LITTLE ROCK — The management organization that supports Little Rock’s three eStem Public Charter Schools is facing budget cuts that are expected to force additional changes in salaries and operations.
The board of directors for eStem Public Charter Schools Inc. will meet about the budget at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the eStem campus at Third and Louisiana streets in Little Rock.
The cuts would focus on the management office - not the schools, officials said.
The management or-ganization, headed by Chief Executive Officer Roy Brooks, provides services related to payroll, purchasing, food service and other day-to-day needs of the three schools other than instruction.
The schools, which opened for the first time last school year in the old Arkansas Gazette building in downtown Little Rock, now have a combined enrollment of nearly 1,000 students and there are plans under way to expand into another downtown building in coming years.
The name of the schools stands for economics, science, technology, engineering and math, which are subjects emphasized at the schools.
The taxpayer-supported, independently run charter schools drew hundreds of students from the Little Rock School District when they opened in 2008-09. That loss of students caused the state’s largest public school district to scramble to make budget cuts for this current school year as the result of a reduction in state funding. State aid to a district is based on its previous year’s average enrollment.
Brooks, on Tuesday, said any changes that are made to the charter management organization are the result of “growing pains” in the eStem charter school system that just passed its one-year anniversary.
Jess Askew III, chairman of the board for the corporation and a Little Rock attorney, said the eStem elementary, middle and high schools are doing well - both financially and academically. It’s the four-person management organization - not the schools - that are being targeted.
“We are going to have to make some changes at the [charter management organization]because we are living beyond the CMO’s means, and businesses cannot do that,” Askew said.
“What those changes will be, I don’t know,” Askew added. “I think the CMO will continue to function in some form, but it may be a changed form.”
The board of directors, which includes representatives from the boards for each of the three schools, held a special meeting Sunday afternoon to discuss financial and management concerns but delayed taking any action until the coming Thursday meeting, according to a rough draft of the meeting’s minutes prepared by Askew.
Among concerns raised Sunday was the management organization’s delay in getting requested information to the Walton Family Foundation of Bentonville about the organization’s use of grant and loan money from the foundation.
Board members also questioned, according to the draft minutes, the lack of financial reports for them to review in each of the past two months.
Additionally, the board complained it did not know until reading it in the newspaper that the eStem Public Charter Elementary School was classified by the Arkansas Department of Education as being on “alert” status for failing to meet state achievement standards on the Benchmark Exam last year.
“We’re saddened by the eStem Elementary being on alert status under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, but we believe the school has a good plan and program in place to remedy that,” Askew said Tuesday.
While various 2009-10 budget proposals for the charter management organization were presented Sunday, Brooks said Tuesday that plans for dealing with revenue shortfalls are still being developed in anticipation of Thursday’s meeting.
Askew also said he had not seen any final plans.
“We are going to work them out together and we are going to work them out with the schools to make sure we don’t deprive the schools of the support they need and we don’t affect the primary mission of all the companies, which is to educate the children.
“Beyond that, I can’t guess where this will lead,” Askew said.
Budget figures presented Sunday called for the charter management organization to be funded largely by $183,385 in management fees charged to the three schools, plus a $50,000 grant from the Walter Hussman Foundation and $53,436 in state aid that is the result of enrollment growth at the schools this year over last year. Walter E.Hussman Jr. is the publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the president and chief executive officer of WEHCO Media Inc.
On the table at the Sunday meeting were salary cuts for Brooks and Chief Financial Officer Mark Milhollen. Brooks is a former Little Rock School District superintendent and Milhollen was that district’s chief financial officer before he retired.
Brooks started last year with an initial annual salary of $198,000 and Milhollen was scheduled early last school year to earn an annual salary of $129,888. Those were reduced last spring by the board but the exact amounts were not immediately available Tuesday. A proposal reviewed by board members Sunday called for furtherreductions. The chief executive’s salary would be $106,900. The chief financial officer’s salary would be $71,300.
The management organization had a budget of $873,248 in early 2008-09 for a five-member team in an office at 200 S. Commerce St.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/21/2009