By John R. Schirmer
News-Leader staff
Two Nashville School District campuses have been recognized by the University of Arkansas Office for Education Policy for their results on the state’s spring 2025 ATLAS testing, Superintendent Doug Graham told the school board Tuesday, Jan. 20.
Nashville Junior High received the following awards from OEP: Best Growth English/Language Arts, Best Growth Math, Beating the Odds Math, Beating the Odds ELA.
Nashville High School was recognized for Best Growth Math and Beating the Odds Math.
NJHS Principal Hannah Topor and NHS Principal Ashley Riggs received their campuses’ certificates from OEP.
Graham said the office doesn’t always send out the awards together. “I hope other campuses will be recognized in due time,” he told the board.
Last week’s meeting included a lengthy agenda.
After a 26-minute executive session, the board voted 5-0 to extend Graham’s contract through the 2028-29 academic year.
Arkansas schools consider superintendents’ contracts in January each year, with other administrators, faculty and staff re-employed in later board meetings.
In other business, Primary Principal Nathan Evans discussed ways to improve third graders’ test scores.
“We want to do what we can to get third graders on grade level before fourth grade. Last year, we saw growth, with 39 percent on level. But our students deserve better; our teachers deserve better. We’re going to do better,” Evans said.
Primary teachers are looking at ways to make adjustments now
instead of waiting until 2026-27, according to Evans.
“Time is the problem. We had intervention time at the middle of the day, and it’s easy to miss that time. We’ve implemented a plan, Scrap Time, to focus on reading,” Evans said.
Scrap Time refers to Students Concentrating on Reading at Primary. Each morning, students report to their assigned locations for 35 minutes of intervention. The program started when classes resumed Jan. 6 after the Christmas break.
“I’m confident we will see growth because of this,” Evans said. “Students are working hard. We have some tweaking to do for August, but it’s been a really good thing.”
Other items were also considered during the meeting.
Board members approved a recommendation from Riggs to add a section to the NHS honor graduate policy. Riggs said the state approved weighted credit for all concurrent credit courses beginning in the 2025-26 academic year. Weighted credit was also extended to Physics and Networking. Prior to the change, only Advanced Placement courses received weighted credit, Riggs said.
“These changes were not retroactive. As a result, seniors who completed any of these courses before their senior year did not receive the additional weighted credit. This created an unfair imbalance in GPA calculations and class rank,” Riggs said.
“To ensure equity for the Class of 2026, we will calculate honor graduate GPA the same way we did last year. While student transcripts will still reflect the updated weighted credit, GPA calculations for graduation ceremony purposes will only include weighted credit for AP courses,” according to the policy.
Riggs said other schools are doing the same thing.
NHS weighted courses include AP U.S. History, AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP English 12, Physics, College Chemistry, Pre-Calculus/Trig, Networking, and UA-Cossatot SCC classes.
Also at the meeting, Graham presented an update on the possibility of new turf at Scrapper Stadium. Current turf has been through 10 season, more than the warranty included.
The district is looking at several companies, including Symmetry which installed the turf now in use. “I liked ours 10 years ago and like it today,” Graham said.
School officials at a recent Arkansas Activities Association board meeting said Nashville has the best turf they’ve seen, Graham said.
The district is considering new turf at the stadium and in the Scrapper Dome. The stadium’s track also needs to be re-done, Graham said.
“We may not be able to afford all three, but they all need attention,” he told the board.
In personnel decisions at the meeting, Dontrelle Robinson was hired as special education paraprofessional at junior high. He will be considered for a full-time position including coaching contingent upon completing his teacher certification requirements.
Maddie Rodgers was hired as a half-day paraprofessional in a self-contained classroom at NJHS.
Both hires are retroactive to Jan. 6.
Graham presented certificates to board members in recognition of School Board Appreciation Month.
He reviewed members’ training hours for 20-25 and said each member has the required six hours.
Members and their hours include Jerry Wilson, 11 including five carried over from the previous year; David Hilliard, with five carryover hours; Nick Britt, 17 including 11 carryover; Tem Gunter 96 including carryover; and Anthony Whitmore with 6. He is the newest board member and doesn’t have carryover hours.
The next board meeting will be Feb. 23.
