In his first Board of Education meeting since being hired as the state's new Education Commissioner, Johnny Key said he believes the board had an authority and responsibility to take over the Little Rock School District.
The board members also heard from the Little Rock district's now interim superintendent and the chairman of a panel considering how to cut its costs as it received an update on progress at the state's largest school district.
Key — a former state senator who was hired by the board last month after being recommended for the post by Gov. Asa Hutchinson — said the board's January takeover of the Little Rock district after six of its schools were classified as being in academic distress was a "direct fulfillment of its constitutional duty to the students of the district."
Opponents of the takeover, which included dissolving the local board and retaining Superintendent Dexter Suggs on an interim basis, said the state board was overstepping its bounds because the academic-distress issue affected only the six schools and not the entire district.
Key said his comments shouldn't be taken as a suggestion that there was a "lack of effort" in previous attempts to reform the Little Rock district, but he said those tries fell short. He said the district now needs a "comprehensive improvement process that looks not only at the six schools in academic distress" but all schools.
The state board also heard from Suggs, who answered questions and briefed the board by phone. He said the district is in the first phase of a multi-pronged plan to make improvements. Steps underway now include reorganizing and reallocating staff, offering leadership training at the six schools in distress, changing the reporting structure so those schools answer directly to Suggs and bettering communication amongst all stakeholders.
Baker Kurrus, chair of the district's Financial Stability Committee, also briefed the board on that panel's work to cut the district budget ahead of more than $37 million in annual desegregation payments that will end after the 2017-18 school year. The district already notified more than 60 central-office staff members that they won't be retained, saving about $3.5 million.
Kurrus on Thursday told the board the cuts are a "difficult challenge" but also an "opportunity" since officials have time to plan for the decrease in funding.
"We have a runway to land this airplane," he said. "But we have got to get to work. It is urgent business."
Kurrus said the panel will look into transportation costs, facilities and other inefficiencies. He noted there are 12 different buildings that house administrative personnel in the district, which he said is costly and not ideal as a management structure.
Key said his goals for the Little Rock district are twofold to provide a "better educational opportunities for all students" and to ultimately return it to local control.
See Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more on this story.