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REGIONAL WRAP: NEW MCGEHEE SUPERINTENDENT STARTS OFF WITH GOOD NEWS

Monday, July 13, 2009 9:54 AM CDT

McGehee School District Superintendent Thomas Gathen took over the helm of the district on July 1 and on the first day had good news to announce.

Gathen, former superintendent of Pine Bluff’s Dollarway School District, said test scores in the district were up, a sign McGehee is headed in the right direction.

“We did quite well,” he told the Times-News of McGehee and Dermott, in state sponsored “End-of-Course” exams in geometry and algebra. The McGehee students did better than “well,” with almost 90 percent of the students taking the geometry exam and 80 percent taking the algebra exam scoring proficient or advanced.

Gathen and Assistant Superintendent Teresa Ragsdale cited the efforts of the McGehee faculty and the Literacy First program for the higher scores.

“The focus on PD (professional development) for the staff and programs like Literacy First had an impact, as well as the commitment on the part of our staff to incorporate those things into their curriculum,” the weekly publication quoted Gathen as saying.

Seventy-nine percent of the algebra students tested proficient or advanced, a big jump from 55 percent in 2008, Gathen observed.

Despite the significant jump in test scores, the new superintendent said the district faces fiscal problems. Patrons rejected a 4-mill tax increase in a May referendum.

Failure of the millage referendum will mean “serious belt tightening” for the coming school year, he told the Times-News.

Tax receipts increase

Sales and use tax collections in Bradley County were up 7.5 percent during the first six months of the year, according to a story in The Eagle Democrat of Warren.

The one percent tax generated $501,261 during the first half of the year, compared to $466,471 collected during the same period in 2008. The collections did not include the half-cent courthouse construction tax that came off the books in July 2008 or the half-cent hospital tax that was retired in May.

The countywide tax is divided between the county and municipalities of Warren, Hermitage and Banks.

Warren has seen a 4.6 percent increase in revenue from the one-cent municipal sales tax, the weekly paper said, will collections rising to $372,867 during the same six-month period when compared to 356,380 through the first six months of 2008.

Produce vendors

The Warren Chamber of Commerce is looking for vendors to set up booths July 18 at the Farmer’s Market, the newspaper said. An unseasonably wet May was blamed on the opening of the market season.

Vendors who want to display fresh produce and prepared foods, including canned goods, should contact the chamber office at 104 North Myrtle. Booths are free, but the chamber assigns spaces.

Ex-dispatcher enters plea

Former Warren Police Department dispatcher Marilyn O. Bailey, 69, of Warren entered a guilty plea June 30 to a felony charge of misuse of data from the Arkansas Crime Information Center, The Eagle Democrat said in a story.

Circuit Court Judge Don Glover assessed a two-year suspended sentence after accepting the plea.

Bailey was charged with the Class D felony in mid-April and accused of providing identification information from a license plate number to a municipal employee in December.

Information maintained in ACIC files are restricted to police agencies under state law.

Ex-minister is convicted

Jason Beck, former church youth minister arrested in April for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old girl, pleaded guilty Monday to contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor, and received a one-year suspended sentence, according to the Advance Monticellonian.

The weekly publication quoted 10th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Deen as saying the felony charge was reduced to causing a minor to habitually disobey her parents at the request of the parents and Chad Graves, pastor of Pauline Baptist Church, where Beck had served as youth minister.

As part of the plea agreement, Beck agreed not to reapply for ministerial credentials, Deen said.

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