Teachers and staff at Eureka Springs Schools are getting a big welcome back to work this week in preparation for the first day back to school for students on Monday, Aug. 14.
Administrators and cafeteria employees welcomed district staff back to work on Monday, Aug. 7 with a “Back to School breakfast” to kick off annual inservice training.
“It is always exciting to see all the friendly faces come back in here,” said Bryan Pruitt, who is beginning his ninth school year as district superintendent. “We’re getting some inservice professional development and making sure we’re all on the same page ready to educate kids.”
Pruitt said 110 district staff, including approximately 70 teachers, got to “eat real well” this week, starting with Monday’s breakfast.
“We got some local peaches from Arkansas Peaches and had pancakes, sausage, bacon, omelettes,” he said. “Our cafeteria staff just does an amazing job feeding the kids and takes care of teachers, too, during inservice.
Local banks and other organizations helped feed staff as well this week as they get ready for the start of classes, Pruitt said. CS Bank provided Subway box lunches to staff on Monday, Equity Bank delivered homemade box lunches on Tuesday and the Rotary Club of Eureka Springs is hosting a back to school luncheon for staff at Eureka Springs Schools, Clear Spring Academy and Academy of Excellence on Thursday, Pruitt said.
The district will then host an open house for all of its campuses from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday where parents and students can see their classrooms and meet their teachers.
“We look forward to seeing our parents and some of the kids,” Pruitt said. “That’ll be a real great time. Parents will learn about any new things and expectations and clarifications, stuff like that. See the rooms, some of the updates.”
With the implementation of the new LEARNS Act and changing of state-mandated testing methods, Pruitt said this week’s inservice training has been important.
“We’re trying to make sure we’re up to date on things,” he said. “They’ve changed our state testing at the end of the year … now, we’re going to have a new platform.
“We’re going to hit the ground running on Monday and start teaching on day one and try to be ready for the next round of testing. One of the main things we’ve got to do is make sure all of our kids are all at their reading level, so the first 30 days we’re going to be assessing those kids to see if they’re all at their grade level or not. If not, then we’ve got to come up with a plan of how we’re going to get them there and reach that growth.”
Other than changes because of the LEARNS Act, parents and students won’t see many changes in the district, Pruitt said, adding that changing to a four-day school week as other districts in the state, such as Green Forest, have done, wasn’t on the table for Eureka Springs.
“That just wasn’t our calling here,” Pruitt said. “In a tourism town I feel like our parents need us to be open five days a week. As teachers and staff we want to be open five days a week and feel it’s better for us academic- wise and structure- wise for our kids and knowing they are getting fed five days a week and getting taken care of. Just seems to work for us. So, we are opening and closing at the same time and with the same schedules as last year.”
Pruitt also highlighted the district’s strong presence on social media to keep parents and the community notified. The district has a smart phone application on both the Apple Store and Android platforms that keeps people updated at the palm of their hands, the superintendent said.
“That’s one of the main reasons why I wanted it,” he said of the app. “It syncs everything together, Facebook, Instagram, all of that. It has all of our information and parents can stay up to date about what’s going on and events.
“I’ve talked to our principals about teachers keeping it updated so everyone knows what’s going on. Like if there’s a peewee basketball practice on Wednesday afternoon they’ll be able to look at the app as a reminder. I know teachers are overwhelmed and are so busy working and we expect them to keep everything up to date. We might miss something sometimes, but for the most part we are proactive about getting the word out.”
