Poore's budget outline includes fewer schools

Little Rock School District Superintendent Mike Poore broadly outlined $15.3 million in potential budget cuts Thursday that include the closure of up to four campuses, and suggested holding a 2017 election on extending property-tax mills to raise more money for construction.

Poore and his staff made a 2½-hour presentation to the Arkansas Board of Education, touching on possible budget cuts, campus construction, the "Achieve Team" effort to raise student achievement at particular schools, and other academic initiatives.

The presentation was Poore's first to the Education Board since becoming superintendent of the state-controlled district on July 1. The board took over the Little Rock School District in January 2015 because six of its 48 schools at that time had been labeled as academically distressed by the state. One of those schools has since dropped off the distress list.

Poore called the presentation a blend of "celebrations" and "challenges" in the district, and it was the first in which he publicly listed possible budget cuts for the 2017-18 school year. He identified $15.3 million in options from which about $11.5 million will be selected as soon as January to take effect in July.

The cuts are in addition to $2.7 million made in the budget for 2014-15, $18.2 million for 2015-16, and $9.3 million for this year in anticipation of the loss of $37.3 million in annual state desegregation aid. That special funding will end after the 2017-18 school year and are the result of a January 2014 settlement agreement in a 33-year-old federal Pulaski County school desegregation lawsuit.

Closing four schools -- which are to be identified by a "utilization committee" of parents and district staff members after a review of data and programs on each school -- would generate the most savings -- $4.7 million. The committee will look at immediate building needs and what will happen over the next three to five years.

"We are going to have to allow people to have input and provide feedback in terms of the school utilization process," Poore said. "I've gone through that before. That was one of the most challenging things and I never thought I would have to go back to that. In Colorado Springs we had to close nine schools all in one fell swoop," said the former Colorado school administrator said. "It was awful, and this won't be easy either."

Whether student opportunities will be enhanced needs to be a consideration in the school-closings discussion, he said.

Other proposals for potential savings suggested by Poore are:

• Reduce staffing, particularly at middle and high schools, $3 million.

• Eliminate majority-to-minority interdistrict student transfer bus transportation, $1.2 million.

• Restructure school bus transportation service within the district, $1.6 million.

• Reduce or eliminate employee stipends for credentials, such as certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards; $724,000.

• Reduce the district contribution to employee health insurance premiums to $225 a month, $1.9 million.

• Contract with private companies for custodial and food services, $1 million.

• Reduce central office administration and support staffing, $1 million.

• Reduce legal expenditures by hiring an in-house attorney, $100,000.

Poore told the Education Board that he and his staff will now seek advice and feedback from parents, staff members and community members about those and other areas for budget cuts.

A part of the discussions will be planning for a proposed new high school in southwest Little Rock to replace McClellan and J.A. Fair. Preliminary planning for the new 2,250-student school on 55 acres between Mann Road and Mabelvale Pike is underway.

Poore said the district historically has not adequately addressed facility matters. He said the utility costs for Stephens Elementary exceed that for Central High School, and that other schools have leaky roofs and inadequate heating and air conditioning in kitchens and gymnasiums.

He noted that the district's former elected school board had planned to ask voters for an increase in the district's 46.4 mill property-tax rate to address building needs, particularly in southwest Little Rock schools, before that board was dissolved by the state.

Poore suggested that the district seek voter approval next year -- maybe in February -- of an extension of already approved 12.4 mills to finance construction projects, including the southwest high school, and repairs at other campuses.

He said converting a former office building warehouse into the Pinnacle View Middle School and constructing a new high school will exceed earlier projected costs.

"This is not a new tax," he said of the mills.

Kelsey Bailey, the district's chief financial officer, said in an interview that the district could finance as much as $160 million in bonds by extending the property tax mills by 14 years. That would increase the district's annual debt service payment on bonds from $14 million a year to about $21 million a year.

Bailey said the middle school renovation is expected to cost about $34 million, and construction and furnishings for a new high school will approach $100 million.

Any decision on a tax election would be up to Education Commissioner Johnny Key, who acts as the school board for the state-controlled district.

Education Board members expressed some reservations about asking voters to extend the tax mills.

Board member Jay Barth of Little Rock said the southwest Little Rock and Pinnacle View Middle School projects are supposed to be done almost simultaneously, and that tying the high school to the election outcome is "worrisome" because it might be viewed as a broken promise.

"The loss of the vote would be devastating to the psyche of the district," Barth said, adding that it would be better to tie the millage vote to an election for members to a restored the Little Rock School Board.

Poore said that in his community walks and forums, he hears very little about the loss of a locally elected board. Instead, parents want to know how students can be better served.

Board member Susan Chambers of Bella Vista complimented Poore, who previously was superintendent in the Bentonville School District, for his efforts.

Those efforts include developing student career programs in teaching, construction, medical fields and technology, as well as an emphasis on providing concurrent college credit opportunities for high school students.

At the middle school level, district leaders are seeking to make education more relevant to students by pairing schools with community partners such as the Little Rock Zoo, Heifer Project International, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and First Security Bank.

Education Board member Ouida Newton of Poyen told Poore that she was impressed with his Achievement Team approach to improving student performance at the district's most academically troubled schools.

That strategy calls for school leaders to meet with district and state officials to identify the barriers to success that they face and to get assurances for specific kinds of help, be it new Chromebooks computers for students at Henderson Middle School or a particular type of staff training.

Education Board Chairman Mireya Reith of Fayetteville cautioned Poore and his staff about funneling high school students, who are two or more years behind in achievement, into career fields, shutting them out of college preparation courses.

"I want them to be college- and career-ready," she said.

NW News on 10/16/2016

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