75¢
A magician visits Hazen Library. (See pictures on p. 6.)
Volume 120 Number 30 - USPS 225-680
Community Calendar of Events Tuesday July 27 Methodist Church food distribution 10:00 a.m.-Noon Drive Through Wednesday July 28 Making rose petal sugar scrub bars Carlisle Library 4:00 p.m. Thursday July 29 Creation Station Kits Available all day Flower Sun Catchers Carlisle Public Library Friday July 30 Family Film Friday Carlisle Public Library Tuesday August 10 Quorum Court Meeting 6:00 Annex Building in Des Arc Thursday August 12 DeValls Bluff City Council Meeting 6:00 p.m.-7:00p.m. City Hall Hazen School District Open House Starting at 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. Monday August 16 Hazen School District starts back to school! Thursday August 19 Hazen City Council meeting 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Community Center
Community events brought to you by Hazen Chamber of
Serving all of Prairie County and the Grand Prairie
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Hazen School District approves handbooks and 2021-22 budget The Hazen School Board met on Monday, July 19, to approve the elementary and high school handbooks and to take care of some beginning of the fiscal year business. Board Members Richie Ingle, Vicki Skarda, Roben Cohen, Darlene Connors, and Sandra Kay Penn were in attendance along with Superintendent Donnie Boothe, Principals Mark Price and Tiffany Glover, District Treasurer Sarah Snider, and Superintendent Secretary Cindy Ciganek. The first order of business was to approve Boothe as the ex-officio financial secretary and Snider as the district treasurer of the district for the 2021-2022 school year. The board also approved the proposed budget of expenditures and the 33.83 mils tax levy beginning July 1, 2022 to and including June 30, 2023 and the district audit report for the 2019-2020 school year. Booth’s recommendation to pay the Arkansas School Board Association $30,940.62 for property insurance this school year and $7,255.59 for vehicle and mobile equipment renewal. Glover told the board that most of the changes made to the elementary handbook were taken from the Arkansas School Board Association’s recommendations which included
New classroom furniture that allows for social distancing has been purchased for the high school classrooms with covid relief funds. This is Wendy Perry’s room. attendance requirements, home schooling, Smart Core curriculum and graduation requirements, and student behavioral intervention and restraint rules. One of the changes allows students to self-administer stress dose medication and albuterol with written authorization of the student’s parents, guardians, or an in loco parentis person (such as the school nurse) along with a doctor’s statement if the child is capable of self-administration of the drug. Changes were also made to the elementary tardy/early check out policy. After two tardies, the student will be given after-school detention, and after the 4th tardy the student will have to attend Saturday School. The district will purchase outdoor classroom furniture for $17,665.27 and equipment for out-
door Music and P.E. classes for $43,848.17 with ESSER II federal funds. Those same funds will be used to remove and replace the carpet in rooms with Advantage Planks in the elementary classrooms for $63,646.29. High school classroom furniture that will allow for social distancing for teachers and students will also be purchased for $33,501.64. The superintendent asked that the school be allowed to purchase a vehicle for transporting small school groups to events with operating funds. This was approved by the board. Easton Glover’s resignation as a summer worker, B. J. Harrison’s resignation as Jr. Girls and Jr. Boys basketball coach were accepted. Joe Besancon will be the high school head softball coach next school year.
Dylan Cass was hired for the Agriculture teacher/FFA coordinator position. “I’ve worked with him,” Connors said. “He’s an awesome kid.” Olivia White will be transferred to the K-12 In-School Suspension position as a paraprofessional. Aimee Kerr was hired as a K-12 Special Education paraprofessional. Glover said that Pearson Learning will be used for digital learning for the next three years. Price said that the ISS has been redesigned to have 12 cubicles, each with its own computer. The teacher will be able to monitor what the students are doing on those computers, and Google Classroom (which the students are already familiar with) will be used. “Having a smart ISS will help us a lot,” Price said.
The bathroom renovation in the high school is almost completed, and the renovations of the superintendent’s house are finished. Sarah Snider said that the district is still waiting on an approval allowing the district to purchase all school supplies for students in K12. “We think this will help families who have been affected by COVID,” she said. The ESSER I funds have been spent, according to Snider, and she handed out a chart showing where the ESSER II funds have been spent so far. The majority of the money (46%) has been spent addressing learning loss, including purchasing textbooks, purchasing ACT Aspire prep materials and science lab equipment and hiring personnel for student remediation and intervention. She added that the district has to have stakeholder input about how to spend the next round of money from the federal government to meet the regulations of the American Rescue Plan ESSER III funds. District stakeholders are asked to go to the district website and give their ideas concerning the spending of the money the district will receive in the future. (Editor’s note: In a release on the district’s website, Hazen Schools has announced that it will pay for some of its students’ supplies for the 2021-2022 school year.)
Dr. Lane Rolling and AR Urban League hold townhall in Hazen Dr. Lane Rolling spoke in a town hall meeting held in the Hazen Community Center on Tuesday, July 20, to discuss COVID-19. Several residents attended the event. Dr. Rolling, who has ties to Hazen, is a podiatrist with experience in dealing with infectious diseases. He also spent four years in the military and two years in the military reserve. He now works in Peru running a private educational organization that offers medical internships to undergraduate students. When talking about the present pandemic, Rolling said, “We have so much misinformation, disinformation. People think they’re so intelligent; people think they’re so smart. They don’t see it. Everybody has an opinion. And these opinions have killed millions of people.” “The cat is out of the bag,” he said. “You can’t put it back in. Wear a mask, wash your hands. Because I promise you, by January we’re going to be at a million Americans dying from SARS-CoV-2
pandemic infection.” “You have to have an antiseptic hand wash that kills viruses.” Rolling suggested that people wear anti-viral masks, which he sells on his website for $125 each. He also suggested that everyone should make an effort to decontaminate the food that you buy at the grocery store. But most experts agree that disinfecting and hand-washing every last item in your groceries is really not necessary. When it comes to the vaccines, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend getting the vaccine as soon as possible. These vaccines are safe and highly effective at preventing severe illness and death caused by COVID-19. According to the CDC, millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines since they were authorized for use by the FDA. These vaccines have undergone and will continue to undergo the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. his-
tory. While no data are available for individuals with autoimmune diseases, health officials recommend talking to your doctor about the vaccine. Rolling never said if he had taken the vaccine himself. “I’m not going to tell you to do a shot or not do a shot,” he said. “You have to make that decision yourself.” Doctors, public health officials and political leaders have all come out in support of the vaccine, including U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. “Make sure you understand the information you need, your information based off the science, and not ...good conspiracy theory, because conspiracy theories will get you killed,” he said. “Wear a mask
or don’t wear a mask, it’s freedom of choice,” he said. “You know, people are talking about mandating, and I think it’s just good common sense that if I know I’m dealing with a viral respiratory disease that’s transmitted by the air, I will probably want to have a mask and have people make that decision for themselves.” “My responsibility is I need to make sure that we get kids back in school; my responsibility is to make sure that businesses stay open, because we cannot afford another shutdown. We can do that if people understand basic biosafety biosecurity protocol. I’m going to have a mask. I’m going to have air purification. I’ve got to make sure I’m cleaning that bus on a regular basis.” He ended the evening
stating, “What I’m saying is that this is your new norm; you’re gonna have to figure out how you want to live within this norm. You have the freedom and the free will not to wear a mask, the right not to get a vaccination. You have a right to do a lot of things. This is your reality. The problem that a lot of people have, because we have a psychological component of this pandemic, is that you’re not in control. The virus has control. We can’t shoot it, you can’t blow it up. It speaks all languages. And that’s where people are fearful. And you can die from this virus. That’s the reality that a lot of people are dealing with on a regular basis.” At the end of the meeting, Rolling offered free antibody testing for anyone who wanted it.
NOTICE Commerce and the
Please call F&M Bank (255-3042) or The Grand Prairie Herald (255-4538) to list events.
Due to the COVID-19 issue, the memorial service for Larry Gershner which was to take place on August 7th has been cancelled. The service will take place on January 8, 2022 at the United Methodist Church of DeValls Bluff at 11:00 a.m. if conditions are favorable.
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