School plan has 4 zones for LR

State report-card grade a classifier

The Little Rock School District posted on its website late Tuesday afternoon a proposal for organizing 48 schools into four kindergarten-through-12th-grade "academic zones," each under the direction of the superintendent or a chief improvement officer.

The schools would be assigned to one of three zones based on the letter grades each campus will receive today on the online 2013-14 school report card produced by the Arkansas Department of Education. A 2013 state law requires the application of A-F letter grades to every public school in the state.

Little Rock schools receiving grades of A, B or C will be assigned to academic zones 1 and 2. Most schools receiving grades of D or F will make up academic zone 3.

Making up academic zone 4 would be the six schools classified by the state as being in academic distress because less than 50 percent of their students scored at proficient levels on state math and literacy tests over a three-year period. Those schools and their principals would report directly to interim Superintendent Dexter Suggs, according to the plan.

Suggs said he expects that four Little Rock elementaries will have earned A's on their state report cards when the new report cards are activated today on the Education Department's website: arkansased.org.

Suggs expects that seven or more district schools will receive F's. The grades are based largely on last year's state Benchmark and End-of-Course Exam results and, where applicable, school graduation rates.

The Little Rock district's school organization plan was not initially labeled on the website as a proposal or draft, but Suggs said Tuesday night that it is a proposal being talked about with Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key, who serves as Suggs' supervisor and as the school board for the state-controlled Little Rock School District, which has been operating without a locally elected School Board since Jan. 28.

"Nothing is in concrete," Suggs said about the school organization plan. "We are still in discussions."

The proposal is one of several links found on a new, dedicated page of the district's website: www.lrsd.org. The dedicated page is linked under the headline of "Transforming LRSD to Best Serve the Needs of Students."

Also on that new Web page are the district's draft plans for redesigning Baseline Elementary into an early reading and language lab academy, and converting Rockefeller Elementary to an early childhood education center.

Baseline Elementary at 3623 Baseline Road -- where all the staff jobs would be vacated for the coming school year and positions advertised for new hires -- is one of the district's academically distressed schools and has a high percentage of Hispanic children who do not speak English as their first language.

The redesigned school would emphasize staff training and instructional programs that are recognized as being successful and that emphasize teaching non-native English speakers.

The attendance zone and enrollment requirements would not be changed for Baseline Elementary.

Suggs met with the staff at Baseline on Tuesday about the proposal. He said in an interview later that all certified and support staff who are displaced at the schools would have jobs elsewhere in the district. Suggs will meet with Baseline parents and community members at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the school.

"They took it about as well as you can," Suggs said about the session. "They have people who have been there for quite some time. You get an emotional attachment. They want what is best for the kids. That's good that we have people who feel that way."

Rockefeller Elementary, at 700 E. 17th St., is unique in the district in that it provides care and programs for infants and toddlers, pre-kindergarten 3- and 4-year-olds, as well as children in kindergarten through fifth grades.

According to the proposal, pupils in the Rockefeller attendance zone would be assigned to Carver Magnet, Washington or Stephens elementary schools. Teachers would be reassigned to other schools in the district unless they hold early-childhood education credentials, making them eligible to remain at the campus.

The plan calls for not only relocating older pupils in the Rockefeller attendance zone but also discontinuing the infant and toddler program that is open to families districtwide and dates back to the 1960s. The program would be suspended during the summer so renovations could take place in the school. The infant and toddler program would reopen for the 2015-16 school year, then be discontinued.

Bill Kopsky, executive director of the a statewide social justice group Arkansas Public Policy Panel and father of two young children at Rockefeller, said Tuesday that he supports the idea of expanding pre-kindergarten services in the district but feels that the method being used to carry it out is dysfunctional and will only generate a loss of confidence in the district's administration.

Kopsky said the idea of closing the Rockefeller infant and toddler program for the summer and giving families only about six weeks to find alternative care for their children "completely untenable and unworkable."

"This is completely unreasonable and unbelievable to me they would even suggest it," he said.

One of the best features of the infant and toddler program and the reason the program is "stellar" is the longevity of its staff, Kopsky said. He said the idea that the staff would return after the program is suspended for the summer "is foolish."

"Infant and toddler care is so proven to be one of the best ways to close the achievement gaps that the school district is struggling with -- the program needs to be built on as a model and not abandoned."

Suggs said Tuesday night in an interview that it there is a "strong possibility" that the infant and toddler program could be preserved at Rockefeller.

"It's a good program, and it's good therapy for me when I want to rock [the babies]," he said, but added that the program would have to be suspended for this summer to allow for any necessary construction.

Suggs is meeting with Rockefeller parents and community members at 6:30 p.m. today at the school.

Suggs said Tuesday that the district's website with its new page "Transforming the LRSD" is an effort to improve communication with the parents and the community about the efforts to improve education and student achievement in the district.

Along the same lines, Suggs is instituting a "Lunch with the Superintendent" session for the public from noon to 1 p.m. every first and third Monday of the month at the district's administration building, 810 W. Markham St. There will be a set topic of discussion for each session. Participants are invited to bring their lunches, and the district will provide drinks.

Metro on 04/15/2015

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