Little Rock School District Superintendent Baker Kurrus talked about teachers, school buildings, academic interventions, competition and organizational management at a meeting Thursday with the district's Civic Advisory Committee.
On the job since May as the state-appointed leader of the state-controlled district, Kurrus said in a monthly update to the committee that he and his staff are working well together and "we kind of think we've got a little groove going that we have got to get into the schools."
Everyone asks him what the plan is, he said, for the district, which lost its locally elected school board in January because six of 48 schools were labeled as academically distressed. The state Board of Education removed the board and put the superintendent under the direction of the Arkansas education commissioner.
"The plan is having a functional organization where people who have a common purpose and a unity of purpose cooperate, collaborate and focus on their mission," Kurrus said. "That was the biggest deficiency I saw when I got here. We had poor lines of authority, poor lines of communication, a great deal of mistrust, a great deal of confusion.
"There were so many people interjecting into the process that the process got lost and students were not the focus."
Kurrus made the comments on the same day that a group of about 40 people -- including some of the members of the Civic Advisory Committee and four of the seven former school board members -- rallied in front of the district's administration building to call for the restoration of the locally elected school board and school district's return to local control.
"We believe that many of our public school systems stand in need of assistance," Civic Advisory Committee member AnikaWhitfield said at the rally. "But we disagree with this method of siege, takeover and enslavement of our children, who are already marginalized by our current political and economic system of laws and government."
One of the purposes of the rally was to publicize a newly issued report by The Alliance To Reclaim Our Public Schools, a Chicago-based national organization of parent, youth and community organizations that works in opposition to the state takeover and private management of traditional public school systems. The report, which is available online and references Little Rock, contends that takeovers suppress local governance in communities that are largely black or Hispanic.
Kurrus, a 12-year School Board member himself, told the committee Thursday night that privatization of public schools "has never been my penchant," that he is completely dedicated to public education and that he is doing everything he can to help the state's largest district to be successful. He said he is supported in that by Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key.
He said that district has a lot of work to do -- 17 of the 48 schools are categorized as academically distressed or as "priority" schools because of being among the lowest achieving schools in the state, or "focus" schools because the size of the achievement gap between student groups. The distressed and priority schools in the district are pretty much the same schools.
But Kurrus also said that academically distressed schools such as Hall, J.A. Fair and McClellan high schools, are getting "a bum rap," and that the students who attend those schools "are marvelous."
Henderson Middle is another of the academically distressed schools, at least partly because of all the sixth graders who come from elementary schools unable to read at their grade level.
"What we need are interventions that are effective, systemic and operate at the earliest grades to make the most difference in a young person's academic career," Kurrus said.
"We can't continue to send to Henderson children who can't read. It's an incredible problem. We are asking Henderson to correct problems that occurred other places. Never punish a school for being on a list. Think about it more holistically and about the series of events that put them there. And solve the problem at the earliest stage."
Kurrus urged the Civic Advisory Committee to provide him as soon as possible with its recommendations on how to address the condition of school buildings in the district, including whether to close some small schools and build new, modern buildings.
He noted that eStem Public Charter Schools Inc. and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock are partnering to build a new high school on the university campus.
"Do you think that is going to help or hurt our chance if they recruit kids out of Fair, Hall and McClellan? It's going to hurt us," he said. "It's going to make our job that much more difficult, but I'm not going to whine about it. We're in a competitive environment and I'm a competitor."
The committee of students and teachers from the academically distressed schools and representatives of the different School Board election zones and charitable organizations have scheduled a Sept. 19 work session on the building questions and other issues.
Kurrus told the committee that the district's employee count is down 200 from last year but the district has not fired any teachers and has no plans to do that.
On the matter of negotiating a new teacher contract to replace the existing Professional Negotiations Agreement, which expires Oct. 31, Kurrus said he is working with the employees union on some tough issues and "I think we will get there."
Cathy Koehler, president of the Little Rock Education Association employees union, said the leaders of the association and the district "are having very good conversations" that are focused on doing what is best for students. She said she anticipates that an agreement will be reached well before the Oct. 31 expiration date of the existing three-year teacher contract.
"We have met a couple of times in a very collaborative way, discussing what a working relationship between the district and the LREA will look like going forward," Koehler said. "The reality is the climate is different. There have been significant changes and all of us are dealing with a new reality."
A new agreement will undoubtedly be less detailed than what is known as the current Professional Negotiations Agreement, she said.
"Obviously from what has already been publicized, we will continue to be recognized [as the bargaining agent for employees] but a 90-page agreement is not going to be the reality."
The district earlier this month released a first draft of an agreement that was five pages long and dealt primarily with union recognition and a grievance procedure. The draft also included blank lines for the dollar amounts for salary increases and benefits.
Metro on 08/28/2015