Other Days: August 23, 2023

10 YEARS AGO AUGUST 21, 2013 Both the Cleveland County and Woodlawn school districts have started off the 2013-14 school year with more students on campus than they had last year. Early numbers indicate 882 students in the Cleveland County School District and 555 students at Woodlawn. Schools are also seeing more students under the new School Choice law, particularly from the Pine Bluff/Watson Chapel area. The Cleveland County Head Start program began the school year with 28 fewer children than it had last year due to federal funding cutbacks, which forced the program to eliminate an entire classroom. The Cleveland County Sheriff's Department is warning local residents, especially the elderly, that someone posing as a census taker with the county judge's office is trying to glean personal financial information from people. A spokesman with the sheriff's office said the judge's office does not have anyone conducting a census and is a scam. The Summer Showdown Rodeo will be held Friday and Saturday at the Cleveland County fairgrounds arena in Rison, beginning each night with 'mutton busting' (sheep riding) for children. Wing Rodeo of Texas will once again be providing the livestock for this year's rodeo. 20 YEARS AGO AUGUST 27, 2003 The Kingsland School Board unanimously approved a motion at a special called meeting to replace the old high school building with what essentially is the equivalent of the old building. The building, described as a 'bare bones' replacement of the one destroyed by fire in May, will be about 19,255 square feet in size. The new building should cost about $2.6 million. Rison High School students exceeded the state average on last spring's Benchmark exams, while elementary school scores lagged slightly behind, according to figures released by the Arkansas Department of Education. Rison students scored among the highest in the state in the End of Course geometry exam. The 'Y' Com...