Bright Futures provides backpacks, haircuts for back to school

Bright Futures Siloam Springs gave away more than 500 backpacks with supplies to students in need and provided 40 free back-to-school haircuts at the Backpack Bonanza on Aug. 12, program director Sarah Jones reported at Thursday's school board meeting.

Twenty-one community partners and businesses helped with the event, and more than 200 volunteers spent a total of 500 hours working on the Backpack Bonanza, she said.

In less than two weeks time, Bright Futures was able to collect 720 backpacks through community donations from local businesses and churches, Jones said. DaySpring Cards and Potter's House matched the backpacks that were donated. The additional backpacks will be used to supply students' needs throughout the year.

The backpacks were filled with supplies collected at the United Way's Fill the Bus event at the Siloam Springs Walmart. The high school football team, school staff members and groups from La-Z-Boy, Dogwood Literacy Council, Cobb Vantress, and Potter's House volunteered at the Fill the Bus Event, Jones said.

Three local salons volunteered to provide the haircuts, Jones said.

"I know the stylists had a great time," Jones said. "They were all very teary and thankful they were able to be a part of it."

Bright Futures Siloam Springs is an initiative within the school district that streamlines school, community and business resources to meet student's basic needs so they can succeed academically and socially, according to the organization's website.

So far this year, the program has fulfilled 42 students' needs referred to them by school counselors. Most needs are filled in less than 15 minutes, Jones said.

Jones also gave a report on the Panther Health and Wellness Clinic. Peter Granderson, advanced nurse practitioner, is just finishing his first full-year at the school-based clinic. Over the past year, the clinic has had 1,929 office visits, up from 684 office visits the previous year. The clinic also provided a total of 1,132 mental health sessions, up from 699 the previous year, she said.

The clinic has grown its number of patients by 847 and now has 1,420 students who have parental consent on file to be seen in the clinic, she said. So far this school year, the clinic has averaged about 10 medical patients a day.

"I think what we've been able to capture with Peter is somebody that has the same heart that we do for kids," Jones said. "It's bigger than him just providing medical care and I think that is making all the difference."

The clinic also offers support groups for children with Dyslexia and for grandparents who are parenting their grandchildren.

In other business, school board members approved adding three paraprofessional positions and two teaching positions to the district's special education program.

Superintendent Ken Ramey explained the positions are needed because of the program's growth. The district has recently had 13 special needs students transfer into the district. There are quite a few students with catastrophic needs in the district, including blind students, deaf students, 107 students in self-contained classrooms across the district and 15 wheelchair-bound children, he said.

"We have quite a significant increase from one year to the next, which means we need more support, both certified and classified," Ramey said.

During the meeting, school board members approved a letter of appreciation from the school board members to County Judge Barry Moehring and the Benton County Quorum Court thanking the county officials for helping the district secure a $500,000 Community and Economic Development grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

The grant was used to help build a new wing of four prekindergarten classrooms at Northside Elementary School. The new classrooms allowed the district to add 40 additional slots to its prekindergarten program, which serves low and moderate income families.

The county applied for the grant on behalf of the school district and served as a pass-through agent for the AEDC, the letter states.

School board members also voted to hire BiLD architects to begin creating plans for a new library at Northside Elementary School.

Assistant Superintendent Jody Wiggins recommended the district hire BiLD architects and architect Michael Spaeth under the same terms and conditions as the prekindergarten addition to Northside Elementary. The school board gave permission to do both the library addition and the prekindergarten addition last year, but the school pulled back from the library addition last fall, Wiggins said.

The school board took the following additional actions:

• Approved a resolution approving all the salary increases over 5 percent, as required by state law. Most salary increases were caused by employees who went from part-time to full-time work, or who only worked part of the year last year but will be working the entire year this year.

• Approved a continuing disclosure dissemination agreement with First Security Beardsley Public Finance, allowing the firm to digitally submit the school's financial information to bond investors.

• Approved the Federal Program statement of assurances, promising the school will follow Federal requirements.

• Approved the Arkansas Department of Education statement of assurances, promising the school will follow state requirements.

• Approved the resignation of Susan Henderson, Southside Elementary School speech language pathologist; and Heidi Burgess, Southside Elementary School English as a second language teacher.

• Approved the hiring of Andrea Patterson, High School speech language pathologist; and Kelsey Renihan, Southside Elementary School speech language pathologist.

• Approved the transfer of 12 students from the Gentry School District to the Siloam Springs School District.

• Approved the transfer of two students from the Siloam Spring School District to the Gentry School District.

General News on 09/20/2017