Author Archives: John Karnes

Good afternoon! I hope everyone is staying safe and warm on this frigid Friday. We definitely made the right call by canceling school today. Road conditions would have been extremely dangerous this morning trying to get our students and staff to school. As I’ve stated before, I will always try to err on the side of safety when faced with these tough decisions. Predicting the weather is not a perfect science, so all we can do is our best and stay informed. As we move into the weekend and next week, it looks as though we’ll have more tough decisions to make by dealing with more frigid weather moving into the area and possible school cancellations. Don’t forget that our school calendar has the District closed with no classes on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Day, which is probably great timing with the snowfall being predicted for Sunday and Monday. I will do my best to keep you informed as decisions are being made.

Here are a few more items of interest.

I’m sure by now that everyone has figured out that our games scheduled to be played in Flippin tonight have been postponed. We will let you know when a make-up date is scheduled.

The Pee Wee basketball games scheduled to be played in West Fork tomorrow have been postponed and will be rescheduled. As soon as a new date is decided, we will get that information out to everyone.

Finally, this year’s approved school calendar has all snow days missed being added on to the end of the school year. So currently, if no more school is missed, our student’s last day would be Wednesday, May 29th and our teacher’s last day would be Thursday, May 30th. Any variations from this would take approval from the Arkansas Department of Education and school employees.

I hope you have a great weekend and stay safe and warm.

John Karnes, Superintendent

West Fork Tiger Fans:

Due to the inclement weather that we’re experiencing in Northwest Arkansas today, tonight’s basketball games versus Bergman are being moved to tomorrow, Wednesday, January 10th. The tipoff for the junior high girls’ game will be 4:00. The junior high boys’, senior high girls, and finally, the senior high boys’ games will follow. We hope you’ll come out and support our teams.

Good morning. This is John Karnes, Superintendent of Schools. I’ve been watching the weather and driving the roads this morning and we have another tough call with the timing of the snow that we have moving in. Temperatures are steadily dropping and the weatherman just talked about having near white-out conditions and wind chills in the teens and the radar shows that it will snow all morning. For these reasons, I’m going to err on the side of safety and call school off for the day. Please be safe if you must get out.

Goodbye

Parents, Guardians, & Community:
You are invited to attend a brief meeting to go over the District’s 2024 Facilities Master Plan and discuss future projects that are in the current plan. We look forward to receiving your input as we plan for the future. The meeting will start at 5:00 on Monday, January 8th in the Boardroom of the District’s Administration Office.

Thank you,

John Karnes, Superintendent

Parents & Guardians:

Classes for students will not be in session on Monday, October 9; instead, this will be a teacher in-service day. Classes for students will resume on Tuesday, October 10th.

Parents and Guardians:

I am reaching out to you with a very important message. If your child(ren) received free or reduced meal prices last year, each family will still need to complete a free and reduced meal application for this school year and qualify; otherwise, beginning this coming Monday, September 18th, you will be required to pay for the full cost for your child’s meal. The cost of breakfast and lunch for students at the elementary school is $4.60 per day or $818.80 for the year per student. The cost of breakfast and lunch for students at the middle school and high school is $4.70 per day or $838.60 for the year per student. This cost can make it hard on a family, especially if they have multiple students in school. One positive change for this school year is a new provision that allows students who qualify for reduced meals to also receive their meals free with no additional reduced payment required.    

Besides benefiting families whose children qualify for free or reduced meals, another major benefit is that our school district will receive an additional $538 per student who qualifies. This would mean thousands of extra dollars could be spent on additional educational resources that would benefit all West Fork students that we currently aren’t able to spend due to budget constraints. With that being said, I am pleading to you to please complete a free and reduced meal application by this Sunday, September 17th to hopefully help out both your family and our school district. Paper applications can be picked up at your child’s school or at the district’s administration office. If you’d rather, please contact your child’s school and ask the secretary to send an application home with your child. If you need some help completing the application, please go to your child’s school or come to the administration office, and we’ll be glad to help you through the process. Finally, if you prefer, you can click on the following link to access and complete an online application. F & R Online Application

I really hope that you will take the few minutes necessary to complete your application. This could be a win-win situation for both you and our district.

Thank you, 

John Karnes, Superintendent

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