Blevins School Board

The Blevins School Board met Monday evening at 6:30pm in the Blevins School Cafeteria. The meeting started with prayer, the pledge, and the approval of the last meeting’s minutes.

The first matter addressed was a proposal presented by Scott Kelton. Kelton opened by addressing the recent passing of Randy Hughes at the start of this year, touching on Hughes’ history as both principal of Blevins Elementary, and then as Superintendent of Blevins School District. He was well-loved and respected by the community, and he clearly loved being a part of it, especially his involvement with the elementary school. In light of this, to honor his memory  Scott Kelton proposed that either the Blevins administration building or elementary school be renamed after Hughes. The school board responded positively, and though Superintendent Stephanie Dixon did mention that if they chose to rename Blevins Elementary it would require a bit more paperwork and coordination with the state, the school board decided to move forward with renaming the elementary school.

Another issue discussed was an upcoming change to salary schedules. The Arkansas State Legislature recently passed the HB1614 bill, thereby creating the Teacher Salary Equalization Fund, which will supply Arkansas school districts with funding to increase all credentialed salaries. However, as it currently stands, these funds will not be available until the 2022-2023 school year. Despite this, Superintendent Dixon proposed that the Blevins School District go ahead with the increase in pay rates in the next school year, despite the fact that the funds would have to come out of the District’s budget alone. Dixon freely recognised that this last school year had been extremely taxing, and while the District had been able to provide a one-time bonus this past year, Dixon pushed for a permanent salary increase to come into effect a year early in recognition of everyone’s hard work, and in order to keep the District’s salaries competitive. The school board was very supportive, and passed the motion unanimously.

Finally, the school board addressed the possibility of changes to the District’s Ready For Learning Plan. In light of Governor Hutcheson easing Covid-19 restrictions last month, the district’s administration put out polls – to both staff and parents – asking whether they would prefer if a number of the school’s precautions (including wearing masks) were made optional. A striking 85.5% of the staff members and 65.7% of the parents that responded relayed that they would, in fact, prefer such restrictions be made optional. Despite these results, some of the school board expressed concern that easing restrictions right now would be reckless. If students or teachers were exposed and quarantined now, at the end of the school year, it could be disastrous. That said, there was some opposition from other members of the school board, pointing out that most children weren’t wearing masks outside of school regardless, and that the current restrictions in place were especially difficult for some teachers to maintain. It was put to vote, and in a 3-1 outcome, the school board elected to keep the current COVID-19 restrictions in place through the end of the current school year.

Other issues discussed include the emergency purchase of a new HVAC unit, the repair and grounding of the school’s intercom system in the hope that future lightning storms won’t damage it, and the purchase of a new school bus.

The meeting’s minutes can be found on the Blevins School District’s web page.

https://www.blevinshornets.org/browse/168620