Students in the Eureka Springs School District will be working to “feed” the “monster” later this month during state-mandated ATLAS testing.
That’s what happens after the three schools aced the first year of testing based on state cumulative scoring, each earning “A” letter grades, superintendent Bryan Pruitt shared with members of the school board at their monthly meeting held Monday, April 14.
“When you create a monster, you’ve got to find a way to keep feeding it,” Pruitt said of the upcoming ATLAS testing, which gauges student knowledge in English language arts, writing, math and science.
Pruitt said he was recently notified that Eureka Springs’ high school, middle school and elementary school all earned the “A” letter grades from the state and shared the news with all district staff in an email sent Friday, April 11.
“I want to take a moment to express how incredibly proud I am of all three campuses for reaching such an outstanding level of excellence to receive a letter grade rating of A from last year’s test results,” read Pruitt’s email to all district employees. “I fully recognize the tremendous amount of time, effort, and dedication it has taken to achieve these results. That this success is being seen across all three schools speaks volumes about the unity, commitment, and shared vision of our entire district.”
Eureka Springs was one of only two schools districts in the Ozarks Unlimited Resource Educational Services Cooperative that had all of its campuses earn “A” letter grades, Pruitt said.
“There’s 16 [districts] in the OUR Co-op and there’s only two, us and Valley Springs, that have all A’s,” the superintendent said. “So, quite an accomplishment for our staff and our kids.
“I feel like it’s a total team effort from parents to students to teachers. We supplied them with materials to teach and it was just a good team effort. I’m just really proud that all three made that accomplishment because that is not something that happens by luck. You have to have everybody on board, reaching our goals. I’m just really excited for them.”
The three campuses earned the “A” letter grades convincingly, Pruitt added.
“They tabulate all your student growth, your student performance to come up with the letter grade,” he said. “I think the high school had to score a 532 to get an A and I think we had like a 580. So, they rocked it. And the other two [schools]. They didn’t just skim by. They really made they A.”
DOWELL TO LEAD HIGH SCHOOL
First-year high school principal Jacob Hayward recently informed the district that he was leaving at the end of the school year to take an administrative position with the Fayetteville School District, and it didn’t take Pruitt long to name his replacement.
Middle school principal Caen Dowell will be moving over to lead the high school for the 2025-2026 school year, Pruitt said.
“[Hayward] will be here until June 30 before taking the central office position over in Fayetteville,” Pruitt said. “We’re going to move Caen Dowell, our current middle school principal, over to the high school, and we’re advertising for a new middle school principal.”
Leading the high school is a good career move for Dowell, Pruitt said.
“It’s a good move for him if he ever wants to be a superintendent,” Pruitt said. “He’ll be a middle school principal, a high school principal, just more exposure to the entire system.
“[Dowell] does a great job, and if he was interested, we were not going to hold him back. He’ll be a good fit. He knows the kids. They know him. It’ll be a smooth transition.”
OTHER BOARD ITEMS
The board heard reports on upcoming events, including drama productions and choir concerts, before approving various items on the agenda including the most recent district audit, Pruitt said.
“They came in the fall and audited all of our school business, and we had no findings or anything like that,” the superintendent said. “It was a good, clean audit. No discrepancies at all. That’s always nice to make sure that we’re spending all our monies correctly.”
The board approved a new three-year contract with ESS Midwest to handle the district’s substitute teachers, and OK’d the 2025-2026 school calendar, with the first day of classes set for Aug. 13.
The board approved renewing the contracts of all licensed teachers and approved raising the salaries of all certified staff, which will cost the district approximately $155,000, Pruitt said.
“We did raise the certified teachers’ steps and they’ll be getting a raise,” he said. “It’s based on whether you have a master’s degree or bachelor’s degree and then wherever you fall on the steps. It’s kind of geared really more for the experienced teachers. The reason we looked at it in that direction was we’re trying to kind of be more equitable about that because all of our new teachers got the $50,000 salaries.” The board also approved looking into the district’s possible eligibility into a USDA program that will potentially provide free lunches to all students.
