SCHOOL ICONS touch students’ lives in many ways

By Sarah Elmore, Heather Morris, Johnathan Hurley

LITTLE ROCK — The Plainview-Rover School, inside the Two Rivers School District, is a school that houses only about 300 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade.

However, these 300 students are among the world’s future leaders and should not be counted out.

They cannot be depended on to lead themselves into the world right away. Some of the most important figures in Plainview-Rover School have been known to help push the students in the right direction by enforcing the idea of hard work and offering them the leadership skills they need to succeed. These important men and women are recognized as icons to the students of the school.

An icon is an important and enduring symbol, which rings true for the teachers there. Sometime in the next few years, Plainview-Rover School will be consolidating with the nearby schools, Ola and Fourche Valley.

However, no matter what changes come with the new school, these faculty members will always be icons of Plainview-Rover School.

Lavanda Gillum is the media specialist for Plainview-Rover School and has been for the past 14 years. She taught two years of mathematics and science as well. She has never worked at another school.

When asked why she’s stayed at the school, she said, “I feel like Plainview is home and I love the children, young and old, in this community.” Gillum has accumulated numerous achievements during her employment at Plainview, including being a teacher mentor, Praxis III assessor for the Arkansas State Department of Education and Student Council sponsor. She has also earned her certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards.

Gillum is involved with all students, but focuses on library and research skills for kindergarten through eighth grade. She has a passion for the youth of the school and wants the best for them when the new school is completed.

“Since Plainview is a small school, the children in the community are very close-knit,” she said when asked to name her favorite thing about the school. Keeping with her goals of giving the children what’s best for them, she is “excited to have amodern learning facility for all of our students to enjoy.” Bob Powell is a well-respected staff member of the Plainview-Rover School and Two Rivers School District. He is known for his contributions in the Two Rivers FFA Chapter, as well as for his enforcement of justice among the students.

He has had many achievements with the FFA, including state championship land judging two years in a row, second-place state ag mechanics and sub-area parliamentary procedures champion. He is also vice president of the Arkansas VocationalAgriculture Teachers’ Association.

Powell has worked at the school for 26 years as the agricultural education teacher and has never worked anywhere else. When asked why he has been at Plainview-Rover for so long, he said, “Plainview is a great place to live and raise a family. I love the school. It is a great place to work.” Powell says working with the students is his favorite part about the school. When questions about the new school are raised, Powell is anything but negative. “I will miss Plainview School after we move to the new building, but students will have more

opportunities in the way of class of

ferings and extracurricular activi

ties.” He said that changing to the

new building will have its obstacles,

but looking back years later, he be

lieves everyone will agree that it was

a necessity to do so. Powell strives to

make sure the students get the best

education and the fairest treatment

possible.

Patricia Fine joined the staff of

Plainview-Rover School in 1993 and

now, 15 years later, she is still an im

portant icon. Her contributions to

the school include sponsoring two

senior classes and finishing her master’s degree in middle-level education. She is also the sponsor of the popular school club, Envirothon, and the Quiz Bowl teams.

Fine said she has grown fond of the school because, “I love the fact that I still get to see ‘my students’ after they leave my class. I get to see them mature into productive citizens.” Not only has she grown fond of the school she’s been associated with for so long, she is also excited about the new school. “I am ready for all the changes to be over and the new routines to be established,” she said.

Consolidation is still a subject of discussion in the school, but Fine said she is excited, even though it will involve some changes. “I don’t really like change, so I was a little upset at first,” she said. “I am really excited about the new school and the new opportunities that will be available to the students.”Much like the other teachers before her, she has only taught at Plainview. “I started my teaching career here and plan to stay until it is time for me to retire,” she said.

These teachers are called icons of the school for an obvious reason.

They have touched the lives of their students in a way that few teachers could. They help show the students the way to live successfully in life after high school as well as during their education at Plainview-Rover School. Whether it’s Gillum encouraging children to read more, Powell striving to keep things fair or Fine’s desire to see her students succeed, the school wouldn’t be the same without them.

(Sarah Elmore, Heather Morris, Johnathan Hurley and William Ackley are journalism students at Plainview-Rover High School.)

River Valley Ozark, Pages 62 on 11/20/2008