The Arkansas Delta Resource Center, currently in the Arkansas Education Service Cooperative, 912 W. Sixth Ave., may soon be operating a facility under a new name at the old Pinecrest Elementary School in the Dollarway School District.
The Dollarway School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to authorize the formulation of a memorandum of understanding with ADRC so that the proposed Dollarway Resource Development Center could be established at the Pinecrest campus.
Robert Anderson, director of the Delta Resource Center, said the DRDC would “pay and cover costs, all utilities, telephone, water, gas, lights,” and “has its own insurance.”
He told the board that the proposed facility would help in closing an achievement gap among black and other minority students within the district, provide services to parents and families within the community, and specifically aid 75 families in the area who are from the Marshall Islands Micronesian nation. Many of the Marshallese, who Anderson said primarily work at a local Tyson Foods poultry plant, cannot speak or read English.
The Dollarway facility would be operated from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, Anderson said. It would include a variety of education and community services, including a clothes and food pantry, math and science lab, outdoor classroom, a kitchen preparing meals daily, a writers and literacy lab with access to “34 million assorted books,” senior citizen programs, pre-school and elementary programs for students and parents, pre-school instruction and parenting skills courses.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Anderson presented the board some financial information and sought an immediate approval on the property transaction, but school board member Robert Morehead, an attorney, urged his counterparts to merely authorize a memorandum of understanding before voting on the actual acquisition. Morehead and fellow directors Joe Blanks, George Stepps and Gene Stewart, along with Superintendent Bettye Dunn-Wright agreed that Anderson’s proposal could benefit the district.
Anderson said he’s facing fast-approaching deadlines on the matter. The board decided to have a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, for additional considerations.
In other business, the board approved the rehirings of teachers as recommended by principals at each of the district’s five schools. The panel also accepted five certified employees’ resignations and the retirements of teachers Vicki Hicks, Lois Morrow, Shirley Walker, Rosa Wilburn, Revolyn Wimberly and Shirley Word.