Parents and kids could enjoy any or all of an assortment of amusements, including inflatable slides, bouncy houses, mechanical bull rides, bean bag throws, connect four and scarf down free hot dogs and sno-cones. They could also visit many exhibit tables set up by agencies, schools and extracurricular programs.
HPS Superintendent Jonathan Crossley we found engaged in conversation inside a Hempstead Hall banquet room. When asked what parents and kids can expect from the school year that has just begun, he said “I think we've really internalized our pathways and our expectations for kids, so we have clear cut ways for kids to go to and through college and the career pathways and the skilled trade certificates and all those things with supports built in on different levels.”
Commenting on the district’s more elastic approach to course content offerings and other chances to dabble in diverse subject areas, Crossley said “We're adding high school courses on the middle school level. We've expanded EAST down to the elementary level, and parents are really becoming more and more aware and excited about their kids participating, not just in general extracurriculars, but clubs that are very specific to their interests.”
EAST (Education Assisted by Service and Technology is an Arkansas program that, according to its website, “fosters relevant, individualized life-changing experiences through service and technology.” It had been administered only at Hope Academy of Public Service.
Crossley also wanted to dispel any reports of a massive change to the schools’ calendar this year: “We started on the 12th of August for school, and then we're going to get out on the 30th of May. We haven't made any large modifications to the calendar. It's more traditional. There may be some times where teachers are having professional development on the back end of a vacation day, so kids will have two additional days off, like a four-day weekend versus a two-day weekend. That'll happen once a month all the way to testing season. So that may be a difference for some parents and kids, but for the most part, it's a relatively traditional calendar.”
Crossley said that in year four his passion to improve Hope’s schools and his enjoyment of that process has not flagged a bit. “I genuinely love what we're doing,” he said. “It's not easy, but anything that's really worth doing is never going to be easy. So I just want to match the excitement I see from the community with my efforts every day. I think we're doing that. I'm proud of our principals, proud of our central office team, and our parents are sending us the best they have, and our students are doing a great job being in the classrooms every day.”
With superintendents in other districts seemingly moving around as often as baseball players these days, Crossley said he likes where he is. “Man, I love being here,” he said. “I don't have a plan to leave, and I'm excited about what we're doing. You don't want to give up on things that you're working so hard to see come to fruition, and we’re right on the precipice of some really, really cool things happening, and a lot of hard work, like the agri facility [being upgraded at Hope High School] the Yerger Gym, the complex remodel, trying to returf the football field, the academic improvements, the partnership with [University of Arkansas-Hope Texarkana]. It gets me fired up just thinking about it. So why would you want to step away from that?”
Also at the bash was Christina Smith-Phillips, the high school’s agricultural education teacher. She spoke about what the expansion of the agri facility will mean for her students when it is completed. She said she had been able to tour the construction site. “Our classrooms are looking nice. We have a lab now, an actual animal science lab. I think our shop’s looking kind of spacious,” she said.
She has not been given a date of when the work is expected to be complete but said, “We want it done right, not fast.”
For students who wish to enter the agri program at Hope High, Smith-Phillips said the entry point is the taking of a year-long survey course, “then they move from that into one of our level two courses like animal science or mechanics and structures.”
For students interested in activities and potential careers related to farming, animals or the outdoors, the 4H Club, overseen by the Hempstead County Extension Service, is a path that can be started before high school. Extension Agent Betty Wingfield described its possibilities. “4H is for youth ages five to 19. So once a child turns five, they are eligible to join. They are considered Clover Buds, and Clover Buds get to participate in all the activities except they don't compete. They give them a little bit more time to compete, and usually there's a lot more parental involvement in their activities. Our junior division starts at nine. When you're age nine on the first day of January, you can then compete as a junior and participate in activities that juniors are eligible to participate in. Then once you are 14 as of January the first, you are a senior 4Her, and that just opens the world to a lot more out of state trips, state competitions and national competitions.”
At a booth in the Hempstead Hall lobby was Tina Campbell promoting the Technology Student Association, a high school-level club for students interested in learning and applying a variety of skills needed in today’s businesses and agencies. The list of competitions students can take part in filled two columns on an A4 sheet, and included everything from animatronics, architectural design and audio podcasting to video game design, virtual reality visualization and being a webmaster.
Campbell spoke about her role teaching students job interview and presentation skills. About the sheer number of skills TSA members can compete in, she said. “It is a huge variety of stuff. …With digital cinema, I'm hoping to get a few of those [students] coming over to podcast with us and compete for us. So we're excited.” She also mentioned that her program will include experience creating virtual environments for people who wear the necessary eye gear and head phones to visit.
Outside Hempstead Hall, probably one of the first booths those passing to the large yard full of amusements east of the hall would see, was for Arkansas Migrant Education. Darla Neely, director of the Region 5 office in Hope, said AME “is for agricultural farm workers that migrate around the state and intrastate and our goal is to make educational strides for a highly mobile student population by providing necessary instructional and supplemental supports.”
First Baptist Church's EPIC Student Ministry was also present under an awning overlooking several bean bag boards. Rusty Beck explained the services offered to students in the ministry: "Starting this Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow, they're able to come and hang out until 730 and then as the needs progress throughout the year with study times, they're able to come and hang out when they need to."
Hope Public Schools’ Back-to-School Bash was a production of the school district and leading sponsor Farmers Bank & Trust.
