TEXARKANA, Ark. - The Texarkana, Arkansas School District Board of Trustees heard a presentation from Lewis Architects Engineers on Thursday evening about possible roofing improvement projects at the June Little Center, the district's maintenance complex and the vocational building at Arkansas High School.
During the presentation, Steve Lewis said the materials and insulation for the projects would not be delivered until May or June of 2022 if ordered today. Due to pricing and delivery complications, the bid process for these materials has not begun yet.
Barry Murdock, director of supportive services, said the district does not yet have pricing estimates on what the roof renovations would cost, but he said material costs for the projects keep going up.
The roofs are said to be in bad shape at these locations.
It remains to be seen how these potential projects would be paid for. Superintendent Dr. Becky said the only building that could possibly qualify for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds would be the vocational/body shop building at the high school.
The Interlocal and Texas Arkansas Purchasing Systems were also mentioned as potential funding options.
The board was also given a presentation on the district's ACT Aspire Test results from the district curriculum team.
Scores came in a bit lower than state average in most cases, with third and 10th grade taking the worst hits as far as decreases from 2019 to 2021.
The biggest growth areas celebrated were fourth and fifth grade reading scores at Union, sixth grade math scores and eighth grade reading scores - all increases of at least 6%.
The score decreases followed a statewide trend due to the learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but board member Glen Spears expressed particular displeasure with these results. "What frustrates and disappoints me is the spread between our scores and the state's," Spears said. "And I don't know what the excuse is, but it shouldn't be there."
Some of the drops in scores in third and 10th grades were as much as 20% decreases.
"It's a tough place to be in right now, in education," Kesler said. "Nothing takes the place of face-to-face education. Students and parents have been struggling, and the teachers are struggling. But we do have several interventionists at every school that are trying to help these kids. I've walked several campuses today, and you'll see a teacher sitting with one or two kids, helping them with reading skills. And that's what it's going to take, one kid at a time."
The board finished the meeting off with a budget workshop.