Arkansas Education Board member Jay Barth said Wednesday that his efforts in recent days to get state leaders to agree to "a date certain" for returning control of the Little Rock School District to an elected school board were unsuccessful.
Barth, of Little Rock, had placed on the agenda for the Education Board's April 13 meeting consideration of action regarding the Little Rock School District, which has been operating under state control and without an elected school board since January 2015. That's because six of the district's 48 schools were labeled by the state as being in academic distress -- the result of chronically low student scores on state tests. That number has since been reduced to three schools.
Barth said late Wednesday that he had been hopeful of reaching an agreement regarding a return of the district to local control but he had learned earlier in the day that the Arkansas Department of Education and Gov. Asa Hutchinson's office were not in support.
He said he didn't know what he will do about the agenda item but it is possible that he would withdraw it.
Barth said he was motivated to push for a school board election date as a way to give residents in the state's largest school system "some clarity about the future" before a May 9 special election on extending 12.4 property tax mills by 14 years.
In a statement released by the Education Department on Wednesday night, Commissioner Johnny Key said he understands Barth's thoughts on how setting a specific date to return the district to local control could help the vote.
"At the same time I have the utmost confidence in the ability of [district Superintendent Mike] Poore to express the facility needs of the district, as well as our joint commitment to southwest Little Rock for the new high school and upgrades to the McClellan [High School] campus. As he shares the facility needs and the vision for addressing those needs, I believe the debt extension will stand on its own merits," Key said in the statement.
"As a separate issue, the return of local control remains a top priority, and ADE will continue working with Mr. Poore and the LRSD team to address the needs of academic improvement."
If approved, the extended mills would finance about $160 million for the construction of a new high school in southwest Little Rock, the overhaul of the McClellan High campus and updates to most other campuses. The mills are to expire in 2033, but, if the proposal is approved, their expiration would be extended to 2047.
"I very much want the vote on the millage extension to be successful," Barth said. "I think it is the responsible thing to happen for the district to move forward. But I also know that there must be some clarity about the future of the district and when the patrons of the district will begin to have a voice in decision making, before many are going to be comfortable casting [a favorable] vote."
He had hoped to reach an agreement by the Education Board's meeting date.
"It appears that the governor's office and the commissioner are in a decidedly different place about any certainty on when a school board election would take place," he said.
"I've got to really figure out where the will of the board is and what I can do to move that forward. Right now it appears that in all likelihood I won't be in a spot to offer anything at this meeting," he said and then added, "But things could change between now and then."
State law and rules regarding the release of a school district from state control call for the Education Department to certify that a district has corrected all the deficiencies that resulted in the takeover for academic distress and for a majority of the state board members to vote to approve the district's release.
Barth said "it is very clear" the state Education Board can act on its own to release a district, but he also said he is not confident that he could get the necessary votes on the nine-member board for release of the Little Rock district.
There are organized campaigns both for and against the extension of the 12.4 debt service mills, which are a part of the overall 46.4 mill property tax rate in the Little Rock district.
Jim Ross, who was a member of the Little Rock School Board at the time it was disbanded by the state Board of Education, is a part of the No Taxation Without Representation campaign that is opposed to the extended tax levy.
Ross -- while supportive of a return to a local school board -- was critical Wednesday of Barth's efforts to get an election date for a school board as a way to build support for the millage extension. Ross called that "a really cynical political move."
"Mr. Barth is an outsider trying to tell us what to do," Ross said. He also said the district is facing a "serious revenue shortage" because of the loss and potential loss of district students to state-approved charter schools located in the city.
"What we don't need to be doing is adding to our debt," Ross said. "We don't need to be paying off an exorbitant amount of interest to bond companies."
He said the school district needs an elected board that can provide a vision and a plan for the operation of the district and its buildings. He said the district is currently generating as much as $26 million a year more than it needs to pay its current bond debt and that the annual surplus could be saved up for construction and renovation projects.
Arkansas school districts -- including the Little Rock district -- typically commit surplus debt-service revenue to supplement operating expenses, which include employee salaries and utility costs.
"As a taxpayer, right now I see no reason to trust anybody at the state level or at the district level," Ross said in opposing the millage extension. "I have zero trust in their ability to take care of the kids we need to take care of and to take care of the buildings we need to take care of.
"We have to say no to this thing. ... We all want new buildings. We can do it without this bond. We can do it. We don't need outsiders telling us what to do. We had a perfectly fine board made up of majority African-Americans, and that's what [we] need to go back to immediately."
Metro on 04/06/2017