Bearcat Wrap-up Podcast - Week 1: Time to Level Up

Episode Date: August 14, 2026

Happy Friday!The first Friday of the 2026-2027 school year is here, and after another summer that felt like it passed in a blink, our campuses are once again filled with the energy that comes when students and staff return to Mena Public Schools. I want to sincerely thank every teacher, bus driver, custodian, food service worker, office employee, paraprofessional, maintenance team member, administrator, and volunteer whose preparation made this week possible. Your work behind the scenes over the summer set the tone for a smooth and successful start.This year, our performance targets remain the compass that guides our daily work: continued academic growth, attendance at or above 93.5 percent, and steady improvement in behavior and school climate. Everything we do in this Wrap-up, and throughout the year, will circle back to those three measures because they represent what matters most — students who are learning, present, and supported.It Is Time to Level-UpAs we begin the 2026-2027 school year, Mena Public Schools has chosen “Level-Up” as our district theme. The phrase is energetic and easy to remember, but our purpose goes well beyond a slogan. Level-Up means building on what is working, learning from what can be improved, and challenging ourselves to take the next step. It means helping every student grow from where he or she begins while continuing to raise expectations across our district.Leveling up will look different for every person. For a kindergarten student, it may mean developing confidence as a reader. For a middle school student, it may mean attempting a difficult problem without giving up. For a high school student, it may mean earning college credit, completing an industry-recognized credential, improving attendance, or making a plan for enrollment, employment, or enlistment. For our staff, it means continuing to collaborate, studying evidence, refining instruction, and building the relationships that make learning possible. You know… doing the small things that Jason Curry emphasized to make improvements, and building self-efficacy within our students and collective-efficacy among ourselves, as communicated to us by Jeana Williams.We will not define Level-Up as simply doing more this year. We will define it as doing the most important things with greater clarity, consistency, and purpose. We will celebrate progress without becoming satisfied, address challenges without losing confidence, and keep students at the center of every decision.A Strong Foundation to Build OnWe enter this year with good reason for confidence. Although Arkansas has not yet released the official 2025-2026 school report cards, our latest ATLAS results and independent statewide rankings point to meaningful academic progress.SchoolDigger’s 2026 rankings place Mena School District 45th among 251 Arkansas districts, an improvement of 28 positions from last year and ahead of approximately 82 percent of districts statewide. Mena Middle School rose 45 positions to rank 59th among 327 middle schools, while Mena High School climbed 51 positions to rank 71st among 293 high schools. Our mathematics results provide another reason to celebrate. Districtwide Algebra proficiency reached 57.4 percent, compared with 36.9 percent statewide, and Mena Middle School recorded 100 percent Algebra proficiency among the students tested. Holly Harshman Elementary also posted science proficiency of 54.8 percent. These results did not happen by accident. They grew from focused instruction, collaboration, careful use of assessment data, and the steady work that happens in classrooms every day.We are proud of these gains, but Level-Up also means being honest about the work ahead. A ranking is not a finish line, and a test score never tells the complete story of a student or a school. We will continue strengthening reading fluency, written reasoning, mathematical thinking, and students’ ability to work independently with challenging material, and we will use the official state report card, when it is released, to study our progress and identify where additional support is needed.Mena Morphology MattersThis year, we are also launching Mena Morphology Matters, a new K-12 districtwide word-learning initiative built on a simple but powerful idea: when students understand the building blocks of words, roots, prefixes, and suffixes, they gain the ability to unlock the meaning of hundreds, even thousands, of words they have never seen before.The program unites all four of our buildings, Louise Durham Elementary, Holly Harshman Elementary, Mena Middle School, and Mena High School, around one shared root each week. Every grade band studies the same theme with a developmentally appropriate focus, meaning a kindergartner and a senior may be learning from the very same root on the very same week. One root. Four buildings. One language of word learning.The research behind this work is strong. Morphological awareness, the ability to recognize and work with meaningful word parts, is consistently linked to gains in vocabulary, decoding, spelling, and reading comprehension. Learning a single root like spect, meaning “look,” gives students a foothold on inspect, spectator, perspective, respect, circumspect, and dozens of other words. As texts grow denser with complex vocabulary, morphology gives our students a strategy to break unfamiliar words into interpretable, meaningful chunks rather than guessing or giving up, and it teaches a transferable skill rather than rote memorization. Brief, repeated exposure across the week, through principal announcements, family newsletter blurbs, differentiated classroom activities, bulletin board displays, and our Bearcat Word Detective Challenge, builds the kind of shared vocabulary culture that reaches beyond our classrooms and into our hallways and homes.Week 1’s root is spect, meaning “look.” It is a fitting launch. Before students learn to read the world’s words, Week 1 asks them to do the most fundamental literacy act of all, to look closely, and gives them the very root that names it. Throughout the year, watch for Junior and Expert Word Detective recognitions, monthly Morphology Madness challenges, a growing Word Detective Wall in each building, and an end-of-year celebration week with awards like Root Master, Vocabulary Detective, and Word Wizard.This initiative is a direct investment in our literacy goals as a district, and I am excited to see how it builds vocabulary, comprehension, and a shared word-learning culture across every grade level this year.Closing CelebrationsThis year’s staff has grown, and we are better for it. To our new bus drivers, teachers, paraprofessionals, office staff, and maintenance team members: thank you for choosing Mena Public Schools, and welcome. To our returning staff: thank you for the experience, consistency, and mentorship you bring to your new colleagues. Your combined effort adds new strength to our story, and I am excited to see how this year’s chapters unfold as our team levels up together. Mena’s First Fridays Festival on August 7th brought out a great lineup for our students and families, including a Splash Zone from the Mena Fire Department, bike safety demonstrations from Spokes & Sprockets, vision screenings from Walmart Vision Center, and a hands-on broadcast experience from Mena High School Journalism and Bearcat TV, alongside food trucks, games, and live entertainment at the Mena Train Depot. The weather ultimately cut the evening short, but the effort these organizations put into bringing engaging, student-focused activities downtown did not go unnoticed, and we are grateful for their partnership in kicking off the school year.Our community’s generosity leading into the school year deserves recognition as well. The American Legion Auxiliary and Junior Auxiliary member Teagan Childress collected school supplies for our Back to School Bash as part of her Junior Auxiliary Patch Program, CMA donated backpacks and school supplies for students at Holly Harshman Elementary, and the volunteers, donors, and community partners who organized the No Sale Yardsale and Back to School Bash helped make sure our students walked into Week 1 ready to learn. Your time, generosity, and support mean more to our students and families than we can fully express.We also want to celebrate the success of this year’s Summer Food Program. In partnership with Aramark, Mena Public Schools served over 70,000 meals this summer, and we thank every family who participated in making sure our students stayed healthy, learning, and ready for a strong start to the year.On the athletics front, our tennis and golf teams have already opened their seasons, and football and volleyball are just days away. Bearcat football held its Red/Black Scrimmage this week at Bob Carver Bearcat Stadium, with a scrimmage against Bismarck/Poteau set for Thursday, August 20th, and the season opener on Friday, August 28th at DeQueen. Good luck to all of our fall athletes as the season gets underway.Our open houses this year were a great success! Check out the results of our Open House Parent Thought Exchange here. You are also invited to complete this Thought Exchange about our back-to-school professional development to provide your input as a Mena Schools employee.It was a good week of beginnings at Mena Public Schools.At Mena Public Schools, our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.We will do all of this again on Monday, so have a nice weekend! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Good afternoon and welcome to the week one wrap up for the 26-27 school year entitled Time to Level Up. Our first week reminds us that leveling up is not about doing more. It's about doing what matters with greater purpose. Happy Friday. The first Friday of the 26-27 school year is here and after another summer that felt like it passed in a blink. Our campuses are once again filled with the energy that comes when students and staff return to Maine of Public Schools. I want to sincerely thank every teacher, bus driver, custodian, food service worker, office employee, paraprofessional, maintenance team member, administrator, and volunteer whose preparation made this week possible.

Your work behind the scenes over the summer set the tone for a smooth and successful start. This year, our performance targets remained the compass that guides our daily work, continued academic growth, attendance at or above 93.5% and steady improvement in behavior and school climate. Everything we do in this wrap up and throughout the year will circle back to those three measures because they represent what matters most students who are learning, present, and supported. It's time to level up. As we begin the 26-27 school year, mean of public schools has chosen level up as our district theme. The phrase is

energetic and easy to remember but our purpose goes well beyond a slogan. Level up means building on what is working, learning from what can be improved, and challenging ourselves to take the next step. It means helping every student grow from where he or she begins while continuing to raise expectations across our district. Leveling up will look different for every person. For a kindergarten student it may mean developing confidence as a reader. For a middle school student it may mean attempting a difficult problem without giving up. For a high school student, it may mean earning college credit, completing an industry-recognized

credential, improving attendance, or making a plan for enrollment, employment, or enlistment. For our staff, it means continuing to collaborate, studying evidence, refining instruction, and building the relationships that make learning possible. You know, doing the small things that Jason Curry emphasized to make improvements and building self-efficacy within our students and collective efficacy among ourselves as communicated to us by Gina Williams. We will not define level up as simply doing more this year. We will define it as doing the most important things with greater clarity, consistency,

and purpose. We will celebrate progress without becoming satisfied, address challenges without losing confidence, and keep students at the center of every decision. A strong foundation to build on. We enter this year with good reason for confidence. Although Arkansas has not yet released the official 2526 school report cards, our latest atlas results, and independent statewide rankings point to meaningful academic progress. School Diggers' 2026 rankings placed MENA School District 45th among 25,

251 Arkansas districts an improvement of 28 positions from last year and ahead of approximately 82% of districts statewide. Meena Middle School rose 45 positions to rank 59th among 327 middle schools while Meena High School climbed 51 positions to rank 71st among 293 high schools. Our mathematics results provide another reason to celebrate. district-wide algebra proficiency reached 57.4 percent compared with 36.9 percent statewide. Amina Middle School recorded 100 percent algebra proficiency among the students tested. Holly Harshman Elementary also posted science proficiency of 54.8 percent.

These results did not happen by accident. They grew from focused instruction, collaboration, careful use of assessment data, and the steady work that happens in classrooms every day. We are proud of these gains, but level up also means being honest about the work ahead. A ranking is not a finish line, and a test score never tells the complete story of a student or a school. We will continue strengthening, reading fluency, written reasoning, mathematical thinking, and students' ability to work independently with challenging material, and we will use the official state report card when it is released to study our progress and identify where additional support is needed.

Minamorphology Matters. This year we're also launching, Mina morphology matters. There's an embedded link within the text for more. It's a new K-12 district-wide word learning initiative built on simple but powerful idea. When students understand the building blocks of words, roots, prefixes, and suffixes, they gain the ability to unlock the meaning of how much. hundreds, even thousands of words they have never seen before. The program unites all four buildings.

It means Durham, Holly Harshman, Meena Middle, and Meena High School, around one shared root each week. Every grade band studies the same theme with a developmentally appropriate focus, meaning a kindergartner and a senior may be learning from the very same route on the very same week. One route, four buildings, one language of word learning. The research behind this work is strong. Morphology awareness, the ability to recognize and work with meaningful word parts, is consistently

linked to gains in vocabulary, decoding, spelling, and reading comprehension. Learning a single root like spec, meaning look, give students a foot hold on inspect, specter, perspective, respect, circumspect, and dozens of other words. As text grows denser with complex vocabulary, morphology gives our students a strategy to break unfamiliar words into interpretable, meaningful chunks rather than guessing or giving up, and it teaches transferable skill,

a transferable skill, rather than rope memorization. Brief, repeated exposure across the week through principal announcements, family newsletter blurbs, differentiated classroom activities, bulletin board displays, and our bear cat word detective challenge builds the kind of shared vocabulary culture that reaches beyond our classrooms and into our hallways and homes. Week 1's route is spec, meaning look. It is a fitting launch. Before students learn to read the world's words, week one asked them to do the most fundamental literacy act of all to look closely and to give them the very root that names it.

Throughout the year, watch for junior and expert word detective recognitions, monthly morphology madness challenges, a growing word detective wall in each building and an end-of-the-year celebration week with awards like root master, vocabulary detective, and word wizard. This initiative is a direct investment in our literacy goals as a district. and I am excited to see how it builds vocabulary comprehension and a shared word learning culture across every grade level this year. Closing celebrations. This year's staff has grown and we are better for it.

To our new bus drivers, teachers, peer professionals, office staff, and maintenance team members, thank you for choosing mean of public schools and welcome. To our returning staff, thank you for the experience, consistency, and mentorship you bring to your new, to your new colleagues. Your combined efforts adds new strength to our story, and I'm excited to see how this year's chapters unfold as our team levels up together. MENA's First Friday's Festival on August 7th brought out a great lineup of our students and families, including a splash zone from the Mina Fire Department, bike safety demonstrations from spokes and sprockets, vision screenings from Walmart Vision Center and a hands-on broadcast experience from the

Meena High School Journalism and Bearcat TV alongside food trucks, games, and live entertainment at the Mena Train Depot. The weather ultimately cut the evening short, but the effort these organizations put into bringing engaging student-focused activities downtown did not go and noticed, and we are grateful for their partnership in kicking off the school year. Our community's generosity leading into the school year deserves recognition as well. The American Legion Auxiliary and junior auxiliary member Tegan Childress collected school supplies for our back-to-school bash as part of her junior auxiliary patch program. CNA donated

backpacks and school supplies for students at Holly Harshman Elementary and the volunteers, donors, and community partners who organized the no-sell yard sale and the back-to-school bash helped make sure our students walked into week one ready to learn. Your time, generosity, and support. mean more to our students and families than we can fully express. We also want to celebrate the success of this year's summer food program. In partnership with Airmark, MENA Public Schools served over 70,000 meals this summer, and we thank every family who participated in making sure our students stayed healthy,

learning, and ready for a strong start of the year. On the athletics front, our tennis and golf teams have already opened their seasons, and football and volleyball are just days away. way. Hercat football held its red and black scrimmage this week at Bob Carver Bearcats Stadium with a scrimmage against Bismarck and Poto set for Thursday, August 20th, and the season opened or Friday, August 28th, the dequeen. We'd love to all of our fall athletes as the season gets underway. It was a good week of beginnings at Mena Public Schools. At Mena Public Schools, our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

We will do all this again on Monday, so have a nice weekend. again.