Little Rock superintendent names four schools to potentially close

Little Rock School District Superintendent Michael Poore speaks to students at Forest Park Elementary School during the school's annual Patriotic Assembly.
Little Rock School District Superintendent Michael Poore speaks to students at Forest Park Elementary School during the school's annual Patriotic Assembly.

Little Rock School District Superintendent Mike Poore outlined roughly $15.3 million in budget cuts in a news conference Thursday that include potentially closing up to three elementary schools and one preschool.

Poore broke down the recommended actions into four categories ranging from most to least desirable. Suggestions included cutting transportation services, central administrative staff and legal expenses as well as potentially shuttering four schools around the district and repurposing one of them.

Franklin Incentive Elementary School, Wilson Elementary School, the Hamilton Learning Academy and the Woodruff Early Childhood Center were the campuses mentioned by Poore that might close.

Hamilton's alternative learning program could transfer to the Wilson campus, Poore added.

Poore reported to the state board that the closures of four schools in 2017-18 could save the district up to $4.6 million, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported.

Poore also proposed converting Carver Magnet Elementary School into a preschool, saying enrollment is down from 474 students three years ago to its current level of 290 students.

All of the locations are valuable institutions that have experienced declining or depressed enrollment or are too small to be financially feasible, Poore said.

He emphasized that these closures were just proposals for consideration and urged parents to take part in the discussion process.

It is the goal of the district to get better every year, Poore said, and the cuts are a "reality" it has to face even as it tries to reach that objective.

Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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