Superintendents impressed with new ADE chief

Superintendents of the three Carroll County school districts came away impressed with what they heard during a recent meeting with the state’s new education leader.

Berryville’s Owen Powell, Green Forest’s Matt Summers and Eureka Springs’ Bryan Pruitt were three of 16 superintendents who met with Arkansas Department of Education Secretary Jacob Oliva on Wednesday, April 5, at the Ozarks Unlimited Resources Education Service Cooperative in Harrison.

The stop was Oliva’s 17th as he has traveled the state laying out his roadmap for not only initializing the new LEARNS Act but also his vision for other changes within the state’s education system.

“I thought he did a really good job with his presentation,” Powell said. “I came away with a pretty positive attitude about it.”

While the LEARNS Act, raises in teacher salaries and the voucher program were a hot topic, much of Oliva’s presentation involved the “educational side” of his department, including state testing standards, the local superintendents said.

“I was very impressed with him,” Summers said. “Obviously, he is an educator. … He has been a teacher, an assistant principal and a superintendent … and he explained where we were and what his vision was.

“Obviously there were a lot of questions with the LEARNS Act but he focused really on the educational side and talked about where we are now, how we got there and where we’re going. He laid it out very clearly and precisely.” One big change in the future will be in standardized testing, which currently is outsourced to out-of-state companies, Summers said.

“Those standards will now be written by actual Arkansas teachers in an Arkansas committee,” Summers said. “Now, that’s not going to happen overnight, but when that does happen you’re going to see a different interpretation of standards and they’re going to be clear. They’re going to be precise. That’s something that’s long overdue. And gets it. He’s an educator and sees where we need to go as a state.”

“Change is always hard and difficult, but these changes will impact our kids in a positive way. They’ll impact our teachers in a positive way. And I think you’ll instantly see a more a more harmonious outcome of real live data and testing that’s real and not from some testing company that’s out of state and asking questions that our kids have no clue about because they viewed the standard to mean this where we’re interpreting that to mean something else.”

Pruitt agreed, saying that a better understanding when it comes to standards is welcomed.

“We’re going to try to have more clarity in our standards and our essential standards that our teachers use to teach with,” said Pruitt, who met with teachers in his district on Thursday, April 6, to go over the information that was presented in the meeting with Oliva. “They’re going to make them where it’s easier for people to understand, for parents to understand, for students to understand and for teachers to understand. When everyone understands them we ought to be able to teach them and then build a state test based on the clarity of those standards.”

When it comes to the LEARNS Act, funding was the most talked-about topic as the minimum salary for teachers in the state has been raised to $50,000.

“The voucher system is still very concerning to me and I just don’t know how you can predict how that’s going to affect each and every school,” Powell said. “I think it’s gong to affect each school differently and I have concerns how it might affect Berryville schools. But, it does look like most of the funding for the pay increases is going to be there and I think that’s a positive thing.”

Not receiving enough funding, however, still worries Pruitt, whose district relies on funding from taxation because of Eureka Springs tourism industry.

“We’re going to have to tighten up a few things and watch exactly what we’re spending things on,” Pruitt said. “And with this inflation, all the things that went up, from all of our consumables and things like that, we have to be a little more mindful and just be good stewards of the community’s dollar.”

Summers said overall he had a good feeling leaving the meeting Oliva.

“I was going into the meeting a little bit grumpy … quite frankly, I did not arrive with the best attitude,” Summers said. “But I left very impressed after hearing him speak. I’m optimistic. I’m excited. I’m ready for these changes.”