School check-in set for enrollees in LR
The Little Rock School District is holding school check-in this week for all students who will be attending district schools for the 2016-17 school year.
The check-in hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday and Tuesday, at the student's assigned school.
Assistance for students who do not have school assignment letters from the district is available at the district's Student Registration Office, 501 Sherman St.
Aug. 15 is the first day of school.
Sign-ups scheduled for new students
The Pulaski County Special School District is holding registration Monday through Thursday for students who are prekindergarten and kindergarten pupils and for all other students who will be new to the district.
Elementary student registration will be at the student's attendance zone school. Registration for middle and high school students will be held at registration hubs located throughout the district.
Those hubs are:
• Maumelle Middle School -- 1000 Carnahan Drive, Maumelle.
• Maumelle High School -- 100 Victory Lane, Maumelle.
• Joe T. Robinson High School -- 21501 Arkansas 10, Little Rock.
• Sylvan Hills Middle School -- 10001 Johnson St., Sherwood.
• Sylvan Hills Freshman Academy -- 10020 Bamboo Lane, North Little Rock.
• Wilbur D. Mills University Studies High School -- 1205 E. Dixon Road, Little Rock.
More information about the registration process, including various forms, is on the district's website: pcssd.org.
First-year district sets registration
The new Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District has designated 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday as the time for student registration and check-in for the 2016-17 school year.
Registration and check-in for elementary school students will be at the child's school. All middle school students will attend Jacksonville Middle School at 718 Harris Road. All high school students will attend Jacksonville High, 2400 Linda Lane.
More information, including elementary school attendance zone maps and a feature to type in a home address to find the assigned elementary school, are available on the district's website: jnpsd.org.
Judge plans hearing on transfer request
U. S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. on Friday agreed to hold an expedited hearing on a motion in the Pulaski County school desegregation case regarding a student's transfer from the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District to Cabot.
"Because school starts in two weeks, the request for expedited consideration is granted," Marshall wrote in setting the hearing time for 1 p.m. Aug. 8.
The Jacksonville/North Pulaski district last week asked Marshall to enforce the terms of a 2014 settlement agreement in the 33-year-old school desegregation lawsuit. Attorneys for the district said the state Board of Education violated the settlement agreement by voting at its July 14 meeting to allow a Jacksonville student to transfer to a district in which she does not reside.
The attorneys argued in the motion that the settlement agreement obligates the state to abide by the terms of a 2013 Arkansas Public School Choice Act. That state law permits students to transfer to districts in which they don't reside, but it also allows a district operating under a federal school desegregation order to claim an exemption to participating in interdistrict student transfers. Jacksonville/North Pulaski has claimed that exemption since it is a party in the Pulaski County desegregation case.
4 teachers named finalists for award
Four Arkansas teachers were recently selected as 2016 state finalists for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
The teachers and their schools are: Melissa Henry, Willis D. Shaw Elementary in the Springdale School District; Justin Leflar, Holt Middle School in the Fayetteville School District; Kimberly Meyer, Elza Tucker Elementary in the Rogers School District; and Amy Sandy, Sonora Elementary in the Springdale School District.
The National Science Foundation, on behalf of the White House, oversees the teacher recognition program for which 100 Arkansas teachers were nominated.
The state review committee selected Leflar as a state science finalist and Henry, Meyer, and Sandy as mathematics finalists. Arkansas' finalists are now eligible to be considered for recognition in 2017 by the national committee.
The national committee annually recommends up to 108 teachers to receive the presidential awards in math, science and computer science. Selected teachers are presented with $10,000, a presidential citation and a trip to Washington, D.C., for recognition events and professional development.
Metro on 07/31/2016