2 challengers in LR district win positions

Newcomers Ross, Springer unseat Carreiro, Johnson

Newcomers ousted incumbents for two seats on the Little Rock School Board on Tuesday.



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Complete but unofficial results for the Zone 1 race were:

Joy C. Springer 483

Norma Jean Johnson 227

Complete but unofficial results for the Zone 5 race were:

Jim Ross 379

Jody Carreiro 221

The two will take seats on the School Board as the state's largest district is planning for the end of state desegregation funding while also working to expand and renovate school campuses. The unpaid term of office is for three years.

On Tuesday, Springer, 57, defeated Johnson, 55, who has served on the seven-member School Board for one 3-year term. Ross, 48, defeated Carreiro, 54, who has held the seat for two terms.

During the past year, the School Board hired Superintendent Dexter Suggs and opened the new Forest Heights math and science academy and the Geyer Springs gifted and talented academy. The School Board also began a districtwide facilities study.

"I think this group with our bumps and bruises -- because it's seven very different individuals -- has accomplished more than any similar group in a long time," Carreiro said Tuesday.

"It's disappointing," he said, referring to the election outcome. "I've done well. I've served honorably. And we'll see what's next."

In both cases, the newcomers out-raised and outspent the incumbents on the campaigns, according to the most recent available campaign finance reports.

Springer, a paralegal for the John W. Walker P.A. law firm, reported total contributions of $14,779 and expenditures of $9,578. Johnson, a former U.S. Marine and a current permits clerk at the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, reported $700 in contributions and $1,064 in expenditures.

Ross, an associate professor of history and co-coordinator of the secondary-education program for history at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, reported raising $6,326 and spending $5,191. Carreiro, a partner at an actuarial firm, reported raising $4,050 and spending $2,516.71.

"The most disappointing thing is that only that many people voted when we had so much discussion and so many things going on," Carreiro said, adding that he will continue his involvement in the schools. "I've given back to the school. I've given back to the community. I'll continue to do that -- just in a different form."

With the new board makeup, the district needs to find ways to offset the $37 million it received annually in state desegregation aid. It will stop receiving those funds after the 2017-18 school year.

"We can't fix everything in one year," said Ross, a former Accelerated Learning Center and Parkview High School teacher. "I'm hoping the public will stay engaged."

Ross said the district needs to build a middle and high school in west Little Rock quickly, but at the same time, it needs to expand and modernize the older buildings. Before the district can carry out those actions, Ross said the School Board needs to examine the budget line-by-line to identify "key concerns" and unnecessary spending.

Only after that should the School Board go to the public and ask for a millage increase, he said.

"With the right research and with the right questions being asked, we can actually come to some really important decisions," Ross said. "I have a lot of hope right now. We've entered into this historic moment where our campaign was able to put one together across race, across class and across geography."

For Springer, there is no rush to figure out how to fix the district's budget. The district knew for years that the desegregation aid would eventually end, she said.

"I think we need to sit down and talk about it and get input from all the stakeholders," she said Tuesday.

Springer said she wants to address student achievement and the schools in academic distress.

The district has six schools -- including two middle schools and three of its five high schools -- listed by the state as academically distressed because fewer than half of the students scored at the proficient level on state exams over a three-year period. If the district doesn't raise achievement at those schools, the state Department of Education can take them over, which typically leads to the loss of a locally elected school board and the state appointment of a superintendent.

Springer is against the reconfiguration of schools, and instead wants to evaluate the current reading and math programs to see how effective they are. Restructuring schools, she said, only moves the children around.

"You've got to get to the core of the problem," she said. "We don't even know that what we have in place now is effective."

Johnson did not answer her cellphone late Tuesday night.

In a millage vote, complete but unofficial results were:

For 1,034

Against 403

The district did not propose a change in the 46.4-mill property tax rate this year, but the state constitution requires that it be on the ballot. No matter how the vote turned out, the existing millage would have remained at the current level. The votes are sometimes viewed as a gauge of public support or dissatisfaction with a school district.

Metro on 09/17/2014

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