Berryville schools tackling plenty of projects

It’s the summertime so that means a lot of projects for Berryville Schools.

At the Berryville School Board’s regular June meeting, Superintendent Owen Powell gave an update on all the activities taking place around the district.

“We’ve got a lot going on for sure,” Powell said.

The district has begun the demolition process of the old elementary school building and is currently going through the asbestos abatement, he said.

“That’ll take a couple of weeks, and then after that, they’ll actually get into the demolition. So, that’s a big project in itself,” Powell said.

Other summer projects include the installation of new flooring at the East Annex while also replacing flooring to a lot of the middle school.

“And of course we’ve got a lot of painting projects going on throughout the district,” Powell said. “And we’ve got a parking lot repair at the elementary school.”

Many of the interior doors at the middle school are also being replaced as part of an approximately $31,000 project through an Arkansas School Safety Grant, according to the superintendent.

“Some of the doors qualify under the grant because they have a lot of glass in them,” Powell said. “So, we’re taking those out and replacing them with doors that don’t have that glass in them.”

Another purchase thanks to money from the safety grant will be to upgrade cameras in all of the district buses, Powell said.

“All of our buses have cameras and some of them are very dated,” he said. “Some of them are almost 20 years old.”

OTHER ACTION

The board approved moving forward on the ABC Preschool Building project, Powell said, with hopes of breaking ground on the new building in September.

“It will have a 10-month lead time on it so it should be finished by July of 2024,” he said.

The new 7,500-squarefoot facility will feature six classrooms for 4- and 5-year-olds and will be located just north of Bobcat Arena behind the elementary school.

Officers for the school board also were approved.

Chad Hipps was elected as board president on a 3-1 vote, Jeff Tanksley was

PERSONNEL APPROVALS The board approved the resignations of Wendy McClellan as high school secretary, Clara Tittsworth as ISS paraprofessional and James Tabor as a middle school teacher and bus driver, Grant Hutson as a middle school teacher and coach and Shawn Caldwell as high school teacher and coach.

Hires approved included Micki Marshall as high school counselor, Sara Fryar as high school teacher, Josh Fox as middle school teacher and coach, Drew Golden as high school teacher and coach, Gerri Stuppy as school nurse, Isaiah Smith as custodian and Bailey Bastien as athletic trainer.

Transfers approved were Kaylan Ellis from K-2 ESL to K-2 alternative education teacher, Suzanne Burden from K-2 Art to middle school art, Johnna O’Gorek from DL Lab to English teacher, Tate Ferguson from assistant baseball coach to head baseball and head seventh-grade football coach, Cody Curtis from head boys track to assistant track coach and Jonathon Wood from assistant track to head boys track coach.