LR district's efforts defended at hearing

A hearing on a lawsuit challenging the state's takeover of the Little Rock School District is under way, with two displaced board members defending the local board's efforts before the state action.

Testimony in the lawsuit, brought by three members of the dissolved Little Rock School Board and two voters, started shortly after 10 a.m. before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen.

First to take the stand among several dozen possible witnesses was Jim Ross, one of the plaintiffs who was elected to the Little Rock board last year.

Ross said the district was primed to make sweeping changes in six academically distressed schools, whose troubles served as the basis for the state's January takeover. And he noted there were positive achievements occurring in much of the school district, the vast majority of which was not under academic distress.

"That's the great story we keep missing," he said.

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

Ross said a comprehensive classroom observation plan was under way in those six distressed schools and that the local board had committed to the state that sweeping changes were possible.

"We said it repeatedly," Ross said. "Every time we met."

Ross testified "gains were being made across the board" at the six distressed schools while noting that they fell below the state standard for being proficient by small numbers of students who scored just below the required threshold.

"This is how arbitrary this is," Ross said, adding that a couple of questions answered differently on the tests could have brought Baseline Elementary out of distress. "It's the same for these other schools. Very few students are we talking about."

Joy Springer, another board member elected in 2014, also testified Wednesday morning. She noted there had been gains in proficiency at the six troubled schools but said the takeover came before there was any way to know whether the local board's actions were leading to improvements at the six schools.

She went on to say the local board had been complimented by state officials for its work and that it was working together despite one member, Leslie Fisken, who in a letter called it "dysfunctional."

Springer said the state board's decision to take over the district came as a "shock."

"I was of the opinion we had done just what they had asked us to do," she said, adding later: "We were committed to the education of the children at those schools."

Attorneys for the plaintiffs also questioned Springer about her knowledge of the state takeover of the Pulaski County Special School District, which they used to reveal that the state was in control of that district when three of its schools were classified as being under academic distress.

Marion Humphrey, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, earlier asked Ross whether the state had conducted any testing of the students at the six Little Rock schools after they were first classified as being under academic distress last year.

"No, sir," Ross replied. "No testing."

An attorney for the state countered in cross-examination, asking Ross about social-media posts Ross acknowledged making saying the district was "broken" or "failing" some students.

The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction to put the state's takeover on hold. The hearing is expected to continue all day Wednesday and possibly resume Thursday.

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