Panel gives Little Rock charter school April deadline to make fixes

Rockbridge Montessori School, a 2-year-old taxpayer-supported charter school in Little Rock, has until the middle of April to show management improvements that are necessary if the school is to avoid closure.

The state's Charter Authorizing Panel on Wednesday voted 4-2 to table any action on the 150-pupil elementary school at 108 W. Roosevelt Road until the panel meets April 19. At that time panel members -- who are top level staff members at the Arkansas Department of Education -- will review the school's newly completed financial audit and other information including a plan of corrective action, and reports on student counts, special-education services and compliance with the state's school accreditation standards before deciding how to proceed.

An initial motion Wednesday called for the revocation of Rockbridge's state-issued charter, effective at the end of this school year, but that motion was defeated in a 2-4 vote.

The state charter panel did a review of the Rockbridge school at a meeting in which it also voted to review at its April session the Covenant Keeper's College Preparatory Academy charter school in Little Rock for possible revocation of its charter for long-term academic distress.

In still other action the panel on Wednesday voted to support an amendment to the charter for SIATech-Little Rock, a second-chance high school, that will enable that charter school to hold classes just four days a week -- making it the state's only public school with a four-day week.

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All the decisions of the Charter Authorizing Panel on school charters are subject to a review by the Arkansas Board of Education, which can accept a panel's decision or choose to conduct its own hearing on a charter plan before making a final decision on it. Any decision that the Charter Authorizing Panel makes on the Rockbridge and Covenant Keepers schools at the April 19 meeting will go to the state Education Board in May. If the Education Board chooses to do its own review on one or both schools, the reviews would be done no sooner than the Education Board's June meeting.

The management problems at Rockbridge Montessori School came to the attention of the charter panel after the state Education Department's staff determined that the school had lost its full-time special-education teacher in October, and the prolonged vacancy was jeopardizing services that are required by state and federal law for pupils who have individualized education plans.

"I do think this is a good option for kids, and that kids can benefit," Ivy Pfeffer, the Education Department's assistant commissioner for human resources and licensure, said about the public Montessori program, one of two in the state.

"That's why I made the motion to give them a little bit of time, but I also said I won't be patient for very long," Pfeffer continued. "Without leadership -- and we're not seeing strong leadership today -- it's going to be very difficult to vote to continue forward. This is a chance for them to do a gut check and turn it around."

Stephen Nuckols, superintendent and principal at Rockbridge, presented the panel with a timeline explaining the changes in leadership at the school that leases space in St. John Baptist Church.

The first head of the school left the job in October 2015 and was succeeded by Shannon Nuckols. But Shannon Nuckols returned to full-time teaching at the end of the 2015-16 school year, about the same time that the school's student data and bookkeeper left to return to a former job. In July 2016, Sarah Gober was employed as head of school and Shannon Nuckols' husband, Stephen Nuckols, was hired as a classroom teacher.

When the school opened last August with 50 fewer students than expected, the school did not attempt to replace the bookkeeper. Stephen Nuckols took on the record-keeping responsibilities instead of teaching. By December, Stephen Nuckols was made head of school so that Gober could cover for the loss of special-education staff members although she isn't a licensed special-education teacher and had to acquire a state-approved plan for taking courses and acquiring that license over time. Gober is currently being assisted in that work, including the scheduling of parent conferences and maintaining the necessary paperwork, by a consulting special-education teacher who is a full-time employee at another school but has interest in working for Rockbridge in the future.

Panel members questioned whether the school had requested and received necessary approval from the Education Department that would allow Stephen and Shannon Nuckols to work in a situation where one is the employer and supervisor of the other.

Panel members also expressed alarm that neither Stephen Nuckols nor Gober had undergone school district finance training as required for school leaders by Arkansas Code Annotated 6-20-2204. Failure to receive that training can contribute to a school system being classified by the state as fiscally distressed. The fiscal-distress label can result in a school system having to carry out a financial improvement plan and submit all of its expenses to the state for approval.

Charter panel member Greg Rogers, the state's assistant commissioner for fiscal and administrative services, questioned the school leaders about their rent and other expenses, and said that without this week's distribution of a $57,000 federal charter school grant, he didn't see how the system could finish the school year in the black. A financial consultant to the school said the school is projected to end the school year with about $92,000.

Roy Albert and John Ciak, two new members of the school's board of directors, told the panel that they recognize the school's problems but don't see the issues as being insurmountable.

Arkansas Education Deputy Commissioner Mark Gotcher made the unsuccessful motion for revoking the Rockbridge charter, saying that he wanted to give families adequate time to make new school selections for the next school year, and that he believed the school has had adequate time up to now to respond to the state's concerns.

The Charter Authorizing Panel voted to review the charter for the 162-student Covenant Keepers Charter School in response to a request from the state Board of Education after that board last week classified the sixth- through eighth-grade school as being in academic distress for the fourth consecutive year.

The distress label is applied to schools in which less than 49.5 percent of students score at proficient rates on state math and literacy exams over a three-year span.

Valerie Tatum, founder and superintendent of Covenant Keepers, said she hoped to delay any kind of panel review until after students take the next round of state-required tests later this spring.

"We certainly don't have a problem reporting. We have been here [for reviews] before," Tatum said in an interview. "It's uncomfortable, but we are going to finish strong. We are going to make sure we have a big win in July when the new test scores come out."

The Charter Authorizing Panel voted unanimously to support a proposal from SIATech-Little Rock, a dropout recovery charter school in the southwestern part of the city, to operate a four-day school week, with extended instructional time scheduled for Tuesdays and Thursdays to make up for no classes on Fridays.

Katie Hatley Tatum, the head of the school, told the panel that she expects the four-day school weeks to improve student attendance in the program, and allow students to work or take care of their other obligations on Fridays.

SIATech stands for School for Integrated Academics and Technologies. It is part of a national network.

Metro on 03/16/2017

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