Applicants sought for advisory board
The Arkansas Department of Education is seeking applications for positions on a new Community Advisory Board in the state-controlled Little Rock School District.
The application is available online at http://1.usa.gov/1XD8Di3. The application deadline is June 17.
Local legislators also are asked to submit nominations for the board membership by today.
Nominees will be asked to submit online applications.
The Arkansas Board of Education will hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. June 27 in the state Department of Education auditorium so the public can hear from each candidate.
The Education Department is at 4 Capitol Mall in Little Rock. The meeting will also be live-streamed, recorded and posted on the Education Department's website.
Education Commissioner Johnny Key will review the applications and select members by school board election zones. The membership will be presented to the Education Board at its July 14 meeting.
Arkansas Code Annotated 6-15-430 authorizes the state education commissioner -- with the approval of the Board of Education -- to appoint a community advisory board for an academically distressed district if it is determined that the district is making sufficient progress toward correcting its problems but still has unresolved issues.
The new advisory board of no more than seven members will likely replace the existing 30-member Civic Advisory Committee of community representatives, teachers and students that was created by the Education Board in January 2015.
That was when the Education Board voted to take over the district and dismiss its elected school board because six of the district's 48 schools were classified by the state as academically distressed. The classification was attributed to chronically low student test scores.
Career-ed director given Star award
Charisse Childers, director of the Arkansas Department of Career Education since January 2015, has been presented with the 2016 Star of Education, Rising Star award by the nonprofit Advance Career Technical Education: State Leaders Connecting Learning to Work organization.
The honor is given to state career and technical education directors who display dedication to and engagement with the goals and overall mission of Advance Career Technical Education, which was started in 1920 and represents state leaders responsible for secondary, postsecondary and adult career technical education in the 50 states and U.S. territories.
In her first year as leader of the state agency, Childers worked to support passage of Act 892 of 2015, which is intended to better align workforce development programs with the skills needed by employers.
She also directs almost 600 employees; supports a 21-member, industry-led board; and oversees workforce training grants, adult education and rehabilitation services in the state.
Previously, Childers worked for 8½ years as the executive director of Accelerate Arkansas, an organization dedicated to building Arkansas' knowledge-based economy. She was also a career technical education teacher for six years and was director of the College Now Program.
Stakeholder group sets first meeting
The state's newly appointed Little Rock Area Public Education Stakeholder Group will meet for the first time from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday at the Arkansas Department of Education at 4 Capitol Mall in Little Rock.
The stakeholder group was created by the state Board of Education in April to select and facilitate the work of a consultant/research group that will recommend ways to generate collaboration between traditional and charter public schools in Pulaski County south of the Arkansas River.
Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key and state Education Board Chairman Toyce Newton of Crossett selected the members of the stakeholder group.
The previously announced members are Tommy Branch, Tamika Edwards, Ann Brown Marshall, Jim McKenzie, Antwan Phillips, Leticia Reta and Dianna Varady.
The group will "identify data questions, define key terms and set measurement parameters that must be addressed by the research facilitator," according to a news release.
The group will also prepare a written quarterly report to the state Education Board.
The group meetings will be open to the public.
They also will be live-streamed, recorded and posted on the state Education Department website.
Metro on 05/31/2016