Arkansas

Arkansas school districts consider implementing new state cell phone, mental health program • Arkansas Advocate

Published

2 years ago

July 26, 2024

Arkansas school districts consider implementing new state cell phone, mental health program • Arkansas Advocate

More than 200 Arkansas school districts have expressed interest in a new pilot program to reduce cell phone access with the goal of improving students’ mental health, according to the Arkansas Department of Education.

In early July, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Education Secretary Jacob Oliva issued a letter to superintendents inviting them to participate in the program, which grew out of a meeting with school leaders in June centered on mental health.

As part of the pilot program, the University of Arkansas’ Office for Education Policy will examine how students’ mental health may be impacted by reduced access to cell phones and social media. A smaller group of districts from the pilot program will participate in the UA study.

Cell phone policies at Arkansas schools vary among districts and individual classrooms. While some teachers collect phones at the start of instructional time, others allow students to access their devices after completing assignments.

Bentonville West High School piloted a program last year that required cell phones to be silenced and stored during class. Bentonville School District Director of Communications Leslee Wright said the initiative was a “remarkable success,” with 86% of staff reporting a positive impact. Administrators also recorded a 57% reduction in verbal or physical aggression offenses and a 51% reduction in drug-related offenses, she said.

Bentonville High School is developing its own program modeled off the one implemented at Bentonville West, which will continue its program this fall, Wright said. Meanwhile, all middle and junior high schools in the district will participate in the state’s pilot program.

Arkansas governor, education secretary call on schools to join mental health pilot project

Additionally, the district has tracked computer screen time for two years “to identify some limitations, knowing that face-to-face instruction, activity and play are necessary for healthy development,” she said.

“We believe there’s significant value in reducing screen time for our students, whether on laptops or cell phones,” Wright said.

Arkansas’ pilot program will provide funding for phone storage devices to reduce screen time and social media use during the school day, according to a press release. More exposure to social media increases kids’ risk of mental health problems, Sanders and Oliva wrote in their letter.

More than 200,000 students could be affected by the program, ADE spokeswoman Kimberly Mundell said. Interested districts submitted information to ADE through their education cooperatives, and based on the initial estimate, ADE will request $8 million in appropriation, she said.

An initial small group of schools interested in the pilot “that were further down the road” in implementing cell policy changes will be reimbursed directly, Mundell said. The pilot was opened to all districts as interest grew, so those districts will be reimbursed through the co-ops, she said.

The program will also provide funding for telehealth mental health services, as well as support in locating mental health providers and navigating insurance matters, according to the release. All districts will have access to the telehealth services and the process for accessing the funds will be determined after a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is completed, Mundell said.

Bethany Ratermann, senior director of communications for LISA Academy Public Charter Schools, said final funding amounts will determine the exact number of students who participate, but they would like to include 6-12th graders.

LISA Academy, which operates 11 schools on nine campuses across Arkansas, decided to implement the pilot as a way to prioritize students’ mental health as the charter organization works “to educate well rounded students as part of our updated LISA 2.0 program model,” Ratermann said.

Administrators hope to learn more about home usage through family feedback, and look forward to working with the U of A “to analyze this survey data and hope to arrive at conclusions that will benefit all students,” she said.

Let us know what you think…

The possibility of a reduction in issues with bullying, mental health and drugs, as well as interest from principals and the ability to purchase lockable devices for free were all reasons participating in the pilot program appealed to the DeQueen School District, Superintendent Jason Sanders said.

DeQueen’s school board on Monday approved participation in the pilot, which will be implemented at the middle school and junior high campuses. Students in 6-9th grade will receive YONDR pouches that will be magnetically locked while on campus, but parents can still see where their child is on apps like Live 360, Sanders said.

“Of course nothing is perfect, and we will have to work around some challenges such as Apple watches and dummy phones put in the pouches,” he said. “We also approved a policy for those campuses reflecting such.”

DeQueen’s previous policy required middle and junior high students to secure their phones on their person, backpack or locker during the instructional day. Sanders said he’ll be interested to compare the data on mental health referrals and discipline between school years with lockable devices and those without.

Research study

The effect of cell phones and social media on students’ mental health has become a hot topic, but there haven’t been many peer-reviewed studies on the issue, said Sarah McKenzie, executive director of the University of Arkansas’ Office for Education Policy.

Besides being a newer issue, another problem is “everything intersects, so it’s hard to find causal evidence about things,” McKenzie said.

“For all the talk about it, there hasn’t been any actual research, or much actual research about how this would impact kids,” she said. “It’s mostly been anecdotal.”

Protection of kids on social media platforms advances in U.S. Senate

McKenzie is working with Kristin Higgins, Department Head of Counseling, Leadership and Research Methods at the U of A, to develop a year-long study about the effects of the pilot program on students’ mental health. McKenzie said their research will involve focus groups with students, teachers and parents, and interviews with superintendents about the implementation of the pilot program.

Research will also include the administration of a short, general depression and anxiety screener to students in the fall and at the end of the academic year to see if there’s a reduction in feelings of unhappiness, she said.

“The idea is if they’re paying more attention in class and they’re feeling less anxious then they’re going to learn more,” she said.

Analyzing learning data won’t occur until after test scores are released later in 2025, McKenzie said. However, preliminary results from the initial surveys and focus groups should be available before the new year, providing a baseline prior to implementation of the pilot. The final report on student survey outcomes will likely be released next summer, she said.

Calls for more research on this topic are occurring at the national level. U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, and Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, introduced legislation in November to require the U.S. Department of Education to “conduct a study regarding the use of mobile devices in elementary and secondary schools, and to establish a pilot program of awarding grants to enable certain schools to create a school environment free of mobile devices.”

The study in that bill, which was referred to committee, could take a long time to complete, McKenzie said.

“In the spirit of [the Office for Education Policy], our idea is to try to get the information to the people who need it as quickly as possible in the best way we can,” she said. “I imagine there will be a lot more studies, but this one should add to the knowledge that we have so far, which is actually not very much.”

Restriction considerations

At the Fayetteville School District, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Courtney Morawski said the ongoing conversation around cell phones now is “how do we protect instructional time in a manageable way” while honoring new research that says there should be restrictions in place.

Arkansas NetChoice case differs from U.S. Supreme Court case, but both involve First Amendment

Fayetteville will implement the state pilot program (most likely in 7-12th grades) in the upcoming school year, “a transition year,” with the goal of having phone restrictions for the entire day for all K-12 students during the 2025-2026 academic year, Morwaski said.

The district received approval to spend $233,000 on storage devices through the state’s pilot program, but officials are still working through plan specifics, including what products to purchase, she said.

Because technology has become integrated into students’ daily lives, there’s much to consider in terms of implementing restrictions. Though educators want to be careful about how much time kids spend in front of a computer, learning often involves some screen time, Morawski said. But what students are being asked to do can be done on a Chromebook, which has protections phones don’t have, she said.

Cell phones can be vital for students monitoring health conditions like diabetes, so Morawski said they’re looking at devices with different locks for kids that need to access their phone regularly. Additionally, they’re working with health and special education staff to make sure they’re considering students who rely on their phones for specific needs.

“We absolutely acknowledge and understand that,” Morawski said. “We’d never want to put a student at risk.”

Phones have also become a way to communicate in active shooter situations, but Morawski said one company they’ve spoken with noted that limiting students’ ability to share misinformation can help officials track down facts about an emergency situation more quickly and safely. Limiting access to phones can also help students better focus on a teacher who’s trained to follow certain protocols during a crisis, she said.

Another possible upside to the program is the potential for a reduction in bullying.

“We do believe after talking to many other districts who have done this in other states that it lowers incidents of bullying drastically, and so we know that is something we want to work towards in all of our schools,” Morawski said. “We want students to feel safe and secure and we do think that this will be a step that will make a difference in their safety at school, but also offline hopefully or when they’re out of school.”

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

Source link

Click to comment

Arkansas

Arkansas baseball notebook: Pitching depth catches up with Razorbacks in Kansas | Whole Hog Sports

Published

2 hours ago

June 1, 2026

Press Room

Arkansas baseball notebook: Pitching depth catches up with Razorbacks in Kansas | Whole Hog Sports

Source link

Arkansas

Kansas baseball earns chance at NCAA regional title, defeats Arkansas

Published

12 hours ago

May 31, 2026

Press Room

Kansas baseball earns chance at NCAA regional title, defeats Arkansas

LAWRENCE — The mood inside Hoglund Ballpark felt tense Saturday, in the later innings of Kansas baseball’s game against Arkansas.

A highly-anticipated NCAA regional matchup was delivering in all aspects in Lawrence. At first it was Arkansas landing punches, and Kansas that had to counter. And then later it was KU that took control, leaving everyone watching to wonder if Arkansas could counter, too.

But despite the challenges the Razorbacks presented, the Jayhawks (44-16) emerged with a 5-3 victory to secure a chance at winning the NCAA regional on Sunday at 5 p.m. (CT). In a second-straight NCAA tournament appearance, Kansas coach Dan Fitzgerald’s squad has continued to deliver for a fan base that has not lacked energy in the stadium. And while Kansas, the No. 1 seed in this four-team regional, doesn’t know yet if it’ll play No. 2 seed Arkansas or No. 4 seed Northeastern for the regional title, the confidence the Jayhawks can win it should be as high as ever.

“Another awesome game, awesome college baseball game against a great Arkansas team,” Fitzgerald said. “Unbelievable environment. It’s such an incredible experience to look at it in the micro-level, but then also think about it from 30,000 feet of where we’ve come in four years. The crowd today, I mean, our crowd was absolutely incredible and super proud of these guys. I thought they competed at a super high level and they were poised and they were prepared and, yeah, they just — they loved the moment and that was really fun. Proud of these guys.”

Kansas, which is 2-0 in this regional with wins against Arkansas and Northeastern, saw multiple heroes emerge during this victory against Arkansas. On the mound sophomore Riane Ritter and redshirt junior Boede Rahe were both impressive out of the bullpen, after the Razorbacks started to put some pressure on sophomore Mason Cook. KU junior Tyson LeBlanc had three RBI, including a two-run home run, and junior Augusto Mungarrieta had a solo home run himself.

There’s a level of pressure that Kansas is facing, that it hasn’t yet during a rebuild in Lawrence that Fitzgerald started ahead of the 2023 season. After winning the Big 12 Conference regular season and tournament titles this year, the Jayhawks are continuing to raise the bar for what’s possible at KU. And so far, they haven’t fallen short of heightened expectations.

On Sunday, Kansas will have the chance to win a NCAA regional. Maybe the heroes this time will be junior Mathis Nayral and junior Brady Ballinger, or another member of a team that’s enjoyed the success it’s had this season because of its depth. Regardless, KU will step onto the field knowing it has a chance to make an already special season even that more extraordinary.

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He was the 2022 National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

Source link

Arkansas

Arkansas’ best downtown | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Published

22 hours ago

May 31, 2026

Press Room

Arkansas’ best downtown | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

I love baseball, so it’s safe to assume that I smile whenever I see a ballpark being built. I’m also an advocate of downtown revitalization, so it’s especially pleasing to see a downtown ballpark.

The Town House, once a favorite of mine for plate lunches, is gone in downtown El Dorado. But construction of the baseball stadium is coming along. South Arkansas College, El Dorado’s two-year college, didn’t create its baseball program until 2021. By 2023, the team was playing in the national junior college World Series and attracting players from throughout this rural region of south Arkansas, north Louisiana and east Texas.

Bill Howard Ballpark, at the corner of West Hillsboro Street and South West Avenue, will house the college team once it’s completed later this year. It also will host various tournaments and exhibitions. The city contributed almost $6 million from its economic development tax funds, and Murphy Oil Corp. made a $10 million donation.

The stadium will have synthetic turf, a 30-foot wall in left field, a right-field video board, and a hospitality suite. The facility is being built near the college’s Howard Residence Hall. The Murphy Oil gift is also being used for the school’s first residence hall.

“The college needs to grow,” says Stephanie Tully-Dartez, South Arkansas College president. “Having intercollegiate athletics on our campus has brought new energy and new students. It makes sense to add to our existing athletic facilities as we add to our academic offerings.”

Howard Residence Hall initially will house about 100 students with space for expansion. Tully-Dartez says that area of downtown needs to be beautified to complement what has already been done at the nearby main campus, Murphy Arts District and town square.

“These improvements will help beautify the area and ultimately bring more college students to El Dorado,” she says. “Those students may eventually decide to stay here, accept jobs, have families and contribute to the overall health of the economy.”

Heath Waldrop writes for El Dorado Insider: “The idea behind student housing is to allow for continued enrollment growth by making it more convenient and by offering the kind of college experience students are looking for. At South Arkansas College, the aim is to provide student housing that’s safe and affordable in an atmosphere that’s exciting and beneficial.”

The residence hall will be a two-story building with two students per room, private bathrooms, laundry facilities and common areas.

What’s now South Arkansas College opened in 1992 after then-Gov. Bill Clinton signed legislation merging the El Dorado branch of Southern Arkansas University with Oil Belt Technical College. Oil Belt opened just east of El Dorado in 1967 as Oil Belt Vocational-Technical School. That campus is now home to the South Arkansas College Career Accelerator and the school’s Advanced Manufacturing Training Center.

The training center covers more than 14,000 square feet, including a 4,500-square-foot covered bay. It’s utilized for both credit and noncredit programs with training spaces for welding, process technology, industrial technology, industrial safety, and rail-car and tanker loading.

SAU’s El Dorado branch opened in 1975 as an extension of what was Southern State College in Magnolia. The main El Dorado campus has been used for educational purposes since 1858. A high school building was constructed there in 1905. It was the home of El Dorado Junior College from 1928-42. An adjacent gymnasium was constructed in 1940 by the federal Works Progress Administration.

Tully-Dartez, who grew up in South Carolina, became South Arkansas College’s director of institutional research and effectiveness in 2009. She was vice president for academic affairs from 2021-24, and became the college’s sixth president on July 1, 2024.

As noted in the cover story of today’s Perspective section, El Dorado is different from an average Arkansas city of fewer than 20,000 residents. Even though its population fell from 25,270 in the 1980 census to 17,756 in the 2020 census (the same kind of population losses are occurring across the entire south half of the state), business and civic leaders have worked hard to maintain one of the finest downtowns in the South.

In May 2020, Murphy Oil decided to move its headquarters to Houston. Company officials cited the pandemic, low crude oil prices, and the fact that the oil and gas industry had consolidated operations in Houston. Arkansans took to social media to declare the end of El Dorado. What they didn’t realize is that the big employer in El Dorado is corporate spinoff Murphy USA with between 600 and 700 employees. Murphy USA wasn’t going anywhere.

While the loss of about 80 Murphy Oil employees hurt, it wasn’t catastrophic. It did, however, leave a major downtown building empty. The Murphy Oil headquarters was completed in 2015. The five-story building features a four-story atrium, a 170-seat video conference center, exhibit gallery space, and a data center. It didn’t stay empty for long.

In 2022, First Financial Bank of El Dorado announced it had purchased the structure. First Financial was founded in 1934. It operates loan production offices across the country and is known for specialty lending divisions focused on mortgages, poultry, pharmacy, veterinarians, and farm and ranch operations.

In October 2024, the First Financial board appointed Sean Williams to succeed Chris Hegi as chief executive officer. Williams joined First Financial in late 2019 when it acquired First National Bank of Wynne, where he served as CEO. He has been instrumental in the growth of First Financial’s retail and agricultural markets while also leading the bank’s technological advancements.

Williams greets me in the lobby of the headquarters building. He’s like a boy showing off Christmas gifts as we walk through the 87,000-square-foot structure. There are 16 conference rooms. About 125 people work in the building.

“We have a lot of specialty teams, and this building allows us to put the right people together,” Williams says. “We’re among the leading lenders in the country to the poultry industry, for example. Those folks need to be together. There’s a farm and ranch division, a pet division and a team that serves pharmacies. We have loans in all 50 states.

“The purchase of this building represented a commitment to El Dorado and to the future of our bank. We plan to grow as a bank, and we want El Dorado to grow. I’m from McCrory in east Arkansas. I had never even visited El Dorado until I was an adult. It didn’t take me long to realize that there are great people here.

“The amenities El Dorado offers makes it easy for us to recruit people to work for the bank. And it would be safe to say the purchase of this building was a game changer from a recruiting standpoint.”

First Financial previously had its headquarters in one of the state’s most historic buildings, the nine-story Lion Oil building. Built in 1926-27 during the oil boom, the structure was designed to send a message to the rest of the country that El Dorado had arrived as a place to do business. It was designed by the Little Rock architectural firm Mann & Stern in an eclectic mix of Venetian-inspired styles. The building, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, also housed Exchange Bank at one time.

First Financial purchased the building in 1997. The company made extensive renovations, including a 2017 expansion of the retail bank branch. Bank officials felt it was important not to leave an iconic structure empty. They found a buyer in Diversified Construction & Design. Diversified, which was founded in 2015, is a full-service general contractor and regional provider of industrial, commercial and residential services. It has architectural, civil, equipment and mechanical divisions.

Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Rex Nelson

rnelson@adgnewsroom.com

Rex Nelson has been senior editor and columnist at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since 2017, and he has a biweekly podcast called “Southern Fried.”

After graduating from Ouachita Baptist University in 1981, he was a sportswriter for the Arkansas Democrat for a year before becoming editor of Arkadelphia’s Daily Siftings Herald. He was the youngest editor of a daily in Arkansas at age 23. Rex was then news and sports director at KVRC-KDEL from 1983-1985.

He returned to the Democrat as assistant sports editor in 1985. From 1986-1989, he was its Washington correspondent. He left to be Jackson T. Stephens’ consultant.

Rex became the Democrat-Gazette’s first political editor in 1992, but left in 1996 to join then-Gov. Mike Huckabee’s office. He also served from 2005-09 in the administration of President George W. Bush.

From 2009-2018, he worked stints at the Communications Group, Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities, and Simmons First National Corp.

Source link