Kurrus: Decision on middle school nears
Little Rock Superintendent Baker Kurrus told a Roberts Elementary School PTA crowd Thursday that he anticipates knowing "in a matter of weeks and not months" whether the district will convert the former Leisure Arts property on Cantrell Road into a new "world-class" middle school.
The district this summer entered into a contract to buy the property -- an office building and warehouse -- in northwest Little Rock for $11.5 million, contingent on the outcome of a district feasibility study.
Residents of the growing northwest part of the city have pleaded for several years for a middle school to be located west of Interstate 430 for the area generally served by the 900-pupil Roberts Elementary. Many families leave the district for private and charter schools each year when their children complete fifth grade because of a lack of a nearby traditional public middle school.
Kurrus told the PTA group that "so far everything is a go" on the Leisure Arts property, and he spoke hopefully of renovating 1½ floors of the office building to provide 10 or 11 rooms that could house sixth-graders in the upcoming 2016-17 school year.
The seventh- and eighth-grade space would be developed soon after. He has calculated that the district could have a new middle school for about $23 million, which he said would be a "real good buy."
At the same time the district begins work on the middle school it will break ground on a new southwest Little Rock high school, Kurrus said.
State board member to lead national group
Jay Barth of Little Rock, a member of the Arkansas Board of Education since 2012, is the new president-elect of the National Association of State Boards of Education.
Mireya Reith of Fayetteville, also a member of the Arkansas Board of Education, was elected to a two-year term on the national association's board as the representative of the southern region of the nation.
The elections took place during the association's recent fall conference in Baltimore.
Barth will begin his term as president-elect in January and become president of the association in 2017, succeeding Jim McNiece of Kansas.
On the faculty at Hendrix College since 1994, Barth's teaching and research focuses on politics and education. He is the M.E. and Ima Graves Peace distinguished professor and Bill and Connie Bowen Odyssey professor of politics. He is also director of civic engagement projects at Hendrix.
The National Association of State Boards of Education is based in Alexandria, Va. Its purpose, according to its website, is to "strengthen state leadership in education policy-making, advocate equality of access to educational opportunity, promote excellence in education of all students, and ensure responsible lay governance of education."
LR district holding school registration
The Little Rock School District is holding school registration for students who will be new to the district in 2016-17 or who seek assignments to magnet or other specialty schools.
Registration for kindergarten through 12th grades can be done from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Friday at the district's Student Registration Office, 501 Sherman St., or the Little Rock School District's administration building, 810 W. Markham St.
Registration for pre-kindergarten classes for 3- and 4-year-olds that began Oct. 19 is continuing through Dec. 18 at the Student Registration Office.
Additional information about all registration requirements and copies of forms that need to be completed and submitted for registration are on the school district's website, lrsd.org.
Metro on 11/15/2015