Plaintiffs testify district is adrift

Displaced Little Rock School Board members told a Pulaski County circuit judge Wednesday that the state's Jan. 28 takeover of the district was an unwarranted surprise that has left the system without a plan for academic improvement.

Former board member Jim Ross told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen that there is no plan by the state to improve student achievement in the state's largest district, nor has the state given the district any indication about how it can be released from state control.

"Today, there is no plan for any of my children," said Ross, who has three children in district schools.

Ross, one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the state takeover of the district and the dissolution of the seven-member School Board, made the comments on the first day of a hearing to determine whether a preliminary injunction should be issued to stop the state control of the district -- at least until a full hearing can be held on all the merits of the case.

This week's hearing -- which included testimony from two teachers, an attorney and a parent -- is to resume at 10 a.m. today with more witnesses called by the plaintiffs' attorneys. The state will follow with its defense of the state takeover.

Today's hearing could be interrupted if the Arkansas Supreme Court orders a delay in the proceedings.

Arkansas Department of Education attorneys who represent the defendants -- the Education Department, Education Commissioner Tony Wood and state Board of Education members -- asked the high court for a delay Wednesday morning after Griffen on Tuesday denied their motion to dismiss the lawsuit on grounds of sovereign immunity.

Sovereign immunity is a concept included in the Arkansas Constitution that bars lawsuits against the state and its agencies. The state has sent notice to the Supreme Court that it is appealing Griffen's decision.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs have until noon today to respond to the proposed stay of the circuit court proceedings pending the outcome of the appeal. The attorneys -- Marion Humphrey, Rickey Hicks and Willard Proctor Jr. -- have argued that the state can be sued because it exceeded its legal authority in taking over the entire 48-school district based on the fact that six schools are labeled by the state as academically distressed.

Fewer than half of the students at those schools -- Baseline Elementary; Cloverdale and Henderson middle; and J.A. Fair, Hall and McClellan high schools -- scored at proficient levels on state math and literacy exams over a three-year period.

Ross and former board member colleagues Joy Springer and C.E. McAdoo told Griffen on Wednesday that the School Board had made improving achievement at the six schools a top priority, and that improvement plans and reports for and about the schools were the subject of regular and special board meetings.

Ross said that when he joined the board, he found that the district had a severe "crisis" in reading instruction, an enormous bureaucracy, a demoralized teaching staff and needed to address a forthcoming $40 million-a-year loss in state desegregation funds in its budget. But he said the board -- including its four new members elected in 2013 and 2014 -- was willing to spearhead sweeping changes at the six schools and throughout the district.

He listed some of the initiatives underway to do that, including the monitoring of teachers to ensure they were following their lesson plans, contracting with a company to audit the district's curriculum and instruction program to ensure that it was aligned with state education standards, and reconfiguring the instructional program at Hall High.

He said the district is doing great things for a lot of students, that efforts are being made to increase the number of black and other minority-group students in gifted and Advanced Placement programs, and that the district has successfully reconfigured schools such as Chicot and Watson elementaries, Fair Park Early Childhood Center, Geyer Springs Gifted and Talented Academy, and Forest Heights STEM Academy to better meet student needs.

Arkansas Education Department attorney Lori Freno questioned Ross about his comments made at public forums and on Facebook social media pages.

Did you say, "The district has failed many students?" she asked. Did you say, "It doesn't take a brain surgeon to see that the district is broken?" Ross didn't dispute those nor other quotes that included: "The status quo is no longer acceptable in the LRSD," and "We've been failing black, poor white and Latino kids for 60 years."

Freno also asked Ross for proof that the School Board's plans would work. "You don't know whether it will work in Little Rock, do you?" she asked.

"I have no way of knowing that it won't work," he responded.

Springer, elected to the School Board in September, told the judge that she believed that state Education Board members took over the district in response to some business leaders who urged them to "take drastic measures."

"I was shocked," Springer told Griffen about the state decision that she said put her reputation into question.

"I've been unable to explain why I was removed when people ask me. I don't know the reasons," she said, adding that she was never told that the School Board contributed in some way to the academic distress of the six schools.

In response to questions, Springer said she believed that the School Board members were working together for the district and were not dysfunctional, despite that allegation from now-former Little Rock board member Leslie Fisken in a letter to Education Board member Vicki Saviers. Springer said she was supportive of Superintendent Dexter Suggs.

Springer said the district's improvement plans had not been in place long enough to evaluate their success but that the six academically distressed schools had shown significant, double-digit gains in the percentage of proficient students in recent years.

Springer and others testified that the scores had risen from "horrible" scores to still relatively low scores.

Chris Heller, the district's attorney for 34 years, was called to testify about his arguments to the state Education Board against the takeover of the district. He called the takeover of the entire district for six schools unprecedented in the state and unnecessary. He said the state and district had all the authority necessary under the law to fix the schools using a "measured response" without a district takeover.

He said the board was not a barrier to improving the schools and was acting with urgency.

"From my perspective the board was fully supportive of making changes, even reconstituting the staffs at the six schools," he said. "They were willing to do whatever it took."

He also said the board was committed to acting as a team with the superintendent to benefit the schools, although the board's role as a supporter of the superintendent as well as its responsibility to hold the superintendent accountable can appear contradictory.

Freno objected to Heller's testimony, including his interpretation of the statutes dealing with academic distress.

Griffen overruled her, saying that "he could be wrong as Lucifer on Judgment Day, and I'll call him on it."

McAdoo, another former Little Rock board member, and fellow plaintiff Barclay Key, a parent of two children in the district, told the judge that the dismissal of the School Board left parents without elected representatives to turn to when they had questions or concerns.

McAdoo said he addressed every concern posed to him by callers when he was a board member.

Key said he contributed financially to and worked in the campaigns of School Board members.

Asked about whether there was irreparable harm as the result of the state takeover, Key said there is the loss of democratic governance and local control, as well as a sense of broken trust at a time when trust in the district was improving.

He said the takeover creates "immense uncertainty and instability.

"We are literally driving people away from this city," he said.

J.A. Fair High science teachers Evelyn James and Gerald Harper told the judge about the frustrations among teachers and students at their school because of the state's actions.

James said students feel inferior to their friends and relatives at Little Rock's Parkview and Central high schools, which are not labeled as distressed.

She also wondered if she was stigmatized for working at an academically distressed school.

"I know I've given 110 percent to my students at some sacrifice to my own children," she said.

A Section on 03/19/2015