Oust Key, give back Little Rock School District, panel says

Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key addresses the media about a new education standards review process in this file photo.
Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key addresses the media about a new education standards review process in this file photo.

The Little Rock School District’s Civic Advisory Committee — created by the state Board of Education last year when it took control of the district — on Thursday called for the state’s education chief to be replaced and for the school system to be returned to local control.

The committee of teachers, parents and philanthropic leaders passed a resolution 16-0 that asks Gov. Asa Hutchinson to replace Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key.

The resolution also requests that the Education Board “return local governance” to the district after the election of a school board on Sept. 20, which is this year’s statewide school board election date.

The committee’s resolution comes at the end of a month in which Key announced that Little Rock Superintendent Baker Kurrus’ one-year contract will not be renewed when it expires June 30 and that Michael Poore, who has been superintendent in the Bentonville School District since 2011, will head the Little Rock district beginning July 1 at an annual salary of $225,000. The leadership change was made with no advance public notice that it was being considered.

Last May, Key appointed Kurrus, an attorney and former Little Rock School Board member, to be superintendent shortly after the district was taken over by the state in January 2015. The takeover, which included dismissing the elected school board, came after six of the district’s 48 schools were labeled by the state as academically distressed because of chronically low student test scores.

“The LRSD and its supporters deserve open public engagement in decisions that are made on its behalf,” the committee’s resolution begins. “The state takeover of the LRSD as it has been implemented has further destabilized the LRSD by not making visible efforts to effectively communicate with, nor seek advisement from, the [committee] and/ or the LRSD personnel and community.”

The commissioner and Education Board needed to demonstrate transparency, engage the community in the decision-making processes, and develop short- and longterm plans for the success of each school in the district, the resolution states.

“Approaching a year and a half after the LRSD takeover, none of these recommended goals nor objectives have been met and the results have bred further distrust and instability in our beloved LRSD and its community,” the resolution further said.

Contacted Thursday night, Key said he would have no response to the advisory committee’s resolution and deferred to the governor’s office.

J.R. Davis, communications director for Hutchinson, said Thursday night that the governor “fully supports Commissioner Key and the job he is doing.

“I think it is important to note that there is a plan and this is part of that long-term plan,” Davis said. He added that even at the time of Kurrus’ hiring last year “there was an understanding that there would eventually be someone with an academic background needed to lead the Little Rock School District. Obviously academic distress is the reason for the takeover in the first place,” he said.

The goals are to provide the best education possible for every student in the district and turn the district back to local control as soon as possible, Davis said.

“We believe Mike Poore is that guy to get that job done,” Davis said. “He has the resume, and he has the experience of turning academic distressed districts around in a short amount of time.”

Davis also said public engagement in the district is “critical” and “absolutely” wanted to put the district on the right path academically and financially. “That’s what breeds an environment for students to learn,” he said. “Again we believe Mike Poore is the guy to do just that — engage the community, get that feedback and listen to the community.”

Greg Adams, co-chairman of the Civic Advisory Committee and a member of the School Board when it was dissolved, opened the discussion Thursday on a possible resolution, calling Kurrus’ removal “unexpected” and “shocking to us.” He said he would have felt much differently if the committee had been given notice months back of a possible leadership change, and had been given some opportunity to collaborate with and give advice to state leaders on any transition.

Committee member Anika Whitfield said she was told by Key last year that the committee would have free rein to do what it wanted to do, and she believed that state officials would listen to the committee because it represented the people.

“I feel that democracy was lost once again,” said Whitfield, who said she learned of the leadership change in news reports. “I question whether Little Rock is in the United States of America. I am very displeased with the decision, and I believe we need to look at creating some kind of resolution to send to the [Education Department] to let them know that they have basically not told the truth to us or to the community.”

Fred Dickins, a committee member and teacher at the academically distressed-labeled J.A. Fair High, said one of the reasons the Little Rock district was taken over by the state was frequent turnover of principals and superintendents and lack of consistency in the district.

But since the Education Department began working with his school to improve it, there has been constant change, Dickins said.

“The only consistent thing that has happened is complete inconsistency,” he said and reeled off a list of the conflicting instructions given at the school about tests and interim tests and the use of this 45-day plan versus a different 45-day plan. “If their goal is to help stabilize things, so far all they have done is argue with themselves over what our paperwork should look like, remove our superintendent who is successful … and renewed a charter school that was failing after taking over our district.

“I don’t understand what they are doing,” Dickens said. “My message is ‘Get your act together.’ I don’t know what they are going to do in 10 years if they keep beating educators and changing the system like they are doing. They aren’t going to have educators.”

B.J. Wyrick, one of two committee members who also serve on the Little Rock Board of Directors, noted that the city board had passed a resolution in support of Kurrus. The city and school district should be able to work together, and Kurrus seemed to be the person that would be able to do that, she said.

Liz Lucker and Amanda Warren, committee members and teachers at Hall High, questioned the displacement of Kurrus for not being a professional educator when Key himself is not a trained educator. Key has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering.

Dionne Jackson, co-chairman of the committee, said after the meeting that the resolution will be forwarded to the governor and to the Education Board.

The Civic Advisory Committee, whose members also include students, has worked for nearly a year to respond to Kurrus’ call for advice on “big building-block issues.” Those issues center on the possible closing of small schools, forming one district south of the Arkansas River and allocating resources to best serve students who have personal and family circumstances that hinder their academic success.

The committee plans to present its report on those and other district matters at its May 19 meeting, to be held at Horace Mann Magnet Middle School. The committee has invited Board of Education members and Poore to attend that session. Poore has a conflict that day and will meet with the committee on June 2, Jackson said.

In the meantime, Key has announced that two new citizen groups will be formed.

One will be a stakeholders’ group that will be asked to employ a consultant to develop a system in which traditional public schools and independently operated public charter schools in Pulaski County south of the Arkansas River can work together. The other will be a Community Advisory Board, a smaller, statutorily authorized group that would replace the existing Civic Advisory Committee.

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