Clerics: Return Little Rock School District to local control

The names of nearly two dozen church leaders are attached to a letter addressed to Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key asking him "to immediately return the Little Rock School District to control by the locally elected board that was deposed on Jan. 28, 2015."

The Monday letter says that the state Board of Education's vote to take over the district was "unjust and unilateral" and "rendered with insufficient notice or warning to remove the democratically elected LRSD." The result is a district divided from the community "at a time when community engagement is essential."

The letter also describes the signers' concerns about "continuing and increasing segregation."

"We want to know your plan to ensure excellent education for every child of LRSD," the letter says, adding that next year's 60th anniversary of the racial integration of Central High will attract national attention. "Do we want to be the object of national scorn once again?" the letter says.

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The Education Board voted to take over the district after six of the district's schools were labeled as academically distressed because more than half of students scored below proficient levels on state tests over three years. One school has since been removed from that list. Arkansas law says the administration of a district can be returned to the former school board or to a new board when the state Education Department and state Education Board determine that all issues that led to academic distress have been corrected.

The letter is from Concerned Clergy for the LRSD, and the pastors listed in the letter include the Rev. Wendell Griffen of New Millennium Church; the Rev. Britt Skarda of Pulaski Heights Methodist Church; the Rev. Marion A. Humphrey of Allison Memorial Presbyterian; the Rev. Ray Higgins of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas; the Rev. Joyce Hardy of Christ Episcopal Church; and Rabbi Eugene H. Levy, retired.

Metro on 11/29/2016

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