BENTONVILLE -- The School Board held a special meeting in May without providing official notice to the public or the media, as state law requires.
All seven board members at the time attended the May 14 meeting to hear the elementary school principals explain why they thought the School District should eliminate its two-calendar system. Board members referred to that meeting when the calendar issue re-emerged in discussions at this month's meetings.
Overflow students
About 200 Bentonville elementary students were attending schools other than those for which the students were zoned as of Nov. 4. Here’s a look at the schools with the highest percentages of kids considered “overflow” students.
School*Percent overflow
Sugar Creek*19 percent
Thomas Jefferson*9 percent
Apple Glen*4 percent
Mary Mae Jones*3 percent
Source: Bentonville School District
Michael Poore, superintendent, apologized last week and took the blame for the district failing to get out the word about the meeting.
"That's my fault, because that's something I oversee," Poore said.
His apology came in response to a public records request by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for documents pertaining to the May meeting, including any advance notification of it.
The only written notification came in one of Poore's weekly written reports that is distributed to board members, the newspaper and others.
That report, emailed to the newspaper May 11, listed nine events Poore planned to attend during the following week. The list included the statement "May 14, P-4 Prin. Mtg with Board, 11:30-1" on the last page of the three-page report.
Poore acknowledged, however, that listing didn't follow the district's "typical process" for board meeting notification. The district did not produce or distribute an agenda in advance of the meeting as it usually does.
The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act requires at least two hours' notice be given of any emergency or special meeting to media that have requested to be so notified.
No minutes were produced from the meeting, nor was an audio recording made -- both routine practices for Bentonville School Board meetings. Board president Travis Riggs didn't realize that until he was made aware of it Monday.
"I'm always bothered when we do things differently than we normally do," Riggs said. "It doesn't make any sense to me. It's just people not thinking."
The elementary principals presented in depth a concept they had raised in a letter to the board about six months earlier, Riggs said.
"They shared that and we left. I don't think it was more than an hour," he said.
Calendar conversations
The calendar issue was a hot topic during both of the board's November meetings. The May 14 meeting was referenced several times during the board's discussions this month.
Some board members disagree on what was said at the May meeting. Poore said it was clear from that meeting the board wanted to move forward with one calendar.
"With one exception, Mr. (Willie) Cowgur, who said he wasn't sure. All six board members said at that time, we want to move forward," Poore said at last week's meeting.
But board member Grant Lightle refuted Poore's portrayal of the matter.
"Mike, I just disagree if you're characterizing that back in May we decided we were ending year-round choice," Lightle said. "I just don't think that's what we said. We said come back to us with an idea, a plan."
Lightle added if the board had agreed to go to one calendar at that meeting, "That would have been front-page news."
Riggs said the board agreed on one calendar in May.
"And if you walked out with anything other than that, your head was in the sand and you weren't listening," Riggs said.
When the board extended Poore's contract this summer, one of the goals included in his contract for this school year was to "draft and present an elementary zoning proposal based on a common calendar."
But when the time came to vote at last week's meeting on a motion to let Poore develop one calendar for the district, the board voted 4-3 against it. Riggs, Brent Leas and Rebecca Powers voted for that motion.
Poore said he isn't done making his case for the common calendar. The topic will be presented for discussion again at the board's next meeting Dec. 8.
"I feel like we'll need more discussion and present information in maybe a different way that will help the board," he said.
Principals' support
The district's 10 elementary principals support going to one calendar because they believe it will ease complications with students "overflowing" from their zoned schools to other schools where there is space available for them. As of Nov. 4, 205 elementary students were attending schools other than the one they are zoned for.
Elm Tree and R.E. Baker elementary schools operate on the nontraditional calendar, which features a much shorter summer vacation and more breaks throughout the school year than the traditional calendar. They are schools of choice that operate on their own zoning scheme separate from the traditional-calendar schools.
"If you have eight schools on a boundary map and then you brought it out to 10, it creates a situation where actually you can have more students placed closer to their home school, because you've got it spread out over 10 schools rather than eight," Poore said at last week's board meeting. "All 10 schools then also support changes that happen in terms of overflow. We don't have that right now."
Each year it's hard to predict how many students from each traditional-calendar zone will choose to attend either Elm Tree or R.E. Baker, said Lisa St. John, principal of Apple Glen Elementary.
"We don't care what calendar it is," St. John said. "We just want one calendar. We know when you draw 10 zones, you are able to zone more appropriately."
Principals also have argued for a common calendar because professional development opportunities for nontraditional calendar teachers are not the same as those for teachers in the other eight elementary schools.
Numerous parents associated with the nontraditional-calendar schools asked the board to consider keeping the two calendars or at least to consider adopting one calendar that resembles the nontraditional one. Some argue the shorter summer helps children retain more of what they learn from one school year to the next.
Stephanie Red, the parent of an R.E. Baker child, asked administrators and the board to share more data with the parents that would clarify what's motivating the one-calendar recommendation. She also suggested keeping an open mind and inviting the community to weigh in with alternatives to doing away with the nontraditional calendar.
"While I recognize it's the administration's and board's privilege to act unilaterally, I think you might get some good ideas," Red said. "And I think it's a good thing we all don't think the same way."
Lightle said he still doesn't understand how the calendars are making it more difficult for the district to deal with overflow or overcrowding. St. John, however, said principals are thoroughly convinced.
"We're not confused. They're not separate issues," St. John said.
St. John was among those who attended the special board meeting in May.
"When we walked out, we believed (board members) were 100 percent behind one calendar," St. John said. "We did not know this was going to be an issue."
If the district is going to adopt one calendar for the 2016-17 school year, the administration would have to receive board approval by the end of December, Poore said. In that case, all elementary schools would have to be rezoned. Another rezoning would have to take place for the 2017-18 school year when a new elementary school is scheduled to open.
NW News on 11/24/2015