The Watson Chapel School District is not being considered in any official consolidation study or proposal, according to the Arkansas Department of Education.
Stacy Smith, the state superintendent for coordinated support and service, said the state does not have the authority to consolidate schools without cause.
"Generally, fiscal distress classification caused by a declining enrollment that has made it difficult in keeping the school viable is the reason," said Smith, who works with academically and financially struggling schools, when explaining the reasons for consolidation. "Dollarway and Pine Bluff are both in fiscal distress, and receiving Level 5 support under AESEA. Watson Chapel is not, and therefore the state has no authority."
This comes after researchers at a community meeting, hosted last month by Go Forward Pine Bluff and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, presented data that could be used to support the consolidation of Watson Chapel, Pine Bluff and Dollarway school districts.
During the Sept. 29 meeting, a study, conducted by researchers hired by Go Forward Pine Bluff, provided information on the current conditions of the three school districts and possible solutions for overall improvement that might be possible with the consolidation the districts. The White Hall School district was referenced in some of the data, but that district was not included in the larger analysis of the other three districts in the county.
Jerry Guess, superintendent of the Watson Chapel School District, has said numerous times that he does not favor consolidation and that there is strong community support for the district to remain intact. To remove all doubt about the district's position on the issue, the Watson Chapel School Board voted unanimously in early September to exclude the district from possible consolidation with another school district.
Watson Chapel board member Sandra Boone said at the time that Watson Chapel had not been sanctioned by the state, either academically or fiscally, so she didn't understand why her district would even come into play.
Johnny Key, the commissioner of the Arkansas Department of Education, told the Pine Bluff Commercial during a Zoom interview recently that state education officials were studying the possibility of consolidating the Pine Bluff and Dollarway school districts but that no decision had been made.
According to Key, because Watson Chapel is not in a state takeover situation, the state has no power to take any action regarding that district. Also, because the Watson Chapel board members voted to say that they were not interested in being consolidated, they had taken the district out of any consideration of being consolidated.
Superintendent Guess agreed, saying the state doesn't have any control over the district as far as coercing it to be part of a consolidation.
"The source of the discussion has been Go Forward Pine Bluff's interest in promoting a single district in the city limits," Guess said. "The state department has no complaint with Watson Chapel; therefore there is no discussion from the state about consolidation. It's been from Go Forward Pine Bluff. Watson Chapel is not facing any ultimatum concerning its future."
Smith said Dollarway has been under state authority for five years and, after that amount of time, the state Board of Education has to make a determination as to whether the district should be returned to local control, annexed to another district, consolidated with another district, or have its governance reconstituted, which can take a variety of forms.
According to the Arkansas Department of Education Rules Governing Consolidation and Annexation of School Districts, which can be read at http://dese.ade.arkansas.gov/public/userfiles/Legal/Legal-Current%20Rules/2020/DESE_323-Consolidation_and_Annexation.pdf , annexation means the joining of an affected school district with a receiving district. The receiving district would receive the territory and/or students. Consolidation would join two or more school districts to create a new single school district.
Reconstitution was defined as a reorganization intervention in the administrative unit or governing body of a public school district, including without limitation the suspension, reassignment, replacement, or removal of a current superintendent or the suspension, removal, or replacement of some or all of the current school board members, or both.
But while the Watson Chapel district may not be on the radar on the state level, as far as consolidation is concerned, it is still being considered at the local level. A second Go Forward Pine Bluff community meeting is set for this evening to discuss the "Dollarway, Pine Bluff and Watson Chapel School Consolidation Study."
The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. Although the efforts of the local organizers have not gone unnoticed, the state has outside researchers, from an entity called WestEd, already in place with the task of studying whether the Pine Bluff and Dollarway districts should be consolidated, Smith said. That analysis will be turned over to the state Board of Education on Nov. 13.
Smith said that stakeholder feedback sessions, based on information presented to the state board, will be held in late November for the community, and that the board will then make a decision at its Dec. 10 meeting.
"WestEd has organized numerous small group community input sessions as well as taken an in-depth dive into the fiscal impacts of declining enrollment," said Smith.
Despite the fact that Watson Chapel is not part of the state's analysis of whether to consolidate Pine Bluff and Dollarway, Ryan Watley, executive director of Go Forward Pine Bluff, said tonight's meeting would go on as planned.
"We were tasked with doing this study on the condition of all three of the districts and the consolidation of all three of the districts," Watley said, "so therefore we performed our task. Had it not been for the five years regarding takeover, the state Board of Education would not be considering consolidation of Dollarway or annexation of Dollarway. The state board is considering what they have to consider based on law."
Watley said that Go Forward's analysis of the data "clearly highlights that all three districts are in need of more support and solutions to educate more advanced kids as well as those with academic, social and economical challenges," adding that the meeting "will be a round table discussion where individuals can come, look at some data points, look at some issues around the school, and be able to discuss amongst their peers in a round-table format, solutions."
According to WestEd, it is a national leader in research, development and service, specializing in several areas of work such as college and career, early childhood development and learning, literacy, special education, standard's assessment and accountability, and schools, districts, and state education systems, to name a few.
WestEd also states in an online site that, since its inception in 1966, its researchers have been conducting studies to address significant questions and issues regarding education.
As a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, WestEd said its work is rooted in data and informed by research with staff that works at the local, state and national levels, providing a range of services -- research and evaluation, professional learning, technical assistance, and policy guidance -- tailored to the needs of the field and to the context of particular clients.
