Attorneys dispute legal fee requests
The Arkansas attorney general’s office told a federal judge Friday that legal fees requested by the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District for its successful challenge to a state-approved interdistrict student transfer “are excessive” and should be scaled back.
Additionally, the state’s attorneys argued to U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. that no fees should be awarded to the attorneys for the black students known as the Joshua intervenors in the case.
“They contributed nothing of substance to the proceedings, and merely duplicated in part the efforts of Jacksonville,” Assistant Attorneys General Patrick Hollingsworth and Rosalyn Middleton wrote about the Joshua intervenors.
Marshall ruled from the bench on Aug. 8 that the state Board of Education must honor the Jacksonville district’s claim to an exemption from participating in Arkansas School Choice Act student transfers — as was envisioned as part of a January 2014 settlement agreement in the desegregation case.
The judge reversed the state Education Board’s July 14 decision to allow a student to transfer from Jacksonville, where she resided, to a Cabot School District campus.
The Jacksonville/North Pulaski district has asked Marshall to direct the state to reimburse the district for $13,224 in legal fees and costs for work in the case..
The state attorneys said Friday that the requested amount should be reduced to $8,675, reflecting a rate of $250 an hour and a reduction of nine hours in time.
The Joshua intervenors have asked for $10,087 in state-paid fees for attorneys and a paralegal.
Faculty to speak in Spa City series
The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs has announced its lineup of faculty speakers and topics for the 2016-17 Sciences and Arts Cafe lecture series.
The lectures are at 7 p.m.on the the second Thursday of each month in October through December and in February through April.
Admission is free and open to the public. Kollective Coffee & Tea, 110 Central Ave., is the host for the series.
The dates, presenters and topics are:
Oct. 13: “The Hours of Catherine Cleves Illuminated.” Liz Miller, who is the school’s head librarian, will discuss an illustrated manuscript on 15th-century life.
Nov. 10: “Country Talk.” Bryan Adams, a French instructor at the school, will explore speech patterns and idiomatic expressions in Appalachian English.
Dec. 8: “How Did Amazon Know That I Want Those Boots, and Why Did They Start Following Me Around on the Internet?” Daniel Moix, the school’s computer science education specialist, will discuss ways businesses target advertising to individuals.
Feb. 9: “How We Know What We Know — Quantum Mechanics.” Jack Waddell, the school’s physics instructor, will discuss the results of a century of brain-bending experiments.
March 9: “From Sherlock Holmes to Bones: How a 19th--Century Detective Inspires New Genres.” Mary Leigh, a humanities instructor at the school, will lead a discussion on how author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his fictional Sherlock Holmes continue to influence modern crime fiction.
April 13: “The Way of Thinking: West vs East.” Tingting Tian, a Mandarin Chinese instructor at the school and a native of China, will give participants a better understanding about the differences between Eastern and Western ways of thinking in part by comparing the English and Chinese language systems.
LR school to host
Georgian pianist
Elisso Bolkvadze, UNESCO Artist for Peace, will present a concert of solo piano music at 7 p.m. Sept. 28 at Little Rock Central High School’s Roosevelt Thompson Auditorium.
UNESCO stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. All proceeds from the concert will go toward the Arkansas Symphony Youth Ensembles and Central High School’s music department.
Bolkvadze is presented by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, which has named the Georgian pianist its Richard Sheppard Arnold Artist of Distinction.
The hourlong program at Central High School will feature music from Mozart, Schubert, Debussy, and Prokofiev.
Adult general admission tickets are $20 and student general admission tickets are $5.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.ArkansasSymphony.org or by phone at (501) 666-1761, ext.
100.
Central High School students may attend the recital for no charge, but they should reserve their complimentary ticket by calling the box office.
Bolkvadze is also featured on the opening program of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s 2016-2017 Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series later that week.