South Pike County School District Annual Report
The South Pike County School District held their annual Report to the Public Tuesday night.
Superintendent Tanya Wilcher reported the district’s enrollment is down 51 students from last year with a total enrollment of 656 this year and the district is 73 percent free and reduced lunch. She also announced the Murfreesboro High has been named an Apple Distinguished School for the 3rd year in a row and the Murfreesboro Elementary is an Apple Distinguished School for the 2nd year in a row.
Elementary principal, Arlene Fugitt reported the elementary test scores improved, all teachers are licensed and the campus is fully accredited.
According to high school principal, Davey Jones only seven of the 22 school districts in the Dawson Educational Co-op scored higher than Murfreesboro High School on the ACT Aspire test last year.
District Testing Coordinator, Melissa Jones reported the District’s ESSA School Index scores were a ‘C’ for both the elementary and high school campuses. ESSA stands for Every Student Succeeds Act.
Jones said to help improve the district’s report card grade, she applied for and received an $80,000 grant for literacy instruction from SOAR Arkansas. SOAR stands for Successful Outcomes for Arkansas Readers.
During the board’s regular meeting, board members renewed the district’s ASBA model policy agreement. They also added Wilcher and Grace Hoover to the district’s security box at Diamond Bank. And they amended the district’s leave policy.
The new policy will allow certified staff members to donate their unused leave time to other certified or classified staff members, however, classified staff members can only donate to classified members. The only change allows staff members who have unused leave time from their previous district to donate some of those days to other staff members.
