The state-controlled Lee County School District based in Marianna will be returned to local management after a new School Board is elected in September and trained, the state Board of Education decided Thursday.
The state board voted to release the Lee County system -- taken over last year for academic distress -- at a meeting in which the board also indicated its intent to enter a fifth year of state control of the Pulaski County Special and Helena-West Helena school districts.
The board also received a report on the Little Rock School District that was taken over by the state Jan. 28.
The Lee County district was the first in Arkansas to be taken over by the state for academic distress under current law.
Fewer than 49.5 percent of students in that district scored at proficient or better on state math and literacy exams in a three-year period from 2011 to 2013. The takeover resulted in the removal of the School Board and the assignment of Superintendent Willie Murdock to work under the direction of the Arkansas education commissioner. At the time, the state board cited the school district for having no curriculum other than textbooks, recalcitrant staff members and a high school class in which 42 of 67 seniors were not on track for graduation because of scheduling and course-coding problems.
Last month, state Department of Education staff members reported to the state board that the updated percentage of students scoring at proficient on tests given in 2012-14 rose to 49.513, narrowly topping the threshold for academic distress. The state board voted to remove the academic-distress classification Feb. 12 and followed up Thursday with the plan for ending state control later this year.
Board of Education member Vicki Saviers of Little Rock said state leaders spent a lot of time and effort trying to do what was best for Lee County students.
"I hope everyone in Lee County understands how difficult it would be if backsliding occurs and we have to come back in," Saviers said.
"I think it's really painful. Please -- I mean I am urging every able-bodied person in Lee County to become engaged in their school to help Mrs. Murdock do what she needs to do to provide the best staff she can for kids. We need to all pull together to help them be the best that that they can."
Board Chairman Sam Ledbetter of Little Rock praised Murdock and Andrew Tolbert, the director of the Education Department's Office for Intensive Support, for persevering in leading the district to higher achievement levels and a stronger financial position.
"I'm a big girl now, yes sir," Murdock said about the efforts.
She also assured the board that the district -- which continues to be labeled by the state as being in fiscal distress for its history of spending its reserve funds -- has within its community future board members who can keep the district "moving forward."
Board members asked several questions about the 830-student district's ability to succeed academically and financially.
Hazel Burnett, the Education Department's fiscal distress coordinator, said the district has hired a new business manager and has made strides in its financial management, including the spending of grants and coding of positions and expenses. However, she said that progress was partly the result of help from outside agencies and consultants.
Burnett said she is not ready to recommend the removal of the fiscal-distress label, which will not prevent the district from regaining local control. She said the $800,000 the district is projected to have in reserve at the end of this fiscal year is a relatively small amount, but that could grow if an anticipated payment for a pipeline that runs through the district comes in before June 30.
Other Education Department staff members said they, too, would continue to work with the Lee County district. And Charity Smith, a consultant with Fetterman and Associates that assisted this past year in Lee County, said after the meeting that the firm will work with the Lee County School District for two more years to improve academic achievement through curriculum development, and to offer teacher and leadership training.
Continued state control
The Education Board on Thursday voted to retain the state-appointed community advisory boards in the Pulaski County Special and Helena-West Helena school districts, which were taken over by the state in 2011.
The decisions to keep the advisory boards -- which have to be made by April 1 each year -- are an indication that the state right now plans to operate the two districts for the fifth and final year allowed by state law. After a fifth year, the districts have to be returned to local control or, if they continue to have financial problems, merged or consolidated with one or more other districts.
Andrew Bagley, chairman of the Helena-West Helena advisory board, and James Valley, a former Helena-West Helena mayor, asked the board to return the district to a locally elected board.
Bagley said the district has closed three campuses and eliminated about 100 positions to improve its finances, and that the district is in a much better situation than it was four years ago.
"I believe wholeheartedly that our school and community deserve another chance," Bagley said. "We've felt the sting and the stigma ... and we are resolved to never lose control again."
Education Board member Alice Mahony of El Dorado questioned whether the Helena-West Helena advisory board has a full slate of seven members. Education Commissioner Tony Wood said the advisory panel currently has only four members. Advisory board members in state-controlled districts are selected with input from local legislators.
"It does feel important to fill out the board," Education Board member Jay Barth of Little Rock said, adding that it is necessary to have a cadre of lay leaders in the pipeline if the district is to be released to the management of a school board next year.
In regard to the Pulaski County Special School District, Wood said the district has done an excellent job in resolving its financial problems and is down to addressing the sole matter of planning for the loss of $20.8 million a year in state desegregation aid -- the last year of the payments being for the 2017-18 school year.
The review of the district efforts will continue and it could be that the district would be released from state control before the expiration of the fifth year, Wood said. Because the review is not complete and a decision must be made on keeping the community advisory board by April 1, Wood and his staff recommended keeping the board for the time being.
Little Rock update
Also Thursday, Wood and Deputy Commissioner Mike Hernandez gave the state board an update on work being done in the Little Rock School District.
Wood said the work of a budget stability committee headed by Little Rock attorney Baker Kurrus is critical to the overall efforts because state officials must know that the district can afford the programs and resources put into the six schools classified by the state as academically distressed.
Board member Diane Zook of Melbourne said that competent people are working every day to meet the needs of students whose needs were not previously met.
Zook also said that state board members have "no hidden agendas" in agreeing to work with the Walton Family Foundation and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation to develop a strategic plan for improving student achievement statewide.
Zook also said the Legislature "doesn't check with us" before they introduce bills.
There are bills pending in Legislature that would affect how the state handles schools and districts in academic distress, including one that would allow the education commissioner to contract with not-for-profit organizations to operate schools and districts in academic distress.
Barth said he is frustrated by what he sees as "a little bit of drift" -- a lack of apparent action -- in regard to the six schools after there was such an emphasis on the need for urgency at the time of the board's 5-4 vote to take over the district in January.
Metro on 03/13/2015