The interim School Board for the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District on Monday made veteran educator Bobby G. Lester its choice for interim superintendent until a national search for a permanent leader is done in the spring.
Lester's name will be forwarded for approval to Arkansas Education Commissioner Tony Wood. Wood is likely to wait to finalize Lester's appointment until the federal judge presiding over the 32-year-old Pulaski County Special School District desegregation lawsuit authorizes further steps in carving the new school system out of the Pulaski County Special district.
A report on the status of the new district -- which will operate under the jurisdiction of the Pulaski County Special system for up to two years -- is on the agenda for a Dec. 18 conference between U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. and attorneys for the different parties in the long-running case.
Daniel Gray, president of the interim School Board that met Monday for the second time in the new district's short history, announced Lester's selection after a private, 40-minute executive session.
"We recognize that time is of the essence for Jacksonville/North Pulaski students," Gray said. "And while this board cannot officially take action, and pursuant pending any District Court order, it is the unanimous consensus of this board that we will recommend to Pulaski County Special [School] District Superintendent Jerry Guess and to Commissioner Tony Wood that Mr. Bobby Lester be employed as the interim superintendent of the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District as soon as legally possible."
Lester, 69, was a 30-year employee -- including 15 years as superintendent -- of the Pulaski County Special School District before retiring in 1999.
As superintendent, he helped oversee the federal court-ordered transfer of 7,500 Pulaski County Special district students, 14 schools and one-third of the district's tax base to the Little Rock School District in the mid-1980s as a remedy in the federal desegregation lawsuit.
More recently, Lester, who lives in Jacksonville, served briefly as the state-appointed superintendent of the Pulaski County Special district when it was taken over by the state in June 2011 for fiscal distress issues. Lester was succeeded in that job by Jerry Guess, who is now in his fourth year as superintendent in the state-controlled district. Guess reports to Wood, who acts as the school board in the Pulaski district that has no elected board.
Lester has been active in the effort to form the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district, which was approved by 95 percent of the voters in the Sept. 16 election. He met privately for about 20 minutes with six of the seven members of the interim School Board on Monday night before the board reopened the meeting to the public and Gray announced Lester's selection.
Lester told the board and the group of about 50 people attending the meeting that "I've probably lost my mind." But he added that while his head told him he shouldn't take on the job, "my heart says it's the only thing to do."
"I hope I can live up to expectations," he said. "I'll do my very, very best."
Lester told the interim School Board members that transitioning to a new, independently operating district will be an arduous task but one in which he has some experience. "I can provide the energy to get us through the next few months," he said, adding that he doesn't want to serve beyond June 30.
Gray said after the meeting that Lester's salary is still being negotiated. His salary, plus that of an assistant, will be paid by the Pulaski County Special district. The Pulaski County Special district is also paying for attorney Patrick Wilson of the Wright, Lindsey and Jennings law firm to represent the Jacksonville/North Pulaski board.
Gray said the School Board -- which was appointed in November by the Arkansas Board of Education to serve until board members can be elected in September -- intends to begin a national search for a superintendent in March or April.
He noted that the interim School Board is restricted in its options for hiring a superintendent-designee until the state and Pulaski County Special district proceed with the requirements spelled out for them in the state Board of Education's Nov. 13 order creating the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski district.
That order calls for the Pulaski County Special district and/or the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district to petition the court having jurisdiction in the desegregation case to obtain any and all court orders necessary to ensure that the detachment of the new district from the Pulaski County Special district will not cause the state nor any school districts to be in violation of any court orders in the case.
Following the petition and any order issued by the court, the state Education Board will enter one or more orders addressing the transfer of any assets, territory, property, liabilities, duties or responsibilities between the Pulaski County Special and Jacksonville/North Pulaski districts.
Until those state board orders are issued, the Pulaski County Special district remains responsible for the delivery of all educational, administrative and financial services to the new district, Allen Roberts of Camden, an attorney for the Pulaski County Special district, told the Jacksonville board.
Wilson, the attorney for the interim School Board, assured the board that Wood wanted its input on the selection of a superintendent, but the final decision would be Wood's.
Guess told the interim board that the relationship between the two districts is symbiotic.
"We are in this together," he said.
During Monday's meeting, Col. Stephen Weaver, commander of the 19th Missions Support Group at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville, asked that a base representative be made a nonvoting ex officio member of the School Board. He said there are some 1,900 school-aged children affiliated with the base, 500 of whom attend schools in Jacksonville and north Pulaski County. A total of 1,300 attend school in the neighboring Cabot School District. Two of the Pulaski County Special schools that would transfer to the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski district are on base property -- Arnold Drive Elementary and North Pulaski High. The base has also offered land for a new school.
The board delayed acting on the request until its Jan. 5 meeting.
Besides Gray, members of the interim board are Ron McDaniel, Carol Miles, Norris Cain, Richard Moss, Robert Price and LaConda Watson, all of Jacksonville. Watson was absent from the Monday meeting.
Metro on 12/02/2014