PRAIRIE GROVE -- Prairie Grove School District hosted the September meeting for the Chamber of Commerce at the district's central office and used the opportunity to present the Annual Report to the Public, as required by state law.
Superintendent Reba Holmes and Pet Joenks, assistant superintendent, gave an update on the 2018-19 school year, with information about test scores, goals and facilities.
Holmes said the school district is the city's leading employer with 225 employees. The district's enrollment is about 2,059 students, with 621 students at the high school, 624 students in grades five-eight, and 814 students in pre-kindergarden--fourth grade.
About 43 percent of Prairie Grove students qualify for the free and reduced lunch program. Holmes said this percentage is probably higher but as students get older, they are more reluctant to apply for the program. A chart showed that 46 percent of children are in the federal program for the elementary school, 44 percent for the middle school and 39 percent for the high school.
Holmes reminded a full-house at the chamber meeting about the district's vision and mission statement.
The district's vision: Prairie Grove School District, in collaborative partnership with families and community, will provide a secure environment of education excellence where all belong, all learn and all succeed."
The mission statement is that the district will "champion a K-12 learning community that is committed to ensuring all students graduate prepared for college, career and citizenship."
Joenks, who is the newest district administrator for Prairie Grove, said he has been impressed with the culture of Prairie Grove schools and the community.
"You have something in this community we want to sustain," Joenks said. "We want to make sure that kids who graduate here will be back in 10 years."
Test Results
Reporting on statewide testing from spring 2019, Joenks said Prairie Grove's average scores are higher than the statewide average in all areas: English, math, science and reading. Prairie Grove is "barely over the top" for science, and the district will focus on science to "make sure our kids are successful," Joenks said.
For 2017-18, the average composite ACT score for high school students was 21.5, compared to a state average of 19.9.
District Goals
Prairie Grove focuses on four main areas: student focus, collaboration, relationships and results, Joenks said.
Goals for 2019-20 include creating collaborative teams at all schools to work on struggling students and instruction; to complete professional development for kindergarten through sixth-grade teachers on the state's reading campaign; to integrate reading strategies in every classroom; to have continuing improvement in career readiness and success.
Joenks said Prairie Grove School District was rated the second best school district in Washington County by the housing and community finder Niche.com for 2020. Fayetteville was ranked first in Washington County.
"A lot of people look on those websites to find out about communities and places to live," Joenks said. "We'd like to be #1 but #2 is not so bad."
The website Niche.com shows that Prairie Grove School District received an overall A- grade for 2020, when looking at academics, teachers, clubs and activities, diversity, college prep and health and safety. Niche.com also ranked Prairie Grove as the 13th best school district in the state out of 239 districts.
School Facilities
Holmes gave the school's latest information about facilities and how the district will meet future student growth.
Enrollment has grown by 39.4 percent in the past 15 years, and the school is running out of classrooms, Holmes said. Looking at enrollment numbers for the past three years, enrollment has increased from 1,916 in 2017, 1,990 in 2018 to 2,019 in 2019 (not including pre-kindergarten).
At the same time, the state's assessment team has determined that several school buildings need to be replaced and 25,000 square footage of obsolete buildings must be demolished, including part of the middle school.
Holmes said Prairie Grove staff and employees have done a good job of maintaining buildings, some of which are 67 years old, but time has "finally" caught up with the district, with outdated building materials, plumbing and wiring that has caused old buildings to be out of code. In addition, population growth in the city is affecting the town and the school, she said.
Since August 2015, the district has added 41,000 square feet to the intermediate school to create a kindergarten-fourth grade school, demolished the primary school building, constructed a FEMA safe room and multi-purpose building at the elementary school and built a new competitive basketball gym at the high school.
This was accomplished at a cost of $16 million using the last millage increase approved by voters, Holmes said.
Meeting Future Growth
To meet future growth and growing pain, the district has a three-phase facilities plan, Holmes said.
Phase 1, which is underway now, is a new seventh-eighth grade building with 51,565 square feet. Phase 2 is a new wing of 15,000 square feet to move fourth grade to the middle school. Phase 3 is an additional 35,715-square-foot wing at the new junior high school for ninth grade.
Holmes said the cost of all three phases is unknown but is predicted to be more than $25 million. With state partnership funds for the three phases, Holmes said the district believes it will be able to finance all three phases.
A list of future facilities and requests from the community includes career and technical facilities; a sports facility with field house, dressing rooms, press box, turf football field; track and new bleachers; moving baseball, softball and soccer to the high school campus; a fine arts center with stage and auditorium, band and choir rooms.
What's next, Holmes said, is for the school and people of the community to work together to prioritize and plan for the future of Prairie School School District.
General News on 10/09/2019