After three years of grooming from her colleague and friend, Karen Walters was recently announced as the new superintendent of the Bryant School District.
She will replace Tom Kimbrell, who announced his retirement in November after three years as superintendent for the district. She will officially begin the position July 1.
“I am trying to learn all that I can from him,” Walters said of Kimbrell. “He is a great educational leader.
“He has probably forgotten more about educational leadership than I know.”
The two worked together at the Arkansas Department of Education from 2011 to 2014.
“I have tried to soak up all that I can in the three years (at Bryant) that I have worked with him,” Walters said. “I also worked with him at the department as well. I was the assistant commissioner, and he was the commissioner.”
The two came to Bryant at the same time when Kimbrell was hired as the superintendent.
“I don’t know if [me becoming superintendent] has always been the plan,” Walters said. “I don’t know if the board would have felt comfortable with me taking this role without me having been here and working.
“But I think it has grown into that. They have seen the work that I do.
“I wouldn’t say it has been the plan.”
Walters has been deputy superintendent for the school district since 2014. From 2011 to 2014, she was an assistant commissioner for educator effectiveness and teacher licensure at the ADE.
“Dr. Karen Walters has proven herself to be one of the top administrators in our state,” Kimbrell said in a statement. “During her tenure at the Arkansas Department of Education, she led the transformation of teacher licensure and the creation of the first state educator-evaluation system.
“Her work for the past three years as deputy superintendent places her in a unique position to lead the Bryant Public Schools. Her experience, her energy and her vision will move Bryant from being a really good district to a great district.”
Walters received a bachelor’s degree in 1993 and a master’s degree in 1997, both from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. She received her doctorate from Harding University in Searcy in 2011.
She graduated from Evening Shade High School in 1989 with 22 in her graduating class.
“I feel like I have been in school my whole life,” Walters said, joking.
Walters served as superintendent of the Hector School District from 2007 to 2011 and is also a former superintendent of the Evening Shade School District.
“Right now, the most important thing that is before us is the millage election that is in March,” Walters said. “My hope is that we pass the election in March, and my immediate work will be the facilities that will come to fruition because of the passing.”
According to a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the school board voted in October to ask voters at a special election in March 14, 2017, to approve a 3.6-mill tax increase and the refinancing of existing bonds.
The proposed millage increase will help fund a new elementary school, a new junior high school, a new high school cafeteria, a new fine arts building and a new PE facility at the high school.
“Kimbrell has really worked with our facilities manager, and I think we have a great plan,” Walters said. “We were really devastated when the millage didn’t pass last year, but I am a firm believer in everything happens for a reason.
“I think we have a better plan now than we did in 2015.”
Walters said that right now, the high school is overcrowded with nearly 2,900 students enrolled.
“[It’s] a big high school campus,” Walters said. “The new junior high would free up space and give us room by moving the ninth-graders out.
“And by moving the eighth-graders up, our two middle schools — Bethel Middle and Bryant Middle — that allows growth in those buildings as well.”
Walters said that when the millage failed last year, the school had to give back $18 million to the state because “we received that money in partnership funds.”
“It was hard to give back,” Walters said. “But with our new plan that we have, we are getting $35 million to help with our buildings, so I think it is a better plan.”
The millage vote failed by eight votes last year; therefore, trying again is a bit risky.
“[Getting it to pass] is going to be difficult,” Walters said. “None of these other things happens if we don’t pass the millage.”
In order to vote on the millage, “you have to live in the Bryant School District,” he said.
“I think there was a lot of misunderstanding by people in the last election,” Walters said. “A lot of people thought you had to live in the city limits to vote, but it is available to anybody who lives in the district.”
If the millage fails to pass, Walters said, the district will have to work with the state and coordinate a “Plan B.”
“We have to sit down with them and get direction,”
Walters said, “because what we have in mind, they might say that’s not going to work.”
Walters did say that by the time the millage is up for a vote, the school district will have almost $20 million saved from the past three years.
“With that money, we could build the elementary school,” Walters said. “There are some things we would be able to do, but we would not be able to do everything.”
Walters has already been on the forefront of the newest additions to the school district, leading the way for the new school-based health center at Bryant Elementary School that opened in January.
“The health center has been such a benefit not only to our students, but also to our parents who work or work in Little Rock,” Walters said. “I think that has been a big benefit to us.”
The Hornet Health Center works just like an ordinary clinic, accepting appointments and insurance, and is open to students at Bryant and Benton as well.
“Some things we have to send students home for because it is contagious, but sometimes if it is not contagious or if they aren’t that sick, it is very beneficial to parents because they don’t have to miss a day of work,” Walters said.
She also said the clinic will soon be home to a dentist two or three times a month.
“He will provide a service to our kids that some have not been receiving,” Walters said. “I know we have to focus on academics, but I think it is important that we address the needs of the whole child.
“Sometimes with medical issues or kids who aren’t getting food at home, learning is not their priority, and I think we need to address those things.”
For more information on the Bryant School District, visit www.bryantschools.org or call (501) 847-5600.
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.