The recently completed application period for student interdistrict transfers produced mixed results for the Pulaski County Special School District, a relative newcomer to participating in Arkansas School Choice Act transfers.
Leaders of the 12,000-student district have now approved the enrollment into district schools of 197 students who reside in other districts, but there are 256 students from the district who are exercising options to go to public schools elsewhere.
Superintendent Charles McNulty told the Pulaski County Special district's School Board on Tuesday that he was initially disappointed to see the net loss of 59 students in the district's count -- which could have the effect of lessening state funding to the district in the 2020-21 school year. He also said, however, that students and their families will stay with the district when they realize the district's commitment to rigorous academic programs and strong relationships.
And board member Mike Kemp said he was heartened by the numbers that showed the district is accepting 197 for the coming year, just about four times the 49 School Choice Act students the district enrolled for the just-ended 2018-19 school year, which was the district's first year to participate in the interdistrict transfers.
"That to me shows improvement," Kemp said, adding that the Pulaski County Special district can continue to accept transfer students from the neighboring Little Rock district through the end of this month.
A different state law, the Opportunity School Choice Act, enables students in a "Level 5 intensive support" school or school district to apply July 1-31 for transfers to another school or district. In central Arkansas, the Little Rock district is a state-labeled Level 5 district, as is the Pine Bluff School District.
School Board President Linda Remele noted to audience applause Tuesday night that the Pulaski County Special district has the highest average Aspire test results for the just-ended school year, indicating that should help attract and hold students.
The four school districts in Pulaski County are late to participating in the student-transfer program as compared with most districts.
That's largely because of the districts' involvement in a long-running federal school desegregation lawsuit in which other types of interdistrict transfer strategies -- such as magnet schools and what were called majority-to-minority student transfers -- were used to promote racial desegregation.
The Little Rock and North Little Rock districts exited the federal desegregation case several years ago as part of a 2014 settlement agreement that phased in the interdistrict magnet schools. The two districts have been participating in Arkansas School Choice Act transfers for more than five years.
But the Pulaski County Special and Jacksonville/North Pulaski districts remain parties in the federal lawsuit and only recently opted against claiming exemptions from the state on interdistrict transfers. The Jacksonville/North Pulaski district, in particular, is participating for the first time for the upcoming school year.
The 256 students leaving Pulaski County Special district schools are going to 17 other districts, Assistant Superintendent Janice Warren said.
Eighty-one of the students transferring out of Pulaski County Special are going to North Little Rock and another 75 are headed to Little Rock. There are 41 who have opted for the Sheridan district, 19 to Mayflower, 12 to Bauxite, seven to Cabot, and eight to Benton. There is one family that resides in Pulaski County but will be working during the week in Farmington in Northwest Arkansas and has received approval for the child to attend school there. Another student has received approval to attend school in Van Buren.
Small numbers of other students are heading to other districts.
Warren said that 51 of the 87 students opting for North Little Rock are from the Sherwood/Sylvan Hills area of the Pulaski County Special district and 14 are from the Maumelle area. Of the 75 signed up for the Little Rock district, 42 are from the Robinson schools area in west Pulaski County and 16 from Maumelle and 13 are from the southeast section of the Pulaski County Special district.
All the students to attend Sheridan schools are from the southeast section of the county district.
Remele questioned why students are leaving. Warren said that in most cases she doesn't know. The application form doesn't include a question about the reason for leaving.
School Board member Brian Maune of west Pulaski County noted that Robinson area students transferring into Little Rock are going deep into the Little Rock district as nearby Don Roberts Elementary is at capacity and can't take any transfer students. Maune also said that he anticipates that Robinson High and Middle schools will annually attract northwest Little Rock students who do not yet have a full-scale 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade school close to their homes when they complete Pinnacle View Middle School. Warren confirmed that 80 or more students from Little Rock asked for assignments to the county district's Robinson High.
The Little Rock district has been directed by Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key to offer a high school program in the area, which is starting with a ninth grade this coming year.
The number of interdistrict transfers are more than 100 for each of the Pulaski County's four school systems.
The Jacksonville/North Pulaski districts are losing 119 students to other districts and accepting four for the coming year, Superintendent Bryan Duffie said Tuesday. More applied to attend school outside their resident district but the law caps the number of transfers at 3% of a district's enrollment.
The Jacksonville School Board several months ago asked for an exemption from the state Department of Education from participating because of concerns about a loss of state funding and the impact that would have on meeting its federal desegregation obligations.
The state Education Department denied the request and the district decided against an appeal to the state Board of Education.
Duffie said that about 36, or about a third of the total 119 students seeking enrollment outside the district, were actually enrolled in district schools this past year.
Seventy-three of the 119 are elementary pupils, including a large number of children who will be entering kindergarten in August. About half of the Jacksonville residents intend to enroll in the Cabot School District. Others are opting for Beebe, England, Lonoke, Vilonia and Pulaski County Special.
Duffie said any significant loss of students has to mean hard decisions and cuts in expenditures. But he also said that the district is seeing some slow year-to-year enrollment growth that could help offset the loss resulting from student transfers.
The district's average enrollment for the first three quarters of the school year has increased from 3,864 in the 2016-17 school year to 3,909 this year, he said.
Frederick Fields, the Little Rock district's director of student services, reported that as of late June, the district received in excess of 145 applications for transfers into the district with 70 of those assigned to schools. The district also reported that there were 146 students who reside in the Little Rock district opting for schools in North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special.
Dustin Barnes, a spokesman for the North Little Rock district, said there were 188 applications for transfers into that district, as of late June.
Metro on 07/10/2019