5 school districts favored for county

4 north of river in city-focus plan

Education Commissioner Johnny Key is shown in this file photo.
Education Commissioner Johnny Key is shown in this file photo.

Once the Pulaski County Special School District is unitary, a state panel recommends divvying up the county's three public school systems into five -- one south of the Arkansas River and four north of the river.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Cathy Koehler, the president of the Little Rock Education Association, is shown in this file photo.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Sam Jones, an attorney who has represented the Pulaski County Special district in the 32-year-old federal school desegregation lawsuit is shown in this file photo.

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Special to the Democrat-Gazette

Preston Lewis, a Maumelle alderman and a leader in an effort to establish a public school district for Maumelle separate from the Pulaski County Special district, is shown in this file photo.

The districts would be Little Rock, North Little Rock, Jacksonville/North Pulaski, Sherwood and Maumelle. The Pulaski County Special district would no longer exist.

The recommendations are in the form of a draft report that the state Board of Education's boundaries study committee will finalize today. The report, which the full Education Board will take up in June, was issued after five meetings when the committee heard from school district superintendents and the public and after it reviewed demographic and tax information.

"In essence, this is something of a road map for the state board once Pulaski County gets unitary status," the committee chairman, Jay Barth of Little Rock, said Tuesday. "I hope this will be a live and ongoing debate, even though the state board does not have any power at this point to take any action."

At its last meeting, before drafting written recommendations, the panel favored creating a school district south of the river.

"The committee strongly believes that the healthiest school districts are those where communities of interest (identified by municipal boundaries, among other factors) are in synchronicity with school district boundaries," the draft report states. "That said, it is crucial that any district have the necessary tax base to appropriately serve its student population. Finally, district lines cannot be used to create racially identifiable school districts."

The group also recommends re-establishing an Education Service Cooperative in the county to streamline some services, such as transportation, the draft says.

The committee will meet at 10:30 a.m. today at the Pulaski County Special School District boardroom, 925 E. Dixon Road in Little Rock. It will also be webcast at http://tinyurl.com/nembqvv

Education Commissioner Johnny Key had no comment on the recommendations Tuesday, saying it was a matter the state Education Board is considering.

The recommendations raised a few questions for some, including a union leader and an attorney for one of the districts.

Cathy Koehler, the president of the Little Rock Education Association, had not heard the recommendations until a reporter called for comment Tuesday. She said she didn't understand the rationale behind the boundary-change suggestions.

Sam Jones, an attorney who has represented the Pulaski County Special district in the 32-year-old federal school desegregation lawsuit, expressed concerns Tuesday about the recommendations.

"The issues are far more complex and complicated than the committee even realizes to this day," Jones said. "Multiple hours of work and analyses remain to be performed before any reliable recommendations can be made."

Jones said that taking action on school district boundary lines in one part of the state would seem to have implications elsewhere in the state.

"It's hard to imagine how people can really just look at one county or one area of the state without wondering whether the entire state should be evaluated at the same time in terms of school district boundaries and the best configuration of the delivery of educational services," he said.

For others, the recommendations were in line with requests before the committee.

Preston Lewis, a Maumelle alderman and a leader in an effort to establish a public school district for Maumelle separate from the Pulaski County Special district, which it's now part of, is among those closely following the work of the state Education Board committee.

"The report as a whole shows a very logical pathway forward that is based on the natural conclusions of what is the best for students of all ethnicities," Lewis said.

He added he is interested in something that works best for everybody.

"But in the case of Maumelle, I think we will be a little more diverse than people think in the beginning," Lewis said. "We are going to foster that. I'm glad they put the language in there [the draft recommendations] that we are not trying to create racially identifiable districts, because we are not. We are trying to identify those communities of interest that are going to give the best chance for local patrons to get behind a district and support it."

Some former Little Rock School Board members said the recommendations could work for the county.

Its former president, Greg Adams, said the plan held both challenge and positive potential. The challenge would be to integrate the Little Rock and Pulaski County Special districts, he said.

The potential would be addressing the needs of certain areas, he said. For example, currently, there are few secondary schools in west Little Rock, but if there were one district south of the Arkansas River, Pulaski County Special schools and facilities such as Robinson High School could be in consideration for use, Adams said.

A former board member, Jim Ross, said he has always supported a unified city district for Little Rock. He welcomed the plan, but he cautioned that the recommendations should protect the voice of blacks and Hispanics and ensure equity from the tax bases.

Sherwood and Maumelle community representatives have said they want to create their own school districts.

According to the draft, the Little Rock School District's lines should align with those of the capital city's limits. But, moving the western part of the city of Little Rock -- which is currently a part of the Pulaski County Special district -- would leave the remaining county district with a limited tax base, the draft says.

"Therefore, it is our sense that a single school district south of the River (perhaps named Little Rock-South Pulaski School District) be created to create cohesion and to enhance efficiency in education offerings," the report says.

North of the Arkansas River, the committee noted there are four communities of interest.

In line with that, the committee is recommending the extension of the North Little Rock School District to that city's limits.

North Little Rock Superintendent Kelly Rodgers welcomed the recommendations, saying that expanding North Little Rock School District boundaries would be beneficial for several reasons.

"We believe it will open up for the district for new businesses, and for growth opportunities, including new housing developments," he said. "We're such a small district, land-wise, this will give us area and room for growth."

The newly created Jacksonville/North Pulaski district, which is scheduled to open for students by July 1, 2016, would remain in operation. Sherwood and Maumelle have "established a case" for their own districts, too, the draft says.

"When unitary status is achieved for PCSSD, reconfiguration of the boundaries could begin as outlined in Ark. Code Ann. 6-13-1414," which allows the state Education Board to take up boundary changes through a petition from local board of directors or school districts, the report says.

"Additionally, provided that a potential new district meets the eligibility criteria outlined in Ark. Code Ann. 6-13-1501 et. seq., a detachment process could begin with negotiations among North Little Rock, Maumelle, and Sherwood to ascertain the most appropriate division of the portions of PCSSD north of the Arkansas River."

That state law allows for Sherwood and Maumelle to detach from the current Pulaski County Special district, just as Jacksonville/North Pulaski did.

The recommendation also calls for the division of the Scott community, which sits between Pulaski and Lonoke counties. Students in that community would either attend North Little Rock or England school districts.

Portions of Saline County, where students currently attend Pulaski County Special schools, would move to the Bryant School District, the recommendation says.

But the committee noted the state is limited in its ability to alter any of the current Pulaski County Special district because of the desegregation case. Several federal court actions have repeatedly reminded officials that the state cannot change the Pulaski County Special district's boundaries until U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. declares the district unitary and releases it from the court's supervision.

To be unitary, the county district must improve its facilities, student discipline, student achievement, staffing and its own monitoring of desegregation efforts.

Earlier this month, Pulaski County Special district voters snubbed a 5.6-mill school property tax increase that would have helped pay for a $221 million plan for facility improvements.

Jerry Guess, the state-appointed superintendent of the state-controlled district, has said the county district will move forward with plans for a new Mills High School in the southeast part of the district and move Fuller Middle School to the existing Mills campus. Funds will come from the issuing of second-lien bonds, he has said.

Planning and construction will take about three years, Guess has said.

On top of the court restrictions, the state Education Board is also nearing its five-year limit in control over the Pulaski County Special district. The district was brought under the state after being in fiscal distress, but committee members have said the county district -- which is entering its fifth year -- has been improving.

The state Education Board can either return the Pulaski County Special district to local control, run by a locally elected school board, or consolidate it with another district after the five years.

Even if the state returned the Pulaski County Special district to a locally elected board, the state might still have control over the Little Rock district.

The Little Rock district moved into the state Education Board's hands Jan. 28 after the state designated six of 48 schools as academically distressed, meaning fewer than 49.5 percent of students at those schools scored at proficient levels on state math and literacy exams during a three-year period.

"Once there's unitary status, then Sherwood and Maumelle can come to request a detachment," Barth added. "Pulaski County, in all likelihood, could begin to shrink through the detachment of two other districts. If the state still has control over Little Rock, a south-of-the-river district is possible. We also just know -- even if we had the power at this moment -- it wouldn't be fast."

A Section on 05/27/2015

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