ACT Aspire Scores Qualify Harrison Schools for Reward Recognition Money

Harrison schools received more than $85,000 for 2021 ACT Aspire scores for teacher bonuses.

At the January school board meeting on Tuesday night the Harrison School Board heard information regarding money being given to various schools within the district for student scores on the ACT Aspire exams.

Superintendent Dr. Stewart Pratt started off by saying “I just want to open up in an intro and say how proud I am of our staff and our students.”

Pratt said that each year the district performs well with their ACT Aspire scores it enters them into a reward recognition category. Harrison School District Business Manager Shannan Lovelace was at the meeting to share what rewards were given and how the money would be used.

“It’s based on student achievement and the performance and growth of our kiddos,” Lovelace said.

Harrison Kindergarten and Skyline Elementary received $22,600 each. Harrison Middle School received $41,250. The amount is based on the number of students at each campus.

Lovelace said the kindergarten campus will receive a smaller portion of their money since the kindergarten funds are tied to an elementary that it feeds into. There are no ACT Aspire scores for kindergarteners, they were able to get the funds through Skyline elementary.

This year the money is going entirely to teacher bonuses. To determine how to use the funds the district has to put together a committee made up of a principal, teacher, and parent and each committee made the decision to put the money towards bonuses. Committees also determined how to divide the funds between Harrison Kindergarten and Skyline Elementary. Lovelace said that a total of 162 teachers will receive a bonus because of this reward.

The recognition is based on scores from the previous year. Lovelace mentioned that last year no rewards were given out across the state due to the COVID shutdown in the spring of 2020.

The program started in 2013 and over the last eight years it has been active the Harrison School District has received $936,000.

“It’s not uncommon for us to have three of our campuses to receive this money,” said Lovelace.

Dr. Pratt added, “It’s just pretty amazing to average over $117,000 a year for eight years consecutively in a row.”