Berryville board approves bonuses for school staff

Full-time employees in the Berryville School District will once again get a holiday bonus.

At its regular monthly meeting held Monday, Oct. 21, the school voted to approve a one-time bonus of $750 to each full-time staff member, something the district wasn’t able to do a year ago.

“We were really glad we were able to do that for the staff right around the holiday time,” superintendent Owen Powell said. “We weren’t able to to do it last year. We tried, we worked hard, but we had to be fiscally responsible with our budget. It’s not every year that we can do it, but this year was one of those years we were able to.”

The board approved a pair of purchases for older equipment that needed to be replaced.

Approximately $25,000 was OK’d for the purchase of a new HVAC system at the elementary building to replace a system that had gone out, and approximately $15,000 was approved to purchase a pair of concrete floor cleaners, Powell said.

“One of ours just totally went out and the other one is really old and kind of on its last leg,” he said. “We needed to replaced two of those.”

Personnel changes that were approved included the resignation of elementary teacher Colette Cook-Tabor as of Oct. 10 and the hires of substitute nurse Laura Reed, substitute custodians Juana Rangel Perez and Kelly Masters and bus shop substitute Harold Hardesy.

Also approved was the transfer of Adam Waterbury from a substitute to a full-time cafeteria position.

Powell reported the district enrollment was 1,743 as of Oct. 15.

ENCOURAGING ATLAS SCORES

Powell said inaugural results of ATLAS testing last spring for students in grades 3 through 10 showed “a lot of improvement.”

“We’ve seen a lot of growth there, which we’re happy about,” he said. “As far as the improvement side, we’ve made it a real focal point to really focus on teaching and learning and trying to get those scores up.

“We’re proud of the improvement that we’ve seen, but of course, we’re not where we want to be. We’re working every day to get there.

“I know that we were above state average in a lot of things, and of course, obviously one of our goals is to be better than the state average. We are in a lot of areas, but not all.”

ATLAS, which stands for Arkansas Teaching, Learning and Assessment System, tests students in math, science and English language arts and started last year. Powell said he likes what he’s seen so far with the new testing system.

“One thing that the state has done that I do compliment them on is trying to get our standards aligned with the test, which obviously makes a lot of sense,” he said. “It hasn’t always been that way in the past. They are really trying to align everything we’re teaching with the test.

“Now, we’re not teaching things that aren’t going to be on there.”