Back to School

There’s been a buzz of excitement this week around the Eureka Springs School District.

The 2026-2027 school year got underway Wednesday, Aug. 12 — culminating several days of staff training and final housekeeping preparations and a busy open house for students and parents.

“Everybody’s just really excited to get the school year started,” superintendent Bryan Pruitt, who is beginning his 12th year leading the district, said Tuesday, Aug. 11, the eve of the new school year. “We seem to have a lot of new kids.”

While a clear picture of enrollment numbers doesn’t usually come into focus until after Labor Day, Pruitt said participation in the district’s open house on Monday, Aug. 10, makes him think the district numbers could be on the rise.

“There were a lot of people [at the open house],” Pruitt said. “There was no parking. It was wild. I don’t know if everybody’s just excited for the school year, or we have a lot of new kids.

“It looks like we’ve got some decent numbers coming in. I think they’ve told me there’s at least 30 new kids in middle school, and so that’s amazing. … Normally, numbers kind of pan out after Labor Day, so we’ll see how that goes, but open house was a really exciting night. Lots of people came in, got to meet teachers, and we had a lot of local vendors here who handed out popcorn, popsicles, hot dogs and cookies and told them about services we have available. It was just a very well-attended open house.”

Pruitt said teachers requested the Wednesday start to the school year, after a day off Tuesday for any necessary final preparations.

“[Tuesday] they were free to just come and go if they needed to,” the superintendent said. “If they needed to, they’re up here working. If they’ve got it all done, then they’ve had the day off before the kids come.

“We’re ready. We’re excited for the students, and we’re going to come in here focused on learning and teaching.”

While some things in the district will remain the same, including free breakfast and lunch for all students, there are some noticeable changes this year, Pruitt said.

In addition to the naming of longtime district employee Rachal Hyatt as the new middle school principal, secondary students will be able to benefit from the addition of a new grant-funded “RootEd counseling position,” aimed to benefit career and technical education students, Pruitt said.

Taylor Peden has been hired as the district’s RootEd Advisor, helping high school juniors and seniors navigate through plans to be ready for college or careers post-graduation.

“She’s going to work with all of our career tech students,” Pruitt said. “… They will take field trips to college, different work sites, job opportunities, stuff like that. We’re excited about that new program. Kids should not get left behind somewhere. We should have a direction and a focused goal set, and when they graduate from here, they’ve got a plan.”

MONTHLY BOARD MEETING

In addition to the busy open house, the Eureka Springs School Board also held its monthly meeting Monday, Aug. 10, quickly getting through the short agenda, Pruitt said.

The board did approve a new Memorandum of Understanding with Carroll County’s Connect 4 program, something that was necessary to help the program qualify for a grant for $1.5 million in new equipment.

“They just needed our MOU revised with the three districts in the county saying that we can use our facilities for adult training,” Pruitt said. “I mean, we offer those courses already, it was just the wording that was needed to solidify the grant. Plus, they wanted a 501(c)(3), so we got a new one of those.”

The board also reviewed designs for a new bus maintenance building that is being planned. The designs were completed by Josh Siebert of Modus Studio, a Fayetteville-based architect.

“We just previewed the architect plans on the future bus shop that we’re going to build,” Pruitt said. “The next step will be to select a construction manager, and hopefully we’ll do that next month.”

The district has outgrown its current bus shop, the superintendent said.

“Plus, the buses have gotten longer, and the current building just doesn’t have a lot of space,” Pruitt said. “If we pull two buses in, you can’t even work. So, if you have one bus broken down and it’s going to be in there for a while, and then you bring one in for some simple, routine maintenance, there’s really not enough room to get around in there.

“The new bus shop will be double the size.”

The new bus shop also will include a wash bay and a lift, making maintenance easier, Pruitt added.