Monticello Live

Several Drew Central students recently made the Southeast Junior and Senior All Region Choirs. DCHS students are Jessica Wishard and Caleb Eubanks, 1st chair; Michael Carpenter, 4th chair; Katie Taylor and Hunter Neptun, 7th chair; Kyle Kamminicki, 9th chair, Samantha Jo Chapman, 17th chair; Jazmine Rivera, 20th chair; Bianca Rochelle, 2nd alternate. They will be participating in the senior high choir.

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Wanted: Part-time para-professional to work in a kindergarten classroom ½ day
Qualifications: High School diploma; Highly qualified – 60 hours of college credit or passing score on the Para-Professional assessment
Availability: Immediately
Salary: Salary schedule – based on years experience and education level
Benefits: None
Applications available at Drew Central elementary office.
Equal Opportunity Employer.

The Drew Central School Board called to order their monthly meeting Oct. 9 to address this month’s topics.

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Pictured from left to right: Connor Horton, Camryn Callison, and Sabin Day.

Mrs. Lou Arnold’s second grade class from Drew Central Elementary learned about an important event of history that happened before they were born. They also realized how much this event has affected their lives even today. This event was the 9-11 terrorist attack on America.

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The Drew Central School called to order a special board meeting Sept. 6 to discuss the athletic budget, purchasing of a school bus and board member training among a few other items.

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Mr. McRae’s 2nd grade class participating in first week counting activities. The students were given a square piece of foil approx 3″x3″ and had to brainstorm on how to design a boat that would hold a maximum number of pennies. There were 2 rounds of competition where modifications could be made to their boats. The winners designed 2 boats that held 64 total pennies.

Pictured are the winners of the “penny-boat” competition with their first thought of design. Pictured from left are: Delaney White, Hope Sass, and Will Watson.

The Monticello school board accepted a CPR training unit donated by Ryburn Motor Company. The unit will help to train coaches and staff of the schools to further help to keep kids safe. The unit, which is junior life sized, tells with signals when the trainee applies the right pressure in the proper location and when the trainee breaths correctly into the unit’s mouth.

Ryburn also donate a unit to Drew Central School at their board meeting, recently, shown here with Superintendent Mike Johnston and Rita Venable.

Article by Caleb Burger

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21st Century Afterschool Tutoring Program – Drew Central Elementary has job openings for the following positions:

Certified Teachers
Para-Professionals
Data Personnel
Enrichment Staff

The afterschool program will begin September 4th and run through the end of April. If you are interested in one of these positions, please pick up an application at the elementary office.

According to Superintendent Mike Johnston of Drew Central School District,at their recent meeting,  the demolition of the red brick building is 56% complete. He said that all walls and windows have been removed, plus the brick is down on about half of it.

Bricks are being cleaned and stacked for future use and salvageable wood will be taken, refurbished, and used to make furniture.

With all 5 zone positions on both Monticello and Drew Central’s school boards up for re-election, due to the recent re-districting, here is the list of candidates filing, as the deadline passed, Tuesday at noon.

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New Drew Central School Board Districts

New Monticello School District Boundaries

Enlarged Map of City Area, Monticello District

Re-disticting of school board boundaries is required, due to the 2010 census, just like it was for the city council and quorum court.

All school board seats in both districts are up for re-election in the upcoming September 18 election.

Today, at noon, was the deadline to file as a candidate for any of the 5 seats, on both Monticello and Drew Central’s school board. (more…)

The angry parent accused of crashing a Drew Central school bus and a teacher’s car (February 2011), appeared in Circuit Court, Friday, before Judge Sam Pope. 

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The Family Service Agency (FSA) held it’s conference in Little Rock at the Arkansas 4-H Center, June 14-16. Youth from all over the state attended this conference to continue the youth-targeted statewide grassroots campaign Y.E.S. (Youth Extinguishing Smoking) Team to educate and encourage youth leadership.

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Drew Central High School Cheerleaders were recently recognized at their summer cheer camp hosted by the National private cheer camp company, Premiere Cheer Camps.

The team was selected by Premiere Cheer Camps Staff based on their outstanding sportsmanship, spirit, and growth in the areas of cheer throughout camp. 

Drew Central High School cheerleaders will be featured on the Premiere Cheer Camps national website, www.premierecamps.net in recognition of this achievement. Each squad member recieved an individual ribbon as well as the Premiere Cheer Camps Award of Excellence team certificate.

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Jason Cater DVM is announcing his candidacy for Drew Central School Board, Zone 3.

Cater is a 1996 Honor Graduate of DCHS and a 2000 Honor Graduate of UAM. He graduated from Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2009. “I have deep family ties to Drew Central Schools including my two sons who are in elementary school as the 3rd generation of Drew Central Pirates.

“It is my desire to serve on the school board to help move the school into a positive direction for the future. In addition to my advanced education, I have 12 years of experience successfully managing my own business with my wife, Sara. Growing up on a farm taught me the value of hard work, family, and education. This life training will help me make wise decisions about all aspects of the school district, including the financial concerns. I enjoy working with people and have the positive future of Drew Central at heart. I assure you that if I am indeed elected to the Drew Central School Board, I will serve faithfully and do my best to represent the voters in Zone 3. Please vote for me, Jason Cater DVM. I will appreciate each vote.”

Drew Central High School Band is proud to announce it’s first ever, Drum Major.

Senior, Sarah Porter has been chosen as Drum Major , Student Leader of the Drew Central High School’s Marching Band. To be selected for this honor, (more…)

A Drew Central school member’s resignation became effective, Thursday night, and a replacement was appointed to fill the unexpired term.

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On May 4th – 6th , Rebecca Moss and Morgan Nall, attended the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Seminar in Bentonville, Ar. The 10th grade Drew Central Students were selected because of the outstanding leadership potential they demonstrated in school and community activities, as well as their academic achievements. The girls participated in numerous activities while at the seminar reinforcing their social responsibilities and encouraging their leadership and critical thinking skills.

Drew Central Re-union Opening by John Ray Johnson, Class of ’62 from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Drew Central Distunguished Service Award, Superintendent Earl Willis, by his son, James from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Drew Central Distunguished Service Award, Evelyn McKeown, Teacher from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Drew Central Distunguished Service Award, Coach Edgar Spencer from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Drew Central Hall of Fame Induction, James Willis, Class of ’56 from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Drew Central Hall of Fame Induction, Bobby Pace, Class of ’54 from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Drew Central Hall of Fame Induction, Jack Murphy, Class of ’42 from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Wayne Fawcett, Drew Central School’superintendent for the past 4 years, will be leaving the district, in order to accept the superintendant’s position in Paris, AR.

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Drew Central High School Principal Steve Noble was arrested at his home on December 8, 2011. Charges were filed after detectives from Phoenix, Arizona Police Department posed as a 14 year old girl in a chat room and Noble allegedly asked the “girl” if she wanted to “watch him.” The same chat room had led the detectives to identify other sexual predators previously.

Search warrants of Noble’s home and office were executed where items listed to cease were computers, hard drives, jump drives, digital cameras, camcorders, cds and dvds. A warrant also allowed his iPhone to be taken and searched.

Noble is currently out on bond and faces possible extradition to Phoenix.

This was the 2nd leading pageview story in 2011.

Click here for the article from May.

Discussions were started on the possibility of altering 7 bus routes. The possible route sections to cut include:

Cominto Route, Wilmar Town Route, Rock Springs Route, Selma Route, Winchester Route, Coleman Route, and Green Hill Route. These seven were chosen largely because they are dead-end roads. The time it takes for a bus to make it down and turn itself around is very costly for the district.

The dead-end sections being considered for closure are listed in the article below.

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Current research indicates that for students to grow as readers they need to read 1,000,000 (yes, that’s one million) words per year. In terms of books, that’s approximately 25 books of 200 pages in length.

To encourage students to make 1,000,000 words their goal for the year, Melissa Eason, literacy coach for grades 4-8 issued to middle school students at Drew Central the chal-lenge to read 25 books this school year. The campaign was known as the Twenty-five Book Campaign. The theme of Read Like a Rock Star was chosen. Drew Central students, Aaron and Alan Jones, wrote a rock song, “You Gotta Read to Succeed,” and their rock band, which includes their father, performed it at the campaign kick-off.

DC’S MRS EASON GET HEAD SHAVED AFTER STUDENTS READ 3400 BOOOKS from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Each student and staff member at Drew Central signed a pledge to try to read 25 books and kept a list of books read. To get credit for the books, students had to make 70% on the AR test or turn in a satisfactory literary letter about the books read. As an added incentive to get kids to read,

Mrs. Eason promised to shave her head if students read 3,100 books which would be the same as of if one-half of all fifth, sixth, and seventh graders read 25 books. This week when teachers turned in their class totals, students were congratulated for having met and surpassed the 3,100 book goal.

Drew Central Middle School Students read 3,400 books this year! It was time for Mrs. Eason to live up to her end of the bargain. At an early morning assembly today, (more…)

This year’s MADD sponsored DWI mock accident was held on the parking lot area of the Monticello High School, Monday.

This year’s event was held in honor of Dustin “Rooster” Ferguson.

The first video show the accident re-enactment.
The second covers Steve Brantley’s comments about the event.
The last video is of Dustin Ferguson’s mother’s statements from Monday, which was the first time she has spoken publicly about the wreck that took Dustin’s life.

MADD MOCK DWI 2009-04-13 from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Dustin’s parents came out to speak for the first time since the accident. His mom told the students attending, “Sept. 22, 2008, two days after his 19th birthday, our son lost his life from a drunk driver. One choice of an indivdual changed our lives and our community. I stand before you as Dustin’s voice. His plans and his dreams could not be achieved because of the choice of another. Remember your choice affects everyone.”

DVD video’s of last year’s presentation are available at James Quick Print.

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Drew Central High School took part in a recent crisis response drill to see how well students, faculty, and emergency responders would react during a lockdown of the school that involved intruders on campus with weapons. The drill was designed to help school officials and responders plan for a worse case scenario. (more…)

As many drove by Monticello High School this morning something out of the ordinary was happening on school property. Unfortunately, the scene was all too familiar for the many public servants who took part in helping. An organized reenactment of a drunk driving accident was staged for high school students to observe, complete with rescue teams from the Fire Department, Police Department, State Police and ambulance service. A helicopter even landed to med-flight some of the victims.

Teresa Belew, Executive Director for the Arkansas Mothers Against Drunk Driving, visited from Little Rock and spoke to students. She related to the audience that a survey of the youth of Drew County reveals shocking facts. Twelve years of age is the age most reported for having a first taste of alcohol. Of young people who regulary drink alcohol, most say they began regular use at age fourteen. She also reported that in Arkansas alone, there are four to five people killed each week because of an alcohol related accident. Countless others are injured.

Steve Brantley, organizer of the reenactment today, has first-hand experience of an alochol related accident. Today, he shared his story with students of how his wife, Patricia Brantley, was killed in a collision with a drunk driver on June 21, 1996. It forever changed his life and the life of their four children. Steve is passionate about educating others about the dangers of drinking and driving and is very involved in the local chapter of MADD as coordinator for the county.