NEVC recognized by Newsweek magazine

Saturday, August 20, 2016
NEVC board member Gina Ensor holds up the news that high school principal, Chris Hudson distributed to board members on thursday. Johannes Brann/Daily Mail

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Before she had finished passing out slips of paper to each board member at Thursday evening's meeting, Chris Hudson, Northeast Vernon County High School principal, declared the news. "So many students in this district face great challenges but despite that, this school is beating the odds and Newsweek magazine has just formally recognized us!"

Out of this country's 15,819 public high schools, just over 4,700 have a majority of students who are facing great hurdles economically and personally. After careful evaluation, this past week's edition of Newsweek magazine published its annual list of schools that are "beating the odds" and are successfully preparing students for college while overcoming a high level of student poverty.

"Out of 500 schools ranked nationwide, with only a handful in Missouri, NEVC is number 229," said Hudson. "Despite many of our students living in homes that struggle economically and may lack someone to ask about school and help with homework, this school is beating the odds and our students are making it in school and life."

Hudson paid tribute to the elementary school principal, Kendall Ogburn, the superintendent, Charles Naas and the staff who helped NEVC to receive recognition by Newsweek.

Board member Connie Gerster and fellow board members offered their hearty congratulations for the schools recognition.

Prior to its regular monthly meeting, a public hearing was held for purposes of setting the district's tax levy.

"I wish more came but I'm only here to watch and listen," said Cindy Thompson, the lone member of the public to attend.

After reviewing the proposed rate and their options -- which included the option of a slight raise -- the board unanimously voted to lower the tax levy from last year's $4.22 per $100 of assessed valuation to $4.1934. Because the total value of property within the district is up, this means that despite the lowering of the tax levy, the NEVC school district will receive -- if everyone pays their taxes -- about $782,355.55, which would be a revenue increase of about $70,000.

"While today is just the first day of school and the number of students isn't really stable till after Labor Day, it looks like our enrollment will be around 125, which is about the same as last year," said Ogburn.

The elementary principal reported on receiving $600 from Schell City Baptist Church.

Said Ogburn, "Children raised much of that money and they decided that it should go to our school for the purpose of helping those of our students in need of shoes, coats or school supplies."

While it was only the first day of school, Ogburn noted that the rotation of classes by students in grades three through six had worked well.

"I'm a firm believer that about every half hour or so, if students don't get what I call "wiggle time," they will start wiggling themselves which means they're not concentrating and learning," said Ogburn. "So by physically having to move from class to class during the day, our students will be able to spend class time on their lessons."

Ogburn brought two requests for board-approved changes. The first was to redirect one of the two weekly technology periods back to teachers in order to increase time for classroom instruction. The second request had to do with changing the elementary student handbook to specify that students are not allowed to miss more than seven days in a semester and they are not allowed to bring pop or energy drinks for lunch. These requests received unanimous approval.

Chris Hudson reported that enrollment at the high school will be about 100 with 12 attending the Nevada Regional Technical Center.

Superintendent Naas' report spoke of the newly installed scoreboard in the gym, the possibility of getting a used scoreboard for the softball field and the installation of the Guardian Angel door security units. He also asked for and received approval for a 12:30 p.m. dismissal from school on Friday, September 9 for Schell City's Fall Festival.

The Golden Valley Vernon County Conference may be one of the few sport conferences that also functions as a conference for teachers. On Monday, teachers from GVVC schools gathered for a day of professional development organized by NEVC's superintendent. Conference superintendents have discussed annually gathering each school's student council members for a conference-wide program of enrichment.

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