The North Little Rock School Board set priorities to collect and study demographic information that will ultimately lead to new attendance zones for its nine elementary schools.
Thursday’s work session was the first step for the board in what is projected to be a 3-month process to redraw attendance zones district wide for the first time since 1987.
The strategic rezoning is one part of the district’s $265.6 million plan for building new schools and renovating others over the next five years.
The district’s aggressive building plan - one of the largest in state history - would turn 21 existing campuses into 13 state-of-the-art schools.
The board voted last month to hire RSP & Associates - an Overland Park, Kan., firm - to collect student data and recommend improvements.
Thursday night RSP representatives guided Superintendent Kelly Rodgers and the board through the process of ranking the study’s goals. Originally faced with 10 suggested priorities, the board quickly narrowed the list to four top objectives: contiguous planning areas, demographic considerations, transportation considerations, and projected enrollment and building utilization.
Board Member Scott Teague cautioned the group that the main focus should be keeping the promises of the district’s millage campaign, which was to keep neighborhood schools intact.
Board Member Dorothy Williams expressed concern that the process could disturb racial balances in the schools, resulting in potential litigation.
Board Vice President Scott Miller said it was important to ensure that the redistricting would maximize the use of all its new buildings to avoid filling some to capacity while leaving others with fewer students.
Rodgers said after the meeting that the next step will be to establish committees made up of parents, teachers and administrators.
The committees will work with RSP to review the data and recommend the new attendance zones according to the board’s established priorities.
The first of five committee meetings will begin on March 11 and continue through May 5.
In addition, four community forums to hear from the public will be held April 8-10 in various district locations.
The final plan is tentatively scheduled to be presented to the board for approval in June.
Rodgers said the majority of the rezoning will not go into effect until the beginning of the 2015-16 school year.
He added, however, that some elementary schools that would already be affected by the ongoing construction may see changes as early as this fall.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/28/2014