October 13, 2023 • 37 mins
In this podcast, Mr. Bridges sits down with Alma Superintendent Dr. Bryan Duffie to discuss what exactly a superintendent does, Dr. Duffie's background and how he came to Alma, as well as future plans that he has for Alma that involve not only the curriculum but new opportunities that will be available to students in the school district. We hope that you will give it a listen, and don't forget to embrace your inner weirdo!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:06):
Hello everyone, and welcome back onthis nice, chilli and rainy fall morning
here in Alma, Arkansas, whichlooks a little bit more like Seattle,
Washington this morning. Don't know whenyou may be listening to as it could
be two in the morning for allI know, And if it is,
I'm just going to tell you togo ahead and get to bed because you
need your sleep. Let me listento a podcast at two in the morning.
(00:29):
Go rest. My goodness. Myname is Michael Bridges, and I
am the GT and AP coordinator hereat the Alma School District, and I
would like to welcome you in toour podcast, which of course is the
only podcast with the nerve and theaudacity and the unmitigated gold that just come
right out and ask, hey,what is your deal again? Want to
(00:54):
welcome you in nice fall weather outthere. I've got homecoming here tonight,
and so we wish our Airdale isthe best of luck. By the time
you hear this, the game couldprobably be over, So I'm just gonna
go ahead and assume that the Airdalesare going to win that bad boy.
So congratulations Alma. A lot ofstuff have been going on in the world
of GT. Coordinating here. We'vehad chess tournaments, We've had quiz bowls,
(01:19):
have been getting those teams set up. I believe our middle school and
our high school already have that going. What's different with me is we have
new kids that are just now tryingout quiz bowl, so I have to
do a bit more try out,so it takes me a little longer to
get them done. But we nowhave that set up. We're about to
enter the world of spelling Bees,so we've got spelling Bees going. On
(01:42):
GT testing, I still have kidsthat I'm going to have to get tested
for GT to place in the program. This year for fourth grade, we
placed twenty two kids right out ofthe gate, which for us is a
huge number. It's great proves myscreening process is working. But it also,
you know, it's a bit moreproblem because I have more kids.
But that's that's a good problem tohave. Also, recently, I was
(02:06):
able to go to the AGIA conferencelate September early October, and I was
able to hear a really great speakerat that conference. Her name was Lisa
van Gammert. She was kind ofa behavioral psychologist, a gifted and high
achieving student, advocate, she workedwith MENSA for Kids, just did a
(02:30):
lot of different things, and shespoke at that conference and she brought something
up that I thought was fairly interesting, and after talking to one of my
teacher friends here at Alma, MissBroyles, What's Up, I thought I
would kind of talk about it hereon the podcast because she brought up something
that was a little bit different towhat a lot of teachers may think.
(02:53):
We do tier instruction in a classroom. So you've got tier one, which
is your construction, and then youhave kids that need help, so you
you you help them, and thenyou kind of scaffold them and do a
bunch of different things. And Ithink a lot of times teachers come in
and they they go from what thekids can't do, So maybe they start
(03:16):
with their lowest group first, thenthey figure out what they're going to do
for their middle group, and thenthey figure out what they're going to do
for their high group. And Missvan Gammer kind of turned that on its
ear and said, don't start withyour lower group that has trouble, start
with your higher group and work backfrom there, which I thought was a
(03:37):
really great idea, which is kindof what I do just naturally, but
other teachers might not consider that.So basically what that means, I was
just sitting here off the top ofmy head, and I was thinking,
okay, so let's say you wereworking on spelling words. Okay, So
instead of going and looking at mylower group and just maybe have them doing
the basics of this, I wouldlook at my higher group and I would
(03:59):
say, Okay, what you getare going to do is you're going to
spell this group of words. Thenyou're going to define them. Then you're
going to find the linguistic origin.You're going to find is it Latin,
is it Greek? You know,where does this origin come from? And
then you're going to provide me atleast three synonyms for that word. Okay.
So that's your h that's your advancegroup, And it's not just extra
(04:19):
work. They're actually digging into thesewords and finding out, you know,
a little bit about the human languageand why we speak the way we do
and why we use the words wedo. Okay, So that's that's your
that's your high achieving students. Thenyou're middle of the road students. You're
going to say, Okay, you'regoing to spell the word, define the
word and use it in a sentence. Okay, so they're still learning the
(04:41):
same thing as the higher level group, but it's not quite as deep.
But they're still getting everything that thathigher level group is, you know,
the basics, the spelling and thedefinition of it. And then your students
that struggle, you get them tospell it and define it, and yeah,
that's maybe what the teacher working withthem. But if you look at
(05:02):
that overall as a whole, allof those groups, tier one, tier
two, tier three, however youwant to list those, they're all getting
the same basic knowledge, basically thesame standard. Everybody's getting it. It's
just they're going to different depths ofknowledge with it. And I think that's
important. I think we lose that. I think I think a lot of
(05:27):
times we sit there and think,Okay, well they're a gifted student,
they need more work, and that'snot it at all. They don't need
that at all. It's not aboutmore worksheets and busy work just to keep
them occupied so they're not disrupting yourclass. And believe me, I know
those gifted and high achieving students candisrupt your class, but it's not about
that. It's about improving, improvingtheir experience in school, improving their education,
(05:56):
improving their attitude about school. Becausehere's the problem. Sorry, I'm
getting up on a soapbox, buthey, you tuned into a gifted podcast,
so you're just gonna have to rollwith it. In today's educational society,
are gifted and high achieving students aremarginalized. And yes, I said
it, they are marginalized because rightnow we are worried about report cards,
(06:18):
state report cards. Yes, thoseare important to a public school district.
But most of the time, mostof the time, not all the time,
most of the time, our giftedstudents are high achieving students are knocking
the top out of that chart.They're so we're kind of looking at them
going, okay, well, they'realready doing well. You're just measuring them
(06:38):
under one little spectrum, under howthey're performing for our state report card.
You're not measuring are they enjoying school? Are they getting the most out of
their learning? Are we truly challengingthem? And I will say, as
you're going to hear in this podcastlater with doctor Duffy, we are looking
at ways to reach those high achievingkids, and that's super important that's so
(07:00):
important. If you're an administrator listeningto this or a teacher listening to this,
I beg of you sit there andthink about what you're doing for your
high achieving kids and your gifted kids, because they're not always getting the most
out of school and out of yourprogram. So you know, I'm going
to step down off my soapbox now, but hey, if you ever want
(07:21):
to get in this kind of conversationwith me and have as sit down,
I am more than happy to meetup with you and do that. Email
is m Bridges m is in MichaelBridges at almasd dot net. I'd be
more than happy. Gifted, giftedstudents, high achieving students is my passion.
(07:41):
That's what the Lord gifted me with. Those are the ones that I
work the best with and I've runwith it and done the best I could.
So I'm always more than happy tomeet with you and talk to you
about that if you so desire.On today's program, I went ahead and
just asked the boss if he wouldn'tmind come on on the podcast and talking
to you kind of about where hecame from, what his plans are for
(08:05):
the district. Best part of hisjob hardest part of his job, just
the different things that he has todo as a superintendent, because I don't
think sometimes we often know what exactlya superintendent does because he's got a lot
on his plate. So without furtherado, I will turn you over to
my discussion with doctor Brian Duffy.All right, So ladies and gentlemen,
(08:30):
we are here with doctor Duffy.So doctor Duffy, would you go ahead
and kind of tell us what itis exactly you do at Alma because there
may be some people out there thatdon't really know what it is a superintendent
does. That is quite possible.I'm superintendent of schools, and I work
directly with the school board, workdirectly with all the administrators and really with
(08:52):
a lot of the staff, andjust oversee programs, oversee operations of the
school district and do my level bestto make sure as much as possible as
running smoothly. Yes, of course, there's lots of people in the formula
of all of that, and it'sa big operation, and so many people
pitching and help and are in variousroles in various jobs that make things work,
(09:18):
and that just makes it easy foreverybody. So I know, we're
over about three thousand students. Doyou know how many employees we have?
Like roughly we have about four hundredand fifty really staff members. I totally
think that much. But you're takingin bus drivers and certified and try.
Yeah, that's a lot of peopleto be responsible for. There is there
(09:39):
is you got you know, thirtyone hundred students and four hundred and fifty
staff plus you know other services thatwe sometimes have to outsource, yes,
because you can't get staff for someareas. So those programs are also our
responsibility, yes, for sure,for sure. Okay, so you're you're
(10:01):
in your second year is that correct? Second full year? This is starting
my third, third full year?Okay, okay, So why don't you
tell us a little bit about whereyou came from? Like what did you
like when you started education? Whatdid you do? Oh gosh, do
people want to hear this? Really? You don't have to give them like
dates and times, but yeah,yeah, I would like to know where
did you start? Okay? Iwas a teacher at North Little Rock High
(10:24):
School? Okay, many moons ago. Did you have like a subject that
you yes, was a math teacher, math teacher? Okay, also sponsored
various activities. I was a studentcouncil advisor, a key club sponsor,
and assistant activities director. Yes,I also saw like when we got your
bio sheet after they had hired you, one of the things you were responsible
for was like some kind of giftedmathematics or there was a gifted because I
(10:48):
was like, I saw that,and I was like, okay, all
right, a gifted guy. Good, well, I don't know if I'm
gifted. I promise that. Can'tcan't make any guarantees there, right.
For about four years, maybe five, a grant funded a night GT math
program and it was at one ofour middle schools. So GT coordinator wanted
(11:09):
me to do that, wanted meto do the high school course for middle
schoolers basically, well in a way, in a way, okay, it
depends on what level on some ofthose lower grade levels they are in their
school district. So I did highschool Algebra one for high school credit for
fifth, six and seventh graders.Wow, And did that for four years.
(11:30):
And then when they got the highschool, most of them, probably
all of them at least as afreshman, was in trigonometry and pre cal
as a freshman, so they wereable to accelerate a little bit. Yeah,
okay, you can go through CalculusBC among some other other things ap
stats those courses. Okay, soyou will that was fun. You started
(11:50):
down as a high school math teacher, yes, okay? So then where
where did you go from there?How did you end up starting then getting
too administration? After got master's degree? After I got my master's degree.
One thing, I grew up inJonesboro, Arkansas, and started looking for
various administrative opportunities, no big hurry, And this opportunity ended up coming open
(12:15):
in the Jonesboro area, of allplaces. So I threw in for it.
And it was a school district,the west Side School District, just
outside of Jonesboro, and I washired as middle school principal. And so
that's where I started my administrative careeras a middle school principal and did that
for three years and became the highschool principal. Had one she moved back
(12:39):
to where she was from and retired, and so moved to the high school
and two three years later I transitionedto superintendent at west Side School District west
Side, Okay. And then fromthere did you from there? Then another
opportunity, I guess you'd say camecalling or came knocking, not that I
(13:01):
was looking for anything at the time. And in this is twenty fifteen going
into twenty sixteen there in the Jacksonvillearea where the Little Rock Air Force Face
is, that community got approved toform their own school district and break away
from the Pulaski County School District inthe Little Rock area and form their own
(13:22):
community school district. And so Iwent to Jacksonville to work with Tony Wood,
who was a former commissioner, andwas assistant superintendent for a year,
and then the board moved me intothe superintendent role for the next few years
after that. And that was avery unique, totally different experience to form
(13:46):
a school district from scratch and bepart of organizing all of that and trying
to make things work. So,yeah, that's my question. Were there
certain teachers from the surrounding school districtsthat came to you? Did you kind
of do new hires? How didyou go about that that? Now,
a lot of that happened before Igot there, Okay, but everyone,
(14:09):
since it's a new school district,everyone applied for their jobs or new people
applied for new jobs. Sure,and so everyone there were about six hundred
staff members. Everyone was hired fromscratch there. And did you have new
facilities and everything like that? Orthat was one charge of the separation was
to build new schools. And therewas varying degrees of condition that schools were
(14:33):
in at the time, and thecommunity passed a twenty five percent tax increase
to support building new schools. Wow, And so we embarked on that.
And right now there's two more tofinish, and so that community will have
probably about two hundred million dollars worthof new facilities once it's all done.
But it was about two thirds doneby the time I left. So right
(14:56):
now there's still two more schools tobuild right now, and they're on their
way. Okay, okay, Sohow did you? How did you end
up here in Alma? What eventuallyhappened happened there? Well, you know,
opportunities come up ripping and and whenmister Woolley announced his retirement and you
(15:16):
start thinking about things like, wellis that something they want to try to
do, and threw in for thatopportunity and lo and behold here we are.
Yeah, it worked out, now, you did, am? I
right, you came to our schooldistrict for and you were doing some kind
of assessment, state wide assessment,and you saw the district. Twenty eighteen,
I came here to Alma to dotheir state accreditation visit, okay,
(15:39):
and and you were so blown awayby you just had to come. I
tell you, it's lots of goodstuff going on. You know, Alma's
a very storied school district in ourstate. Yes, it is not tregative
or anything, right, And youknow, when this came open, I
thought, you know, that maybe something I want to be part of
and just see what happen. Happensawesome, awesome, great. So you
(16:02):
kind of told us about your background, so now we need to know.
And I think we were discussing thisbefore we even started the podcast. Always
ask what's your deal? And apparently, doctor, you have a bunch of
deals right now. There's a bunchof deals going on. I guess part
of my deal is, you know, spending thirty two years of your life
in public education, working with kids, working with staff, trying to with
(16:26):
everybody in tow with everyone together,trying to make things better for kids,
right, and whatever that means,whatever it means for that kid to make
things better for their life, fortheir classes, for their future. That's
what all of us, in myview, are trying to do here.
(16:47):
And so that's I guess my biggestdeal. Other deals out there. There's
lots of things with legislation that's outthere, lots of things with things in
the media, yes, about schoolsand what's good, what's bad, what's
you know in good? Bad?Are indifferent? Right, And a lot
of opinions, a lot of opinionsout there that is correct, many opinions
(17:11):
correct. So with one of thethings that you wanted to talk about here
and something that kind of interests me, I was at a gifted conference and
they actually kind of talked about this, you know, and you and I
had discussed it, mister kirkandall hadit the portrait of a student. Well,
they kind of that was one ofthe things they brought up at the
Gifted conference I was at, right, was the portrait of a student?
(17:32):
And I think that kind of tiesinto Alma Forward. Correct what you're okay,
So kind of explain what Alma Fordtwenty is. Alma Ford was an
initiative a few years ago that wasdone with staff and it was about just
creating goals plans for the future.How do we need to improve programs,
improve things for kids, what dowe need to do with with our offerings,
(17:56):
et cetera. And so that effortwas done. I thinking about twenty
seventeen, and it guided improvements atthat time as far as what's happened.
Since I don't have all those details, but I want to resurrect that and
get more feedback from staff, parents, students on some things, community members
(18:18):
about facets of our operation to planfor the future. People say, well,
why was twenty forty chosen? Totally? Well, I'm thinking, you
know, we think, try tothink long term. There was a a
whether you call it presentation or informationout there years ago, and it was
(18:41):
called did you know? And itwas done at different conferences and trainings,
but it had different iterations, andfor example, it would say it was
more about technology. Did you knowthat da da da da da? Right,
information doubles every six months and nowinformation doubles probably almost every day.
So it was at forward thinking,you know, what do we do?
(19:02):
So twenty forty is chosen because anychildren born in twenty twenty two or twenty
twenty three will graduate high school aroundthat time. So how are we planning
our school system? How are weplanning our programs to help them? Yes,
for jobs we don't know exists yet, right, and opportunities we don't
know exists yet, and technology that'snot out there yet. So how do
(19:23):
we position our schools, our programs, our staff to be as much help
to not only kids in our systemnow, but for those who are one
year old, two years old,ready to come here when they're in kindergarten.
And it's kind of like you said, it's not looking at the necessarily
the big picture of students, butlike what each individual student may need,
(19:45):
because one students may be headed fora four year degree to college while another
one may be interested in a trade. So we got to as a school
district prepare both of those. Soone survey is already out and these are
quick three to four items and it'sopen ended, and the first one is
out on students and graduates. Weare part of what's called the Learning twenty
(20:08):
twenty five initiative with our National AdministrativeAssociation, and it's nothing that staff has
to do extra. I've shared thiswith Principles and we did a session with
one of their leaders over the summera couple of sessions, and part of
that initiative that we've got keyed intois portrait of a graduate, and high
(20:29):
school has already started some work onthat, so this they know that this
is here to help inform that workon how do we develop that portrait.
What are the skills, knowledge,other programming needed to help students succeed.
Portrait of a student kind of servesas like a mission statement. From there
you can away ambition that you havethe portrait of the student, portrait of
(20:51):
a learner that helps guide our programs. The other surveys coming are in technology
about educators budget, gotta have moneyto pay for it, sure programs and
facilities, okay, and getting feedbackfrom all these different groups. And it's
all voluntary, but it will reallyneed the feedback to help guide the work.
(21:12):
And the public can excuse me,gain access to the survey through like
our district newslet we have posted onour social media. We're using the local
chamber to also publicize the survey.We have sent the survey directly from parents
through our communications system, so theyalready have that. We have almost two
hundred parents who's filled it out,so far and then after another couple of
(21:33):
weeks, I'll send the next oneout again, three or four items,
nothing overly complicated, just what's yourfeedback on this topic? Sure, and
here's the whole thing. For thoseof you that are out there listening right
now. It's one thing to sitthere and say, well, I wish
they do that, I wish theydo this. Here's your opportunity to kind
of actually provide some input on thatand be able to give doctor Duffy and
(21:55):
you know whoever may be working onthis, an idea of what you want
from Alma, what you want tosee from Alma. So it's worth it,
you know, three or four minutesfill that thing out you said quick
short, you can put whatever youwant in there. Yes, they were
made short purposefully, so that wouldit wouldn't just type a lot of time,
okay, So and definitely look intothat for sure, and definitely in
(22:17):
this process. You know we can'tand I never do this, but you
know we can't make any grand promises, right, you know, we can
only do what we can afford,right, but yet we still need the
feedback. We still need what isthe ideal so we can go for that.
So we can see what the commonthreads are with everyone's opinions and go
for the ideal program, the idealschool. All that okay, And something
(22:41):
that really interests me because you know, in the GT aspect and everything,
you know, the the possibilities ofcareer education are opportunities to excel with students.
I know that was that was anotherthing you were wanting to talk about.
So what do you kind of whatwhat's your vision there? What do
you have I have been a bigadvocate for i'd say the last twenty five
to twenty seven years time when Iwas involved with this early on of what's
(23:07):
called career academies. Career academies arenot new even at that time, and
all that is is to give acareer focus to certain areas of study,
certain programs, certain offerings that guideshow you prepare a student, whether it's
for college, whether it's four year, two year technical program, technical permit
(23:27):
certification, or go straight to work. And we have a lot of those
facets in our area. It's notnecessarily formally academies the academy concept, but
were expanding our programs just here inthe Alma School District with the construction of
our new agro Science facility and expandingthose programs. We've expanded programs in marketing
(23:53):
and business ROTC, other technology programs. Kids are getting certifications. I think
even last year the highest number ofcomplets in career technical programs ever for Alma
Alma seniors getting that completer status.Programs are offered through partnership at the Peak
(24:14):
Innovation Center at Fort Smith that isthe University of Arkansas Fort Smith as well,
and we have students in LPN programs, Advanced manufacturing, other health professions,
robotics that is there that manufacturers haveinvested money and equipment and time and
(24:36):
people in providing those experiences for kids. That's excellent, excellent, That's that's
something else. Yeah, many employerssaying you'll be hired when you finish this
program. Yes, and employers aresaying that. We went on a field
trip to ABB last year. SamanthaDooley and I took some of the middle
schoolers there and they were talking abouthow they'll hire you and then if you
(24:56):
show initiative, they'll send you backto school. Even even if you just
come in working on the floor,they'll still send you back to school.
So right now, with the currentfinancial environment environment and employment situation. You
know, there are employers that arelooking for people with initiative and drives,
so kind of preparing these kids earlyand getting them ready for that, it's
(25:18):
an excellent, excellent thing. Havewe looked at possibly like accelerating, like
maybe a ninth grade student moving themup to tenth grade if they're ready for
that kind of challenger rigor Has thatbeen a possibility, Well, it's of
course our new Secretary of Education isbig on acceleration. Yes, he has
talked about that many times. Yes, kids are ready for that. Of
(25:41):
course, we still got to gothrough what state graduation requirements are and how
many credits determine who a sophomore is. Right, however, what is and
we offer We do some of thisin middle school, but our state department
really advocates more and more high schoolcredit opportunities given in middle school. Yes,
and we do that in the middlewith algebra cralgebra one. Yes,
(26:03):
uh, you know, we couldlook. They look forward to expanding that
at some point in the future,probably sooner than later, but yes,
more opportunities so that kids can takeeven more advanced or more rigorous courses when
they're in high school. Yeah,that'd be great if we could offer like
even more than algebra. Algebra isa great start, but it would be
awesome if we could accelerate that evenmore. And the only thing I will
(26:26):
add is when I did that mathprogram, even though I had them for
the high school algebra one, thenwhen they were in middle school, this
was years ago, and this wasonly in math for that time. They
took the other math courses geometry,algebra two in middle school, got high
school credit, and then they wereready for trigonometry and pre calculus as a
freshman. Wow, and already hadthese credits. And so if they kept
(26:49):
going on their path, they youknow, they could have been on track
to even be a senior, evenmaybe a year younger than the Uh okay,
excellent, excellent. So you mentionedthe new AGRI building. Yes,
so we've got we've got construction goingon all across. We've got that going
on. There's a new admin buildingI think that we're kind of trying to
(27:11):
work on. And then the annexis that correct is going to become the
new pre K No no, no, no, okay, you're close,
well close, I can't keep itall together. Uh yeah, there's lots
of moving parts of it. Yes, the first construction is out of the
millage reduction election. It was amillage reduction election. Just to emphasize that
(27:36):
to our listeners. I was youknow, I wasn't here at the time.
But that was done as a bondextension to do the Agri Science Lab
facility, Okay, to do thethe new Agri classrooms and shop, and
then the student Activity center. Okay, that was the main thrust of the
(27:57):
bond extension. But part of thatwas to bring pre k to Alma and
has never had a certified pre Kwithin the school district. We of course
have word recently that other child carefacilities and other pre K facilities have closed
down, has moved over the years, and so there's more and more demand
(28:18):
for good pre K facilities, preK programs, so kids are ready for
kindergarten. So we did purchase theUnited Credit Federal Credit Union building. They
kind of fell out of skye avery good deal and it was half the
cost of what we were going todo based on the November twenty election,
(28:42):
So how do you not pass thatday exactly? So the plan is the
administrative offices will move out of thecurrent building into the old bank building and
renovations happened there and that includes mostof the NX probably as well. It
might include we should have room toget our curriculum department there as well,
(29:03):
and then remodel the admin building currentone and expand it for pre K.
And we would love if it's affordable. We're still three years out from this.
Yes, we'd love to build itfor two hundred students. Wow,
that would be a large pre K. There's some other other requirements. My
previous district I had three hundred ina pre K facility and the goal is
(29:26):
to try to secure funding to wherethere's no cost. And with pre K
there's certain qualifiers. It's not justanyone can get a free slot. There's
certain qualifiers in state code that determinewho gets what's called an Arkansas Better Chance
a slot and one that's called CCDF, which is a federal fund that can
(29:48):
fund pre K slots. You can'thave paying slots as well a mix,
but the preference is if you canmake it where it's no cost, but
you have to serve a need.Well, there's there's a definite there's a
definite need, or serve a needwhether it's through at risk factors, poverty
factors, other things. That's inthe formula for pre case slots, right,
(30:12):
those have to be served first,Right, Well, I do know
that like over the summer, youknow, you mentioned that some of the
daycares in the area had closed down. I know some of our teachers were
worried about, Okay, my kid'sdaycare just closed down. What am I
going to do here too? Andthat's that's a very real concern. So
something like that would be would beexcellent. And again that's something you know,
(30:33):
everything we're talking about it takes time. So it's it's not it's not
we're talking about doing this next year. This is stuff that's going to take
some time. And you know whenyou whenever you incorporate legislature into it's like
doctor Duffy said, there are certainhoops you've got to jump through and boxes
you have to make check make sureare checked. So right, right exactly,
and it's just it it does taketime. Finish this current construction and
(30:59):
we start planning the next level.You get the admin building done and then
we can look at pre k Okay, all right, all right, so
those were kind of your your plansand everything. So now I just got
a couple of questions I wanted toask you. So, what would you
say is the hardest part of yourjob? Well, there's always a lot
of hard parts. You got tokeep it down to one. You've got
to keep it out. There's alwaysa lot. But the hardest thing is
(31:26):
the hard decisions that ultimately have tobe made sometimes that they impact people.
And of course, decisions about weather, you know, that's a big one.
Do we close school because of thesnow and ice or is it good
enough to open school? Financial decisions, there's only so much. We don't
have profits. You can definitely havelosses in school districts that you don't have
(31:52):
profits, right, and so youhave to make hard decisions about what's the
priority on our budget? What areyou pay for or what do you cut?
Uh, those are that's hard part. I've been there. You have
to make those decisions sometimes when youwant this certain program but another one is
(32:14):
too expensive, and you know youhave to weigh those off. Sure so,
but the hard decisions, especially aboutprogramming, that we have to make
and there's a bottom line and wehave to make the best decision for the
system, right And not just personalinterest. And like you were saying,
(32:35):
we have to be fiscally responsible witheverything. Integrity is non negotia period.
Yes, yes, we have tomake sure that the budget's balance and that
every the money's going where it needsto go. And because you do not
want the Department of bed to haveto step in for anything like that.
That's right, that's right. Sothat was the worst part of the job.
(32:57):
What would you say is the bestpart of your job? Oh?
God, what do you enjoy themost? I mean, you can't say
the kids, because that's that's that. That's a cop out with the kids.
There, here's the other thing.Okay, that's part of it.
But it's it's you know, beinginvolved, being even more involved specifically with
all the How would I say this, Well, all the different student groups,
(33:21):
just like going with one of ourgroups too. I was with Decca
last last year for their big conference. You came with us to Arkansas Tech.
I came to you all with ArkansasTech and came with you all to
that and h went with Dance lastyear to the big national thing, which
there's all kinds of state tournaments thatgo on if they qualify. I committed
(33:43):
two years ago, I'll go withcheer to their deal and then going with
different faculty groups to different trainings orsetting in on their internal sessions that they're
planning, and just so much,so many good things going on that I
am more available to be part of. I guess at this point in my
(34:07):
career have been able to experience alot of things, but just so many
good things going on, and thebest part is getting to experience those with
staff and with kids. Yeah,I would kind of like, you know,
you've got the macro look of everything, but every once in a while
you get to do that micro stuff, which is the smaller groups in the
areas that you know. I setin with a couple of high school group
(34:30):
sessions the last couple of days,I believe, two or three days,
and just we've got stout people inour teaching positions and our administrative positions that
are doing the right things for kids, and so much work is behind the
scenes that parents don't see, thepublic doesn't see it, yes, but
(34:51):
I see it, and it justyields dividends for our kids and for our
community. With all the sweat equitythat they're putting in behind the scenes to
get programs ready teaching and learning activities, ready for students. Yeah, and
that is that is one thing Ican definitely back up. You know,
our staff is like second to none. They work hard, they hold themselves
(35:13):
to high standards. They do theydo an excellent job. It's it's a
very hard job, but they youknow, they love it and they do
it for the kids. So yeah, they do awesome, awesome work.
So everybody who comes on the showhas to do a shout out for somebody.
So it's one person, one one. It can be a group,
but we prefer that it's you know, one you can't be like, oh,
(35:34):
the Alma School district, that's acop out. No, It's got
to be somebody, like a groupor you know, just somebody that you
you think, you know, youjust want to not let let them know
you appreciate them. So, becausewe're heard by I don't know, tens
and tens of people here on thispodcast, depending on the subject, there
you go. So who would youlike to have a shout out for?
(35:58):
A doctor? Ethic? That ishard, That is really difficult because there's
so many people and so many groups. And I'll just narrow it down this
way, because I could have along list already of people. I'll just
do two specific people right now.I'm gonna give a shout out to doctor
Stacey Wood and mister Travis Biggs.And they oversee certain parts of the operation
(36:24):
as well, but you know,they do a lot of gruntwork behind the
scenes again that make things happen here. And if people doubt that, then
I need to come get them andlet them see what they're doing on all
the work they're doing to make surethings run well here. Mister Biggs part
(36:47):
of support services, doctor Wood partof curriculum and teaching and learning services,
and all the things we get todeal with that nobody really gets to see.
Is yes, something else sometimes thephone calls and and they but and
it's you know, good, badand different. Yes, but they they
(37:07):
just done a remarkable job for us. It might be all right. So
doctor Wood and mister Biggs, thisshout out is for you. See,
I gotta give you a little littleguitar stuff there that's that's nice and bonus
points if you can identify what thatguitar riff was from, because I know
it? Do you know it?Doctor Duffy? No, man, I'm
(37:28):
sorry, it's Weezer song called BuddyHolly. It's really good. That was.
Yeah. I think I was inhigh school when that came out.
I think I think, Well,Doctor Duffy, I just want to say
thank you. You know, weappreciate you being on here, and I
hope that you have a great restof the school year. I'm sure i'll
be seeing you any different places aroundall right, thank you so much for
(37:49):
showing up. We appreciate no problem, no problem.
Hello everyone, and welcome back onthis nice, chilli and rainy fall morning
here in Alma, Arkansas, whichlooks a little bit more like Seattle,
Washington this morning. Don't know whenyou may be listening to as it could
be two in the morning for allI know, And if it is,
I'm just going to tell you togo ahead and get to bed because you
need your sleep. Let me listento a podcast at two in the morning.
(00:29):
Go rest. My goodness. Myname is Michael Bridges, and I
am the GT and AP coordinator hereat the Alma School District, and I
would like to welcome you in toour podcast, which of course is the
only podcast with the nerve and theaudacity and the unmitigated gold that just come
right out and ask, hey,what is your deal again? Want to
(00:54):
welcome you in nice fall weather outthere. I've got homecoming here tonight,
and so we wish our Airdale isthe best of luck. By the time
you hear this, the game couldprobably be over, So I'm just gonna
go ahead and assume that the Airdalesare going to win that bad boy.
So congratulations Alma. A lot ofstuff have been going on in the world
of GT. Coordinating here. We'vehad chess tournaments, We've had quiz bowls,
(01:19):
have been getting those teams set up. I believe our middle school and
our high school already have that going. What's different with me is we have
new kids that are just now tryingout quiz bowl, so I have to
do a bit more try out,so it takes me a little longer to
get them done. But we nowhave that set up. We're about to
enter the world of spelling Bees,so we've got spelling Bees going. On
(01:42):
GT testing, I still have kidsthat I'm going to have to get tested
for GT to place in the program. This year for fourth grade, we
placed twenty two kids right out ofthe gate, which for us is a
huge number. It's great proves myscreening process is working. But it also,
you know, it's a bit moreproblem because I have more kids.
But that's that's a good problem tohave. Also, recently, I was
(02:06):
able to go to the AGIA conferencelate September early October, and I was
able to hear a really great speakerat that conference. Her name was Lisa
van Gammert. She was kind ofa behavioral psychologist, a gifted and high
achieving student, advocate, she workedwith MENSA for Kids, just did a
(02:30):
lot of different things, and shespoke at that conference and she brought something
up that I thought was fairly interesting, and after talking to one of my
teacher friends here at Alma, MissBroyles, What's Up, I thought I
would kind of talk about it hereon the podcast because she brought up something
that was a little bit different towhat a lot of teachers may think.
(02:53):
We do tier instruction in a classroom. So you've got tier one, which
is your construction, and then youhave kids that need help, so you
you you help them, and thenyou kind of scaffold them and do a
bunch of different things. And Ithink a lot of times teachers come in
and they they go from what thekids can't do, So maybe they start
(03:16):
with their lowest group first, thenthey figure out what they're going to do
for their middle group, and thenthey figure out what they're going to do
for their high group. And Missvan Gammer kind of turned that on its
ear and said, don't start withyour lower group that has trouble, start
with your higher group and work backfrom there, which I thought was a
(03:37):
really great idea, which is kindof what I do just naturally, but
other teachers might not consider that.So basically what that means, I was
just sitting here off the top ofmy head, and I was thinking,
okay, so let's say you wereworking on spelling words. Okay, So
instead of going and looking at mylower group and just maybe have them doing
the basics of this, I wouldlook at my higher group and I would
(03:59):
say, Okay, what you getare going to do is you're going to
spell this group of words. Thenyou're going to define them. Then you're
going to find the linguistic origin.You're going to find is it Latin,
is it Greek? You know,where does this origin come from? And
then you're going to provide me atleast three synonyms for that word. Okay.
So that's your h that's your advancegroup, And it's not just extra
(04:19):
work. They're actually digging into thesewords and finding out, you know,
a little bit about the human languageand why we speak the way we do
and why we use the words wedo. Okay, So that's that's your
that's your high achieving students. Thenyou're middle of the road students. You're
going to say, Okay, you'regoing to spell the word, define the
word and use it in a sentence. Okay, so they're still learning the
(04:41):
same thing as the higher level group, but it's not quite as deep.
But they're still getting everything that thathigher level group is, you know,
the basics, the spelling and thedefinition of it. And then your students
that struggle, you get them tospell it and define it, and yeah,
that's maybe what the teacher working withthem. But if you look at
(05:02):
that overall as a whole, allof those groups, tier one, tier
two, tier three, however youwant to list those, they're all getting
the same basic knowledge, basically thesame standard. Everybody's getting it. It's
just they're going to different depths ofknowledge with it. And I think that's
important. I think we lose that. I think I think a lot of
(05:27):
times we sit there and think,Okay, well they're a gifted student,
they need more work, and that'snot it at all. They don't need
that at all. It's not aboutmore worksheets and busy work just to keep
them occupied so they're not disrupting yourclass. And believe me, I know
those gifted and high achieving students candisrupt your class, but it's not about
that. It's about improving, improvingtheir experience in school, improving their education,
(05:56):
improving their attitude about school. Becausehere's the problem. Sorry, I'm
getting up on a soapbox, buthey, you tuned into a gifted podcast,
so you're just gonna have to rollwith it. In today's educational society,
are gifted and high achieving students aremarginalized. And yes, I said
it, they are marginalized because rightnow we are worried about report cards,
(06:18):
state report cards. Yes, thoseare important to a public school district.
But most of the time, mostof the time, not all the time,
most of the time, our giftedstudents are high achieving students are knocking
the top out of that chart.They're so we're kind of looking at them
going, okay, well, they'realready doing well. You're just measuring them
(06:38):
under one little spectrum, under howthey're performing for our state report card.
You're not measuring are they enjoying school? Are they getting the most out of
their learning? Are we truly challengingthem? And I will say, as
you're going to hear in this podcastlater with doctor Duffy, we are looking
at ways to reach those high achievingkids, and that's super important that's so
(07:00):
important. If you're an administrator listeningto this or a teacher listening to this,
I beg of you sit there andthink about what you're doing for your
high achieving kids and your gifted kids, because they're not always getting the most
out of school and out of yourprogram. So you know, I'm going
to step down off my soapbox now, but hey, if you ever want
(07:21):
to get in this kind of conversationwith me and have as sit down,
I am more than happy to meetup with you and do that. Email
is m Bridges m is in MichaelBridges at almasd dot net. I'd be
more than happy. Gifted, giftedstudents, high achieving students is my passion.
(07:41):
That's what the Lord gifted me with. Those are the ones that I
work the best with and I've runwith it and done the best I could.
So I'm always more than happy tomeet with you and talk to you
about that if you so desire.On today's program, I went ahead and
just asked the boss if he wouldn'tmind come on on the podcast and talking
to you kind of about where hecame from, what his plans are for
(08:05):
the district. Best part of hisjob hardest part of his job, just
the different things that he has todo as a superintendent, because I don't
think sometimes we often know what exactlya superintendent does because he's got a lot
on his plate. So without furtherado, I will turn you over to
my discussion with doctor Brian Duffy.All right, So ladies and gentlemen,
(08:30):
we are here with doctor Duffy.So doctor Duffy, would you go ahead
and kind of tell us what itis exactly you do at Alma because there
may be some people out there thatdon't really know what it is a superintendent
does. That is quite possible.I'm superintendent of schools, and I work
directly with the school board, workdirectly with all the administrators and really with
(08:52):
a lot of the staff, andjust oversee programs, oversee operations of the
school district and do my level bestto make sure as much as possible as
running smoothly. Yes, of course, there's lots of people in the formula
of all of that, and it'sa big operation, and so many people
pitching and help and are in variousroles in various jobs that make things work,
(09:18):
and that just makes it easy foreverybody. So I know, we're
over about three thousand students. Doyou know how many employees we have?
Like roughly we have about four hundredand fifty really staff members. I totally
think that much. But you're takingin bus drivers and certified and try.
Yeah, that's a lot of peopleto be responsible for. There is there
(09:39):
is you got you know, thirtyone hundred students and four hundred and fifty
staff plus you know other services thatwe sometimes have to outsource, yes,
because you can't get staff for someareas. So those programs are also our
responsibility, yes, for sure,for sure. Okay, so you're you're
(10:01):
in your second year is that correct? Second full year? This is starting
my third, third full year?Okay, okay, So why don't you
tell us a little bit about whereyou came from? Like what did you
like when you started education? Whatdid you do? Oh gosh, do
people want to hear this? Really? You don't have to give them like
dates and times, but yeah,yeah, I would like to know where
did you start? Okay? Iwas a teacher at North Little Rock High
(10:24):
School? Okay, many moons ago. Did you have like a subject that
you yes, was a math teacher, math teacher? Okay, also sponsored
various activities. I was a studentcouncil advisor, a key club sponsor,
and assistant activities director. Yes,I also saw like when we got your
bio sheet after they had hired you, one of the things you were responsible
for was like some kind of giftedmathematics or there was a gifted because I
(10:48):
was like, I saw that,and I was like, okay, all
right, a gifted guy. Good, well, I don't know if I'm
gifted. I promise that. Can'tcan't make any guarantees there, right.
For about four years, maybe five, a grant funded a night GT math
program and it was at one ofour middle schools. So GT coordinator wanted
(11:09):
me to do that, wanted meto do the high school course for middle
schoolers basically, well in a way, in a way, okay, it
depends on what level on some ofthose lower grade levels they are in their
school district. So I did highschool Algebra one for high school credit for
fifth, six and seventh graders.Wow, And did that for four years.
(11:30):
And then when they got the highschool, most of them, probably
all of them at least as afreshman, was in trigonometry and pre cal
as a freshman, so they wereable to accelerate a little bit. Yeah,
okay, you can go through CalculusBC among some other other things ap
stats those courses. Okay, soyou will that was fun. You started
(11:50):
down as a high school math teacher, yes, okay? So then where
where did you go from there?How did you end up starting then getting
too administration? After got master's degree? After I got my master's degree.
One thing, I grew up inJonesboro, Arkansas, and started looking for
various administrative opportunities, no big hurry, And this opportunity ended up coming open
(12:15):
in the Jonesboro area, of allplaces. So I threw in for it.
And it was a school district,the west Side School District, just
outside of Jonesboro, and I washired as middle school principal. And so
that's where I started my administrative careeras a middle school principal and did that
for three years and became the highschool principal. Had one she moved back
(12:39):
to where she was from and retired, and so moved to the high school
and two three years later I transitionedto superintendent at west Side School District west
Side, Okay. And then fromthere did you from there? Then another
opportunity, I guess you'd say camecalling or came knocking, not that I
(13:01):
was looking for anything at the time. And in this is twenty fifteen going
into twenty sixteen there in the Jacksonvillearea where the Little Rock Air Force Face
is, that community got approved toform their own school district and break away
from the Pulaski County School District inthe Little Rock area and form their own
(13:22):
community school district. And so Iwent to Jacksonville to work with Tony Wood,
who was a former commissioner, andwas assistant superintendent for a year,
and then the board moved me intothe superintendent role for the next few years
after that. And that was avery unique, totally different experience to form
(13:46):
a school district from scratch and bepart of organizing all of that and trying
to make things work. So,yeah, that's my question. Were there
certain teachers from the surrounding school districtsthat came to you? Did you kind
of do new hires? How didyou go about that that? Now,
a lot of that happened before Igot there, Okay, but everyone,
(14:09):
since it's a new school district,everyone applied for their jobs or new people
applied for new jobs. Sure,and so everyone there were about six hundred
staff members. Everyone was hired fromscratch there. And did you have new
facilities and everything like that? Orthat was one charge of the separation was
to build new schools. And therewas varying degrees of condition that schools were
(14:33):
in at the time, and thecommunity passed a twenty five percent tax increase
to support building new schools. Wow, And so we embarked on that.
And right now there's two more tofinish, and so that community will have
probably about two hundred million dollars worthof new facilities once it's all done.
But it was about two thirds doneby the time I left. So right
(14:56):
now there's still two more schools tobuild right now, and they're on their
way. Okay, okay, Sohow did you? How did you end
up here in Alma? What eventuallyhappened happened there? Well, you know,
opportunities come up ripping and and whenmister Woolley announced his retirement and you
(15:16):
start thinking about things like, wellis that something they want to try to
do, and threw in for thatopportunity and lo and behold here we are.
Yeah, it worked out, now, you did, am? I
right, you came to our schooldistrict for and you were doing some kind
of assessment, state wide assessment,and you saw the district. Twenty eighteen,
I came here to Alma to dotheir state accreditation visit, okay,
(15:39):
and and you were so blown awayby you just had to come. I
tell you, it's lots of goodstuff going on. You know, Alma's
a very storied school district in ourstate. Yes, it is not tregative
or anything, right, And youknow, when this came open, I
thought, you know, that maybe something I want to be part of
and just see what happen. Happensawesome, awesome, great. So you
(16:02):
kind of told us about your background, so now we need to know.
And I think we were discussing thisbefore we even started the podcast. Always
ask what's your deal? And apparently, doctor, you have a bunch of
deals right now. There's a bunchof deals going on. I guess part
of my deal is, you know, spending thirty two years of your life
in public education, working with kids, working with staff, trying to with
(16:26):
everybody in tow with everyone together,trying to make things better for kids,
right, and whatever that means,whatever it means for that kid to make
things better for their life, fortheir classes, for their future. That's
what all of us, in myview, are trying to do here.
(16:47):
And so that's I guess my biggestdeal. Other deals out there. There's
lots of things with legislation that's outthere, lots of things with things in
the media, yes, about schoolsand what's good, what's bad, what's
you know in good? Bad?Are indifferent? Right, And a lot
of opinions, a lot of opinionsout there that is correct, many opinions
(17:11):
correct. So with one of thethings that you wanted to talk about here
and something that kind of interests me, I was at a gifted conference and
they actually kind of talked about this, you know, and you and I
had discussed it, mister kirkandall hadit the portrait of a student. Well,
they kind of that was one ofthe things they brought up at the
Gifted conference I was at, right, was the portrait of a student?
(17:32):
And I think that kind of tiesinto Alma Forward. Correct what you're okay,
So kind of explain what Alma Fordtwenty is. Alma Ford was an
initiative a few years ago that wasdone with staff and it was about just
creating goals plans for the future.How do we need to improve programs,
improve things for kids, what dowe need to do with with our offerings,
(17:56):
et cetera. And so that effortwas done. I thinking about twenty
seventeen, and it guided improvements atthat time as far as what's happened.
Since I don't have all those details, but I want to resurrect that and
get more feedback from staff, parents, students on some things, community members
(18:18):
about facets of our operation to planfor the future. People say, well,
why was twenty forty chosen? Totally? Well, I'm thinking, you
know, we think, try tothink long term. There was a a
whether you call it presentation or informationout there years ago, and it was
(18:41):
called did you know? And itwas done at different conferences and trainings,
but it had different iterations, andfor example, it would say it was
more about technology. Did you knowthat da da da da da? Right,
information doubles every six months and nowinformation doubles probably almost every day.
So it was at forward thinking,you know, what do we do?
(19:02):
So twenty forty is chosen because anychildren born in twenty twenty two or twenty
twenty three will graduate high school aroundthat time. So how are we planning
our school system? How are weplanning our programs to help them? Yes,
for jobs we don't know exists yet, right, and opportunities we don't
know exists yet, and technology that'snot out there yet. So how do
(19:23):
we position our schools, our programs, our staff to be as much help
to not only kids in our systemnow, but for those who are one
year old, two years old,ready to come here when they're in kindergarten.
And it's kind of like you said, it's not looking at the necessarily
the big picture of students, butlike what each individual student may need,
(19:45):
because one students may be headed fora four year degree to college while another
one may be interested in a trade. So we got to as a school
district prepare both of those. Soone survey is already out and these are
quick three to four items and it'sopen ended, and the first one is
out on students and graduates. Weare part of what's called the Learning twenty
(20:08):
twenty five initiative with our National AdministrativeAssociation, and it's nothing that staff has
to do extra. I've shared thiswith Principles and we did a session with
one of their leaders over the summera couple of sessions, and part of
that initiative that we've got keyed intois portrait of a graduate, and high
(20:29):
school has already started some work onthat, so this they know that this
is here to help inform that workon how do we develop that portrait.
What are the skills, knowledge,other programming needed to help students succeed.
Portrait of a student kind of servesas like a mission statement. From there
you can away ambition that you havethe portrait of the student, portrait of
(20:51):
a learner that helps guide our programs. The other surveys coming are in technology
about educators budget, gotta have moneyto pay for it, sure programs and
facilities, okay, and getting feedbackfrom all these different groups. And it's
all voluntary, but it will reallyneed the feedback to help guide the work.
(21:12):
And the public can excuse me,gain access to the survey through like
our district newslet we have posted onour social media. We're using the local
chamber to also publicize the survey.We have sent the survey directly from parents
through our communications system, so theyalready have that. We have almost two
hundred parents who's filled it out,so far and then after another couple of
(21:33):
weeks, I'll send the next oneout again, three or four items,
nothing overly complicated, just what's yourfeedback on this topic? Sure, and
here's the whole thing. For thoseof you that are out there listening right
now. It's one thing to sitthere and say, well, I wish
they do that, I wish theydo this. Here's your opportunity to kind
of actually provide some input on thatand be able to give doctor Duffy and
(21:55):
you know whoever may be working onthis, an idea of what you want
from Alma, what you want tosee from Alma. So it's worth it,
you know, three or four minutesfill that thing out you said quick
short, you can put whatever youwant in there. Yes, they were
made short purposefully, so that wouldit wouldn't just type a lot of time,
okay, So and definitely look intothat for sure, and definitely in
(22:17):
this process. You know we can'tand I never do this, but you
know we can't make any grand promises, right, you know, we can
only do what we can afford,right, but yet we still need the
feedback. We still need what isthe ideal so we can go for that.
So we can see what the commonthreads are with everyone's opinions and go
for the ideal program, the idealschool. All that okay, And something
(22:41):
that really interests me because you know, in the GT aspect and everything,
you know, the the possibilities ofcareer education are opportunities to excel with students.
I know that was that was anotherthing you were wanting to talk about.
So what do you kind of whatwhat's your vision there? What do
you have I have been a bigadvocate for i'd say the last twenty five
to twenty seven years time when Iwas involved with this early on of what's
(23:07):
called career academies. Career academies arenot new even at that time, and
all that is is to give acareer focus to certain areas of study,
certain programs, certain offerings that guideshow you prepare a student, whether it's
for college, whether it's four year, two year technical program, technical permit
(23:27):
certification, or go straight to work. And we have a lot of those
facets in our area. It's notnecessarily formally academies the academy concept, but
were expanding our programs just here inthe Alma School District with the construction of
our new agro Science facility and expandingthose programs. We've expanded programs in marketing
(23:53):
and business ROTC, other technology programs. Kids are getting certifications. I think
even last year the highest number ofcomplets in career technical programs ever for Alma
Alma seniors getting that completer status.Programs are offered through partnership at the Peak
(24:14):
Innovation Center at Fort Smith that isthe University of Arkansas Fort Smith as well,
and we have students in LPN programs, Advanced manufacturing, other health professions,
robotics that is there that manufacturers haveinvested money and equipment and time and
(24:36):
people in providing those experiences for kids. That's excellent, excellent, That's that's
something else. Yeah, many employerssaying you'll be hired when you finish this
program. Yes, and employers aresaying that. We went on a field
trip to ABB last year. SamanthaDooley and I took some of the middle
schoolers there and they were talking abouthow they'll hire you and then if you
(24:56):
show initiative, they'll send you backto school. Even even if you just
come in working on the floor,they'll still send you back to school.
So right now, with the currentfinancial environment environment and employment situation. You
know, there are employers that arelooking for people with initiative and drives,
so kind of preparing these kids earlyand getting them ready for that, it's
(25:18):
an excellent, excellent thing. Havewe looked at possibly like accelerating, like
maybe a ninth grade student moving themup to tenth grade if they're ready for
that kind of challenger rigor Has thatbeen a possibility, Well, it's of
course our new Secretary of Education isbig on acceleration. Yes, he has
talked about that many times. Yes, kids are ready for that. Of
(25:41):
course, we still got to gothrough what state graduation requirements are and how
many credits determine who a sophomore is. Right, however, what is and
we offer We do some of thisin middle school, but our state department
really advocates more and more high schoolcredit opportunities given in middle school. Yes,
and we do that in the middlewith algebra cralgebra one. Yes,
(26:03):
uh, you know, we couldlook. They look forward to expanding that
at some point in the future,probably sooner than later, but yes,
more opportunities so that kids can takeeven more advanced or more rigorous courses when
they're in high school. Yeah,that'd be great if we could offer like
even more than algebra. Algebra isa great start, but it would be
awesome if we could accelerate that evenmore. And the only thing I will
(26:26):
add is when I did that mathprogram, even though I had them for
the high school algebra one, thenwhen they were in middle school, this
was years ago, and this wasonly in math for that time. They
took the other math courses geometry,algebra two in middle school, got high
school credit, and then they wereready for trigonometry and pre calculus as a
freshman. Wow, and already hadthese credits. And so if they kept
(26:49):
going on their path, they youknow, they could have been on track
to even be a senior, evenmaybe a year younger than the Uh okay,
excellent, excellent. So you mentionedthe new AGRI building. Yes,
so we've got we've got construction goingon all across. We've got that going
on. There's a new admin buildingI think that we're kind of trying to
(27:11):
work on. And then the annexis that correct is going to become the
new pre K No no, no, no, okay, you're close,
well close, I can't keep itall together. Uh yeah, there's lots
of moving parts of it. Yes, the first construction is out of the
millage reduction election. It was amillage reduction election. Just to emphasize that
(27:36):
to our listeners. I was youknow, I wasn't here at the time.
But that was done as a bondextension to do the Agri Science Lab
facility, Okay, to do thethe new Agri classrooms and shop, and
then the student Activity center. Okay, that was the main thrust of the
(27:57):
bond extension. But part of thatwas to bring pre k to Alma and
has never had a certified pre Kwithin the school district. We of course
have word recently that other child carefacilities and other pre K facilities have closed
down, has moved over the years, and so there's more and more demand
(28:18):
for good pre K facilities, preK programs, so kids are ready for
kindergarten. So we did purchase theUnited Credit Federal Credit Union building. They
kind of fell out of skye avery good deal and it was half the
cost of what we were going todo based on the November twenty election,
(28:42):
So how do you not pass thatday exactly? So the plan is the
administrative offices will move out of thecurrent building into the old bank building and
renovations happened there and that includes mostof the NX probably as well. It
might include we should have room toget our curriculum department there as well,
(29:03):
and then remodel the admin building currentone and expand it for pre K.
And we would love if it's affordable. We're still three years out from this.
Yes, we'd love to build itfor two hundred students. Wow,
that would be a large pre K. There's some other other requirements. My
previous district I had three hundred ina pre K facility and the goal is
(29:26):
to try to secure funding to wherethere's no cost. And with pre K
there's certain qualifiers. It's not justanyone can get a free slot. There's
certain qualifiers in state code that determinewho gets what's called an Arkansas Better Chance
a slot and one that's called CCDF, which is a federal fund that can
(29:48):
fund pre K slots. You can'thave paying slots as well a mix,
but the preference is if you canmake it where it's no cost, but
you have to serve a need.Well, there's there's a definite there's a
definite need, or serve a needwhether it's through at risk factors, poverty
factors, other things. That's inthe formula for pre case slots, right,
(30:12):
those have to be served first,Right, Well, I do know
that like over the summer, youknow, you mentioned that some of the
daycares in the area had closed down. I know some of our teachers were
worried about, Okay, my kid'sdaycare just closed down. What am I
going to do here too? Andthat's that's a very real concern. So
something like that would be would beexcellent. And again that's something you know,
(30:33):
everything we're talking about it takes time. So it's it's not it's not
we're talking about doing this next year. This is stuff that's going to take
some time. And you know whenyou whenever you incorporate legislature into it's like
doctor Duffy said, there are certainhoops you've got to jump through and boxes
you have to make check make sureare checked. So right, right exactly,
and it's just it it does taketime. Finish this current construction and
(30:59):
we start planning the next level.You get the admin building done and then
we can look at pre k Okay, all right, all right, so
those were kind of your your plansand everything. So now I just got
a couple of questions I wanted toask you. So, what would you
say is the hardest part of yourjob? Well, there's always a lot
of hard parts. You got tokeep it down to one. You've got
to keep it out. There's alwaysa lot. But the hardest thing is
(31:26):
the hard decisions that ultimately have tobe made sometimes that they impact people.
And of course, decisions about weather, you know, that's a big one.
Do we close school because of thesnow and ice or is it good
enough to open school? Financial decisions, there's only so much. We don't
have profits. You can definitely havelosses in school districts that you don't have
(31:52):
profits, right, and so youhave to make hard decisions about what's the
priority on our budget? What areyou pay for or what do you cut?
Uh, those are that's hard part. I've been there. You have
to make those decisions sometimes when youwant this certain program but another one is
(32:14):
too expensive, and you know youhave to weigh those off. Sure so,
but the hard decisions, especially aboutprogramming, that we have to make
and there's a bottom line and wehave to make the best decision for the
system, right And not just personalinterest. And like you were saying,
(32:35):
we have to be fiscally responsible witheverything. Integrity is non negotia period.
Yes, yes, we have tomake sure that the budget's balance and that
every the money's going where it needsto go. And because you do not
want the Department of bed to haveto step in for anything like that.
That's right, that's right. Sothat was the worst part of the job.
(32:57):
What would you say is the bestpart of your job? Oh?
God, what do you enjoy themost? I mean, you can't say
the kids, because that's that's that. That's a cop out with the kids.
There, here's the other thing.Okay, that's part of it.
But it's it's you know, beinginvolved, being even more involved specifically with
all the How would I say this, Well, all the different student groups,
(33:21):
just like going with one of ourgroups too. I was with Decca
last last year for their big conference. You came with us to Arkansas Tech.
I came to you all with ArkansasTech and came with you all to
that and h went with Dance lastyear to the big national thing, which
there's all kinds of state tournaments thatgo on if they qualify. I committed
(33:43):
two years ago, I'll go withcheer to their deal and then going with
different faculty groups to different trainings orsetting in on their internal sessions that they're
planning, and just so much,so many good things going on that I
am more available to be part of. I guess at this point in my
(34:07):
career have been able to experience alot of things, but just so many
good things going on, and thebest part is getting to experience those with
staff and with kids. Yeah,I would kind of like, you know,
you've got the macro look of everything, but every once in a while
you get to do that micro stuff, which is the smaller groups in the
areas that you know. I setin with a couple of high school group
(34:30):
sessions the last couple of days,I believe, two or three days,
and just we've got stout people inour teaching positions and our administrative positions that
are doing the right things for kids, and so much work is behind the
scenes that parents don't see, thepublic doesn't see it, yes, but
(34:51):
I see it, and it justyields dividends for our kids and for our
community. With all the sweat equitythat they're putting in behind the scenes to
get programs ready teaching and learning activities, ready for students. Yeah, and
that is that is one thing Ican definitely back up. You know,
our staff is like second to none. They work hard, they hold themselves
(35:13):
to high standards. They do theydo an excellent job. It's it's a
very hard job, but they youknow, they love it and they do
it for the kids. So yeah, they do awesome, awesome work.
So everybody who comes on the showhas to do a shout out for somebody.
So it's one person, one one. It can be a group,
but we prefer that it's you know, one you can't be like, oh,
(35:34):
the Alma School district, that's acop out. No, It's got
to be somebody, like a groupor you know, just somebody that you
you think, you know, youjust want to not let let them know
you appreciate them. So, becausewe're heard by I don't know, tens
and tens of people here on thispodcast, depending on the subject, there
you go. So who would youlike to have a shout out for?
(35:58):
A doctor? Ethic? That ishard, That is really difficult because there's
so many people and so many groups. And I'll just narrow it down this
way, because I could have along list already of people. I'll just
do two specific people right now.I'm gonna give a shout out to doctor
Stacey Wood and mister Travis Biggs.And they oversee certain parts of the operation
(36:24):
as well, but you know,they do a lot of gruntwork behind the
scenes again that make things happen here. And if people doubt that, then
I need to come get them andlet them see what they're doing on all
the work they're doing to make surethings run well here. Mister Biggs part
(36:47):
of support services, doctor Wood partof curriculum and teaching and learning services,
and all the things we get todeal with that nobody really gets to see.
Is yes, something else sometimes thephone calls and and they but and
it's you know, good, badand different. Yes, but they they
(37:07):
just done a remarkable job for us. It might be all right. So
doctor Wood and mister Biggs, thisshout out is for you. See,
I gotta give you a little littleguitar stuff there that's that's nice and bonus
points if you can identify what thatguitar riff was from, because I know
it? Do you know it?Doctor Duffy? No, man, I'm
(37:28):
sorry, it's Weezer song called BuddyHolly. It's really good. That was.
Yeah. I think I was inhigh school when that came out.
I think I think, Well,Doctor Duffy, I just want to say
thank you. You know, weappreciate you being on here, and I
hope that you have a great restof the school year. I'm sure i'll
be seeing you any different places aroundall right, thank you so much for
(37:49):
showing up. We appreciate no problem, no problem.
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