The state Board of Education approved a memorandum of understanding with the University of Arkansas at Monticello to help address the teacher shortage in the Delta.
Now, the Arkansas Department of Education will craft the memo to start the partnership. The request came from Dumas School District administrators, who spoke of a teacher shortage in the Delta region.
Tammy Healey, the principal of Dumas Elementary School, said her school had a 40 percent turnover rate during the past school year. She sought out help from the Teach For America program, and took all of the teachers the organization offered, Healey said.
She added it was hard to retain first-time teachers, who the district trains.
"I work my tail off, and then at the end of that year, they are marketable for other school districts," she said.
The memorandum of understanding would give waivers to UA-Monticello student teachers, who have not yet earned a bachelor's degree, to be long-term substitute teachers in high need areas. The memo would also get rid of the 30-day policy for long-term substitutes.
State board reviews PB district progress
State Board of Education members have approved a report on the Pine Bluff School District's progress toward student achievement.
Just last month, a board committee heard from the district's administrators on its schools labeled as priority schools or academically distressed. Academic distress means fewer than half of a school's students scored at proficient levels on state math and literacy exams during a three-year period. Priority schools are among the lowest-achieving 5 percent of schools on state tests.
The 4,300-student district has four schools with either label: Oak Park Elementary, Belair Middle, Jack Robey Junior High and Pine Bluff High.
State Department of Education officials saw some progress for the schools, but the school district also saw significant turnover, including the firing of Superintendent Linda Watson earlier this year.
At the committee's June meeting, department officials recommended monthly reports to the Education Board on improvement efforts, along with an approved request for the department's school intervention specialists to work directly with the Pine Bluff School Board.
Education Board member Jay Barth of Little Rock on Thursday asked why the committee didn't take more aggressive measures.
"I guess where I'm stuck is this feels as troubled or perhaps more fundamentally troubled than the Little Rock situation," he said, referring to the Education Board's January takeover of the Little Rock School District, which had six of 48 schools in academic distress.
Richard Wilde, the department's school improvement unit manager, said the district has an interim superintendent who is restructuring the administration and working on a district plan.
"It does feel somewhat chaotic," he said. "I think we need to dig into this just a little further to identify where the problem really is."
District officials are scheduled to go before the board committee again in August.
Metro on 07/11/2015