A bill that would allow communities to create a new school district from an existing one was approved by the state Senate on Tuesday.
House Bill 1242, sponsored by Rep. Mark Lowery, R-Maumelle, and Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock, would lower the student requirement to form a new school district from 4,000 to 2,500 students.
Lowery previously said during a House committee meeting that both Sherwood and Maumelle have studied leaving the Pulaski County Special School District, and that he sought to change the requirement for the number of students in the new district because this is the number Maumelle could reach.
The Special district would have to achieve unitary status and be released from federal court supervision in a desegregation lawsuit before these communities could separate from the district.
Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, was the only one to speak against the bill.
"It bothers me more than just a little bit that we are talking about creating more schools districts in Pulaski County when we're looking at closing school districts in other places we already have," Elliot said. "I haven't seen a compelling reason to create more districts here…we're not privileged in Pulaski County to have more when actually we should fix the ones we have."
The bill failed once in a House committee, as well as once in the full House before being brought back up for a vote last Monday and passing with a 60 to 21 vote.
The senate passed the bill with 20 voting for, six voting against and eight senators who did not vote.
See Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
