Education notebook

Flippin school lead earns state honor

Dale Query, a 42-year educator and the superintendent of the 805-student Flippin School District since 2005, is the 2016 Arkansas Superintendent of the Year.

Richard Abernathy, executive director for the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, presented the honor to Query at a recent Flippin School Board meeting.

The award puts Query in the running for National Superintendent of the Year, a program conducted by the American Association of School Administrators to pay tribute to the people who lead the nation's schools. Each state association of school administrators selects a state superintendent of the year.

Query has worked in the Flippin district for 38 years in roles that included assistant principal and middle school principal. He was superintendent of the Bruno-Pyatt School District in neighboring Boone County from 2001 to 2005. He is recognized by his superintendent colleagues as a "driving force" in the implementation of a new dyslexia law in the state, which followed the development of a successful program for working with students with dyslexia in his own district.

Forum seeks input on taxes, buildings

The Jacksonville/North Pulaski School Board will conduct a public forum on possible sites for a new high school as part of the board's monthly business meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Jacksonville City Hall.

The forum will include presentations on available funding for building school campuses and on the possible need for a millage increase to help meet anticipated construction costs.

One of the three sites for a new high school for 2,000 students is the current, 42-acre Jacksonville High site, which would require construction while school is in session.

A second, 34-acre site is the now-vacant Jacksonville Middle School complex, also known as Jacksonville North and South junior highs.

A third and by far the largest site is a 91-acre, undeveloped site adjacent to North Pulaski High and within the perimeter of the Little Rock Air Force Base.

Court to consider LR takeover suit

The Arkansas Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments from 9 to 10 a.m. Thursday in the lawsuit that challenges the Jan. 28 state takeover of the Little Rock School District that included the dismissal of the elected School Board.

Back in March, the state's highest court stopped in midstream a Pulaski County Circuit Court hearing in the lawsuit against state leaders that was filed by former Little Rock School Board members Dianne Curry, C.E. McAdoo and Jim Ross, along with school district residents Barclay Key and Doris Pendleton.

Attorneys for the state defendants in the lawsuit had asked the Supreme Court for the delay of the hearing pending a decision from the same court on the state's motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

The state defendants asked that the case be dismissed on the grounds that the Arkansas Constitution prohibits lawsuits against the state and its agencies, which is the concept of sovereign immunity.

If the Supreme Court ultimately grants the motion to dismiss, the case would end. If the high court rejects the motion, the hearing on a preliminary injunction before Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen of Little Rock would be expected to resume.

Metro on 10/04/2015

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