Hope School Board

The Hope School Board met Tuesday November 14th for their regular monthly meeting. The meeting was a week early after the board voted last month to meet the week before Thanksgiving.
School Improvement Specialist Carla Narlesky presented a ” 45 day report” , a new format for school improvement. Narlesky said school attendance at all campuses are in the 90% range
Narlesky also detailed how the district is “digging into data” to determine why students who aren’t passing are having problems. She also noted the new format will contain interim assessments and principal’s narratives.
The Robotics team was at the meeting and Mr. Hart said the team had just had their best showing at UALR.. Their advisor, Mrs. Knight, noted the team has 30 members now which is up from 20 last year. Two team members gave details on the competition. The team won the ‘it’s alive” award and placed 5th in the semi-finals, just missing the finals. Mrs. Knight noted the team will go to another competition on March 8th.
Mr. Hart noted the Hope Schools as well as Blevins, Spring Hill,and Garrett Memorial are working together to form a Hempstead County Educators Hall of Fame. Mr. Hart noted his will be part of the Bicentennial Celebration.
Mr. Hart noted in his report enrollment is down a little this month at 2,363 students. He also showed the board a “report to the public” that the district has prepared and noted a similar report will be prepared in the spring.
The board looked at a “Dean of Students” job description. Mr. Hart noted the personnel policies committee had suggested the job be increased to a 209 day contract but Mr. Hart said he couldn’t recommend increasing the contract from 190 to 209 days. The board took no action.
Mr. Hart noted the district will hear from possible bidders on Wednesday on a pre-bid conference on privatization of the district janitorial services. Final bids are due December 7th. Mr. Hart said he expects possibly six bids.
The board looked at the list of the fleet of buses. The district carries 43 buses and that’s too many. Mr. Hart says they hope to have a plan after the first of the year on replacing district buses in a timely manner. Mr. Hart says the ideal number of buses Hope should have is around 35. Maurice Henry noted most of the buses the district gets rid of sell for $300 to $500. Some of these are still running.
The board discussed a “request for proposals” on food service. He noted they had a “sampling” day from some food vendors.
The board looked at a proposed 2018/2019 Hope Academy of Public Service application. No action was taken.
The board looked at a request from Harold Massey and “Unity In Action” to rent a school auditorium. The board approved that application.
Personnel matters closed out the meeting.