Eureka Springs Superintendent Bryan Pruitt said he’s in favor of a pair of new measures recently signed into law for school districts statewide.
Act 122 of the regular session of the Arkansas Legislature was recently signed into law by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and is titled the “Bell to Bell, No Cell Act,” banning cell phones in classrooms during instruction time.
Act 123, also recently signed into law by the governor, will offer a free breakfast to each public school student in the state regardless of eligibility for federally funded free or reduced- price meals.
Each law says school districts are to implement the new policy by the 2025-2026 school year.
“I do agree with it,” Pruitt said of the statewide phone policy, adding that he felt the policy already in place at Eureka Springs follows most of the new state guidelines.
“We have our own policy here, which isn’t like a death sentence like the governor probably portrays, from bell to bell…. We will have to do some adjustments to our policy and we’ll be looking into those in our next admin meeting on how can we make sure the policy is going to be followed by the law, because once you put it into place, you have to send it to [the state] and then they’ve got to approve it that you’ve got one in place.”
Pruitt said he thinks the district will likely just continue to make sure students keep their phones in their backpacks and doesn’t think using special pouches as some schools are doing, will be an avenue Eureka Springs will take.
“We just think we’ll have some weighted consequences,” he said, adding there are times when phones are used and helpful in the classroom.
“I think the governor has come and bent backwards a little bit, too, or maybe has been more flexible on allowing uses because I know they have said something about kids using them in assemblies and pep rallies, things like that where they can use their phones to take pictures and stuff like that.
“There’s been a give and take on both sides.”
According to wording in Act 123, beginning with the 20252026 school year, any public school student “who is not a qualifying student … and does not receive a free breakfast through any local, state or federal programs shall be provided one breakfast at no cost during each school day upon his or her request without consideration of his or her eligibility for a federally funded free or reduced-priced meal.”
Pruitt said he likes the new free breakfast law and is waiting for it to be expanded to lunches as well.
“Yeah, I think that’s a really great thing for the state,” Pruitt said. “My next question is, when are we gonna expand that? Let’s just go ahead and feed them lunch, too. We did that during COVID and that helped us all. We knew the kids were fed and it worked out really good. So I’m excited about the breakfast.
“It’ll also help us here locally with some of the collected debt that we have been accumulating. Several have got some collection problems because we can’t, you know, we have to feed students, but if they don’t pay, then we have to figure out a way to. for reimbursements on that stuff. So it’s, basically, it’s bad debt.
“So as that accumulates, then that’s something you’ve got to address. So I’m excited about the bill that they’re going to feed students breakfast. And I look forward to them to go ahead and extend that to lunches.”
BOARD MEETING
At its regular meeting held Monday, March 10, the board adopted a resolution to allow three unopposed school board members to be re-elected without having to be on the ballot, saving the district money.
“All three of our school board candidates were running unopposed, so we adopted a resolution that they will go over to the Carroll County Courthouse, on the same day, vote for themselves, and therefore we won’t have to be on the ballot,” Pruitt said, adding it will save the district approximately $1,500.
The three unopposed board members who will get new terms are president Chris McClung, Candace Spaulding and James “Rusty” Rusterholz.
The board heard about many spring activities in the district, including the revitalization of the high school baseball team, a feat that has been a collaborative effort between the district, the city’s parks department and community members.
“They raised about $30,000 to restart our baseball program,” Pruitt said. “Our first home game at Leatherwood Park is Friday. We’ve had a lot of interest from students who wanted to play baseball, so we’re excited to get that up and running.
Approximately 25 students have come out for baseball, Pruitt said.
“It’s a great come-together for the whole community,” he said.
