The Eureka Springs School District has 24 more Hispanic students than it did a year ago.
That’s one of the demographic statistics that superintendent Bryan Pruitt relayed during a state-mandated annual Report to the Public held Monday, Oct. 13.
The district had 42 Hispanic students last school year, but saw that number increase to 66 when school got underway for the new year in August, Pruitt said, adding that he felt the increase stems from families who have moved into Eureka Springs’ school zone.
“Here’s my opinion,” he said. “I don’t know this for a fact, but what I’ve noticed when I watch our kids get off the bus is we have a lot more Hispanic kids getting off our Blue Route, and that’s the one that runs up on the state line.
“I think we’ve had a lot of students move up there north of Holiday Island, going like over to Golden up there.”
One theory for the influx is it’s easy to travel from that area of the county for job opportunities, the superintendent said.
“You can cut across and go to work at Rogers, or you can go back to Berryville,” Pruitt said. “I don’t know, but in my opinion, that’s where we’ve seen the increase from.”
During the report, the district also celebrated recent letter grades awarded by the state.
Eureka Springs School District received the only A letter grades among schools in Carroll County, with Eureka Springs’ high school and elementary each receiving one of 122 top letter grades across the state.
Eureka Springs Middle School meanwhile, received a C letter grade, but the district is appealing the designation to be bumped up to a B grade, Pruitt said.
Pruitt also informed the school board and public that the district is fully accredited, something that is required.
“If your schools aren’t accredited then you can’t authorize a diploma or a certificate of graduation or completion,” he said. “What that means is that we have a full-time principal in each building, we have counselors, we have a nurse, we have all those things, the appropriate amount of teachers. We offer all the courses, everything that’s required we offer to meet that.”
Pruitt also gave his required annual bullying report, saying the district only had one episode in the past year.
“We had one incident of bullying this last year, and that’s down,” he said.
The incident involved a middle school student, who was punished by receiving eight days of out-ofschool suspension, Pruitt said.
“You know, everybody has a different opinion of what bullying is,” the superintendent said. “It’s repetitive incidents. Just because one time somebody comes up and says something or whatever, that’s not bullying. A lot of parents will think that, but that’s really not bullying. Bullying is a repetitive continuation, when after we dealt with it, it still didn’t stop.”
Pruitt also gave an update on future building projects for the district after the recent completion of a new cafeteria for students in elementary and middle school.
First on the list is converting the old cafeteria into office space for counselors and mental health employees, he said.
“We’re going to put probably about four offices in that old kitchen,” he said. “I’ve got an architect coming next week. I’ve got to have a plan, something to work with because we will be getting bids to do the renovation.”
Parking lot improvements at the elementary school have been on hold recently while the district waited to see if it was going to be awarded the funding for a FEMA Safe Shelter, but Pruitt said that since now it doesn’t seem as if the shelter will come to fruition, he’s moving forward on the parking lot.
“Then our next big building project will be building a new bus shop with a maintenance facility,” Pruitt said. “We bought five acres on the east side of the elementary playground back two or three years ago and we’re going to put it there.”
