This year's North Little Rock School Board election, which will feature one uncontested candidate for a board seat and no proposed change in the district's 48.3-mill tax rate, will be conducted through early and absentee voting.
No polling sites will be open on election day, Sept. 19, as the result of a unanimous vote of the School Board.
The board approved that resolution at a meeting in which they also privately conducted a midyear review of the progress made by Superintendent Kelly Rodgers on a "professional growth plan" instituted earlier this year.
Arkansas law permits school districts, by a vote of their school boards, to forgo the expense of opening polling places if there are no contested seats and no proposed tax rate changes.
Sandi Campbell, who filed earlier this month as a candidate for re-election to the board's open Zone 6 position, drew no opposition.
In an unusual turn of events, the district's Zone 5 seat, currently held by 12-year board veteran Scott Teague, drew no candidates at all. As a result, by law, Teague is allowed to continue to hold the seat for another three-year term.
However, Teague said Thursday that he intends to resign from the board after the board's September meeting. At that point, the remaining board members are authorized to appoint someone to fill the vacancy. The appointee would serve until the next school election in September 2018, at which point the appointee could only continue to serve if elected by voters.
North Little Rock School Board terms are for three years and are unpaid.
Regarding Rodgers and the midyear professional growth plan review, the board took no action on the superintendent or his employment terms after reopening the meeting to the public Thursday night.
Provisions of the superintendent's growth plan call for a 10 percent districtwide increase in student test scores, a balanced budget that takes into account the loss of state desegregation aid after this school year, pursuit of alternative revenue sources and the development of a three-to-five-year strategic plan of operations.
Rodgers' current contract expires on June 30, 2019. By law, an Arkansas superintendent can have a contract of up to three years. It is not unusual for school boards to extend a superintendent's contract after the completion of each work year so the chief executive has the security of a three-year contract. Failure by a board to annually extend the contract can be viewed as a sign of dissatisfaction with the chief executive -- absent extenuating circumstances such as a planned retirement.
Metro on 07/21/2017