TEXARKANA, Ark. - The Board of Trustees at Texarkana, Arkansas, School District reorganized roles and heard enrollment and learning updates from Trice Elementary School in a regular meeting Tuesday night.
The board reshuffled the positions of its members, with former President Glen Spears being replaced by Frank Coleman, who was previously the vice president. Coleman was replaced as VP by Jesse Buchanan.
Vickie Lacy was named secretary of the Board
After the repositioning, the Board heard reports from Trice Principal Tracey Boyles regarding attendance, enrollment and student learning.
Boyles said enrollment is 679 students, after being at 654 in August. The amount of traditional students in that same time frame has increased from 314 to 494, while the number of hybrid students has decreased from 135 to 43 and virtual students have dwindled from 205 to 142.
Boyles said Virtual Wednesdays, which began Nov. 4, have been going well.
This change, which was added to the Ready for Learning Plan in October, makes Wednesdays a virtual learning day for students and staff, where all students have the option to work on missing assignments from the first nine weeks either from home or on-campus.
The goal is to provide additional support to teachers working with virtual and hybrid students.
"My teachers are extremely excited and getting a lot of things done," Boyles said. "They would stay up there late at night and into the weekends to get things done. Now, with these Virtual Wednesdays, they're not having to do that. They can use that time to call those virtual kids, make videos, record lessons and work with those students."
For parents who cannot keep their children home from school because of work or for other reasons, school is still open for students to come in and make up missed assignments.
Support staff are taking the responsibility of supervising students present at school during these days, while teachers work.
Boyles said on the first Virtual Wednesday, 108 students were present, and on the second, 86 were.
In other news from the meeting, trustees approved the following five bids:
$17,561.68 from Ledwell for shelving at Arkansas Middle School, with funding coming from the magnet grant and district funds.
$8,320.49 from Firmin's for principal's office furniture and 11 two-drawer lateral files at Arkansas Middle School, with funding coming from the magnet grant and district funds.
$49,858.16 from CDW-G for 191 Chromebooks with licenses for College Hill Middle School, with funding coming from College Hill Middle School's Title One Budget.
$78,311.25 from CDW-G for 300 Chromebooks for Kilpatrick Elementary School, with funding coming from Kilpatrick Elementary's Title One Budget.
$39,155.63 from CDW-G for 150 Chromebooks for Fairview Elementary School, with funding coming from Fairview Elementary's Title One Budget.