More than two dozen applicants for the new Community Advisory Board for the state-controlled Little Rock School District on Monday described their reasons for wanting to serve and their plans for building public support of the school system.
Different applicants told the Arkansas Board of Education and an audience viewing the live streaming of the Education Board's work session that, as advisory board members, they would be conduits, game-changers, advocates, a clean slate, historical and educational resources and just good listeners for parents and students of all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds.
A Community Advisory Board is authorized by state law for a school district that has been taken over by the state for academic or fiscal distress and has made progress in correcting some, but not all, of the problems that led to the distress classification. The Little Rock district was taken over by the state Education Board and its elected School Board dismissed in January 2015 because six of its 48 schools were labeled by the state as academically distressed as the result of chronically low student test scores.
The legally described duties of a Community Advisory Board are: to meet monthly in public with the superintendent regarding the progress of the schools and district; to conduct hearings and make recommendations to the state education commissioner on student and employee discipline matters; to seek input from district residents regarding academic distress concerns; and to submit quarterly reports to the Arkansas education commissioner and state Board of Education.
The applicants for the Little Rock board, each of whom had three minutes to speak, said Monday they would draw on their experiences as parents, former students, district employees and community leaders -- even as former Little Rock School Board members -- if they are selected by Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key and the Education Board for the seven slots on the advisory board.
"I feel a little like a bad penny for this board; you've sent me away twice," applicant Greg Adams told the Education Board to laughter. He was referring to the fact that he was on the Little Rock School Board when it was dismissed and then was co-chairman of the now defunct Civic Advisory Committee, an advisory committee formed by the Education Board before this new advisory board. Adams said his past experiences may be what Key and the Education Board need on the new advisory board.
"I wanted to put my name into this because I wanted you ... to have the choice ... if what I bring to the table is what you need as you put together as strong a group as possible in this very important time and to help a brand new superintendent," Adams said.
Adams is one of seven applicants from the district's Zone 4, representing the northwest section of the district.
Another in that group is Eugene Levy, a retired rabbi who also served on the Civic Advisory Committee and said he had come to believe that "trust and transparency are just around the corner" in the district.
Mac Bell, another from Zone 4, called for a stronger system of neighborhood elementary schools, instead of attendance zones dictated by a federal lawsuit in which the district is no longer a party. He also called for one school district south of the Arkansas River to promote community unity and generate a greater property tax base. He said objective data are available to put the district on the path to excellence but "it needs to be used as a mirror and not a sword."
Doug Wood, also of Zone 4, said he could bring a level of diplomacy to calm the rhetoric of recent months and offer assurances that what has happened in the district in regard to the state takeover "is legal and needed to improve our schools. When 60 percent of the high schools are in academic distress, something needs to happen."
The other zone seats attracted two to five applicants each.
Barclay Key, of Zone 1 in downtown and east Little Rock, a district parent and history professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, wrote a letter saying he chose not to attend the work session so as to avoid "lend[ing] legitimacy to a process that is nothing more than political theater. The values of the people who are now in control of the Little Rock School District are completely antithetical to mine, so I'm not about to grovel for a meaningless position," he said.
Barclay Key was a plaintiff in an unsuccessful Pulaski County Circuit Court lawsuit that challenged the January 2015 state takeover of the Little Rock School District and sought to preserve the School Board that existed at the time.
In his letter he proposed "educational reparations" for graduates of the district's J.A. Fair, Hall and McClellan high schools, which are all labeled as academically distressed schools. Those reparations would include full scholarships to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for every graduate of those schools who wants a college degree.
Robert Webb from Zone 2, encompassing the city's midtown, called for greater emphasis on serving the "whole child" and providing wrap-around services for students and their families as a way to promote academic success.
Candidates Maria Chavarria-Garcia from Zone 2 and Soreya DeGonzalez from Zone 7 in the southwest part of the city urged that the needs of Hispanic families be a consideration when appointing advisory board members.
District teachers Chandle Carpenter and Tippi McCullough, both from Zone 3 in the north central part of the city, offered their services as knowledgeable, experienced educators.
Johnny Key said he doesn't have a metric or rubric for selecting the committee but will strive to form a team that is made up of a cross section of experiences and backgrounds. He will make his recommendations to the Education Board at its July 15 meeting.
Metro on 06/28/2016