At the Monticello School Board meeting held Tuesday, May 23, multiple purchases were approved for the school. The first of these was approval of the All Kids Bike curriculum for kindergarten.
All Kids Bike is a program presented by the non-profit organization, Trail Organization of the Arkansas Delta. TOAD is also the group currently working with the Lake Monticello Trails. The program was presented by LR Tyson, the president of TOAD, and Jeff Newton, the vice president.
All Kids Bike is a program created to teach young kids how to ride a bike. This is done by purchasing 24 balance-to-pedal conversion bikes to teach kids how to balance before they ever ride the bike. Also included in this package is two metal storage racks, a teacher instruction bike, 24 helmets, and an eight lesson curriculum.
The school board went on to purchase equipment all around the school district including Occupational Education Center computers, a virtual welding training set, a new security system, and a laser alignment system.
The laser alignment system was purchased because Clearwater Paper Corporation is planning to hire high school graduates that know how to use the equipment.
The new security system is going to have a camera system at the front door that takes a picture of the guest and prints a pass explaining why they are there. The security system also includes an alarm for when the doors are propped open.
The school board also approved purchase of Strategos training, IReady, and employment needed for their summer academic camps.
Strategos is a company that works with schools on intruder protocols. Strategos will be training school faculty members as well as writing a plan for children to leave the school in an emergency situation.
IReady is a data analysis tool that is used for the Intermediate Schools that uses statistics to see which areas children need more help with.
The summer academic camps are scheduled for June 5 through June 22. The camps will be held from Monday to Thursday throughout this time and children will be fed breakfast and lunch. Monticello schools currently have 98 kids planned to come to the summer camps.
Also in the meeting, all hourly wage staff got a $1 an hour raise as well as classified staff getting a 3% raise. The meeting ended with the next meeting being scheduled for Thursday, June 22.
