GREENLAND : Patrons bid, break things in fundraiser for schools
Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2008
GREENLAND — A high school student here expressed his feelings on Saturday about the potential annexation of his district by swinging a sledgehammer.
“I don’t like it,” said Jeremy Huber, after smashing a hole in the windshield of a donated Mazda MX-6 during a “Save Our School” event on the Greenland campus.
“I want to stay a Pirate,” said Huber, a running back on the football team. His well-placed sledgehammer shot — for which he paid $ 5 — put a hole where “State Board of Education” had been spray-painted in block letters.
The Greenland School Board organized the day-long fundraiser in a last-ditch effort to help dissuade the Arkansas Board of Education from voting to consolidate the 930-student district south of Fayetteville.
The event included a rummage sale, silent auctions, a planned appearance by retired Arkansas Razorbacks track and field Coach John McDonnell, and food sales with the aim of raising $ 321, 000 in cash and pledges to pay half of the district’s outstanding loans, which will come due in January.
The total amount raised was not known by press time Saturday night.
The state board meets Monday to decide whether the district should be annexed into one of its six neighboring school systems.
The board on Monday also will consider adding the 580-student Decatur School District to its fiscal distress list. Then on July 31, the board will consider annexing Decatur into one of three Benton County districts: Bentonville, Gravette or Gentry.
An anonymous donor has pledged $ 100, 000 to Decatur, and a group of students and parents has organized several fundraisers, including a July 19 chili supper and a softball tournament.
In Greenland, the idea of transferring to a larger high school such as Fayetteville didn’t sit well with Huber, the football player. He doesn’t want to lose his school’s small-town feel and ability to know everyone when he graduates, he said.
On the lawn in front of the cafeteria two young “pirates” battled under a tree. Using handmade padded swords, Carter Gobel, 6, and Peyton Anderson, 5, battled while wearing plastic firefighter hats they received from West Fork firefighters attending the event.
The threat of the end of the district concerned Sherry Anderson, Peyton’s mom and wife of Greenland School Board member Patrick Anderson.
Sherry Anderson was in the first kindergarten class at Greenland, which until the early 1970 s had started with first grade. Her parents graduated from the district and their pictures are among those of graduates that hang in the halls of the high school, where she and her husband met.
“I hope some more Anderson pictures hang in those hallways,” she said.
Throughout the day the beating continued on the Mazda. Wendy King jumped back after her swing with a ball-peen hammer, surprised by the hail of glass that blew back when she destroyed the car’s rear window.
“That was fun,” she said, smiling proudly about her accomplishment.
King pounded on the car while her 5-year-old-son Austin played on a firetruck from nearby West Fork. Austin recently finished kindergarten at Greenland Elementary, and King wants her boy to continue at the school.
King had two children go to school in the Fayetteville. She prefers Greenland because of its atmosphere, she said. Everyone knows each other, she said.
“It just seems like family,” she said.
King was doing her part to help raise money for the financiallystrapped district; she spent $ 35 on T-shirts made for the event.
The optimism among those putting on the event was exemplified in a raffle that featured as a prize the honor of being first to fire the school’s miniature cannon at its first home football game in the fall.
Greenland High Principal Hope Dorman was soaked during a sponge toss.
Dorman came to the district from Winslow, whose school system was annexed into Greenland in 2004. She said she’s seen the impact of consolidation on that community.
Some still aren’t over it, she said. Dorman’s concerns went beyond the students and parents. Consolidation will have an impact on those that work for the district. “I hope we have jobs on Monday,” she said.
To contact this reporter: awallworth@arkansasonline. com
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