BENTONVILLE -- The School Board remained divided Monday on a recommendation to eliminate the two-calendar system at the elementary level, leaving the issue undecided for now.
After a lengthy discussion and hearing input from numerous parents and teachers, the board voted down two motions that would have moved the School District toward a single calendar.
Student flux
Below are the percentages of fourth-graders at each of Bentonville’s 10 elementary schools who have been in their zoned schools since they were in kindergarten.
Traditional-Calendar Schools
Apple Glen: 44 percent
Centerton Gamble: 45 percent
Central Park: 32 percent
Cooper: 54 percent
Mary Mae Jones: 29 percent
Sugar Creek: 14 percent
Thomas Jefferson: 10 percent
Willowbrook: 40 percent^
Nontraditional-Calendar Schools
Elm Tree: 59 percent
R.E. Baker: 56 percent
^Percent who have been in the school since first grade. Willowbrook did not open until the 2012-13 school year.
Source: Bentonville School District
Board member Brent Leas' first motion was to adopt a single calendar for grades kindergarten through six as recommended by the administration. The board voted 5-2 against that motion, with Leas and Rebecca Powers voting in favor of it.
Leas then modified his motion to make the single calendar apply to the entire district. That one failed by a 4-3 vote, with Leas, Powers and board president Travis Riggs voting for it.
Two of the 10 elementary schools, R.E. Baker and Elm Tree, operate on the nontraditional calendar, which starts earlier, ends later and features more breaks than the traditional calendar. The nontraditional schools are schools of choice and operate on their own zoning scheme, with half the district zoned for R.E. Baker and half zoned for Elm Tree.
District officials have argued placing all the elementary schools on the same calendar, thus incorporating them into one zoning scheme, would create greater flexibility for the district and allow more students to attend a school close to their homes.
That would significantly reduce the number of students being transferred in and out of their zoned school because of space limitations, according to elementary school principals.
Board member Joe Quinn asked Superintendent Michael Poore to explain the rationale for the recommendation of one calendar.
Poore said there are five schools bearing the brunt of the "constant churn" of students coming and going: Thomas Jefferson, Sugar Creek, Apple Glen, Central Park and Willowbrook.
"When you have that happen, (students) are constantly having a change in their environment, which is a change in culture," Poore said.
Poore tried to explain there will be far less of that churn with all 10 schools on one calendar.
"I still don't understand that," said board member Grant Lightle, a comment that drew applause from the room packed with spectators.
Lightle, who sent his own children to R.E. Baker, said he didn't feel right throwing out an option that's popular among many parents without a good reason for it.
"Our problem is we have very asymmetrical growth," Lightle said.
A move to one calendar next year would require attendance boundary rezoning. The district already has committed to opening an 11th elementary school in 2017, which also will require rezoning.
Board vice president Willie Cowgur noted there are 205 students who have been overflowed from the school for which they're zoned. Eliminating the nontraditional calendar, however, would affect more than 1,100 students who attend Elm Tree and R.E. Baker.
He also noted the board discussed the issue of the nontraditional calendar about two years ago and committed to keeping it at that time.
Principals have said the complications related to overflow have resulted in some elementary students have to catch a bus at 6 a.m. each day and enduring bus rides of an hour or longer. Sometimes they must transfer to buses to get to their overflow school.
Board member Matt Burgess said he received an emailed picture of students sitting in the grass outside an elementary school waiting for their transfer bus to arrive.
"If my kid were on a bus for three hours a day, I'd be livid," he said.
Burgess voted against the motions presented at Monday's meeting because he wasn't comfortable with the wording of them.
Sixteen people addressed the board on the topic during time allotted for public comment. Most of the speakers favored keeping the nontraditional calendar and finding another way to address student overflow.
Others asked the board for relief. Amy Shell, a kindergarten teacher at Thomas Jefferson, said the turnover in students is an obstacle to creating a family-like atmosphere at the school.
"Our classrooms often feel like revolving doors. I've lost seven students already this year. Two of those students are already on their third school," Shell said.
Craig Soos, the father of a fourth-grader at R.E. Baker, asked the board to spend more time evaluating the issue before making a decision.
"I ask that you take the time to take a breath, and let this community pour as much information on you as they can," Soos said.
NW News on 11/17/2015