The superintendent of the Deer/Mount Judea School District in Newton County was suspended with pay Monday and an interim superintendent was hired while the district looks for a replacement.
Sharon Pierce of Mount Judea, president of the School Board, said it was time for a change. She said former Superintendent Richard Denniston hadn't done anything wrong in particular, but the district wanted someone who would work harder to keep students in the district.
"We're trying to save our school," Pierce said. "He didn't go out and do anything horrible. We just didn't feel like he was going in the right direction. We didn't give him a particular reason. We didn't have to, and we didn't want to. It's just time."
Deer and Mount Judea are 22 miles apart in an area just south of the Buffalo National River. The School District, which is in the Ozark Mountains, maintains campuses in both towns.
The district has struggled to keep enrollment at more than 350. Districts with fewer than 350 are deemed by the state as too small to guarantee an adequate education. Those districts can either voluntarily merge with another district or be forced by the Arkansas Board of Education.
In 2010, the district filed a lawsuit saying geographically isolated districts weren't receiving enough state money to provide an adequate education. On June 7, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza ruled against the district on all counts.
"Deer/Mount Judea is already receiving one of the highest amounts of special needs isolated funding and has not shown evidence of how or why the current funding is not sufficient to provide an adequate education," Piazza wrote. "Therefore, this issue does not create a constitutional infringement."
The judge noted the Deer/Mount Judea superintendent's salary of $333 per student was 95 percent higher than at comparable districts.
The district has 30 days to file an appeal.
Pierce said students who could attend the Deer/Mount Judea schools sometimes decide to go elsewhere because they fear it's a "sinking ship," meaning the district will be dissolved.
"We're still losing kids," she said. "We've always given them a quality education, I feel like. We want to give them a little more so they'll want to stay."
The Deer and Mount Judea districts were consolidated in 2004, and Denniston has been superintendent since, Pierce said. Before that, he worked for the Deer School District.
Pierce said the School Board will pay Denniston for the remainder of his contract, which ends June 30, 2017.
The board hired Kerry Saylors as interim superintendent. He'll work in that job until July 31 while the board looks for a permanent superintendent.
Saylors is a former superintendent of the Jasper School District in Newton County. He's the Oden High School basketball coach in Montgomery County and plans to return to that job in August.
Pierce said Saylors went to work Tuesday for the Deer-Mount Judea School District.
"He really jumped right in to save us," she said. "He's been going around town trying to help us get our ducks in a row."
Pierce said Saylors will help the district find a superintendent.
Neither Denniston nor Saylors returned messages left for them Wednesday.
NW News on 06/23/2016