Dozens of Carver Magnet Elementary parents who were eager to save the school from closure next year turned out Wednesday for the Little Rock School District's first of seven community meetings to share ideas on budget cuts.
About 200 parents, community members and district employees attended the session at the Dunbar Community Center, where Superintendent Mike Poore recapped tentative plans that he announced last week for cutting more than $10 million in district expenses.
Cuts are necessary next year, he said, to complete the district's multiyear efforts to prepare for the scheduled loss of $37.3 million a year in special state desegregation aid. The annual desegregation aid, which constitutes more than 10 percent of the district's $300 million annual budget, will end after the 2017-18 school year.
Closing or repurposing as many as five schools would save the district about $5.6 million, Poore told the crowd.
In addition to Carver, the Franklin and Wilson elementary schools, Woodruff Early Childhood Education Center and Hamilton Learning Academy are proposed for closing or for being used in other ways. Carver is proposed for conversion into an early childhood education center for 3- and 4-year-olds.
"If we are serious about attacking the achievement gap, we need to be advocates for early childhood education," Poore told the crowd. The district serves more than 1,000 pre-kindergarten children at campuses throughout the city.
Carver's older pupils, under the budget-cutting proposal, would be reassigned to other downtown schools such as Washington Elementary, Gibbs Magnet Elementary or Booker Magnet Elementary. Poore suggested that Booker, now a performing arts school for kindergarten through fifth grades be expanded to include sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, which could help stem the annual loss of middle school students out of the district.
The east and downtown section of the Little Rock district have experienced a 46 percent decline in elementary school age pupils since 2000, Poore said. And the district has lost more than 300 students just since the 2015-16 school year. Districtwide, there are 2,300 vacant elementary school seats -- not counting seats in portable classroom buildings at several schools, he said.
The preliminary budget plans call for housing a component of the Hamilton Learning Academy program at what is now Wilson Elementary. Hamilton, which has 86 students right now, is a former junior high that could be paired with neighboring Bale Elementary to form a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade complex, Poore said. He also suggested that McClellan High School be made a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school once its high school students are moved to a yet-to-be-built high school in southwest Little Rock.
In addition to closing some campuses, other preliminary plans are to cut school bus transportation costs by about $2.8 million, reduce district administrative and support staff costs by $1 million, and cut legal expenses by $100,000. As much as $3 million could be saved by increasing class sizes at the middle and high schools, and cutting teacher stipends for lunchroom and bus supervision duties.
Despite a few objections from people who wanted to speak out to Poore and the assembled crowd, Poore directed audience members to work in small groups to put into writing their questions, concerns and alternative ideas for the budget cuts.
Kimberly Martin, president of the Carver Parent Teacher Association, and other Carver parents sat at a table with Washington Principal Katherine Snyder. The parents questioned why the district would choose to close Carver when it has a record of higher academic achievement than other schools.
They also questioned why the school, which has lost enrollment and staffing, couldn't accommodate an expanded early childhood program in conjunction with the elementary grades. They suggested that Booker -- an older building -- be considered for closure instead of Carver, or that the math and science specialty program at Carver be moved to and enhanced at another campus.
They also suggested extending the yearly two-week school registration period by several weeks into late March as a way to attract and enroll new families.
In an interview, Martin said she hoped that efforts can continue to preserve Carver.
"I hope we can still work on it. We want our opinions to be heard," she said. "We don't want 'This is it; this is how it's going to be.'"
Additional community meetings -- all of which will be from 6-7 p.m. -- are scheduled for the following dates and locations:
• Nov. 14, Stephens Community Center, 3720 18th St.
• Nov. 16, Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, 4823 Woodlawn Drive.
• Nov. 28, Fulbright Elementary School, 300 Pleasant Valley Drive.
• Nov. 29, Henderson Middle School, 401 John Barrow Road.
• Dec. 1, Greater Second Baptist Church, 5615 Geyer Springs Road.
• Dec. 6, Southwest Community Center, 6401 Baseline Road.
District leaders also have reserved dates in January for public forums in the communities in which schools are recommended for closure -- should there be such recommendations.
Ultimately, decisions on budget cuts will be made by Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key, who acts as the school board in the district that was taken over by the state in January 2015 because six of its schools were classified as academically distressed for low student achievement on state math and literacy tests.
Metro on 11/10/2016