Church entity buys early childhood site
The North Little Rock School Board sold Redwood Early Childhood Center to a church Thursday.
MVL-VLM Inc. bought the site at 401 N. Redwood St. for $175,000 in cash at closing, which was more than the district's asking price of $37,000. The buyer is an entity of St. Anne Catholic Church at 6150 Remount Road in North Little Rock.
The sale is one of five that have been finalized. In late March, the School Board approved the sale of Argenta, Rose City, Lynch Drive and Baring Cross school buildings to Terra-Forma LLC of Maumelle for $500,000.
The 9,000-student district is nearly finished with a capital-improvement program that is reducing its 21 campuses to 13, nearly all of which were built new or extensively renovated.
The building program means that the district has several schools that are no longer in use. The vacant buildings could hurt the district's ability to get state funds for new schools or additions in the coming years, district leaders have said. Arkansas' Department of Education's Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division could decide that the district doesn't need state money for new buildings or additions if the old schools are still available.
The district has listed Amboy Elementary at 2400 W. 58th St. and Pine Street Elementary at 1900 Pine St. It is asking $1.25 million for Amboy and $290,000 for Pine Street.
If the sites don't sell, the School Board has a backup plan to demolish them.
Pact on degrees set with Pulaski Tech
The district will partner with Pulaski Technical College to award associate degrees to high school students taking college-level courses.
Under the agreement, college-level courses taught by North Little Rock teachers will cost the student $15 per credit hour. Courses taught by a Pulaski Tech professor at the college at 3000 West Scenic Drive will cost $95 per credit hour.
The School Board approved a memorandum of understanding Thursday. The approval is just the first step though, said Christie Toland, the district's director of college and career readiness.
The district now will work with college officials to figure out course scheduling and see which teachers will be qualified to teach the college-level courses, she said. The goal is to allow the first concurrent classes during the 2016-17 school year.
Toland said she was looking at ways to waive the cost to students.
District Superintendent Kelly Rodgers said the University of Arkansas at Little Rock also has expressed interest in a similar program.
Metro on 08/21/2015