Eureka Springs Times-Echo

Student transfers involving the Eureka Springs School District will now see a more streamlined process thanks to a resolution passed by the district’s school board at its monthly meeting Monday, Sept. 11.

“In the past some of the schools only did transfers once or maybe twice a year so it created a backlog on transfers,” superintendent Bryan Pruitt said.

Now, districts across the state are required to handle transfers each month as part of the new LEARNS Act.

“The legislature passed a law that you had to do those every month, but they also said that you can adopt a resolution and let the superintendents work back and forth on those transfers, which is the way we kind of do it anyway, and then get board approval.”

The adopted resolution means Pruitt can approve or deny transfers and they don’t have to be presented before the board.

“You avoid the backlog this way,” he said.

Pruitt said most of the transfers involving Eureka Springs involve students from Berryville or Huntsville, with an occasional transfer from Green Forest. Most are approved, he said.

“It’s based on if it’s going to cause us to hire an additional paraprofessional or add a teacher,” he said. “Or, if the student has been expelled or it’s a habitual bouncing back and forth. Those would be reasons we wouldn’t accept.

“Most of the time, though, transfers go through and it works out great.”

BUDGET APPROVAL

The board approved the 2023-2024 district budget, and things are in good shape, Pruitt said.

“It’s always a nice relief to know when the board approves your budget,” he said. “Assessments are up a little bit, revenue is up, so that’s helping us out.

“Now that we don’t have American Rescue Plan funds anymore it’s a good thing that assessments are up a little bit for us. It helped us recover the loss of that additional funding and kind of balanced us out.”

Overall, financials are pointing in the right direction, Pruitt said.

“I think we’re going to be in good shape and we should have a little money left over in our budget to put in our building fund next year as long as we don’t have any un-forecasted emergencies,” he said. “Other than that we ought to be in pretty good shape.”

The district has already received its allotment from the state for increased salaries as part of the LEARNS Act, the superintendent said.

“They’ve already paid us; they paid those funds up front for those additional salaries,” Pruitt said. “Next year we will get it one more time so it hasn’t impacted the budget at all. After that, with assessments up, I think we will be OK.”

CAFETERIA UPDATE

Pruitt said work is continuing on moving multiple utility lines on the property where a new dual cafeteria for the elementary and middle school campuses will be built.

“They’ve got the water in, are doing the gas and will do electric next week,” he said. “Hopefully the latter part of next week they’ll be able to start digging footers for the foundation, so we’re excited about that.

“You get some footers in the ground and things start progressing and you can see something … we’re looking forward to that.”

Crews recently avoided one hiccup when they narrowly avoided an undiscovered water line on the property, Pruitt said.

“They were digging up a gas line that we already knew where it was and about two feet away on the side of it we found another two-inch water line and no one had a clue it was there,” he said. “The operator said when he put the bucket down the forks went right between it so he didn’t bust it.

“We couldn’t believe it. That’s what you call a good operator.”