The Pine Bluff School Board approved starting a food pantry in March to feed hungry students.
Robbie Williams, the district deputy director of student service and wellness, discussed two initiatives at Tuesday night’s school board meeting to help students. One is to feed hungry students who cannot concentrate on academics.
“You can’t teach or even reach a kid if he’s hungry,” Robbie Williams said.
She credited Yolanda Williams, director of Arkansas Food Bank and a Pine Bluff High School alumnus, for taking a vision and turning it into a reality. She asked about having this food pantry in the school district.
“They will bring the food,” Robbie Williams said of the Arkansas Food Bank. “The only thing we would need to do is pack it up on a Friday and give it to the students.”
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Robbie Williams proposed storing the food at Pine Bluff High School, Belair Middle School and 34th Avenue Elementary School in a secure area that is guarded by security cameras.
“It is away from the general population because we don’t want to embarrass anybody,” Robbie Williams said.
A private party wrote a grant to pay for the food pantry, Robbie Williams said.
“We realize during the afternoons and weekends, students are hungry,” she said. “It keeps the kids at school. If they are hungry, they do not come to school.”
Board members Henry Dabner, Andrea Roaf-Little, Phyllis Wilkins and Herman Horace voted for this motion.
In physical fitness news, Robbie Williams credited Pine Bluff Parks and Recreation employee Trudy Redus for informing her of a program called Cyberchase: Step It Up! This is a challenge for children in grades two to five to increase the number of steps they walk over the course of five weeks.
“This is a $10,000 grant [from the Arkansas Educational Television Network]” Robbie Williams said. “We give the students pedometers to take. … Our kids don’t move a lot. When it’s cold outside, they can’t go outside. But it gets students moving and teaches them math. A coordinator will come in and teach math and graph the number of steps they have taken.”
Robbie Williams added that students can earn incentives.
“Not only will the students move, educators will move,” she said.
The board approved Cyberchase.
In 2017-2018 calendar news, the board approved a calendar that will have students start school on Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, high school graduation on May 18, 2018, and a last day of classes on Tuesday, May 29, 2018.
Superintendent Michael Robinson discussed moving the start times of school in 2017-2018. He will be sending a survey to parents to gather their preferences. He is looking at two plans. One would start school at the same time for kindergartners through 12th graders.
The other plan would have the high school students begin class at either 8 a.m. or 8:15 a.m. and have the elementary school students begin at either 8:15 a.m. or 8:30 a.m. Robinson said he is also polling the teachers.
Board member Andrea Roaf-Little said she read research that shows students who have a long bus ride are tired when they start earlier in the morning. She said she is concerned after the afternoon dismissal that students are waiting for one hour on campus before leaving on a school bus.
The board did not vote on the start times.
Board members Stephen Bronskill and Faye Gant were absent. Board member Harold Jackson arrived after the vote on the food pantry and the Cyberchase.
The board entered executive session at 6:15 p.m. and remained there as of 6:50 p.m.