Scenic 7 Rotary meets today at noon

Darin Beckwith

Darin Beckwith, the school superintendent for Fountain Lake Schools was the guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Scenic 7 last Thursday.

Beckwith received his bachelors form Arkansas State University and his masters from Henderson State University.

He joked that he had made the round of schools in the area. He attended Cutter Morning Star, he coached at Jessieville, he was principal at Lakeside and now he is superintendent at Fountain Lake.

Since he became superintendent, Fountain Lake has been building, building, building. There is a new addition on the gym, a 48,000 square foot building for the middle school students, grades five through eight, a remodel of the two story high school building and the track remodel.

The laying of the asphalt for the track was scheduled for last Friday. The new track is supposed to be maintenance free. Beckwith added, corporate sponsors assisted with the refurbishing of the stadium.

FEMA has allocated money for two safe rooms at the school. The project cost is $1.4 million. FEMA pays 75-percent and the school district pays 25-percent. The safe rooms will benefit the community as well as the students.

Academics are climbing but according to Beckwith they are not where they need to be, yet. Fountain Lake has 112 certified teachers and 65 non-certified teachers with 1220 students.

Since joining Fountain Lake there have been some changes in administration, some new people have been added. There is a new elementary school principal, a special education coordinator and a new vice principal of the high school.

Much of Beckwith's philosophy in life comes from his father Leonard T. Beckwith. When he told his dad he was considering the position of superintendent of Fountain Lake Schools, his dad's advice was, "Just don't screw it up." Leonard is a graduate of Fountain Lake.

Beckwith's life lessons are often what he calls Leonardisms, such as "be the bigger person," and "it's never too late to do the right thing," or "focus on the things you can control."

Other quotes have guided his philosophy as well such as Paul Newman's "take your job serious...but never take yourself too serious." And this quote from Rachel Scott, the first girl to die at Columbine, "tomorrow is a gift...not a promise." An anonymous quote, "do we remain controlled by the past and make excuses or do we rise above it and make a difference?"

Besides building there have been other changes to Fountain Lake since Beckwith arrived. He is trying incentive pay with administration and both certified and non-certified core teachers including elementary teachers. This year Beckwith has designated an area for cell phone conversations. Only high school students are allowed to talk on their cells in the designated area before school and at lunch. He said so far only two cell phones have been confiscated for infractions.

Beckwith is appreciative of the volunteer support by so many Villagers and invites them to come see some of the sports and performing arts events at the schools.