Email told legislators of LR schools takeover

The Arkansas Department of Education notified key legislators by email of the state Board of Education's Jan. 28 decision to take over the Little Rock School District the day after the vote in an effort to follow state law requiring that notice.

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"This notice went to the legislators who represent the Little Rock School District, as well as to the employee of the Bureau of Legislative Research who staffs the House and Senate education committees and their chairs," Education Department spokesman Kimberly Friedman said Thursday. "This notice was sent in compliance with Arkansas Code Annotated 6-13-112."

A lawsuit filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court last week and amended Wednesday is seeking to reverse the state Education Board vote that dismissed the elected seven-member Little Rock School Board.

Plaintiffs in the case, including three of the dismissed School Board members, argued in part Wednesday that state officials violated state law by failing to submit to the legislators the reasons for the takeover of the state's largest district.

The statute says that within 10 days of the Board of Education assuming authority of a school district, the education commissioner shall provide to the chairs of the House and Senate education committees "a clear statement of the reasons the district has been placed under the authority of the state board or the commissioner."

The statute also requires that the lawmakers be provided with "a clear statement of the steps necessary for the school district to remove itself from the authority of the state board or the commissioner."

Michelle Griffin, the Education Department's director of legislative services, said in the Jan. 29 email to the lawmakers that the Education Board is authorized by law to take several actions in response to schools and school districts in academic distress.

The Little Rock District has six schools among its 48 that are classified as academically distressed: Baseline Elementary; Cloverdale and Henderson middle schools; and J.A. Fair, Hall and McClellan high schools.

"The state Board deemed it necessary to remove the Little Rock School District Board of Directors in order to address the academic distress status of those schools," Griffin wrote.

She said the state board, the department and the district will work together to return the district to local control.

"The goal will be to remove the six schools from academic distress and keep other schools from entering academic distress," she wrote, adding that quarterly status reports will be provided to lawmakers.

Metro on 02/27/2015