Board members are President Sarah Trammell Hough, Vice President Judy White, Secre-tary Sarita Sisco, Treasurer Faye Yarbrough, Betsy Cash, Rodney Arnold, Rachel Green Norton, Karena DeYoung, Lavina Grandon, Janet King Thomason, and Wes Phifer. Ex-officio members are Charles Trammell and Sandra Tram-mell.

In the April meeting, board members elected officers, ap-proved by-laws, set quarterly

In April a group of supporters of the Valley Springs School District realized a long-time dream when they met to fi-nalize plans for a non-profit foundation to support the Valley Springs school and community.

A community/school founda-tion is a way for people to give unrestricted funds to support projects and activities to supplement the more lim-ited funding available from government sources.

The eleven alumni, communi-ty members, and teachers who make up the Valley Springs Foundation board were pulled together by Lavina Grandon, Valley Springs alumna and president of Rural Community Alliance, a non-profit organization whose purpose is “helping rural schools and communi-ties survive and thrive.”

“RCA has developed a collab-

oration with the Community Foundation of the Ozarks’ Rural Schools Partnership (Springfield, MO) and the Rural School and Community Trust’s Center for M i d w e s t e r n I n i t i a t i v e s (Galesburg, IL) in order to help rural schools and communities tap into charitable giving to en-hance programs that might not be funded by tax dollars,” says Grandon.

Some ideas for Foundation pro-jects are incentives for students and teachers for high perfor-mance on achievement tests, assistance with innovative class-room projects, assistance with technology, lights for the Valley Springs Fun Park, and a stage for musical performances at the park.

Ideally, the foundation would spend a portion of funds donated each year on projects while re-serving the rest in a perpetual endowment whose generated income would support other projects and activities.

VALLEY SPRINGS FOUNDATION TO BOOST SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY

VALLEY SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL RANKED #6 IN STATE BY NATIONAL MAGAZINE Valley Springs High School was recently named #6 in the state by U.S. News and World Report in their “Best High Schools” report.

The ranking was based on End of Course testing in Literacy and Geometry and on availa-bility and success in Advanced Placement classes and testing.

Valley Springs High School offers advanced placement classes in English Literature, English Language, Biology, Government, and Calculus. In 2009 the National Center for Education Statistics identified Valley Springs, along with

Fayetteville High School, as one of Arkansas’ top two high schools for Advanced Placement perfor-mance.

U.S. News ranks high schools na-tionally as Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medal Schools. Of the 327 high schools in Arkansas, there were 2 gold, 21 silver, and 58 bronze. With its #6 ranking, Valley Springs fell in the Silver Medal category.

More information about the rank-ings can be found at http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/arkansas/districts/valley-springs-school-district/valley-springs-high-school-1474 .

NEWSLETTER VOLUME I, ISSUE 1 JULY 1, 2012 WWW.VALLEYSPRINGSAR.ORG

meetings, established standing committes, and approved the production of an informational brochure and newsletter.

Superintendent Charles Trammell says he is excited about the Foun-dation and thinks it will be an “exceptional tool for the school and community.”

The Foundation will officially launch at the Alumni Reunion on August 4. Supporters will be able to give tax-deductible contribu-tions in a number of ways.

• 2012 Valley Springs High school named #6 in the state by U. S. News and World Report

• 2011 Valley Springs Middle School #2 in the state on schooldigger.com

• 2010 Valley Springs High School #6 in the state on schooldigger.com

• 2009 per National Center for Educa-tion Statistics, Valley Springs one of state’s top two high schools for Ad-vanced Placement performance

VALLEY SPRINGS ALUMNI REUNION SET FOR AUGUST 4 The annual Valley Springs Alumni Reunion banquet will be held in the school cafetori-um at 6:00 p.m. on August 4.

At the banquet, special recog-nition will be given to the classes of 1962, 1972, 1982, 1992, and 2002.

Throughout the day on August 4, rooms will be made available in Old Main at the

high school for any classes that want to hold events during the day.

As usual, the Half-Century Club will induct new members from the class of 1962 at an after-noon ceremony to be held in the high school library at 3:30.

In addition to special recogni-tion of classes, the banquet will feature entertainment by Kevin

Gibson and a report on the newly formed Valley Springs Foundation.

Also under discussion at the reunion will be the formation of a Valley Springs Alumni Association with represeta-tives from across the decades and the development of a website that will feature the Valley Springs community, Foundation, and Alumni

Association.

Anyone interested in attend-ing the reunion can contact

Laretta Moore at 870-365-7939 or e-mail her at larettamoore@yahoo.com. Tickets can also be reserved by calling Susan Thompson at 870-429-9205 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $13.

Valley Springs Foundation P.O. Box 640 Valley Springs, AR 72682

ELEMENTARY STUDENTS TAKE HOME HONORS AT REGIONAL SCI ENCE FAIR , COUNTY SPELLING BEE

MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE CLUB ATTENDS SPACE CAMP IN HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA

Johnson, son of Mike and Shelly (Wilson) Johnson, was the winner of the annual Boone County Spelling Bee. He competed at the State Spelling Bee after beating compe-tition from each of the five school dis-tricts in the county.

TEST SCORES TELL THE STORY:

On 2012 achievement tests, re-sults show that 1st grade stu-dents scored better than 72% of 1st graders nationally in Literacy and 77% in Math. 2nd graders scored at the 71st percentile in Literacy and 67th percentile in Math. On state Benchmarks 3rd graders were 86% proficient and advanced in Literacy and 90% proficient and advanced in Math, while 4th graders came in at 91% and 87%. All scores are above state and regional aver-ages.

the bus and helped kids who needed to raise other moneys with fundrais-ers.

“The kids loved it! They had a great time,” says King. “It was very educa-tional with all kinds of math stuff that can tie into school studies.”

“We had everyone from special educa-tion students to kids from the Gifted and Talented program,” says Still. “They all benefited from the experi-ence.”

Campers were able to learn about space history and simulate a shuttle mission, with role plays of the ground crew, people in moon suits, and other functions that make up a real Space Shuttle mission. From the hands-on activities, participants also learned leadership, teamwork and decision making.

Last April 18 fifty 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders who are members of the Valley Springs Middle School Science Club earned their way to an exciting three-day trip to the Davidson Center for Space Exploration—Space Camp—in Huntsville, Alabama.

Fundraising and planning for the trip was spearheaded by middle school science teachers Sara King and Melissa Flud. It was an activity for members of the Sci-ence Club, a group started a couple of

years ago to encourage interest in sci-ence learning and improve scores on state science exams. It’s worked, says middle school principal Rick Still. This year Valley Springs middle school stu-dents scored 84.5% proficient and ad-vanced on state scence Benchmarks, compared to the state average of 48.3%.

Sponsor Sara King says teachers try to plan something different for every year students are in middle school to main-tain interest and to give students a vari-ety of opportunities.

Students in the Science Club can earn points to go on the trips by doing a project for the science fair, maintaining good grades and good behavior, and other factors that make up a points system.

Sponsors helped raise money to pay for

2012 was a good year for Valley Springs Elementary students in local competi-tions.

The school’s elementary teachers have done a great job in recent years of cre-ating excitement about science learning, a fact that is evident by the number of their students in Kindergarten through fourth grade who participate in the local science fair.

This year Valley Springs Elementary stu-dents took home 23 awards at the O.U.R. Co-op science fair that includes schools from a five-county area. VSES earned the first, second, and third place K-3 overall trophies.

Above left, two elementary stu-dents participate in science activi-ties while waiting for their projects to be judged. Left, 4th grader Ben