homes as a way to ensure dignity at the end of life, schools have to operate with the same warmth and care toward our clients as our way of keeping the cherished values of family and community that brought The Cottages to Mena. It is all about caring for others and I would spin off of the Gandi quote by saying a community can be measured by how it treats its children. If we treat our children well by guiding their cognitive and physical incline, we will continue to prosper.

Closing

We have more senior high basketball tonight as the Senior Bearcats and Ladycats take on the Pottsville Apaches. I also want to mention our eSports team’s success in their postseason tournaments. In Splatoon 3, our team advanced to the second round. This tournament involves high school teams throughout the central U.S. We also have a student in NBA 2K23 who has advanced to round two, as well, and is seeded in the top five of more than 100 players. You can see more about them on our Facebook Page. Congratulations to them and I hope they reach the finals in two weeks.

Our latest district goals data continues to trend the same. Discipline remains much lower than last year and attendance is at 92.5 percent.

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com