Hot Springs School District

This week’s shout out goes to Carrington Holder, one of our seniors at HSWCHS, who was chosen as the student guest and speaker at Hot Springs Rotary. Rotarians seek student guests and speakers who are in the top percentage of their classes, involved in school activities, and community minded, and Carrington couldn’t have been a better candidate. Carrington represented us so well, and spoke about his 13 years as a Trojan. I also want to highlight our wonderful Hot Springs School District Board Members, three (Lonnel ‘Dino’ Lenox, Ann Hill, and Debbie Ugbade) of which received Boardmanship Awards from the Arkansas School Boards Association this week. Finally, we’ve had an anonymous shoutout submitted to highlight our excellent staff members who contributed to the Holiday Extravaganza event.

In a first annual STEM Day, Gardner STEM Magnet School dedicated an entire Friday to STEM-related activities and projects for kindergarten-5th grade students. The idea behind this effort was to create fun, diverse opportunities for students to explore STEM topics and activities. Partners from other schools within the HSSD and the community - including the Gardner PTO, HSWCHS EAST students, Henderson State University STEM Center, and Dawson Cooperative - were instrumental in creating a successful day of memorable activities and collaboration.

Hot Springs World Class High School and Gardner STEM Magnet School have received Beating the Odds Awards for Math Growth at the elementary and high school levels from the Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas. Both schools are being honored by OEP because students demonstrated high growth in scores on the ACT Aspire in mathematics. Congrats to our world class students and staff across the HSSD!

It’s all about providing balance for Mrs. Elizabeth (Graves) Roach in her first grade classroom at Oaklawn Visual & Performing Arts (OVPA) Magnet School. Through the use of sensory stations/exercises and kinesthetic learning techniques, she creates a unique classroom setting for a diverse of array of students with diverse needs and talents. Looking around, you may find a bean bin, shaving cream table, chalk desk, bouncy balls, water beads, and other non-traditional items because in her classroom all curriculum is tied to a sensory learning experience and student-led dialogue and problem solving.