Bill proposes sub-350-pupil merger waiver

House to vote on measure sparing some consolidation

Correction: Since Act 60, the Public Education Reorganization Act, passed in 2003, 98 schools were closed after school districts were consolidated. Those schools include 53 high schools and 45 elementary schools, according to the Arkansas Rural Community Alliance. This story incorrectly reported the number of elementary schools.

A legislative committee passed a bill Thursday that would allow some Arkansas school districts with enrollment that drops below 350 students to continue to operate independently.

House Bill 1263, by Rep. Bruce Cozart, R-Hot Springs, would let those small, mostly rural school districts apply for a waiver from the state's requirement that they be consolidated with a nearby school district. In order to apply for the waiver, the district would have to meet academic, fiscal and facility standards set by the state.

"This really is a way to save education in Arkansas, by letting these schools stay small and meet the needs of these kids in their local environment where they're supported by their parents, and their parents can get to parent teacher conferences," said Rep. Charlotte Douglas, R-Alma. "When we go to these schools that are consolidated and we talk to those kids, it absolutely disrupts their lives to be consolidated. Many of them can't play in athletics, they can't be in clubs, their life is spent on a bus."

Douglas sponsored a separate bill that also aimed to revise the consolidation process. Cozart said at the start of the meeting that he had folded those changes into HB1263 before submitting it to the committee.

"I think we have a lot of schools that have already been consolidated, and we're trying to keep that from happening," Cozart said. "What this bill does, is if a school district falls below 350, and they are not in fiscal distress, academic distress or facilities distress, or they do not have at that time any probationary status, this will let them continue to go on just like they were."

Since the Public Education Reorganization Act -- Act 60 -- passed in 2003, 68 school districts have been consolidated. In those districts, 98 schools have been closed including 53 high schools and 48 elementary schools, said Renee Carr, the executive director of the Arkansas Rural Community Alliance.

"We have 28 school districts with 450 or fewer students. These school districts have a cloud of uncertainty hanging over them because of Act 60," Carr said.

The 2003 law was written after the state Supreme Court ruled in the Lake View School District case that the state had the responsibility of providing every student in every district with an "adequate" education. The state's adequacy funding model is based on per pupil funding in a 500-student district, but several consultants determined that the funding model would work for students in a district as small as 350 students.

Rep. Warwick Sabin, D-Little Rock, said if a district was allowed to drop below 350 students and still operate, he had concerns that it would not meet adequacy requirements.

Cozart said all of the school districts, regardless of size, monitor adequacy.

"We are really just going to have to give them a chance; I think that's all they ask. Let's give them a chance and see if they can do this," he said.

Former Springdale Republican state Rep. Randy Alexander sponsored an interim study request last session to see whether consolidation had been fiscally beneficial to the districts or affected other performance or academic measures.

He said the Weiner School District, which was consolidated with the Harrisburg School District in 2010, was ranked 13th academically but was merged with the 198th ranked school. He said Weiner also had $1 million in the bank and a higher millage tax rate than Harrisburg before the merger.

The bill will now go to the House floor.

Metro on 02/27/2015

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