Prairie Grove

For 2014-15, Prairie Grove School District started the year with a $2 million balance. Total revenue for the year was about $15.5 million, with expenditures totaling $15.3 million. The district ended the year with a balance of $2.3 million.

Superintendent Allen Williams gave a district annual report to the public and principals shared their own reports during meetings at their respective schools.

Student enrollment for 2015-16 is 1,881 students, as of Oct. 1. This is compared to 1,840 students on Oct. 1, 2014.

Goals for the year included providing a curriculum alignment in all grades so students would transition smoothly from grade to grade and building to building. Another goal was to provide rigorous learning opportunities allowing all students to graduate and be college and career ready. An additional goal of the district is to provide facilities that are physically safe and secure for optimal learning to take place.

For 2014, Prairie Grove School District was placed on "needs improvement" for literacy and math. This is because the district did not meet targeted goals based on the federal law No Child Left Behind.

School principals gave their own annual reports during meetings in their school buildings.

Prairie Grove Elementary School has a current enrollment of 676 students in pre-kindergarten-fourth grade. Instructional goals for the school include creating unity within the school personnel, establishing common assessments and using testing data to help students make gains in literacy and math.

Last year, 60 percent of first and second grade students scored above average in math, reading and language on their standardized tests.

For the middle school, enrollment was 588 students in 2014-15. For math and literacy Benchmark tests, at least 70 percent of all students scored proficient or better in all grades. In most cases, the percentage was higher. The middle school offers an advisory time and Tiger Time for all students.

Electives include personal finance, technology tools, creative writing, weight training and photoshop instruction.

Prairie Grove High School has 622 students in grades 9-12, the largest number in school history. The high school offered 13 Advanced Placement courses in 2014-15 and gave a total of 399 AP exams at the end of the year. The overall passing rate for the exams was 31 percent.

Goals for Prairie Grove High include continued growth of AP and pre-AP courses, continue to develop additional career technical programs of study and to continue to develop plans to implement Common Core standards.