Watson Chapel school dates OK’d

Watson Chapel School District board members unanimously approved an alternate-format calendar for the 2025-26 school year.

Under Arkansas law, a district must provide at least 1,068 instructional hours. Watson Chapel’s calendar will offer 1,131 instructional hours at 6.5 hours per day, allowing for flexibility for inclement weather. The 63 excess hours can be used for makeup days due to power outages, gas leaks or inclement weather.

With that flexibility comes an earlier start date — Aug. 11 — for students than in recent years. In a traditional calendar, classes would begin the week on which Aug. 19 falls. But Traci Holland, the district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, said neither a waiver nor board resolution to begin school earlier is required anymore under state law.

Superintendent Keith McGee pointed out the early start time will give teachers ample time to prepare their students for the ATLAS battery.

“Think about trying to improve student outcomes,” McGee said. “It’s roughly right around 60 percent of our student instructional minutes now … that they have before they are assessed. Go to this calendar, and you’re roughly going to have about 88% of instructional minutes before they are assessed. So, we get to control what they are taught before they take that state assessment test, which is going to be a huge shift because now we can look at real-time data that’s going to give us a true projection of where they are going to score.”

New employee orientation and onboarding is scheduled for July 31, with teacher professional development set for Aug. 1-8. Parent-teacher conference dates are Sept. 16 for elementary and Sept. 18 for high school. Oct. 23 will be a professional development day leading to a fall break Oct. 24-27, which will coincide with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s homecoming weekend.

Other key dates:

Nov. 24-28: Thanksgiving break;

Dec. 22-Jan. 2, 2026: Holiday break;

Jan. 5, 2026: Collaborative team meeting; students will return to class the next day;

March 23-27, 2026: Spring break;

May 20: Students’ final day.

AHEAD OF BUDGET, BUT CUTBACKS?

The school district’s projected balance for the end of the 2024-25 school year is more than $200,000 higher than what board members expected in September, when they approved a $34.4-million budget.

District Treasurer Norma Walker revealed year-to-date data that projects the district will finish with $2,176,900 in unrestricted funds, $237,474 ahead of projections.

The district presently receives $816,733 per month in state foundation funding, which Walker said is based on last year’s third-quarter student enrollment average. That figure, however, has dwindled from recent years.

“Because we’ve lost students over the years, that amount has decreased,” Walker said. “In the past, that amount pretty much covered our payroll from month to month, but because of the loss of students, we lose money every year. We’re still down for the number of students this year, but we’re hoping to get them back.”

The district enrolls 1,552 students, a drop of 163 from 2023-24. McGee said that amounts to a $1.2-million deficit in funding.

“Right now we’re gathering options to the board as early as February’s meeting on how we can make up the deficit,” McGee said. “We’re hoping to try to offset some of that budget from attrition … to different options on how we can save money in other areas.”

BOARD HONORED

The Watson Chapel School District board was honored with a plaque from the Arkansas School Boards Association as a Master School Board, as each member attained at least 50 hours of training.

“To have all seven of our board members have 50 or more hours of training, that means a lot,” McGee said. “This is a passionate board. I think that just goes to show where the board wants to go and where they’re trying to go and ensure that they can better serve their constituency in the Watson Chapel School District.”

The district received bags of goodies from district staff members and students. District athletic director and high school football coach Steven Heard presented each board member with a black helmet featuring silver “WC” and “1” decals.

IN OTHER DISTRICT BUSINESS

Watson Chapel will replace its cellphone service for the transportation department with Wave two-way radios at a cost of $36,500.

The cell services were canceled in November, as cellphone use while driving is against the law, assistant superintendent Aleta Posey told the board. The Wave radio will “prioritize emergency communication, reduce driver distractions and provide reliable coverage, even in rural areas,” according to a district memo.

The district had spent $20,000 per year on cellphone service.

Performance evaluations for classified teachers were unanimously approved. The district’s classified Personnel Policy Committee developed the evaluation system to ensure that staff members are performing at the standard, Posey said.

A topping-out ceremony for the new Watson Chapel High School under construction is scheduled for Feb. 27.

PERSONNEL MOVES

The board approved the hires of Shaumia Henderson as vocal music teacher, Malachi Israel as security guard and Crystal Wright as special education teacher.

Keturah Griffin tendered her resignation as paraprofessional.