Hope School Board Holds June Meeting

HOPE, AR – The Hope School Board met for its regular June meeting on the 16th in the boardroom at the old Garland School. Board President Alvis Hamilton called the meeting into order at 5:02 pm with all seven board members and Superintendent Jonathan Crossley being present.

For the first order of business, board member Bill Hoglund pointed out that the group did not have ample notification of the most recent school expenditures list and the minutes from the previous meeting for the board to take action in this meeting. So, in response, the board voted 4-3 in the affirmative to call a special meeting by the end of the month to take care of this.

The bulk of the one and a half hour meeting was taken up by presentations given by three Hope school district staff members. The first presentation was given by Kedrick Jones, the principal of Beryl Henry Elementary. Presentation number two was given by Ms. Cari Winemiller. The third and final presentation was given by Teresa Ann James who is the assistant principal at Hope High School.

Ms. James told us that, “these were Aspiring Leader presentations. Each presenter recognized a problem in a local school, and with research, gave their presentation to relay possible solutions. For example, my presentation had to do with the role of school leadership in shaping culture in Hope High School. In my research, I discovered and reported that of the approximate 500 Hope High School students, 177 of those students were chronically absent this past school year, and 199 of those were shown to have behavior infractions”. She also said, “We want to change the culture at HHS, and it begins with leadership”.

The report made by Principal Kedrick Jones came to the conclusion that attendance is not as high as it needs to be at Beryl Henry Elementary. He said, “Our children need better motivation to come to school”.

The final presentation, presented by Cari Winemiller, focused on Beryl Henry Elementary as well. Ms. Winemiller told the board that, “fifth graders at the school were overwhelmed when it came to the standardized tests”.

In the category of new business, Superintendent Crossley informed board members that policy updates are in the review stage and the board will vote on any changes at a later date. Dr. Crossley stated that his mention of possible policy updates was to be considered the “first reading”.

Lastly, the board unanimously voted again to approve the request for use of Hammons Stadium for the upcoming little league Wildcat football season.