Heil wants deeper ties between district, UA
Posted on Monday, March 24, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/63452/
Sometimes, University of Arkansas nursing students help conduct health fairs at Fayetteville schools and UA softball players tutor students at Asbell Elementary School.
Meanwhile, a professor in the agriculture department will visit the Fayetteville High School agriculture classes as a guest speaker, and teachers in the district’s Adult Education program will offer English language classes to UA employees.
Those are some of the 48 examples of relationships with the university listed in a Fayetteville School Districtproduced document released March 13. The material was made available at a district-hosted public meeting designed to gather feedback on ways the district and university might partner together.
“ That list we put out was everything in every way that we touch the university, ” said Susan Heil, Fayetteville Board of Education member.
The idea behind the list, developed by Associate Superintendent Randy Willison with input from district staff, was to give people an idea of things that are already being done and could be enhanced with greater partnerships, she said.
“ Basically the document was meant as a launch or a starting point, ” Heil said.
Some of the 48 examples could be construed as partnerships, but many, such as renting a facility at a standard rate, are not true partnerships, she said.
“ Partnership is us doing something that might benefit them and them doing something that might benefit us, ” she said.
In February, during talks about the future of the high school, Heil suggested that the school board also discuss ways the district and university could partner.
She said she would like to see the partnership discussion be something that develops from the top administrators down. Most of the current relationships are due to associations between members of the school community and people who work in various university departments.
Some of the examples of current relationships included at least eight examples of UA faculty members visiting classes to speak to students in the public schools. It also mentioned cases of district employees doing presentations at the UA, noting that Fayetteville’s food service director does presentations for students in UA nutrition classes.
There were more than 10 examples of UA students visiting schools and volunteering their time to mentor or work with students.
In addition, there were at least four examples of colleges at the UA providing professional development opportunities for teachers.
“ It’s just a blend of everything, ” Heil said.
The list also mentioned times when school employees volunteered as members of university boards, including Superintendent Bobby New serving on the College of Education’s dean search committee.
The UA also hosts events and competitions that bring high school students to the campus. An example listed was middle school gifted and talented students visiting the Sam M. Walton College of Business for an economics education workshop in November.
One item on the list, “ University of Arkansas Athletic Department, ” listed examples of facility use by the schools. This included:
• Hosting a baseball tournament at Baum Stadium for $ 1, 000
• Using Bud Walton Arena for basketball at a cost of $ 10, 000 per year
• Hosting the Four States Challenge volleyball tournament in Barnhill Arena
• Renting the John McDonnell Field to host conference track meets at a cost of $ 1, 000
Two examples of facilities use not cited on the list are the high school graduation ceremony and post-graduation party. FHS holds its graduation ceremonies at Bud Walton Arena, and the school’s Project Graduation post-graduation party is held all night in the UA HPER building.