Schools chief rescinds job-cut notices

Six Little Rock School District employees who were told in January that their jobs would be eliminated were notified Thursday that the nonrenewal notices had been rescinded by District Superintendent Dexter Suggs.

A hearing requested by the six employees and their attorney - civil-rights lawyer and state Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock - that was originally scheduled for Thursday night directly after a board workshop was abruptly canceled by a late-afternoon email Thursday from the district’s attorney, Christopher Heller.

Walker, flanked by the teachers who had received the notices, asked Board President Greg Adams after the closing of the workshop if the public hearings were still going to be held as scheduled.

Adams shook his head and replied no.

Walker asked for an explanation and requested that the hearings continue. At that point, Board Member C.E. McAdoo said it concerned him that proper procedures for canceling the public meeting were not followed and insisted that the board meeting be held.

“Greg doesn’t tell us what to do,” McAdoo said, referring to Adams, as he walked to the regular board seats from the workshop table in the middle of the room.

Adams and the rest of the board members followed and officially opened a meeting. Adams explained that the public hearings were not necessary because the letters of nonrenewal had been recalled.

“We are here for a hearing,” Walker said loudly from the front row.

Adams chastised Walker for the outburst, saying, “We will not have this.”

Board Member Dianne Curry asked Heller to explain what it means that the nonrenewal letters were rescinded and how that decision was made.

Suggs proposed to the board in a January meeting that the six central administration positions be eliminated and a seventh position take a reduction in pay to reduce district expenditures. The district started this year with a budget that will require drawing $3 million from reserve funds if savings aren’t realized during the year. The district also is facing the end of $37 million a year in state desegregation aid after the 2017-18 school year.

Heller said Thursday that Suggs did not have second thoughts about “the positions he recommended for elimination,” but “he did have some ideas about what he might put in a nonrenewal letter and what other options might be available to the employees.”

Heller also said Walker indicated in a Thursday afternoon telephone call with Heller and Suggs that - even if the public hearings were held that evening - he would not waive the argument, should a lawsuit be filed against the district, that the hearings were not held in a timely fashion.

“That was a concern that they were unwilling to waive the argument that the hearings were out of time,” Heller said.

Curry said it was a matter of “disrespect personally for all the people involved” that the board would wait several months before a hearing was held.

“I think that we need to do whatever we need to do to get this back on the agenda,” she said.

The district administration has until May 1 to notify employees if their contracts will not be renewed for the next school year.

McAdoo asked if revised nonrenewal letters would still be sent to the six employees who had requested the hearings. Heller did not give a definitive answer but said all employees’ contracts will be automatically renewed unless they receive a letter by the May 1 deadline stating otherwise.

When asked after the board meeting if he would send new nonrenewal letters to the six employees requesting the hearing, Suggs replied, “No comment.”

Walker said in an interview after the meeting that it was “obvious” that Suggs plans to issue new letters that will either contain the “same reasons or supplement them with additional reasons” for eliminating the positions in question. He said the employees’ due-process rights were violated by the district.

“Can they cure it by issuing a new letter? I don’t think so,” Walker said.

The affected jobs, the current salaries and the current holders of the positions are: director of planning, research and evaluation, $108,036, Karen DeJarnette; director of curriculum/social studies, $121,476, Wanda Huddle; grant project director/music director, $81,146, Irma Routen; director/ physical education and health, $107,807, Marion Woods; secretary/English department, $43,044, Linda Newburn; and secretary/curriculum-social studies, $45,696, Blondell Taylor.

Additionally, the budget reductions call for eliminating a $13,668 stipend paid to Suzanne Davis, who is the district’s middle school supervisor.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/18/2014

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