Monthly Archives: August 2023

Parents & Guardians:

In a message sent out by me on August 29th titled “CDC Guidance for Students and Staff Testing Positive or Showing Symptoms of COVID-19,” I stated that the District would be following the CDC’s latest guidance on dealing with COVID-19 cases. Upon further guidance received by the District today from the Arkansas Department of Education, we are no longer going to follow CDC guidance, but instead, we will follow our current District guidelines, which state the following: “Kids must stay home if they have fever, vomiting, or diarrhea, and must stay home for 24 hours after the symptoms resolve (without the aid of medication). PLEASE DO NOT send a sick child to school. They will be sent home.”

Students or staff who test positive for COVID-19 will no longer be asked to wear a mask upon their return to school. Additionally, it will no longer be necessary to contact Mrs. Hughes, the District’s Point of Contact, for anything related to COVID-19.

I apologize for any confusion that I may have caused.

John Karnes, Superintendent

Parents & Guardians:
Does your K-8 student need routine dental care? West Fork Elementary School and West Fork Middle School have both qualified to receive services 100% FREE from the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Dental Van for our students IF we have enough parents sign the consent forms. This is a wonderful opportunity for our students, and we want to make this happen.

This state-of-the-art mobile dental office will be scheduled at our campus this fall. Students received consent forms at the open house! If your student qualifies, a consent form needs to be returned by Friday, September 15th. For another form, please contact your child’s school.

Thank you for your cooperation.

John Karnes, Superintendent

Parents, Guardians, & Community Members:

This is a quick reminder about tonight’s QB Club hamburger dinner fundraiser and Tigers Under the Lights pep rally. The dinner will begin at 5:00 and run through 6:30 in the elementary school cafetorium. The cost is only $5.00. Beginning at 7:00 at Tiger Stadium, we will hold our annual Tigers Under the Lights pep rally, which is free. We hope you will make plans to attend both events.

Thank you,

John Karnes, Superintendent

Parents, Guardians, & Community Members:

Due to the dangerous heat and humidity in our area, our Tigers Under the Lights pep rally and QB Club hamburger dinner fundraiser are being postponed until next Monday, August 28th. The dinner will run from 5:00 to 6:30 in the ES Cafetorium and the Pep Rally will begin at 7:00 at Tiger Stadium.  We apologize for any inconvenience but the health and safety of our students, employees, and fans are our number one priority.

Additionally, Thursday’s football games at Green Forest for our 7th grade and Junior High squads have been moved back from 5:30 and 7:00 starting times to 7:00 and 8:00 starting times, respectively, to try and help with the heat. Additionally, Friday night’s football game scheduled to be played here at Tiger Stadium versus Green Forest has been moved back an hour to an 8:00 kickoff time.

Finally, we will follow guidance from the Arkansas Activities Association with regard to heat and humidity monitoring for our athletic teams and band. Today’s heat and humidity do not allow for practicing outside this afternoon or after school. Some teams are going to move their practices to the mornings before school and our JunIor High and 7th-grade teams will still be able to practice during their first-period slot. We are also limiting outdoor recesses to no more than 20 minutes in the mornings and in the shade and none after 10:50 AM until this sweltering heat and humidity and excessive heat warnings go away.  If the mornings become too hot and humid, we will hold all recesses indoors. Thank you for your support and understanding.

John Karnes, Superintendent 

Parents, Guardians, and Community Members:

The 2023-24 school year got off to a great start yesterday. It was great having our students back in our classrooms. Thank you for you working with us to ensure that all forms and documents are completed. With the state’s new online registration system, we realize that registering your child was a bit tedious, but next year, it should be much easier. Thank you for your patience.

The purpose of this message is to inform you about a new visitor management system that we purchased with some of our safe schools’ funding from the state as this is a top priority and recommendation of the AR Safe Schools Commission. This advanced technology uses management software to protect students and staff from the risk of unwanted visitors or predators by instantly comparing school visitor identification data against an integrated, comprehensive database of sex offender registries throughout the United States. This system will also be used to track student tardies and early dismissals.

Our plan is to begin using this new security system beginning Wednesday morning. Any visitor, including parents and guardians, will need to bring their driver’s license or state-issued identification card into the office with them to get their ID scanned for the first time. Once scanned in any building, it won’t be necessary to get scanned in any of the other buildings. No visitors will be allowed past the office without an identification tag that is created through the system.

Thank you in advance for your support and cooperation in using Hall Pass and for assisting the district in helping keep our students and employees safe.

Respectfully,

John Karnes, Superintendent

This is the 23-24 Back to School Letter from Superintendent Karnes for parents & guardians. For your convenience, here is a direct link to the letter.