Wilbur D. Mills Education Service Cooperative

ADE Secretary Jacob Oliva and a team from DESE spoke with superintendents and guests today at WDMESC. Arkansas Department of Education

Last week, WDMESC hosted our first ever, America's Battle of the Books Regional Tournament. Students from Augusta, Cabot, Hazen, Lonoke, Searcy and White County Central participated. The Battles for the Primary Division were held on March 7th and the Battles for the Elementary and Middle School Divisions were held on March 8th. Congratulations to ALL students who made it to the regional tournament!!! Primary Division Winners 1st Place: The Searcy Chocolate Chip Cookies 2nd Place: The Searcy Book Masters 3rd Place: The Cabot Roses Elementary Division Winners 1st Place: The Cabot Bookworm Buddies 2nd Place: The Lonoke Dream Readers 3rd Place: The Cabot Wild Readers Middle School Division Winners 1st Place: The Hazen Masterminds 2nd Place: The Hazen Book Busters 3rd Place: The Augusta Magic Bookends

WDMESC is hiring! Administration Assistant for Early Childhood Special Education Program Start Date- July 1, 2023 Application open until filled Contract length- 12 months Salary- Per Salary Schedule Duties- As assigned by supervisor to assist with program needs and goals Education- Minimum- high school diploma Preferred Candidates- Experience with office related duties and roles, customer service, billing, early childhood, special education, and prior administrative assistant experience Contact Person- Dr. Suzanne Bailey at 501-882-3852 or sbailey@wdmesc.org

The Arkansas Instructional Innovation Association (aiia) will be having their annual conference on Saturday, February 11th from 9:00 am-4:00 pm at the Ronnie Williams Student Center on the University of Central Arkansas Campus. This year's theme will be "Designing for Digital Citizens" featuring Keynote Speaker Dr. Kriston Mattson. Miss Arkansas, Ebony Mitchell, will also be a guest speaker. We have an awesome schedule of sessions in the following strands: Online Teaching Innovation Tech and Technology Innovation Digital Citizenship Innovation Strategies for 2023 and Beyond Playground Demos Conference Registration link: https://aiia.regfox.com/aiia-conference-2023

WDMESC Receives Highest Ratings

Susan Chafin provided an excellent training for library media specialists on book repair at WDMESC!

WDMESC Early Childhood Department is seeking a Special Education Mental Health Therapist for contract services. Contract- As needed only basis to support early childhood children with special needs Contact Person: Dr. Suzanne Bailey at sbailey@wdmesc.org or 501-882-3892 for more information and details.

Please help us get the word out about our upcoming Teacher Job Fair!

Early Childhood Special Services Program at WDMESC has an opening for a paraprofessional position. This person needs to have a minimum of a high school diploma and bilingual, with proficiency in Spanish. Experience working with early childhood children is a plus, but not a requirement. Training will be provided. If interested, please send resume' to Dr. Suzanne Bailey at sbailey@wdmesc.org.

WDMESC Director Brad Horn and Assistant Director/TCC Leasha Hayes attended DESE’s Annual Report to the Public with the State Board and ESSA Steering Committee. Schools on the Move from across the state were recognized.

Wilbur Mills Co-op and Northwest Co-op are teaming up for STEAM Week, November 7-11! The link below will take you to a flyer with links to several STEAM activities. These can be used in your classroom, shared with students to do on their own, or adapted to something you are doing in your classroom. In the middle of the week, we will have Real World Wednesday. Starting at 9:00 am that day, we will have live zooms with people who are currently working in a STEAM field. If you don't have time to watch them live, we will be recording each of the zoom sessions and will send out links later in the week. You can watch as many or as few as you like at your convenience. Click the following link for STEAM Activities and Real World Wednesday https://bit.ly/3DLESGz

We loved having our high school students on campus for WDMESC's High School Chess Tournament!

Another great group of students competed in WDMESC's Elementary Chess Tournament this week!

Dr. Tony Thurman of Cabot and Dr. Chris Nail of Beebe present to aspiring superintendents at AAEA's 2022 Aspiring Superintendent Program.

Family Mental Health Night October 19, 2022, 6:00-7:00 PM The ADE, in partnership with the Cook Center for Human Connection, ARConnectNow, and Arkansas Trauma Resource Initiative for Schools (TRIS), will host this FREE, one-hour, virtual event. This event will introduce parents, students, and educators to free resources to support youth mental-health concerns. This event will also provide a forum for participants to ask questions anonymously. To register, visit https://bit.ly/ADE-FMHN

Did you know that last year our area schools supported over 600 students experiencing homelessness? This year we expect that number to exceed 1000. If your business, community organization, or you as an individual would like to support your school with these needs please complete the form linked below. Immediate needs include clothing, hygiene supplies, gift cards for food or gas, and medical services. For more information you may contact Tuer Kennard at tkennard@wdmesc.org or call 501-882-5467 extension 2260. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf3P7IfyAfu-fX2af7SKbjegrv-sZmnmUlY_ewaj-7yoK7tHg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Math and Science Specialists, along with parent volunteers worked with the White County Iris Society to support 3rd grade students at McRae Elementary in Searcy. Students were able to choose an iris and learn to plant and care for them. Plants will be sent home in the Spring.

Science teachers came together to learn about the AR K-12 science standards and how to engage students with a phenomenon at the start of a lesson. #ExploreBeforeExplain

Science and Math Specialists from WDMESC are supporting Robots and Rockets Camp at Harding University. Over 50 middle school students from all across the co-op are attending the STEM focused camp.

Erik Francis of Solution Tree leads WDMESC teachers in Deconstructing Depth of Knowledge.