Nettleton School Board | Delta Digital News Service

Nettleton School Board discuss educational rice program, effective AI usage

Posted on April 29, 2026 by Jerry Don Burton

Photos and Story from DDNS Reporter Jerry Don Burton

March 18, 2026

Bar graph depicts U.S. rice production (red) and harvested area (green) from the years 1985 to 2024. Rice production increased by nearly 1 million acres between 2023 and 2024. Courtesy of the United States Department of Agriculture.

The Nettleton School Board heard presentations on an initiative to educate students about rice and effective AI use in classrooms at its monthly meeting.

Rice in Schools Pilot Initiative

(Left) Leslie Tell, farm-to-school coordinator for the United States Department of Agriculture, explains the Rice in School program at the Tuesday, March 17, Nettleton School Board Meeting. According to the USDA website, the program, which is in a pilot phase, gives schools the tools to serve locally grown rice in healthy meals. Photo by Jerry Don Burton.

Leslee Tell, farm-to-school coordinator for the United States Department of Agriculture, addressed the board at the meeting Tuesday, March 17, to provide an overview of the Rice in Schools program.

Tell said the initiative aims to provide schools with the resources to serve local rice and educate students about the significance of rice in Arkansas. She said Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders saw the importance of rice in the state and developed the initiative in fall 2025.

“So her idea was that, number one, students know where their food is coming from. Number two, that it’s local food as much as possible,” Tell said. “If we’re growing this much rice, then we should probably be serving rice and teaching kids to love rice as well.”

According to the USDA, the United States accounts for less than 2% of global rice production, but ships 5% of global exports. Arkansas is the largest rice-producing state, accounting for more than 40% of rice production in the U.S.

Tell said a majority of rice production in Arkansas is concentrated in the state’s northeast region.

(Third from left) Donnie Hague, Nettleton School Board vice president, asks USDA Farm-To-School Coordinator Leslee Tell a question about the Rice in Schools program. Photo by Jerry Don Burton.

Donnie Hauge, Nettleton School Board vice president, said a program for helping kids understand where rice comes from and how to cook with it is a great idea.

The farm-to-school coordinator said about 20 schools have signed up for the program.

Participating schools will introduce classroom lessons on Arkansas agriculture, participate in hands-on cooking demonstrations, train cafeteria staff and include local rice in school meals at least once a month.

Tell said schools may also engage in taste tests and interactive experiences. She said the program is continuously expanding and introducing new ways to highlight Arkansas rice.

One such development is the creation of a cookbook containing 50 rice recipes for students to take home and prepare with their family.

“In the food banks and blessing boxes, there’s a lot of rice,” Tell said. “ If you have kids wanting to eat rice at school and they’ve made it at school, they get their recipe book, and they can go home, and maybe that bridge can happen between the parent and the child, and we could encourage that.”

Tell said the program also engages with the current national interest in eating real food.

“You can’t get any more real than this,” Tell said. “We’re eating real food, we’re eating real rice, real chicken, real vegetables and we’re making it right here from scratch, in front of the kids.”

Currently, the initiative is in a pilot phase. Tell said feedback from participating schools will be used to improve the program and shape future expansions.

Effective AI Usage in Classrooms

Following Tell’s presentation, the Nettleton High School principal, elementary school principal and three junior high school students addressed the school board to explain how they’ve implemented artificial intelligence in their respective fields.

Philip Cook, Nettleton High School career and technical academy principal, said he and other educators use AI to increase productivity and generate content. He said he uses AI to outsource elements of his workflow.

(Right) Philip Cook, Nettleton High School career and technical academy principal, explains how the high school uses AI coaching assistant Edia to those in attendance at the Nettleton School Board meeting. Cook said AI, when used properly, helps educator lessen their workload. Photo by Jerry Don Burton.

“What we do at NHS right now is we have teachers that use it to generate worksheets. We use it for coaching students and to help with our summative evaluations,” Cook said. “Then also, to look at and align some of our different curriculum with each other.”

Using the Arkansas academic standards and ATLAS achievement level descriptors for geometry as an example, Cook demonstrated how AI can be used to parse and summarize dense information.

The high school principal said projects like creating curricula that meet various standards, something which could take all summer to complete, are achievable in a single weekend with AI like ChatGPT.

Cook said Nettleton High School is also incorporating Edia, an AI coaching assistant, in the classroom.

Despite embracing AI, Cook said education will always need a human element.

“That’s what we’re trying to do in our critical algebra is not just turn it over to the AI–because then we become a facilitator–but use that where it’s appropriate to support that learning and then go ahead and let the teacher break kids into small groups, interact with them, give them those alternative learning methods,” Cook said. “I think it takes a good marriage of both to really be as effective as we can.”

University Heights Elementary Principal Sarah George said she uses Upraiser, an AI software designed to enhance teacher evaluations, in her administrative duties.

(Right) Sarah Geoge, University Heights Elementary principal, explains how she uses Upraiser AI when giving teacher evaluations. She said she uses Upraiser to provide actionable feedback to teachers. Photo by Jerry Don Burton.

“This platform has really helped, because it’s narrowed down the feedback that is given to teachers because it’s directly aligned to standards,” George said.

Garrett Andrews, the newest member of the Nettleton School Board, asked George if the AI she uses is accurate. George said Upraiser is mostly accurate, but agreed with Cook that a human element will always be necessary.

The elementary school principal said she is transparent with teachers and lets them know when the feedback they receive is partially AI-generated.

After George’s report, Nettleton Junior High School students Collins Baker, Jace Stegall and Brik Hogan presented a slideshow to detail how they use AI.

Baker said she learned how to use AI in 2025 and mostly utilizes it as a search engine, like Google. She said, while a helpful tool, AI can nonetheless introduce biases in its responses.

Stegall said he uses AI for coding help and in certain class assignments, specifically one project using drones to map hazardous conditions in Jonesboro.

“We want to know how to use it right, how to use it responsibly and how to use it for our school work instead of cheating,” Stegall said.

Hauge said the students’ presentation taught him how they use AI not for short answers or cheating, but productively and responsibly.

Other business

In other business, Athletics Director Tommy Raffo announced several upgrades and additions to the athletic facilities:

New track and field sand pit
New baseball bullpen
New televisions installed near concession stands
New and updated spirit banners installed in gym

Raffo also said he was proud of the boys and girls basketball teams, who were seeded fourth and second in the state, respectively.

Finally, the Nettleton High School Choir performed three songs ahead of the school’s production of “Hairspray.” Showings will be held April 24 and 25 at 7 p.m. and April 26 at 2 p.m. More information may be found on The Raider Spotlight’s Facebook page.
The next school board meeting will be held at 6 p.m., April 21, at the Nettleton Central Office.

Agriculture

Nettleton School Board honors special member

Posted on February 28, 2020 by Tristan Bennett

By Tristan Bennett
Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO – The Nettleton School Board honored a special member of the district’s team at a meeting Monday night.

The board recognized Abby the therapy dog for the work she and her handler, Bryce Holmes, do with the students at University Heights School for Medical Arts.

“We do a lot of things with the kids from going down the slides to literacy and emotional control,” Holmes said.

Abby and Holmes began going to the school since December 2019 and immediately became popular among the students. Abby spends every Tuesday and Wednesday encouraging young readers and bringing smiles to classrooms. Debbie Bean, UHSMA principal, said she already noticed an improvement in her building.

“You can just kind of feel it,” Bean said. “When she walks in, the kids are just drawn to the dog, and the dog is just perfect.”

Abby is a resource for every student, but works especially with the special education program. She wears a vest that was designed with snaps, zippers, buttons and ties to help teach fine motor skills.

She also works with UHSMA reading interventionists. Students read aloud to Abby to help build their confidence and ability.

“There are kids that stop and go ‘I will read to Abby,’ and to have our interventionist say ‘We never thought we’d hear them say that,’ that’s a huge encouragement for me,” Holmes said. “That’s one less kid that has to go through the hum-drum of reading out loud.”

According to Holmes, therapy dogs in schools improve test scores, increase attendance, help with emotional stability and bring down stress hormones.

Also on the agenda, James Dunivan, superintendent, recommended the addition of a $50 non-refundable registration fee for the district’s three Pre-K programs. If accepted, the fee would be applied to the first tuition payment.

“With so many Pre-Ks in the area, understandably, parents will go around and put their names on multiple lists,” Dunivan said. “We hold that spot, we don’t get to fill it. So, we hope that the $50 registration fee will make it more serious and more important before they put their names on the list.”

The board, with all members present, voted unanimously to accept the recommendation.

Next, Grace Petersen, elementary curriculum director, and Lacy Baker, secondary curriculum director, gave reports highlighting student accomplishments from across the district.

Elementary students attended the Arkansas Junior Beta Club Convention in January. A Fox Meadow School of Creative Media student was elected president of Arkansas Junior Beta Club, and 100 more students attended and competed at the convention.

The Jr. High Quiz Bowl Team took fourth place at the state tournament and received an invitation to nationals, and a Nettleton High School student won the Crowley’s Ridge Reading Council writing contest with his essay about the impact “Harry Potter” as had on his life.

Other issues discussed in the meeting were: