Hone effort at 6 schools, an anxious board says

Little Rock School District leaders agreed Tuesday to push forward with streamlining the number of innovations that are underway to improve achievement at six academically troubled schools, but said they would like to do that with some guidance from the Arkansas Department of Education.

The district's School Board, which is facing the risk of an imminent state takeover of the 24,800-student school system because of chronically low student achievement at the six schools, met briefly Tuesday for an update on the information that district administrators will send to the Arkansas Board of Education by a Jan. 21 deadline.

The nine-member state Board of Education has scheduled a Jan. 28 meeting to decide what action to take to improve achievement at district schools where fewer than half of students scored at proficient levels on state exams over a three-year period.

The schools are Baseline Elementary, Cloverdale and Henderson middle schools and J.A. Fair, Hall and McClellan high schools.

Arkansas law gives the state Education Board broad authority to deal with academically distressed schools. That authority includes replacing the principal and staff at schools classified as being in academic distress, requiring a new curriculum, removing the school from a district's jurisdiction, closing the school, and removing the superintendent and/or locally elected school board in the affected district.

Chris Heller, an attorney for the district, told the board that some state Education Board members seem "very inclined" to take over the entire district, while others are willing to consider taking control of the six schools.

"If there is anybody on the state board who is going to support letting things go and allow us to implement the plan we submitted in October, we haven't heard from them yet," he said.

The situation is serious, he said.

"We have two opportunities, one on Jan. 21 and one on Jan. 28, to try to persuade the state board in writing and in person that it is a bad idea."

Heller said the district reported last month to the state that staff members at each of the six schools had narrowed their focus to improve achievement on two or three initiatives -- just as the state Education Department's school improvement specialists had recommended earlier.

But Richard Wilde, the department's school improvement director, told the state Education Board last week that while the potential for success of the initiatives was supported by research, the schools were undertaking too much at one time to be successful.

Some of the initiatives include training school leadership teams to make instructional decisions based on student achievement data, improving student conduct and teacher attendance, and requiring principals to monitor teacher lesson planning and classroom instruction as a basis for giving teachers prompt feedback on their work.

"What matters between now and next week is whether we can narrow this gap between what we think the situation is and what somebody that the state board is going to rely on is going to tell them what it is," Heller told the board.

The district needs to determine what it can present that state leaders will support, Heller said, adding that it doesn't have to be a new plan but one that narrows what is already underway.

Additionally, the district needs to present to the state board how the achievement plan can work -- what degree of control, resources, personnel and time is needed to assure that the plan is carried out at the six schools, he said.

"The best thing we can do for the continuity of the school district and for the students in those six schools is come up with a plan that we can agree with Dr. Wilde and his team on," Heller said.

Superintendent Dexter Suggs and his aides told the School Board that they hope to meet with Wilde and other state agency employees this week to refine the improvement plans for the different schools. In response to questions from School Board member Jim Ross, Suggs said he agreed with Heller on the approach to take.

If the Department of Education won't talk to the district, then the board will have to "go to Plan B," Heller said.

The board has already scheduled another meeting Tuesday on the matter of what to present to the state. School Board members also expressed a willingness to meet sooner than that if needed.

Board member Tara Shepard said that even if district representatives aren't able to speak with state officials, the district will move forward with its efforts on the schools.

Board member C.E. McAdoo voiced support for Suggs and the district's administration for their work on behalf of the six schools.

"That needs to be said," McAdoo said. "We are saying it out loud. We're saying we are here to support. We want the plan, whatever it might be ... and the district to move forward."

McAdoo has on occasion challenged Suggs and his staff, asking unexpectedly during meetings for an executive session to discuss the superintendent's employment or making a motion to halt for six months the staff's planning for the reconfiguration of Hall High. No action was taken on the superintendent's employment, and the motion on Hall was ultimately withdrawn.

School Board President Greg Adams and board member Leslie Fisken expressed appreciation Tuesday for the work of district staff members on the six schools.

Adams called for a balance of urgency and calmness.

It's a very stressful time, he said. "Since we are the leaders of the district, I would want our folks to know we are trying to strike the right balance, treating this with the importance and sense of urgency it deserves but not in a sense of panic and not in a sense of losing our heads about this. We want to be as thoughtful as possible. That was part of the feedback we heard, too -- we need to be thoughtful and focused. We just need to do the very best job we can in the time that we have."

He said he anticipates that the decisions made by the state Education Board won't be based solely on the district's work in the next few days but on the district's whole track record.

Adams and board member Dianne Curry both suggested that members of the public make their views known on the district's efforts to educate children.

Adams noted that state Board of Education members are public servants just as the School Board members are and that it is appropriate to express opinions to the state board members.

Curry said the board has worked hard to support all district schools and to provide administrators with the resources they need for the schools.

"We need our parents, teachers, administrators -- everyone to step up and express your voices about what is going on," she said.

A section on 01/14/2015