Changes For New School Year

McDonald County R-1 School District Assistant Superintendent Angie Brewer recently discussed changes for the upcoming school year.

The biggest change, she said, is that the district has received the Missouri Model District Award.

"We were selected as one of 21 districts across the state because of the progress that our students have made in their assessment scores over the past two years compared to our demographic data. We credit that to the hard work of our teachers, and we have great families in McDonald County. Some of our teachers might be selected to have their teaching strategies and practices studied so they can help some of the other teachers across the state so they can have the same success we're having. We're very proud of that.

"We're going to continue having the students track their learning, so parents should be able to have really good conversations with their kids about what they're learning. They should know which standards they're succeeding in and which ones they still need to work on."

The district has a new director of technology, Robin Leonard, who comes to McDonald County from Gravette, she said. The former technology director, Kevin Blecha, retired and will be greatly missed, she said.

"(Parents) should see their students using a lot more technology in the classroom, Chromebooks and iPads and that kind of things. They'll be doing computer coding and robotics even in elementary school. There are going to be a lot of devices in ... classrooms. We're still going to keep our focus on literacy and making sure students can read, write and do math," she said.

Brewer also noted the district has a new director of transportation, which won't bring a lot of changes, but it's a new face in charge of busing. Clyde Davidson joins the district from the transportation department in Neosho. Roger Stites, the former transportation director, went to work in construction, and will be missed as well, Brewer said.

The district also has a new principal at Mustang Academy, Denisa Douthit of Noel, who has been working in Gravette as the director of alternative learning, Brewer said.