Suggs' added year likely nearing vote
The Little Rock School Board is likely to vote at its Sept. 25 business meeting on whether to extend by one year the contract of Superintendent Dexter Suggs, who now has two years left on his initial three-year contract.
The potential vote follows the board's recent evaluation of Suggs, who became the chief executive of the state's largest school district in July 2013.
The job review was somewhat delayed while the board members and Suggs worked to develop a mutually agreeable evaluation form.
The assessment was done, as they always are, in a closed-to-the-public executive session. The review process started Aug. 28 and was finished last Friday.
Arkansas school boards have the authority to extend superintendent contracts to the maximum three-year term allowed by law. The practice, which gives superintendents a greater sense of job security, is considered a sign of a school board's satisfaction with the superintendent's job performance.
Defamation suit nears resolution
A June 2011 lawsuit filed by a then-School Board member for the Pulaski County Special School District over her portrayal in a letter and in audio and video recordings as potentially taking a bribe is close to a resolution.
Board member Gwen Williams sued Tim Clark, who was a fellow board member, and Michael Nellums, who was principal at Mills High. Williams accused the two of orchestrating a scheme that resulted in the defamation of her character. Nellums was also a member of the Little Rock School Board.
Williams' attorney, Willard Proctor Jr., recently filed a motion asking Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that the parties "have resolved this matter."
Fox has not yet dismissed the case, according to the case file on the Pulaski County clerk's website.
In an interview, Proctor declined to say how the matter was resolved, describing it as "confidential." He said, however, that no public agency money was involved.
Clark said he would seek permission from his attorney to disclose the terms of the resolution, but he did not call back with that information.
Nellums, who is now principal at Pine Bluff High School, said in an interview that he paid Williams "a nuisance fee of 500 whole dollars." He said he paid that fee because "she was a nuisance to me" and "she should never have filed the complaint against me."
In May 2011, before the lawsuit was filed, Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley -- on the basis of an investigation done by the Pulaski County sheriff's office -- concluded that Clark and Nellums had executed a "juvenile cloak and dagger means to discredit" Williams.
Jegley, however, determined that no criminal charges were appropriate.
Williams had sued Clark, Nellums and a third man, Ervin Bennett.
Budget, planning are on LR agenda
The 2014-15 budget, facilities planning and planning for raising achievement at the district's academically distressed schools are all on the agenda for a Little Rock School Board work session Thursday night after the board's regular monthly 5 p.m. agenda meeting.
The board is also scheduled to revisit its goals for the district from this past year and set goals for this new school year.
Those 2013-14 goals included earning removal of schools from the state's list of needs-improvement priority and needs-improvement focus schools, carrying out the district's initiative to improve middle schools, beginning a multiyear facilities plan, providing clear and open communication with all segments of the community, and helping all children to read on grade level by the completion of the third grade.
Metro on 09/10/2014