Powell: Graduates’ success fueling C4 growth

Seeing other students succeed has been the backbone of the growing popularity in Carroll County’s Connect 4 program for Berryville High School students.

Superintendent Owen Powell shared with the Berryville school board at its regular monthly meeting on Monday, Oct. 16, that a record number of Berryville students are participating in the C4 program.

“The big news out of C4 is that our numbers are really high, which is a great thing,” Powell said. “We’re at 92 kids, which is way up, and it will just continue to grow and the numbers will continue to climb. In fact, we had to hire an additional lab tech because our numbers are so high and we had to take it to the board for approval.”

The Connect 4 program offers junior and senior students from the Berryville, Eureka Springs and Green Forest school districts the opportunity to pursue technical education during the school day.

The program is housed in the Carroll County Career Center, formerly the Berryville Readiness Center, and offers instruction in a number of disciplines with an eye toward industrial maintenance, machining, welding, robotics and electrical work, providing students with a cross-curricular background in different trades.

Many of the careers in those fields are high-paying jobs, which is becoming more and more attractive for students, Powell said.

“Our students just keep seeing the success of the students in front of them coming through the program,” Powell said. “They see those kids going into that program and graduating through there and getting these good jobs with good pay. They see them out in fancy trucks and being able to buy things.

“It’s a motivator for them.” Berryville’s participants are up approximately 20 students from a year ago, the superintendent said.

“It’s a great program, and not to be a broken record, it’s just going to continue to grow and grow,” Powell said.

BOARD ACTION

In board action, a new roof for the district’s Agri Building was added to the 2025-2027 Master Facilities Plan and an expenditure of approximately $39,000 was approved to repair the HVAC unit at Bobcat Arena, Powell said.

“Our Agri Building had some storm damage in the spring and the insurance company didn’t come back and replace the whole roof,” he said. “They kind of spot fixed it. So, we’re eventually going to need to put a new roof on that building so we added it to our master plan.”

The board also approved holding the annual school board election in March.

Recent testing data and school district testing growth was presented to the board as well, Powell said.

“We’re just seeing a lot of growth all across the district … that’s something to be proud of,” he said. “I’m proud of our principals, our teachers and our students.”

In personnel approvals, the board approved the resignations of Kayleigh Stringer as special education paraprofessional and Crista Smith as bookkeeper. The board also approved the hires of cafeteria employee Shonna Coleman and Skyla Smith, Hailey Petty, Patricia Klein, Stephanie Carmen, Wendy Rodriguez, and Comallita Blackston as cafeteria substitutes and Jeffrey O’Dell as a custodial substitute.