NHS trio headed to Nationals

ROSSTON – Members of the Nevada School Board enjoyed a bit of bragging rights at its April meeting Thursday night.

The board was told three Nevada High School students will be winging their way to Anaheim, CA, in June for the Nationals of the Future Business Leaders of America. The trio was on hand to talk about their FBLA experiences.

Caney Hicks spoke first, saying this was the first year computer programming has been offered at NHS, and next week he’ll be one of seven students going to Little Rock to compete in a coding competition. Hicks will compete in ag business, farm management and how ag and business combine for profit at the Nationals.

Nevada Superintendent Rick McAfee said Nevada was the only school in Southwest Arkansas to have students make state.

Elizabeth Lafferty told how the FBLA raises money with a haunted trail at White Oak Lake annually, and with a haunted hallway at NHS during Halloween. In addition, she said the FBLA raises money for the March of Dimes with a car wash. The last one raised $581. Lafferty will be competing in business communications and grammar at the Nationals.

Logan Moss told the board he’d be competing in introduction to business and was first in the state in that area.

The students, McAfee said, will be in California a week and get to tour Los Angeles and Hollywood. A total of $8,000 has been raised for the trip so far. The students, and a chaperone, will leave on June 28 and return on July 3.

He added Nevada placed a total of 30 students in the regional competition.

Nevada Principal Michael Odom updated the board on upcoming important dates. NHS Academic awards will be at 10:30 a.m. on May 10, he said, with graduation May 11 at 7 p.m. in the gym. The K-3 music and award program will be May 24 at 9 a.m. with the 4-6 music and award program set for May 25 at 9 a.m. The athletic banquet will be May 9 at 6 p.m. in the cafeteria. Odom reminded the board the Chemistry class has been incubating mallard duck eggs and the ducklings will be ready by the May meeting.

McAfee told the board the new ceiling panels have been installed in the gym and are already making a difference. After the meeting the panel toured the gym to note how much quieter it is than it was because of the baffling. Once school’s out, he continued, the bleachers will be removed. The new ones will arrive on June 26 and take about three weeks to install. The new bleachers will be in place before the start of the 2017-18 school year. He added the floor chairs will be the same as those in Walton Arena.

The board approved a special education application and budget. McAfee said this is a pass-through budget that has to be approved annually for the district to receive funding. He said the district must spend all the money it gets for special education or would have to repay it. The district, he added, has 39 students in special education.

The board accepted four resignations and will advertise for all four positions. It also approved offering a contract to Alice McKinnon as a new kindergarten teacher for the district next year.

McAfee reminisced about the class of 2017, saying this group has been through a lot and has been supportive of one another and stayed together. “This group will do great things and make improvements in the world.”

After the meeting, the board toured the cafeteria, which was decorated for tonight’s prom and visited the gym to check out the ceiling tiles.