Special-education talks bog down
Efforts between the Pulaski County Special School District and the Joshua intervenors who represent black students in a long-running desegregation lawsuit appear to have stalled, a federal judge said last week.
U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr., the presiding judge in a 31-year-old federal school desegregation lawsuit, said in a short order Friday that the parties' discussions on special education have "bogged down."
He also noted that the district's plan to use mediation on staffing issues in the district was declined by the Joshua intervenors.
The parties in the desegregation case are having a status hearing scheduled on Dec. 18.
"The Court looks forward to an update on each of these areas at the December 18th hearing," Marshall wrote.
"Because the parties have been unable to reach a consensus, the Court wonders whether the best step forward is to set a trial date on special education, and perhaps other issues. The case needs continued progress. More clarity, one way or the other, would be helpful too," he wrote.
The judge said he intends to also address issues related to the formation of the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District at the Dec. 18 hearing. The new district is being carved out of the Pulaski County Special system.
Interim principal gets appointment
Angie Collins has been named the new principal for Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock, effective immediately.
Karen Flake, president and chief executive officer of the all-girls school, announced the appointment Friday to students, faculty, staff and parents.
Collins, a 22-year educator, has been serving as interim principal since the beginning of the school year.
She is a recipient of the Stephens Award for Little Rock-area teachers and she is a former Bauxite School District Teacher of the Year.
Before becoming an assistant principal at Mount St. Mary Academy in 2013, she served from 2010-2013 as a science teacher at the 530-student high school campus. She has also taught at Bauxite High School, Wynne High School and in high schools in Louisiana. Collins is a former program adviser for the Arkansas Department of Workforce Education.
A Louisiana native, Collins has a bachelor's degree in agricultural education from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She has a master's degree in administration/leadership from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
Scoreboard shift to cost $305,500
A change in location for the scoreboard at North Little Rock High School's under-construction football stadium will cost about $305,500, but district leaders have found advertising to offset more than half that cost and hope to find still more.
There remains $120,567 to be covered. District officials told School Board members Thursday that they are confident that additional advertising on the scoreboard can be acquired to take care of the cost.
The original location of the scoreboard was over a sewer line that cuts underneath the stadium, said Gene Hawk, director of facility management for the North Little Rock School District. The new location avoids the sewer lines.
Before the board voted to approve the change order, School Board member Scott Teague asked, "Is this scoreboard bigger than the one Cabot's got?"
Hawk said it might be a little bigger. Teague said the scoreboard is about more than school pride. There are educational components to it, he said.
"We can get [students] to run it," he said. "I think there's a lot more to it than just throwing a score up there."
NLR schools give land to nonprofit
The North Little Rock School Board last week approved the donation of a corner lot at 19th and Locust streets to Step Ministries.
If Step Ministries, a North Little Rock-based nonprofit that serves inner-city children, decides in the future to sell the property, the school district retains first right to reacquire the property.
The district is in the midst of a $265.5 million capital improvement program intended to reduce its 21 campuses to 13, most of which will be built anew or extensively remodeled. The building program has resulted in the district purchasing various pieces of property and putting some of its own real estate on the market.
Metro on 11/24/2014