Education notebook

Districts choose snow-day options

Arkansas school districts are continuing to make decisions on how best to make up the snow days that were missed in February and March.

There are different approaches underway in Pulaski County.

The North Little Rock School District's last day of school for students continues to be May 29. District leaders decided, after surveying parents, to extend the length of the school day by 72 minutes for much of the rest of the year, rather than lengthen the school year.

To do that, the district is making use of a newly passed state law that allows making up missed days by adding hours to the school day.

The following school day hours will be in effect March 30 through May 15 in North Little Rock district schools:

• Elementary schools -- 7:48 a.m. to 3:40 p.m.

• Middle schools -- 7:33 a.m. to 4:05 p.m.

• High school -- 8:28 a.m. to 4:55 p.m.

• North Little Rock Academy -- 8:03 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Pulaski County Special School District is scheduling one makeup school day for April 3 and adding days to the end of the year. The last day of class in the Pulaski County Special district will now be June 8.

The Little Rock School District announced earlier that it is adding makeup days to the end of the school year, which means that classes -- including semester exams -- will go through June 15.

Quick call sought in LR takeover suit

The attorneys for plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the state takeover of the Little Rock School District asked the Arkansas Supreme Court on Friday to shorten the timeline for lawyers to make their cases for and against dismissing the lawsuit.

The Supreme Court on Thursday suspended, mid-witness, a Pulaski County Circuit Court hearing in the case -- at the request of the state defendants -- so the high court can decide whether the suit should even be allowed to proceed.

As it stands, the state's written arguments in favor of the motion to dismiss are due April 27, the plaintiffs' reply is due 30 days later, and then the state's final response is due 15 days after that.

Willard Proctor Jr., an attorney for the three displaced school board members and two voters who filed the lawsuit, asked the Supreme Court to change the initial due date to next Friday, the due date for the response to April 3 and the final reply brief due date to April 7.

Proctor told the high court that displaced school board members, voters and parents are irreparably harmed by the absence of a locally controlled district.

Attorneys for the Arkansas Department of Education responded late Friday, telling the Supreme Court that the first schedule "is already an expedited schedule."

"The current schedule affords the parties the opportunity to fully brief the matter before this Court," the state attorneys wrote. "The schedule urged by [the plaintiffs], however, would not provide sufficient and adequate time for briefing."

The state defendants argue in the motion to dismiss the case that the state constitution protects the state and its agencies from lawsuits.

The plaintiffs contend that the state is subject to being sued because it exceeded its legal authority in taking over the entire 48-school district based on six schools that are classified by the state as academically distressed.

Schools honored with EAST awards

Harrisburg Middle School received the Timothy R. Stephenson Founder's Award last week at the 2015 EAST Conference, hosted by the Arkansas Department of Education in Hot Springs.

The award is presented to the school whose Environmental and Spatial Technology program best exemplifies the model of project-driven, student-led education.

Other finalists for the Founder's Award included Dover High School, Greenbrier High School, Helen Tyson Middle School in Springdale, Joe T. Robinson Middle School in the Pulaski County Special School District and Roberts Elementary School in the Little Rock School District.

Helen Tyson Middle School won the Founder's Award category for Project Sophistication and Innovation. Prairie Grove Middle School won the Founder's Award category for Community and Collaboration. Greenbrier High School won the Founder's Award category for Student Growth.

Dover High School was recognized for a national service project done in partnership with the Department of Emergency Management at Arkansas Tech University. The project theme was "Ready. Set. Plan: Emergency Planning and Preparedness."

"The 2015 EAST Conference is truly the highlight of the school year with so many great projects, so many great students and so many learning opportunities," said Matt Dozier, the EAST initiative president and chief executive officer. "This event demonstrates the power of community service, sophisticated technology and innovative thinking that happens every day in EAST classrooms."

More than 60 EAST programs received a superior rating for the year. There are more than 220 EAST programs in five states.

Metro on 03/22/2015

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