8th grader urges board to reverse decision removing EAST program from junior high

Hadley Rosequist, an 8th grader at Washington Junior High School, used the board’s public-comment time on Dec. 17 to urge the Bentonville School District Board of Education to reconsider a decision to remove the EAST program from the district’s junior high offerings.

"EAST allows students to lead their own learning... it's about creating, problem solving, and exploring interests that traditional classrooms don't always make room for," Rosequist said. She described student projects including a button business, adaptive mini golf with the school for the blind, and designing an anesthesia mask for an orangutan at the Little Rock Zoo. "For me, EAST isn't just a class. It's a way to figure out what I'm passionate about," she told the board.

Rosequist told the board the district had said specialized classes like engineering, coding and business would replace EAST, but she warned that younger students often are not ready to commit to a specialized high-school pathway and that broad exploratory classes in junior high help them discover interests. She asked the board to reconsider the decision for future school years.

Board members thanked Rosequist for speaking; the record shows no immediate formal action or reversal recorded at the Dec. 17 meeting. Rosequist concluded her three-minute public comment by wishing the board happy holidays.