Dierks School Board votes to add a stipend for Curriculum Coordinator

Monday night the Dierks School Board voted to add Curriculum Coordinator to Dierks High School Counselor Crystal Smith’s contract, retroactive to October 16th, 2023, along with adding a $10,000 dollar Curriculum Coordinator stipend to the salary schedule. Another motion was made by Laykon Graham and seconded by Jeffrey Mounts to hire Joey Morris as history teacher on an ALP, as per the salary schedule for the 2023-2024 school year. All were in favor of the motion. 

Smith also informed the board that current enrollment at DHS is 239 students. Smith said they recently met with the Bailey Group regarding their High-Quality Instructional Materials. As part of the Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials, Smith stated that DESE is providing equitable access to High Quality Instructional Materials, grade-level instruction, and responsive practices to all students in the state. 

Smith even mentioned that the PSAT Testing was completed last week. The pre-SAT test helps students identify their strengths academically, prepare for SAT college placement testing, and determine which AP courses they could be successful in, in the future. This test was provided by the state and was given to all 10th graders free of charge. Smith said that 42 sophomores and five Juniors took advantage of this opportunity and she’s looking forward to seeing their scores. 

Joann Walters Elementary Principal Craig Dodson reported that the teachers just got trained on the iReady Standards Mastery feature, which they will use to test students out of intervention groups. Dodson also reported that they will be giving a school wide uPar test in the next few weeks and that he also attended training at the LEA Academy in Hot Springs. Dodson stated that they currently have two teachers out long term and are in need of subs. He said the new system relieves a ton of stress when it comes to finding subs, they just don’t have enough to fill the need a lot of times.