The Arkansas Board of Education on Thursday overturned the decision of one school district and upheld the decisions of three others to deny the incoming transfers of students.
The unanimous vote to void the decision by the White Hall School District was the second time -- out of 35 appeals -- the state board has reversed a judgment under the Arkansas Public School Choice Act of 2013.
The White Hall School District denied a request from Ashlee Shabazz to allow her son to attend kindergarten this fall in that district because Shabazz failed to submit an application to both the resident and nonresident school districts.
Shabazz submitted the application to the White Hall School District but said she didn't realize that she had to submit the application to the Watson Chapel School District, since her youngest son had never attended school there.
Shabazz also questioned why the White Hall School District did not notify her that the application was denied until June 26, nearly two months after the initial application.
White Hall Superintendent Larry Smith said the oversight was due to an administrative error.
Shabazz -- who has three older children already attending the White Hall district -- said it would be hard to coordinate drop-off and pickup schedules if the children were in different districts.
"I just want you to take into consideration my baby being away from his siblings," Shabazz said.
Board member Diane Zook of Melbourne made the motion to grant the appeal.
"I choose to err on the side of a 5-year-old child not being in a district separate from his siblings," Zook said.
The board upheld the decision by the Trumann School District to deny the request from Cassandra Coleman to transfer her 15-year-old son from the Harrisbug School District.
The Trumann School District board voted at its June 9 regular meeting that the court restrictions stemming from Coleman's son's arrest and conviction on a charge in a sexual-assault case, according to the school district's attorney, would require the employment of additional school personnel.
Don Nixon, the attorney for the Trumann School District, said a dedicated teacher and an aide would have to be hired since the the 15-year-old boy could not be in contact with other students.
"That young lady doesn't even go to that district. I don't know why they're sitting there going up in arms over this when there's nothing to go up in arms over," Coleman said.
She told the board she wanted to transfer her son to another school because he was being bullied at the Harrisburg School District.
Section 4.03 of the School Choice law allows districts to deny a transfer request if it requires the addition of teachers, staff members or classrooms.
In another school-choice appeal Thursday, the board affirmed a decision by the Palestine-Wheatley School District to deny the request from Erika Goodall to transfer two of her children from the Forrest City School District.
The family were residents of the Palestine-Wheatley School District before moving to a larger home in the Forrest City School District.
That school district denied the transfer request because the Forrest City School District is under a federal desegregation order.
The board also affirmed the decision by the Mountain Pine School District in Garland County to deny the school-choice applications from Latishia Walker to allow her three children to remain in the district.
Walker told the board that she had enrolled the children in the Mountain Pine School District when she moved from Hot Springs because she was told by the Garland County assessor's office that her property was located in that district.
It was later determined by the assessor that the portion of the property where her home is located is actually in the Lake Hamilton School District. Another 2.5 acres of the property sits in the Mountain Pine School District boundaries.
The Lake Hamilton School District is under a desegregation order, which prohibits outbound transfers.
"When I moved out, I didn't say 'Put me in the Mountain Pine School District.' I did the proper procedure. That's where they put me," Walker said. "It's human error that three innocent kids don't have a school district now."
Metro on 08/15/2014