The Gravette School Board met this past Monday. The meeting opened with a celebration of the district’s 21st Century Learning Grant. The district recently received an extension of the grant that provides free afterschool programs for Gravette students. Emily Ensor and Kathrin Rogers lead the program for the district and were vital in gaining the grant extension.
The board heard a report from Mrs. Andrews, assistant superintendent, summarizing the district’s performance on state assessment scores. District students improved in overall literacy, math and science scores. Gravette was the highest ranked school district among the four districts in Western Benton County, and ranked among the top 4 districts in all of Northwest Arkansas. In grades 3-10, Gravette increased overall proficiency in literacy by 3%. Notable gains in regional ranking occurred with third grade finishing at third place in NWA, fourth grade came in fourth place, and both eighth and ninth grade students finished in second place in NWA rankings!
Math scores increased overall proficiency by 7%. Significant gains were seen in fourth grade math moving up to fourth place regionally and eight and ninth grade algebra scores came in second place for Northwest Arkansas. The district remained above the regional and state averages in several secondary math and science courses.
The highlight of the report was the outstanding achievement in Kindergarten literacy scores. Kindergarten literacy proficiency increased by 23% for first place in the region at 89% proficiency! Kindergarten math increased by 18%, while first grade literacy and math increased by 12%. Second grade improved literacy by 7% and math by 10%. These results reflect strong early literacy and numeracy growth and position Gravette among the highest performing districts in Arkansas.
Mr. Gravette thanked the staff, students and parents for all the hard work put into these impressive test results. We are incredibly proud of these results and know they have set a foundation for the future success of our students. A huge thank you to Dr. Newsom, Dr. Barrett, Mr. Jones and Mrs. Mitchell for their outstanding academic leadership as the district has acclimated to the state’s new Atlas testing model. Way to go lions!
Crossland and BiLD Architects presented an update on the classroom addition at Gravette High School. The project is still on time and under budget with a completion date this July. Robert Adams from Crossland reported the project will be at least $165,000 under budget, some of those savings will be used for site and utility work for the recent greenhouse grant project the district received in May. District Chief Financial Officer Dennis Kurczek presented the monthly financial report. The district is still under budget for the current school year.
The board voted to approve a three dollar an hour raise for bus drivers for the upcoming school year. The new starting wage of $23.66 an hour will place Gravette bus drivers at second regionally in bus driver pay. Maintenance and Transportation Director Richard Carver worked to consolidate bus routes and find other cost saving measures to allow this raise to be cost neutral to the district. Our bus drivers are a vital part of our district.
The board received end of the year reports on athletics, special education and artificial intelligence. Next year’s graduation date was set for Saturday, May 22nd.
The district has recently been awarded a grant from the state of Arkansas to establish a greenhouse and plant science program. The board voted to approve a contract with Stubby Inc. to construct the 30 x 60 ft. greenhouse at GHS. The $104,000 grant will pay for the majority of this project.
The board will meet again on July 13th.