Merle Dickerson is new Lonoke School superintendent

New Lonoke Superintendent Merle Dickerson

By Mark Buffalo

Staff Writer

@markbuffalo

LONOKE — The Lonoke School District has a new superintendent following a special school board meeting Wednesday night.

Dr. Merle Dickerson was hired by a unanimous vote to replace Dr. Suzanne Bailey, who submitted her resignation May 29. 

Board members in attendance were Darrell Park, Angela Sumner, Anne Swint, Ross Moore and Mike Brown. Tony Kelleybrew and Charles Hunter were absent.

The meeting convened at 5:34 p.m. and a motion was made to go into executive session.

The meeting reconvened at 5:52 p.m.

At that time, the board accepted the retirements of Julius Woolfolk and Billie Jean Armstrong. They also accepted the resignations of the following staff members: Suzanne Bailey, Tracy Samples, Chris Bailey, Jacob Clanton, Lesley Daver, David Landers, Jennifer Powers, Kelly Rogers, Andrea Westmoreland, Brittney Ellis, Rhina Odom and Lauren Landers.

The board then voted to hire Dickerson as superintendent.

Park said no terms of Dickerson’s contract as superintendent have been reached yet but he did agree to come to Lonoke.

Dickerson was previously the superintendent of the Van Buren School District for 13 years, retiring after the 2013-14 school year. 

According to the Van Buren Press Argus-Courier, Dickerson graduated from Russellville High School in 1968. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arkansas Tech University in Russellville and his doctorate from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2000.

During his 43-year education career, Dickerson has served as a band director, school counselor, middle school principal, high school assistant principal and high school principal. 

According to the Lonoke Democrat, Suzanne Bailey has accepted a job at Arkansas State University-Beebe. 

The Lonoke School Board voted at a special school board meeting April 28 to keep Bailey’s contract as is, meaning it would expire at the end of the 2017-18 school year. A year ago, the board rolled Bailey’s contract over to the 2017-18 school year during the 2015-16 year. The vote on April 28 was 4-2 with Sumner, Swint, Brown and Moore voting to keep her contract as it; Kelleybrew and Park voted against that motion. 

According to the Lonoke School District website, Bailey’s annual contract was worth $107,100. Her resignation takes affect June 30. 

Sharkrockets swimmers qualify for MOC in opening meet

By Mark Buffalo

Staff Writer

@markbuffalo

SHERWOOD — Seventeen swimmers from the Lonoke Sharkrockets participated in the season-opening meet Saturday at the Bill Harmon Recreation Center. The meet was the first of the 2017 Central Arkansas Swim League season. 

Swimming for Lonoke were: Annabella Addison, Tristan Bennett, Matthew Boyles, Tanner Edwards, Jimmy Evans, Kenner Gooney, James Hackney, Blaine Henderson, Lauren Hill, Luke Hill, Noah Johnson, Jackson Mason, Case Morgan, Jake Rochelle, Jacob Whittenburg, Katie Beth Whittenburg and Kannon Williams. 

Several swimmers have already qualified for the Meet of Champs, which is July 22 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. 

Bennett is qualified in the gold freestyle, backstroke, individual medley and the silver breaststroke.

Boyles is qualified in the silver breastroke.

Edwards is qualified in the gold butterfly; silver free style, backstroke and individual medley. 

Evans is qualified in the gold freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and silver breaststroke.

Hackney is qualified int he gold freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly.

Mason is qualified in the silver freestyle.

Swimmers scoring points for the Sharkrockets were:

• Tristan Bennett (15-18 girls). She won the backstroke with a time of 36.56 seconds and the breaststroke with a time of 41.90 seconds. She was second in the freestyle with a time of 30.31 seconds and the individual medley with a time of 1 minute, 16.79 seconds. 

• Matthew Boyles (9-10 boys). He was second in the breaststroke with a time of 51.34 seconds. 

• Tanner Edwards (15-18 boys). He won the individual medley with a time of 1:15.85. He was second in the freestyle with a time of 28.08 seconds and backstroke with a time of 38.06 seconds. Edwards was third in the butterfly with a time of 32.09 seconds. 

• Jimmy Evans (15-18 boys). He won the freestyle with a time of 26.50 seconds. He was second in the backstroke with a time of 34.40 seconds, breaststroke with a time of 39.85 seconds and butterfly with a time of 30.53 seconds. 

• James Hackney (9-10 boys). He was second i the backstroke with a time of 41.62 seconds and the breaststroke with a time of 49.28 seconds. He was third in the freestyle with a time of 33.72 seconds. 

• Blaine Henderson (15-18 boys). He was second in the backstroke with at time of 42.19 seconds and third in the freestyle with a time of 32.32 seconds. 

• Jackson Mason (13-14 boys). He won the backstroke with a time of 51.10 seconds.