NLRSD DR PILEWSKI 8-10-26

Start your day with the morning jolt of Drake Toll. Anywhere in the country. Your home for talking sports. The United States hockey team has four teeth left. What is LeBron James Legacy? Leonel Mess. 906 career goals is stupid. All of it. The Knicks. The Los Angeles Lakers. Aaron Rogers. Georgia football players. The Dolphins. The Mets. As it happened, when it happened. We'll talk all of it. Westwood One Sports Talk. Your home for Drake Toll. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Well, good Tuesday morning to you. 11th of August. It is 20 minutes in front of 8 o'clock, and it's back to school week here in Arkansas for most school districts, and that does include the North Little Rock School District, which will open their doors on Thursday this week, get the new year started. And now joining us is the superintendent of the North Little Rock School District, Dr. Greg Pellewski. And Dr. Poulouski, welcome back to the show. How are you this morning? Hey, Mr. Hal. Always nice to reconnect with you. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, no, we appreciate the time. And obviously, you still got today and tomorrow before you fire things up on Thursday. And so what are you looking forward to as a school, as a school gets started this week? Anything in particular? Yeah, well, pre-K started yesterday. They started a few days before K-12, and then you're absolutely right. K-12 starts on Thursday. We've got everybody's had their back-to-school event except the high school and the COE. They'll have their back-to-school event tonight, which is always exciting when, you know, kids get to meet their teachers and obviously see their friends that they've missed over the summer. Yes, and always great to reconnect, as we're talking with Dr. Greg Nancy Pelosi this morning, the superintendent of the. North Little Rock School District. So any big changes as far as policies or anything that students and parents need to be aware of as we start the school year? Any changes compared to last year going into this year? Yeah, there are a few within the student handbook, but many of those are just carryover from the year before, such as, you know, no cell bell to bell. We're in our second year of that. I'm a big fan of that. really impacting our secondary students. They've done a great job. Heard a lot from teachers, just how kids are more engaged, not only academically, but socially with other students. So we're really excited about that. We've been very focused going into this year on student engagement and making sure that all of our kids are engaged from the beginning of the bell to the end of the bell in grade-level instruction. We've had a great opening with our administrators. Teachers came back next week. They're in professional development again today. They'll have a work day, and we'll be off and running on Thursday. I mean, this time last year, that was the number one story, was the bell to bell no cell. And so how does North Little Rock, how does that school district, how do you guys do it? Do you do phone bags or do you just depend on the students to put their phones away? And obviously there's consequences if they come out. But how does the North Little Rock School District handle it? Sure. We use a pouch called the yonder pouch, and then students have to, you know, put that in the pouch as they go in, and then at the end of the day, they have an unlocking mechanism. So both of our middle schools and high school have that. They've got the procedures down. So we're just looking forward to it as we kick it off another school year. So, yeah.

It should be fun. Yes. Now, the other big item that I wanted to ask about going into this year is the new middle school. I know you had a topping off ceremony last week for the building. What can you tell us about this new middle school? When's it projected to be completed? This is completely state of the art, Michelle. Our seventh and eighth grade, the new seventh and eighth grade building is being built right now. It is projected to be done. sometime in May or June of next year. So next year at this time, our rising seventh and eighth graders will go into that site. Then we'll move the sixth graders. Actually, the seventh and eighth grade building will be demolished. Then we'll start the sixth grade building and then we'll move them over. So we're going to be playing hopscotch over there for the next two to three years. The second big project is the renovation of historic old Maine. That renovation has started. If you drive by, you'll see the fence up. The truck's outside. And then within the next probably two months, we'll start breaking ground on our indoor sports and activity center that will just be north of our football field end zone. So a lot of exciting projects. People are excited in North Little Rock, and I couldn't be more proud. Are the football players and the folks that play fall sports, are they complaining right now that the indoor situation is not set up yet? It's awfully hot outside right now. It is, and all of our coaches do a great job. And our athletic director, West Boulon, does a great job of monitoring the weather to make sure that, you know, kids aren't overheating. But I think everybody's just excited that it's on the horizon. And I couldn't be more proud of our community. None of this would be possible without our community supporting our millage and supporting public education. It's really a kudos to them for their long-term investment. But the kids are anxious for it for sure. I think once they start seeing... you know, the materials start to go up, the steel beams to go up, everybody will see. It's only just a matter of time before they get to be inside it to enjoy it. Yeah, no, it's obviously going to be a great facility. I want to go back to the new middle school. So is the new, I know you talked about playing hopscotch. Is the new middle school, is that replacing an older school or is this going to be an addition to the school district, another school? No, it'll be, it's on the same footprint of our current middle school, which is, you know, the former Northeast High School. And the only building that will not be new is the cafeteria. And the reason for that is believe that was built in 2016. So that's a, you know, relatively a modern part of the building. But everything else.

will be new. There'll be two new gymnasiums that'll be built a sixth grade. And so, yeah, it's all going to just take shape over there. If you look over in that area, you can see a lot of a lot of activity. And they're there. Just do an amazing job. Every week I'm over there to kind of take a look and just the progress is just going by so quickly. Yeah, no, I mean, these capital improvements are always very exciting. You know, it shows growth. And you're doing all of these capital improvements. This is through the millage. Is that correct? Yes, back in 2023 when the voters voted to pass the millage. and which has allowed us the opportunity to fund these projects. And Old Main is coming out of our building fund. We've saved up for that over several years. It's about a $30 million project. But to be able to... take Old Main back to its glory is just going to be exciting. We get a lot of alumni that come in over the summer. They want to go in for a tour. And one day, I hope that, you know, when they come back for a class reunion, they'll be able to have it right there in the auditorium. Yeah. No, that'll be very cool. I mean, look, the growth is great. I mean, just seeing that the North Little Rock School District is, you know, moving forward at a very quick pace, to be honest with you, is very awesome. Yes, sir. We're talking with Dr. Greg Poluski this morning, the North Little Rock School District, super. attendant getting ready to open up the school year on Thursday. For the majority, there's some of the pre-K is already going, but the K through 12 will get going on Thursday this week. I don't know how much you can say about this because this is an ongoing situation, but what happened with this $12,000 plus dollars? Did this, I just want to see if I understand this. Did it get accidentally sent to a wrong account and then that account holder kept your money even though it was in error? Is that what happened there? That's exactly right, which is not uncommon for somebody, one of our employees, or any of our employees, if they want to switch a bank, hey, you know, I want to switch this bank to this bank. They've got to submit a form. Obviously, they've got to write down the account number. And what we had realized is that there was an accounting error on our end that we entered the last two numbers. were entered incorrectly. Now, unfortunately, when we deposited that money, we were not notified by the employee for about 41 days after that money was deposited in their account. So when we deposit those last checks, what we call summer paychecks, that's when we were notified by the employee that the money wasn't in, wasn't in the bank. So we quickly, you know, went to the bank and tried to secure the money and then. the individual, where that money went to, that individual by the bank would not identify that individual for privacy reasons. So that's why we've had to get with legal counsel and seek a petition in order to get the identity of that individual that has inadvertently by mistake.

the $12,000. Yeah, but obviously they're, so the money's not back yet. You're still fighting to get that back. No, sir. That's that that that is exactly right. That's why we put a petition for a judge subpoena so we can have the bank disclose the identity of that individual. So we can go and seek the the $12,000 that. was made in error by mistake to the wrong bank account. It was just crazy to me that someone wouldn't return that. It's obviously a mistake. You didn't earn the $12,000 and so you should give it back. That's right. That makes perfect sense. That's exactly right. And, you know, when that money goes in, it says North Little Rock School District deposit from the school district. So, yes, so we're going to do everything we can legally to get the identity of that individual. seek the necessary actions to get the money back. Yeah, well, and I hope you do, and I hope we're able to expose who this person is and won't give the money back, or maybe it's company, who knows? But we'll hopefully we can expose that at some point. How is the district doing on having all the teachers you need going into the end of this school year? Are you a full boat right now, or are you still looking to hire? We are very close. I think we're down to six vacancies, teaching vacancies across the district. That's very good for us. A lot of, you know, Our high school, our larger campuses, might have about one vacancy. I think at the high school, the middle school is completely staffed. So in, you know, the majority of our elementary schools. So we're looking really good going into Thursday, making sure we've got all of our classes covered. We've got a backup plan, whether that's a long-term sub. It's not ideal. But it is to have somebody there, and then we'll throw those positions as soon as we can. That's pretty good. I mean, that sounds like a better report than we've heard in years past as far as you only having six positions that still need to be filled. That's pretty darn good. Dr. Poliski, we always appreciate you joining us and telling us all about the Little Rock. school district. I hope you and the kids and the parents have a great start to the school year later on this week. And once again, appreciate your time this morning. Well, I always appreciate you having me on Mr. Howland. Hey, remember, you just can't hide that charging wildcat pride. That's right. That's right. There you go. All right, Dr. Poluski. Have a great school year. We'll check in as it goes on. Yes, sir. Thank you. Mike Drop, hosted by former Navy SEAL Mike Ridland. How would you characterize your prowess? I'd say my style is that I just kind of outwork everybody until I get there because I'm not a quitter. It's just you. And that's yourself. Everything else is team-oriented. The motivation, it was a sort of anger at myself for being weak. That ends up being the driving factor. That anger, that pride, that ego, I think it's a muscle. It gets stronger. When you take that voice seriously, you start to change your life. Mike Drop, follow and listen on your favorite platform.