hildren & Youth Committee Meeting in Mountain View State Senator Missy Irvin, Chair of the Senate Children & Youth Committee held legislative meetings in Mountain View August 11 & 12.
The House Committee on Children & Youth, House Education Committee and Senate Education Committee members were included.
A total of 17 legislators from across the state attended the two day event. Legislators met at Yellow Jacket Hall to hear presentations from students, administrators, teachers and community leaders on the EAST program, the Music Roots Program and the Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs Program. They also toured the EAST lab as well as Stinger Lake & the pavilion.
Centennial Bank & the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce provided lunch and information packets on Stone County.
Legislators attended the Next Generation Concert at the Ozark Folk Center where all performers are under the age of 20 & many of whom are products of the Music Roots program.
The morning meeting was held at the Ozark Folk Center where legislators heard presentations on children & youth programs from Jay Miller, Director of Interpretation for Arkansas State Parks, and from OFC Director Grady Spann and OFC Director of Interpretation, Mary Gillihan.
Mr. Miller highlighted interpretation programs where the history comes alive for students through state park interpreters. Some programs are now being made available through distance learning. He noted that benchmark scores in science went up 19 points after the students from Monitor Elementary started seeing it come alive at Hobbs State Park in Rogers, AR.
“It is important for legislators to get out of the Capitol & into the different areas of our state to see how programs supported through the citizens’ tax dollars are working,” Irvin said. “I was very pleased to have many legislators from all areas of the state visit Mountain View and attend the meetings and concert. They were greatly impressed by the programs’
successes and the community support for these programs. Our children & youth are our future. We have to do a better job of critically evaluating & researching programs that are or are not working, especially in education.”
The House Committee on Education has requested that Senator Irvin and the presenters from the Mountain View School District & the Ozark Folk Center give an additional report to the entire committee in October.
