Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key has approved a Little Rock School District plan to close, combine, expand or repurpose about a dozen of the city's campuses over the next few years.
The district's Blueprint Facilities Plan is partially dependent upon the district finding revenue sources. It is intended to make more efficient a school system that is opening the new Southwest High in August 2020 to replace two existing schools while coping with the loss of hundreds of students per year in kindergarten through 12th grades.
The district enrollment dropped by 743 students to 21,595 in kindergarten through 12th grades between the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years. That doesn't count pre-kindergarten pupils.
Components of the facility plan include converting the existing McClellan and J.A. Fair high schools into kindergarten through eighth-grade campuses -- resulting in the closure of Cloverdale and Henderson middle schools and four elementaries: Baseline, Meadowcliff, David O. Dodd and Romine.
The plan also calls for the conversion of Rockefeller Elementary on the city's east side into a building-wide early childhood education center, with older children in the Rockefeller area being reassigned to Washington Elementary. In the city's mid-town area, Bale Elementary would be paired with the adjoining but the currently vacant Southwest Junior High to become an early childhood-through-eighth-grade complex.
The facilities plan, which was the topic of five public forums earlier this school year, calls for adding a ninth grade for the 2019-20 school year to what is now the sixth-through-eighth-grade Pinnacle View Middle School in growing northwest Little Rock.
Critics of the facilities plan argued at those forums that nearly all the schools scheduled for closure or repurposing are south of Interstate 630, placing a burden of changing schools on lower-income families concentrated in the area. Henderson Middle, on the northern edge of I-630, is the exception. Hall High and Pinnacle View are also north of the interstate, but they are not being closed.
Key approved the Little Rock facilities plan in his capacity as the acting school board in the district, which has operated for four years under state control with a state-appointed superintendent -- Mike Poore -- and no locally elected school board.
The district does have a state-appointed Community Advisory Board that reviewed the facility plan and forwarded to Key its recommendation for approval with the exception of the provision regarding Hall High.
The advisory board did not think that the proposed enhancements to Hall, which included developing science and medical career opportunities, were sufficient to draw large numbers of families to the campus and to promote student success.
Members tabled the portion of the plan concerning Hall High until their Jan. 24 meeting.
"I accept the CAB recommendations for the LRSD Community Blueprint, including the tabling of ... Hall High School," Key said in a handwritten note to Poore. "I also direct the addition of the 9th grade, including the work to explore how to accomplish expansion to upper grades, consider student opportunities and flexibility for the participation in activities and athletics."
Key said he added that the note about student opportunities, activities and athletics because ninth grade marks the first year of high school and rules about graduation credits and interscholastic activities come into play for high school grades.
Jeff Wood, chairman of the Community Advisory Board and a resident of the northwest section of the district, was pleased Monday with Key's approval of the plan with his caveats about Hall and the northwest part of the district.
Wood said there is a strong demand for high school in the northwest part of the city and there was a clear consensus at the advisory board's last meeting for a stronger plan for Hall, and that Key's comments on both were appropriate and appreciated.
"The bigger message is that Commissioner Key is listening to the community," Wood said. "The great thing about this blueprint project is that there were so many opportunities for the community to have its stamp on this. Mr. Poore and his team worked overtime to make sure that it reflected both the needs of the district and the desires of the community. It's a balance of both and it's good. And I appreciate that the commissioner has approved this well-thought out plan."
Wood also said that he and his neighbors continue to pursue a partnership between the Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school district to enable students to cross back and forth across district lines to attend Pinnacle View Middle and Pulaski County Special's Robinson High.
Poore said Monday night that he and his staff are beginning to plan for the ninth-grade expansion of Pinnacle View, which includes gauging parent and student interest in a ninth grade at that location and determining courses and activities that might be offered. The ninth grade will be housed in what is a multistory office building attached to the current middle school.
Also attracting immediate attention, Poore said, is planning for Hall High, including finding ways to advance previously planned innovations so that they can be included in what is recommended to the advisory board and Key. Poore also suggested that a medical professions-related academy also will be considered for Hall.
"Those are some of the immediate things," he said. "On a longer scale, we want to start task forces" to support the planning for changes throughout the district. "
The task forces are intended to help with new programming, the cultivating of partnerships in the community and the exploration of funding sources.
In submitting the proposed plan to Key, Poore said the overall facilities plan is meant to improve the learning environment, expand education choices for parents and provide savings that can be used to raise employee salaries. Closing elementary schools would save $800,000, while closing middle schools would generate about $1.5 million in savings, Key said last month.
The blueprint plan specifically calls for J.A. Fair to open as a kindergarten-through-eighth grade school in August 2020 at the same time as the opening of the new Southwest High. J.A. Fair would serve students who now attend Henderson Middle, Romine and Dodd elementaries.
Opening McClellan as a kindergarten-through-eighth grade school for pupils who currently are assigned to Cloverdale, Baseline and Meadowcliff -- would not occur before 2022 and only then if a revenue source is found to pay for the construction of a mostly new building on the current McClellan site.
The district's plan to establish a kindergarten through eighth grade complex at the Bale Elementary and vacant Southwest Junior High hinges on finding revenue for the renovation of the old Southwest that was most recently used as an alternative learning campus.
A Section on 01/15/2019