The Arkansas Board of Education on Thursday took control of the 1,192-student Dollarway School District in Pine Bluff, removing the elected School Board and replacing the interim superintendent with longtime south Arkansas educator Barbara Warren.
The state takeover, effective immediately and based largely on the academic-distress status of Dollarway High School and on School Board/administration conflicts, increases to four the number of Arkansas school districts currently operating under state control.
The others are the Little Rock, Pulaski County Special and Helena-West Helena school districts.
This is the second go-round for the Dollarway district.
In June 2012, it was taken over -- its board dissolved and superintendent dismissed -- after it failed to comply with state accreditation requirements for two consecutive years. An elected school board was reinstated in September 2014. The board has since dismissed two superintendents and has been operating since early November with an interim superintendent, Tammi Dockett-Wilson.
"This is a district in crisis," said Vicki Saviers of Little Rock, a member of the Education Board and chairman of its special committee on academic distress.
"In my 6½ years on this board, we have heard this story time and time again," Saviers said. She thanked the state Department of Education School Improvement staff for its evaluation of the district and its recommendations "to help us get the district out of the ditch" and make sustained improvements for students.
Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key said it is always a grave decision to take over a district.
"But when you are dealing with students, you have to ask how long do students and families have to wait before there is stability, before there is true improvement. And I think at this point we have to look beyond just simple improvement and transform what has been going on there."
He recommended that the state board authorize the removal of the School Board and allow the commissioner to assume authority over the district. He also recommended that Dockett-Wilson be returned to her previous job of school improvement specialist for the Dollarway district, and that Warren -- the director of the Arkansas River Valley Education Service Cooperative in Pine Bluff since 2011 -- be appointed superintendent, answerable to the commissioner.
After the board's vote in favor of the recommendation, Key told an audience of about 40 people -- including Dollarway parents, employees, School Board members and two former superintendents, Patsy Hughey and Bobby Acklin -- that there will be school in Dollarway today for all students.
Key sought to assure the audience that state officials have no plans to change the Dollarway district in terms of merging the district with any other.
"There is no intent in this effort to go down that road. The intent of this effort is to make sure that we have stability and that we move kids forward. I want to make that clear."
He also said the Education Department's deputy commissioner Mark Gotcher and Office of Intensive Support Director Andrew Tolbert will be in the district today to assist with the transition.
"They have immediate plans to do what it takes to calm the waters," Key said. "No. 1, we are going to have school. This is not a time for folks to think, 'Oh my goodness, this is a catastrophic situation.' It is a change in which the department is going to step in and walk hand in hand with the leadership of this district under our direction with the intent of driving improvement in student performance."
He said state agency staff members and district leaders will assess the needs, including those at Dollarway High School, which has been labeled by the state as being academically distressed because more than 50 percent of its students failed to reach proficient levels on state tests in math and literacy for three or more years.
Earlier in the hearing, Dockett-Wilson described problems in the district. She said 70 percent to 80 percent of the high school students were achieving at basic and below-basic levels. In other words, functioning at three to six years below their grade levels, she said.
That, combined with the fact that the high school has an 80 percent graduation rate, indicates that students are finishing school unprepared for college or entering the workplace, Dockett-Wilson said.
She also told the Education Board that low staff morale has contributed to a 40 percent to 45 percent teacher absentee rate in the Dollarway district.
She was unexpectedly appointed to the interim superintendent's position after the dismissal of Hughey, who had held the job for five months. Dockett-Wilson said she had begun instituting a chain of command, as well as other systems for managing personnel, student discipline and district finances. She said the district had no such systems previously. The district's maintenance practices were in chaos, she said.
Dockett-Wilson, a native of Pine Bluff, is a former Little Rock School District teacher and national education consultant on school improvement with organizations such as Success For All, Scholastic and Houghlin Mifflin Harcourt.
She said she returned to Dollarway after determining that the children in her home state deserved what she was providing to others nationally.
Key and Richard Wilde, the state's School Improvement Unit program manager, complimented Dockett-Wilson for her work in Dollarway.
Key told Dockett-Wilson that the state's action is not a reflection on her, and that he considers her a valuable asset and trusted partner. He said he hopes she will remain in the district to serve as a key partner to Warren, the new superintendent.
Warren, whose salary as superintendent is still to be negotiated, was a special assistant to the Pine Bluff School District superintendent from July 2007 to June 2011.
As such, she worked as the federal programs director and district assessment coordinator. She prepared and submitted federal and state budget plans, and provided training, support and technical assistance; helped plan professional development training for staff members; and served as the district test coordinator and homeless students liaison.
Warren previously was an assistant director and teacher center coordinator for the Arkansas River Valley cooperative from 2004-07. From July 2001-04, Warren was a junior high/middle level principal at the Stuttgart School District. She also has worked as an assistant principal, business education teacher, vocational director, and equity compliance officer at the district.
From 1997 to 2000, she was an adjunct faculty member at Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas.
Before the Education Board's vote to take control of the district, school district employees and community members gave the state board differing views about conditions in the district.
Billie Sanders-Lankford, the president of the now-dissolved School Board, objected to observations by others that the board was micromanaging the district, particularly in regard to personnel decisions and the relationship with the different superintendents.
"There were a lot of hidden agendas," she said, and board members were asked to make hasty decisions on issues that were "thrown at them."
She said the board members tried asking questions but didn't receive satisfactory explanations.
It was like going into a new house, and "we didn't know the floor plan," she said.
"We are a new board," she said. "We needed help."
Assistant Superintendent Melvin Bryant, who spoke about micromanagement by the board, said the administration must have the autonomy to make professional decisions.
"I spend most of my time dealing with adult issues," he told the Education Board. "That is not desirable, and it has little to do with academic success."
Hughey, the former superintendent, said the board's track record of dismissing superintendents is indicative that it doesn't have the best interests of students at heart.
"If you want to do right in Dollarway, you are given the boot," said Hughey, who also said she was not given a reason by the Dollarway board for her dismissal earlier this year.
A Section on 12/11/2015