A school improvement official recommended the state Board of Education grant the Education Commissioner authority to intervene in the Little Rock School District while several members of the public, including some prominent local businessmen, implored the state to take it over completely.
Richard Wilde, the Department of Education's School Improvement Director, first recommended to the state board's Special Committee on Academic Distress on Wednesday that members grant Education Commissioner Tony Wood "authority to intervene and focus the turnaround process" in the state's largest school district.
The meeting centered on the six schools in the district that have been labeled as being under academic distress: Baseline Elementary, Cloverdale Middle, Henderson Middle, Hall High, J.A. Fair High and McClellan High.
Wilde presented a report on the district's efforts to improve academics at those schools, saying the overall finding was that the district was attempting more innovations than it can implement "with fidelity in one year's time."
"The biggest barrier is they're moving on too many fronts and they can't logistically support with time all the time that's needed to do those things," he said, noting the district won't see improved confidence or outcomes "if everything continues as it is."
Former Little Rock School Board Member John Riggs IV called for a state takeover of the Little Rock District in a column that appeared in Sunday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Six of seven current board members then wrote a letter to the state board's academic distress committee saying the problems can be addressed without a takeover, the Democrat-Gazette reported Wednesday. Such a takeover could include the dissolution of the school board and a new superintendent.
School Board President Greg Adams told the committee Wednesday afternoon that he believes the existing board and district leadership can help the district have a "transformative year."
"We would like the opportunity to succeed or fail before we lose that opportunity to do that," he said.
But several others who addressed the board, including Riggs, Entergy CEO Hugh McDonald and East Harding Construction CEO Van Tilbury, called for a full state takeover.
"We need a bold move," Tillbury said. "Our kids' future depends on it and the economic health of our community depends on the bold move I'm asking you to make and we're asking you to make."
The committee members earlier heard from the principals of each of the six academically-distressed schools, as well as from Superintendent Dexter Suggs.
Suggs said the district for years lacked a sense of "urgency" and now finds itself in a "state of emergency."
"To move from where we are to where we want to be, we must confront the brutal facts," he said. "We cannot afford to maintain the status quo."
Riggs, who spoke last in the two-hour meeting, said the Little Rock district faces academic problems beyond even the students at the six schools listed as being under academic distress.
"Nothing has changed since 1994," he said. "The same problem exists today. If we don't do something, the same problems will exit in 20 years. We'll have lost another generation of kids."
The special committee is expected to present its findings in a report to the full Board of Education when it meets Thursday.
For full coverage, see Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.