The Little Rock School District proposes to create three early childhood-through-eighth-grade campuses, close or re-purpose five elementaries and two middle schools, and open a new ninth grade.
Superintendent Mike Poore on Tuesday put the "Community Blueprint" for use of school campuses throughout the capital city on the agenda for the Community Advisory Board's meeting Thursday for public reaction and advisory board endorsement.
The proposal could be submitted as soon as next week to Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key. Key acts as the school board for the state-controlled school district and will make the final decision on the multiyear plan for which some new funding -- through a tax increase, a bond issue or community partnerships -- will be necessary.
The blueprint comes at a time when the district is building the Southwest High School to open in August 2020 to replace the existing McClellan and J.A. Fair high schools and draw as many as 300 students from Hall High's program for English-language-learning students.
The district is also coping with year-after-year student enrollment declines. It lost 685 students between Oct. 1, 2017, and Oct. 1, 2018, although there was a 100-student increase in more recent weeks.
Poore acknowledged on Tuesday that he isn't expecting universal support for the proposal.
"There is no way you can say this is a 100 percent perfect plan. There is no way you are going to have 100 percent of the district's administration say 'I support everything,' or there is going to be 100 percent of staff or of parents say that they believe in it.
"But this plan, in my opinion, does move forward our entire district," Poore said.
Early Tuesday evening, Key commended district administrators "for their work in creating this road map to improved academic facilities for students in the district."
He said he was looking forward to getting feedback from the Community Advisory Board.
"The Community Blueprint addresses a combination of long-standing needs such as the growing demand for PreK and the replacement of the Cloverdale campus, emerging needs in high-growth areas of Little Rock served by the Pinnacle View campus, and effective repurposing of facilities like the McClellan and J.A. Fair campuses," Key said in an email.
The terms of the proposed facilities plan include converting McClellan and J.A. Fair into kindergarten-through-eighth grade schools.
The rebuilt McClellan would replace Cloverdale Middle, and Baseline and Meadowcliff elementaries, at a possible cost of under $50 million, but construction would not begin until 2020 at the earliest. Baseline is proposed as a pre-kindergarten center. A purpose for Meadowcliff would require further study.
Fair would replace three schools: Henderson Middle, and David O. Dodd and Romine elementaries. A birth-to-pre-kindergarten center is proposed for Romine. Feasibility studies would be done on uses for Henderson as a possible city sports complex and for Dodd as an English as a second language center for all ages in partnership with the Mexican Consulate.
In regard to Hall High, the proposal calls for furthering plans for science and medical career education programs, making attendance zone boundary changes, and developing greater ties between Hall and Forest Heights STEM Academy -- which serves kindergarten through eighth grade.
The proposal calls for adding a ninth grade to the district's newest school, Pinnacle View Middle School -- short of a traditional high school that is desired by some community members who have lobbied for it.
Poore said Tuesday that the ninth grade would be added in the 2019-20 school year -- a year before any other school changes are made.
But, as for plans for additional high school grades, Poore said the district is obligated by a September 2017 settlement in a federal racial-bias case to address the southwest part of the district -- where the new high school and reconfigured McClellan campus are located -- and put a moratorium on other construction projects and expansions.
The lawsuit was referred to as the "Doe case" because some of the parent and student plaintiffs initially used the name Doe instead of their real names. The Doe attorneys -- including Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock -- had argued that the district "had allocated high quality educational programs and top-end facilities to disproportionately white student populations in an effort to privilege, recruit and retain white students."
"The time frame for adding any additional high schools is quite a complex and lengthy process," the blueprint proposal states. "LRSD will continue research and conversations to develop a more workable plan for the western region and put emphasis on addressing middle school growth challenges and boosting Hall High renaissance."
Still another part of the district's blueprint proposal calls for pairing Bale Elementary and the former Hamilton/Southwest Middle School into a dual language, infant-to-eighth grade complex at a cost of about $25 million.
Infants to third grade would be housed in the Bale building, and the fourth through eighth graders would be located in the adjoining former Southwest Middle School. A science and technology emphasis would be part of the curriculum in the upper grades.
In downtown and east Little Rock, the district proposes converting Rockefeller Elementary into a birth through pre-kindergarten center. Elementary pupils who would have gone to Rockefeller would instead be assigned to Washington Elementary, which might feature a dual language program.
Additionally, the plan calls for beefing up the science and arts programs at Booker Arts Magnet and Carver Math-Science Magnet elementaries.
Part of the plan for the downtown and east Little Rock area is to promote a message of "Birth all the way to Central High," according to the plan.
Poore said at a news conference earlier Tuesday that the new Southwest High School creates "a domino opportunity for remodeling and revitalizing other areas in our district."
To that end, Poore and his staff in September held five public forums across the district to present a menu of options for addressing the district's building needs and to solicit alternative proposals. The forums were followed by an online survey of the community, including parents, employees and community members.
Poore said all that information, which is available for public viewing on the district's website, fed into the development of the proposal announced Tuesday.
In developing the proposal, the district's goals are to improve academics in the district, enhance school choices for parents and students, and generate savings and even new revenue in district operations as a way to provide employee pay increases.
Savings could be the result of consolidating or closing schools and eliminating duplicate principal, counselor, and media specialist jobs. Closing an elementary campus could save about $800,000, while closing a middle school would save $1.5 million.
Charging families tuition on a sliding fee schedule based on family income for the district's ever-expanding pre-kindergarten program is under consideration as a revenue source, Poore said. The decades-old pre-kindergarten program -- started in large part as a way to encourage voluntary racial desegregation of students in district schools -- has been free to families regardless of their income.
Poore described the next steps for the proposal, which include presenting the proposal to the district's Community Advisory Board at its 5:30 p.m. meeting Thursday at Metropolitan Career Technical Center, 7701 Scott Hamilton Drive. Individual members of the public will be given up to three minutes each at the open meeting to respond to their views about the blueprint plan.
"When the public forum is complete, the Community Advisory Board will take it up as a matter of their own discussion ... and ultimately vote on the seven different areas that make up our blueprint," Poore said about the plans for the meeting.
After the advisory board meeting, the district will make a survey available to all members of the public on the different parts of the proposal. The survey will run through the evening of Wednesday, Dec. 19.
"All this information will be provided to our commissioner," Poore said. "He will receive his packet next week at the conclusion of the survey. On [Dec. 20], we plan to present to the commissioner the recommendation, along with all the supporting information and the feedback received at the Community Advisory Board meeting and through the survey that was conducted."
A Section on 12/12/2018