Back-to-School
Back to School Bash is Friday; First day of school nears; Sales Tax Free weekend nears; Where to buy school supplies plus sports and headlines
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MEETINGS: The North Little Rock School Board will have a special call meeting at 5:30 p.m. tonight at the administration building. For the agenda, click here. The Maumelle City Council will meet next Monday night at City Hall.
SOMETHING TO READ: Our friend and travel writer Melissa Yeager has started back up her semi-regular newsletter The Itinerant on travel. This is in addition to her day job at Lonely Planet. If you ever daydream about places to go or what you might expect when you get there, well, she’s got you covered. Give it a read by clicking here, or better yet subscribe. It’s free.
EVENTS: The Maumelle Area Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a Back to School Bash on this Friday, Aug. 1 at the Jess Odom Community Center. It is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. and for more details, click the flyer below. In more school news, this weekend is Sales Tax Free Weekend and for more on that, keep scrolling. And, finally, the Pulaski County Special School District will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Mills High School at 10:30 a.m., this Monday, Aug. 4, at the front entrance of the building. Tours of the building will follow.
Back to School
It doesn’t seem possible that school starts back for some in just a couple of weeks but time marches on.
The Academics Plus Charter system gets the ball rolling, bell going?, with the first day of classes on Monday, Aug. 4.
The other North of the River schools start the following week.
The schedule follows:
Academics Plus
First Day: Monday, Aug. 4
Schools include Maumelle Charter elementary, middle and high schools and Scott Charter
For more, click here to see the school’s website.
PCSSD
First Day: Monday, Aug. 11
Schools include the Maumelle feeders of Crystal Hill Elementary, Oak Grove Elementary, Pine Forest Elementary, Maumelle Middle School and Maumelle High School
For more, click here to see the school’s website.
NLRSD
First Day: Monday, Aug. 11
Schools include Amboy Elementary, North Little Rock Middle School and North Little Rock High School
For more, click here to see the school’s website.
Back to School guide: Click here for the district’s guide.
Central Arkansas Christian
First Day: Tuesday,Aug. 12
Schools include North Little Rock Elementary, Pleasant Valley Elementary, Mustang Mountain Elementary and CAC
For more, click here to see the school’s website.
As school nears, so does Sales Tax Free Weekend
Depending on whom you ask, this weekend is either the best or worst weekend to shop it up.
The reason is that this weekend is the state’s annual Sales Tax Free Weekend and will start at 12:01 a.m. this Saturday and continue through 11:59 p.m. on Sunday night.
Now, if you’re in the market for school supplies, clothes and the various electronics needed for students, then you’ll get a break on the cost as the sales tax is waived on those purchases. But, if you’re on the market for new clothes or a replacement laptop, you don’t need to be a student, or a parent or have any connection to Back-to-School as the deal applies to everyone.
So, if you make the mistake of needing to make a run out to the Apple Store, thinking it won’t be that bad, you might find yourself waiting in line, just to get in.
That’s the bad part.
But some of us are grumpy like that.
For the complete list of eligible purposes, click here. Worth noting that sports ball items aren’t eligible. So you’ll still pay tax on things like football cleats. Most electronics are included in the sales tax free weekend, even phones, which most schools seem to be in the process of banning.
Walmart offers back to school shopping help
We get press releases. Lots of press releases. Basically, anything that mentions Arkansas or its abbreviations of Ark., or the Post Office’s AR.
This occasionally means we get lots of press releases about Augmented Reality, aka AR, but, regardless, most releases don’t make the light of day. That’s generally for the best.
However, some come though that gets your attention and such was the case with a recent arrival from Walmart and the deals they’re offering for back-to-school shopping.
I mean, drop $65 bucks and get: Supplies, a backpack, lunch and a head-to-toe first-day outfit. That seems like a pretty good deal and add in Sales Tax Free Weekend and you might be talking about saving some real money.
Among the deals, the release details, “the 14 most popular school supplies on students’ lists.” As well as “more than 100 supplies priced under $1, more than 1,000 supplies under $5 and more than 2,000 supplies under $10.”
If you prefer to shop online, you can get, “an entire school supply list and backpack, starting at just $16 in one easy click” and “lunches and snacks starting at about $2 a day with Walmart’s one-click baskets. Both can be delivered or picked up at the store.
Being dinosaurs, we tend to prefer to shop in-store but the array Walmart offered with its one-click lunch and snack baskets made us think they should do something similar for adulting. Even if we occasionally get accused of being an “adult child.”
Anyway, check them out by clicking the links below:
Lunch for under $2 per day: one-click lunch basket
Feel-good lunch picks: tasty lunchtime options
Snack favorites: one-click snack basket
Bettergoods bites: one-click basket
Dorm food stock-up: one-click dorm food basket
For more on school supplies and such, go to http://Walmart.com/backtoschool.
Disclosure: Did Walmart pay us for this? No. No, they did not. Would we take Walmart’s money? Maybe. One thing we do know is I’d rather shop there than Target.
Weather News
Eye on the Sky
After a brutal week, there’s still one more day of an Excessive Heat Warning forecast for today, but after that, the temperatures are expected to drop and feel like a more normal summer, instead of stepping out into a blast oven.
Today: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 98. Heat index values as high as 109.
Friday: A chance of showers, with thunderstorms then partly sunny, with a high near 86.
Saturday: A slight chance of showers, then partly sunny, with a high near 85.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 88.
Monday: A slight chance of showers, then mostly sunny, with a high near 91.
Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 94.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 95.
Upcoming Travs games
At Springfield, Now through Aug. 3
Six-game homestand against the Frisco RoughRiders
Tuesday, Aug. 5, 6:35 p.m.
No promotions scheduled
Wednesday, Aug. 6, 6:35 p.m.
No promotions scheduled
Thursday, Aug. 7, 6:35 p.m.
Operation: Military Appreciation: $3 Thursday: Enjoy $3 Beer Garden Tickets and select Concessions deals!
Friday, Aug. 8, 7:05 p.m.
Fireworks Friday - Kids' TV Music: End your week at DSP with a BANG! | Presented By Garver
Saturday, Aug. 9, 6:05 p.m.
Meet Bluey & Bingo: Wackadoo! Bluey and Bingo are coming -- for real life.
Kids Run the Bases: Kids 13 and under are invited to run the same basepaths the Travs run after the game! | Presented By First Community Bank
Sunday, Aug. 10, 1:35 p.m.
Operation: Military Appreciation: Service Members get $3 off General Admission and Field Reserved tickets by presenting a Military ID (only available at DSP Box Office) | Presented By Mid-South Ford Dealers
Kids Run the Bases: Kids 13 and under are invited to run the same basepaths the Travs run after the game! | Presented By First Community Bank
At Northwest Arkansas, Aug. 12-17
Health
Pandemic deaths unknown
The state Department of Health didn’t update the state’s dashboard this week, again, and deaths still total 532 for the past year. There’s no tab created for 2025 either and the virus has now killed 14,162 Arkansans since the pandemic began then. That would mean the pandemic death toll has now passed Marion’s 13,635 people, the state’s 29th largest city.
Covid toolkit
There’s now a one-stop shop to learn about vaccination sites and other Covid related information. Click here to learn more.
If you don’t want to get sick and die, there’s some things you can do:
Get vaccinated
Get boosted
Wear a mask
Avoid crowds