Kurrus details changes, asks for support

Little Rock School District Superintendent Baker Kurrus speaks Tuesday, June 23, 2015, to the Political Animals Club.
Little Rock School District Superintendent Baker Kurrus speaks Tuesday, June 23, 2015, to the Political Animals Club.

The new superintendent of the Little Rock School District on Tuesday likened the organization before he took over last month to a shut-down morgue or a paddle boat being rowed in different directions at the same time.

But 61-year-old Baker Kurrus, who was hired May 5 to succeed Dexter Suggs, said positive changes have already taken place in his less than two months on the job. And he vowed that continuing incremental progress should result in larger reforms if the community buys into the efforts.

Speaking before about 150 people at a meeting of the Political Animals Club, Kurrus called himself a "nontraditional superintendent" and said some of his first efforts centered on changing attitudes to better a "fractured organization" that had no shortage of problems.

"When I got down there, it was like a morgue that had been shut down," Kurrus said. "It wasn't just a good morgue, it was a morgue that wasn't even working. But now people are happy. And it's just a sense of accomplishment you get from working together. And I'm excited about it."

Kurrus joked that he "began to hear the Mission: Impossible theme" when he considered the problems facing the state's largest district as he considered taking the job: a community divided over the state's decision in January to assume control of from the local school board, a "dysfunctional" organizational structure and a forthcoming end to state desegregation payments that means the district's $320 million budget must be cut by $40 million.

But, Kurrus said, he weighed those hurdles and decided still to "give it my best shot."

"I said I'm stepping up and I'm stepping in," he said. "And I may be stepping into something I don't want to step in, but I'm stepping in. So that's what I did. That's why I'm here. And I need everybody's help. I know some people in the room don't want me in that job. I'm still going to ask for your help. If you've got a good idea, I welcome it. And I welcome that from everybody. Because frankly if we don't realize we're in this together, we're never going to get out of this."

Increasing community involvement will be critical to making a difference, Kurrus said, saying supporters must embrace all children — especially those with the greatest needs — and then develop a plan that the community as a whole will support.

"That's a commitment," he said. "It's like getting married where you agree not just to love one another today but to love one another when it's not easy."

Kurrus said he's already made organizational changes that stress teachers are the most important employees in the district and empower administrators beneath superintendent to make decisions and to be accountable for them.

He said progress has been made, also, on the district's finances with about $12.5 million cut out of the budget for next year and another $10 million in cuts likely to come. That, he said, will prepare the district well for the loss of desegregation payments in the 2017-2018 school year and position the district to make major investments in facilities, which he said is critical.

Kurrus — who sang Leon Russell's "A Song For You" during a Central High School graduation speech last month and offered the political club a few lines to open his speech Tuesday — said he's also spent considerable time in the schools whose academic-distress classifications resulted in the state takeover: Baseline Elementary; Cloverdale and Henderson middle schools; and J.A. Fair, Hall and McClellan high schools.

He singled out Baseline and its new principal, former teacher of the year Jonathan Crossley, for bringing a "spark" that will lead to significant advances.

"We're going to have clear goals," he said. "We're going to assign responsibility. We're going to delegate resources. We're going to find people that accept responsibility willingly, happily. We're not going to punish them when they fail, we're going to lift them up and help them when they fail. And then we're going to have a better school district. And it won't happen by myself. I promise you I will not do this job by myself. If I don't have your help, every single person in this room's help, we will fail together. But I hope we succeed, and I hope you're with us."

See Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full coverage.

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