By TAMARA JOHNSON
Managing Editor
A decline in student enrollment this year will cost the Forrest City School District about $1 million.
FCSD Superintendent Lee Vent told members of the district's board Monday night the district has 151 fewer students this year than last. The district receives about $6,800 per student, and the loss of 151 pupils will cost the district an estimated $1,026,800.
Board member Sandra Taylor asked Vent if the new parent involvement program, which required a student's parent or guardian to attend a parent orientation session prior to the beginning of the school year, could be blamed for the decline.
Deputy Superintendent Dr. Alice Barnes said the requirement was in no way to blame for the decline, and reported a 100 percent participation in the orientation requirement.
"We actually trace our students. They're all across the nation. They've left the area. I think it's a lack of jobs," Barnes said.
"This is not unusual, Vent said, reminding board members that the FCSD at one time had over 6,000 students. "Our average loss is about 110 students per year. Each time we lose one, it's $6,800." The district's enrollment currently stands at about 3,862.
In other business, the board agreed to have two pieces of property it owns but does not use the old Evans school property on Highway 1 South, and the former Caldwell Elementary campus on Highway 1 North appraised so that the property may be sold.
Two smaller portions of the 40-acre tract at the Evans site are leased to the St. Francis County Fair Association and the St. Francis Area Developmental Center. FCSD Attorney Brad Beavers said if the property is sold, these two organizations should have the first opportunity to purchase the land.
The Caldwell property consists of about three acres. Beavers said that property was purchased in 1950 for $900.
The appraisals will be reviewed when the board holds its next monthly meeting on Oct. 11.
Following an executive session, the board agreed to increase the pay for substitute teachers from $45 to $50 per day for non-certified substitutes and from $50 to $55 for certified substitutes. After the 12th consecutive day in the same position for the same teacher, the substitute pay level will increase to $60 per day for non-certified and to $75 per day for certified substitutes.
By TAMARA JOHNSON
Managing Editor
Steps are being taken in the Forrest City School District to ensure all students are proficient in math and literacy.
"A lot of this is alphabet soup you've already heard. Hopefully, you'll understand it and be very enlightened," FCSD Superintendent Lee Vent said when opening the district's annual report to the public Monday night at the junior high school auditorium.
Phyllis Russell, supervisor of federal programs in the FCSD, presented the report prior to the regular school board meeting.
Russell said that while some schools within the district have been tagged by the state as failing to meet standards in math and literacy, test scores reported by most campuses are improving.
According to Russell, once test scores at a school fall below the state's proficiency level, that school will remain on alert status for two years. "It takes two years to come off" once a school has been designated as nonproficient in either subject. Once the district is notified of a school's designation, certain steps are taken to improve the test scores.
"We're making a really big effort to make our scores come up," Russell said, adding that the district has designated several teachers this year as "focus teachers" who serve as "literacy and math coaches," These focus teachers also analyze test scores throughout the year to help students improve their grades in the subjects in which they have trouble.
Russell also stressed that although some schools remain on alert status for test scores, most scores on tests taken last year showed improvement. "They still made gains from last year, but did not meet the state expectations," Russell said.
The public report also covered the Title I and Title IV federal programs from which the district receives funding.
"The Title I program can serve any child in school, and the Title I goals are the same as the school's goals. The Title I money is spent to improve instruction," Russell said.
As for the Title IV program, Russell said the district receives a small amount of money from this federal program. That money is used to fund the district's teacher center, and has been used to purchase smartboards for classroom, according to Russell.
"It's important that we do everything we can to move the students from where they are to proficient," Deputy Superintendent Dr. Alice Barnes said. "There are a number of schools across the state that are faced with the same problems we are."
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
A partnership between St. Francis and Cross counties may mean a boost in employment for both entities if a California company chooses the former RBX facility in Colt to house a new plastic molding manufacturer.
According to Bill Thomas with the Cross County Area Chamber of Commerce, the two counties, along with state government officials, are in currently in negotiations to relocate the factory from California to the Colt location, which closed in April. Thomas said that the Colt location is one of two finalists for the plant, with the other in Texas.
"We're in negotiations with a company that will bring about 170 jobs to the area to begin with and increase to around 300 in the next few years. We're one of two finalists, and we're the only one in the state of Arkansas," Thomas said.
"We feel like the offer that we have on the table is the best offer that we can make, and we feel like we have a very good chance at getting this," he added.
According to St. Francis County Judge Carl Cisco, the offer on the table would see St. Francis and Cross counties each paying one-fourth of the financial package with the state paying the final half.
"We're going to do whatever it takes to attempt to bring this plant to Colt," Cisco said.
"We're in a time when it's difficult to find the opportunity to get any kind of plant in your area and to find someone to move into a plant which has been vacated is just a great opportunity for us. We've seen a lot of industries leaving this area, and we're going to do anything we can to bring jobs back in to this area," Cisco added.
The co-operative effort is the third such recent effort between the two counties including work on a regional airport which could be located in the Colt area and work to bring a golf course and resort to Village Creek State Park which was spearheaded by a Cross County contingent.
The RBX facility shut its doors in April after officials with RBX Industries Inc., announced that it would be one of three factories to close. According to officials with RBX, 142 area employees lost jobs due to the closing. Cisco said that the new plant could mean employment for many of those employees.
"One of the positives about the RBX plant is that it was a molding facility and much of the equipment is already there. The employees are also already here and that could be a benefit on our part," he said.
Thomas said that a decision could be made in the next few weeks.
A ruling in Little Rock Monday which would leave presidential candidate Ralph Nader's name off of the Nov. 2, ballot in the state of Arkansas may cause a new set of problems for the St. Francis County Election Commission.
According to a story from the Associated Press, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Timothy Fox ruled Monday that people who signed a petition on Nader's behalf failed to declare him as their candidate. No specific party was listed as canvassers collected 1,286 signatures, and those who signed the petitions did not represent that Nader and his running mate, Peter Comejo, were their candidates for president and vice president as state law requires.
Nader's campaign plans to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.
''We'll continue to fight in Arkansas. We think this is a mistaken decision and we'll appeal it to ensure that voters of Arkansas have more choices and not less,'' Nader campaign spokesman Kevin Zeese said. ''In the end, we're going to win. There's no basis for it, we have enough signatures. We expect to be on the ballot in Arkansas.''
Monday's decision could potentially cause problems for the SFC Election Commission which has already sent the ballot information to its printers, according to commission member Bettye Proctor. Proctor said yesterday that Nader's name was left on the ballot when the information was sent last week after the ruling was delayed.
"We had to get our information in the mail to our printer so that we could have everything ready in time. We've had enough trouble this year and we wanted to make sure that everything got in the mail and to the printers so that we could get the ballots back in plenty of time. The state told us when we had to get everything out and we did just that. I don't know if we can have his name removed but if that's the ruling and we have his name on our ballots then I will just have to go through and black it out with a magic marker if I have to," Proctor said.
Election coordinator Judy Armstrong agreed that Nader's name had been included on the ballot, but she also said that it shouldn't be an issue with the printer and had received authorization to have it removed from the ballot.
"We haven't received any proofs from them yet and if there are changes all we have to do is let them know. We just need the information in plenty of time so that we can make sure that we have everything correct on the ballot," Armstrong said Monday.
This morning, she said that she had received authorization to have remove his name from the ballot.
The Democratic Party of Arkansas had challenged the petitions, saying that 360 signatures could not be matched in a state voter database. Fox said the Democrats needed to invalidate 287 signatures for their petition to be successful, but didn't reach that mark.
Judges in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Virginia have ordered Nader off the ballot, and in Missouri he did not gather enough signatures to be put on the ballot. Nader's candidacy has been upheld in Colorado and Florida. A lawsuit challenging Nader's candidacy is also pending in New Hampshire.
So far, Nader has met requirements to appear on the ballot in eight other states being actively contested by Bush and Kerry this year.
Those states -- Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, Washington and West Virginia, along with Colorado and Florida through his Reform Party nomination -- have seen the Bush and Kerry campaigns spend millions buying ads and organizing grass-roots supporters to get out the vote in a race that could be as close as the 2000 election.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The Widener City Council on Monday agreed to pay to repair some property damage done when a piece of metal was thrown by a city mower.
Mayor Dot Halford showed the piece of metal to the council, and said it looked like part of a kick stand from a bicycle. The metal was caught by a blade and thrown while a ditch bank was being cut. It struck a house, doing damage to one pane of siding.
After some discussion, City Attorney Marshall Wright told the council that if the mower was not violating any safety regulations, the city would not be liable. However, he said as a "gesture of good will" the city should probably pay for the damage.
Council members were also reminded that a precedent had been set in the past, when the city paid to have a vehicle window replaced under similar circumstances. He said the city could do that without admitting liability.
After discussing whether bids should be sought, the council voted to contact the person who installed the siding and get a price on replacing the damaged piece of siding.
In other business, the council was told that a clerk has been hired for the police department.
Also, an insurance agent, Jackie Smith, talked to the council about supplemental insurance.
Many Professor Pigskin players missed just three of the selected games last week, but the effort fell short of what Forrest City's Chris Miller did.
Miller missed just two games to walk away with the $50 cash prize.
Miller missed the Wynne-Pine Bluff Dollarway high school game and the Georgia Tech-North Carolina college game. In all fairness, 99 percent of the picks missed the Georgia Tech-N.C. game which was won by North Carolina.
This week's selection of Pigskin games can be found inside today's Times-Herald.
An assistant principal at Forrest City High School has been placed on administrative leave.
Forrest City School District Deputy Superintendent Dr. Alice Barnes said Ron Chambers will be on leave until further notice from the district's administration.
Chambers, 44, 69 SFC 421, Forrest City, was arrested last Monday after he allegedly beat two of his stepchildren during at argument at their home. He is charged with two counts of domestic battery. His case was bound over to circuit court, and he is free on a $10,000 bond.
The children, a 15-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, were injured in the altercation, and the girl was treated at a local hospital for her injuries.
A Proctor man was arrested Monday and charged in connection with the rape of a Tennessee woman.
According to the report by the St. Francis County Sheriff's Department, the incident took place Saturday, Sept. 18. The victim claimed in her report that Ronald D. Dishon, 38, of Proctor, had taken the keys to her jeep, then drove her to a wooded area in her vehicle where he beat and raped her. After that, she said he took her to Boles Grocery in St. Frances County, where he allegedly struck her again. She said she pretended to be unconscious, at which time Dishon left. The woman then drove to a home and called police, after which she was taken to the emergency room at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Forrest City.
According to the report, Dishon was arrested by Crittenden County officers on a warrant from St. Francis County. He was then transported to the St. Francis County Jail.
The Forrest City Schools will start a new preschool classroom at Madison beginning Oct. 1.
Children who were 4 years old on, or before, Sept. 15, 2004, may enroll.
Parents may register their children at the superintendent's office. For more information, call Betty Jones at Madison, 633-1081.