LITTLE ROCK — Leaders of a longtime effort to establish a Jacksonville/North Pulaski County school district apart from the Pulaski County Special School District said Tuesday that the chances of success are greater now than at any time in the past three decades.
Daniel Gray, a member of the Jacksonville/North Pulaski Education Corps, an organization leading the effort, told 300 people at the Jacksonville Community Center that Gov. Mike Beebe, Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell and the administration of the Pulaski County Special School District are now actively supporting the district’s creation.
The new system would serve about 4,500 students in 10 schools, including Jacksonville and North Pulaski high schools.
In 2003, attorneys for the Pulaski County Special district successfully argued in federal court that a new Jacksonville district would hinder desegregation efforts. But earlier this year they told a federal judge that a new district would assist the Pulaski County Special district in meeting its desegregation obligations.
“That’s a big deal,” Gray told the audience, which included Pulaski County Special District Superintendent Jerry Guess and other local and state lawmakers. “It’s a win-win. It’s what is best for our students and it’s what is best for the Pulaski County Special district.”
Patrick Wilson, an attorney who is assisting the group, explained that the Pulaski County Special district must improve its school buildings to achieve unitary status and release from federal court supervision. Some of the schools that need the most work are in Jacksonville, he said, but the 18,000-student Pulaski County Special district is eligible for very little state construction aid. A new Jacksonville district could receive as much as 65 percent of the cost of its academic building projects from the state.
“The lawyers from the state have pledged to work with us — and they have,” Wilson said, praising Attorney General Dustin McDaniel for his support. “I feel like if there is ever a time when a federal judge is going to bless this effort to create a school district, it is right now.”
The Jacksonville/North Pulaski Education Corps has hired Winston Simpson, a retired Arkansas superintendent, to update an earlier feasibility study on a new district. That study, which will examine whether a new district could generate enough revenue to operate, is expected to be completed by the end of the year, Gray said.
That study, and a petition signed by 10 percent of the voters in the proposed district, would have to be submitted to the state Board of Education, according to a state law on forming a new district. The state board would have to get approval from the federal judge presiding in the school desegregation lawsuit to schedule an election on the detachment.
Gray told the audience that he hoped that if a court hearing on a new district is necessary it could be held as soon as next summer. Planners of the district have set the 2014-15 school year as a goal for opening.
Audience members that addressed the group were cautiously optimistic about a new district but also expressed a sense of urgency.
Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher said he has visited the Pentagon three times and each time he has been told that Jacksonville, the home to Little Rock Air Force Base, must improve its schools.
Audience member Ted Belden said, “This is an exciting time. The window of opportunity, I agree, is here.” But he worried that the city is in danger of falling below the 4,000 students required by state law to form a new district.
Other audience members asked about the curriculum, staffing, debt and taxes.
Gray said those matters would be decided by a school board elected from the Jacksonville area.
“We’re trying to do something that has never been done before,” Gray said. “This is a new deal and we are going to pave the way.”
Information about the campaign for a new district is available on the website, OurOwnDistrict.com.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 11/14/2012