Cynthia Howell
Stories by Cynthia
Education notebook
posted: 05/19/2013 4:25 a.m. Discuss
LR high schools set graduation timeline The Little Rock School District is hosting baccalaureate and graduation ceremonies for five campuses this week.
Schools veteran agrees to head troubled district
posted: 05/18/2013 5:14 a.m. Discuss
Eureka Springs Superintendent Curtis Turner Jr. is taking his 26 years of school district leadership experience to Mineral Springs.
LR school meals costlier come fall
posted: 05/17/2013 4:55 a.m. Discuss
The Little Rock School Board on Thursday began preparations for the coming 2013-14 school year by adopting increases in school meal prices and renewing a multimillion-dollar contract for school bus transportation.
State now at helm of a record 4 districts
posted: 05/17/2013 12:12 a.m. Discuss
Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell on Thursday took control of the financially troubled Mineral Springs School District in Howard County, immediately dissolving the elected School Board but retaining acting Superintendent Bill Blackwood until a successor gets on board.
Researcher finds benefits for kids in museum trips
posted: 05/16/2013 4:57 a.m. Discuss
School field trips to art museums hone critical thinking skills in students and cultivate their long-term interest in the arts, a University of Arkansas at Fayetteville professor said Wednesday about his two-year study of the issue.
$2.3 million in scholarships earns honors for 20 in NLR
posted: 05/16/2013 4:50 a.m. Discuss
Twenty North Little Rock School District students were honored Wednesday for academic achievements that produced college scholarships worth more than $2.3 million.
Charters risk to deal, LR schools tells court
posted: 05/15/2013 12:23 a.m. Comment 1
The Little Rock School District is asking a federal appeals court to reverse a lower court decision that cleared the state of violating a 1989 desegregation agreement when it approved the establishment of nearly a dozen independently run, publicly funded charter schools in Pulaski County.
State retains control of 2 school districts
posted: 05/14/2013 4:35 a.m. Discuss
The Arkansas Board of Education on Monday extended state control over the financially troubled Pulaski County Special and Helena-West Helena school districts for a third year, exercising the terms of a newly amended statute.
3 school charters to change hands
posted: 05/14/2013 4:01 a.m. Discuss
The State Board of Education on Monday approved changing the sponsoring organization for three charter schools that will open in August in Little Rock, Pine Bluff and Bentonville.
‘Adopted’ elephant a lesson for LR class
posted: 05/12/2013 4:33 a.m. Discuss
The pairing of fifth-graders at Little Rock’s Wakefield Elementary and an orphaned elephant at a Kenyan wildlife sanctuary is proving to be a mutually beneficial partnership.
Education notebook
posted: 05/12/2013 3:59 a.m. Discuss
NLR set to break ground on schools The North Little Rock School District will conduct not one, not two, but five groundbreaking ceremonies over a two-day period for new schools and a school expansion this month as part of its $265.6 million capital improvement program.
Study: State pre-K cuts privilege gap
posted: 05/11/2013 5 a.m. Discuss
Arkansas’ state-funded pre-kindergarten program is narrowing the achievement gap between children from affluent families and children from poor families — not only as the children move through kindergarten — but also into the early elementary grades, according to two studies the Arkansas Department of Human Services released Friday.
NLR district administrator to lead Dollarway schools
posted: 05/08/2013 5:04 a.m. Discuss
Bobby Acklin, a veteran North Little Rock School District administrator, will become the superintendent of the state-controlled Dollarway School District in Pine Bluff effective July 1, Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell announced late Tuesday.
Education notebook
posted: 05/08/2013 4:49 a.m. Discuss
LR School District intervenes in suit The Little Rock School District is supporting a tiny north Arkansas school district’s legal argument that it should be allowed to challenge the adequacy of the state’s school-funding system.
NLR district wants $9.25 million more in state school aid
posted: 05/07/2013 12:46 a.m. Discuss
North Little Rock School District leaders made plans Monday to ask for an additional $9.25 million in state facilities aid on top of the $26.4 million approved by a state commission last month for the district’s citywide school construction and renovation program.
Districts size up funding portions
posted: 05/05/2013 4:02 a.m. Discuss
Leaders of Arkansas school districts that will share in $212.3 million in state facilities aid in 2013-15 are grateful for the revenue source that didn’t exist 10 years ago — even as they work to understand their allocations and find local money to supplement the state funds.
Forest Park Elementary seeks alumni to finish project
posted: 04/29/2013 4:14 a.m. Comment 1
Organizers of a months long campaign to build an athletic pavilion and jogging track for the 100-year-old Forest Park Elementary School in Little Rock are appealing to alumni and friends, both near and far, for the final $20,000 to finish the project.
Quiz Bowl competitors win honors, scholarships
posted: 04/28/2013 4:15 a.m. Discuss
The Arkansas Governor’s Quiz Bowl Association awarded $3,200 in scholarships to each of the seven winning teams in the 2013 Arkansas Quiz Bowl held earlier this month at the Arkansas Educational Television Network studios in Conway.
Education Notebook
posted: 04/28/2013 4:14 a.m. Discuss
Student art exhibit begins today in LR Artistry in the Rock, the Little Rock School District’s now annual public showcase of student visual and performing arts, will begin today at the Metroplex Event Center, 10800 Colonel Glenn Road in Little Rock, and will go through Tuesday.
Badgett school, idle near airport, is put up for sale
posted: 04/26/2013 4:32 a.m. Discuss
The Little Rock School District’s Badgett Elementary School building at 4900 Pecan Ave., near the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field, is now for sale.
State awards $130 million to 92 districts
posted: 04/25/2013 5:03 a.m. Comments 3
Ninety-two Arkansas school districts, including the North Little Rock district in central Arkansas and the Bentonville district in Northwest Arkansas, will share in at least $130.7 million in state aid in 2013-14 for school-construction projects.
LR School Board OKs buying land for $5.57 million
posted: 04/23/2013 3:50 a.m. Discuss
The Little Rock School Board at a special meeting Monday approved the purchase of three pieces of property — two adjoining pieces in northwest Little Rock and another piece in the southwest part of the city — for a total of $5.572 million.
LR school chief shaped by good, bad of past
posted: 04/21/2013 3:57 a.m. Discuss
Dexter Suggs Sr., the incoming superintendent of the Little Rock School District, carries with him wherever he goes mementos of his past — both the good and the bad.
Education notebook
posted: 04/21/2013 3:48 a.m. Discuss
School board plans Monday meeting The Little Rock School Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday for a work session on school facilities.
Jacksonville-school petition starts
posted: 04/14/2013 4:18 a.m. Discuss
Leaders of a drive to establish a new Jacksonville/North Pulaski County school district are seeking as many as 4,000 signatures on a petition that asks the state Board of Education to set an election on the proposal, said Daniel Gray, a spokesman for the Jacksonville/North Pulaski County Education Corps.
Champ’s 3rd D.C. trip near
posted: 04/14/2013 4:16 a.m. Discuss
Christian Boekhout, a Hot Springs seventh-grader and an unprecedented three-time state champion of the Arkansas Geographic Bee, will represent his home state next month in the National Geographic Bee in Washington, D.C.
2 awarded achievement scholarships
posted: 04/13/2013 4:47 a.m. Discuss
Anna Udochi, a student at Conway High, and Leonard Cooper, a student at eStem Public Charter High School in Little Rock, are among 800 students in the nation to win National Achievement Scholarships for outstanding black students.
Hughes School District labeled fiscally distressed
posted: 04/09/2013 4:59 a.m. Discuss
The Arkansas Board of Education on Monday classified the Hughes School District as a district in “fiscal distress” because of audit findings of financial mismanagement.
U.S. to give state $5 million for schools
posted: 04/09/2013 4:59 a.m. Discuss
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Monday announced that Arkansas will receive $5.3 million to continue efforts to turn around its persistently lowest-achieving schools through the federal agency’s School Improvement Grant program.
Education notebook
posted: 04/09/2013 4:27 a.m. Discuss
Tests set for many students in state Arkansas public school students in grades three through eight will be taking the state’s Augmented Benchmark Exams in math and literacy this week. Fifth- and seventh-graders will also take state science tests.
Scaled-back LR school wins charter renewal
posted: 04/09/2013 12:03 a.m. Discuss
The Arkansas Board of Education on Monday approved a three-year renewal for the southwest Little Rock-based Covenant Keepers College Preparatory Charter School — but next school year, the school will scale back the grades it serves and operate at a new location.
High-schooler aims for perfection, hits it
posted: 04/07/2013 3:20 a.m. Discuss
Yeongwoo Hwang of Jonesboro took the ACT college entrance exam for the first time last summer after purchasing and going through a practice book. He also took a practice course offered through his homeschool program.
Desegregation hearings set
posted: 04/06/2013 4:41 a.m. Discuss
U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr., the presiding judge in the 30-year-old Pulaski County school desegregation lawsuit, on Friday announced dates for a series of court hearings to take place before the end of the year.
School-district petition formed
posted: 04/03/2013 3:44 a.m. Discuss
Supporters of a proposed Jacksonville/North Pulaski school district initiated a petition drive Tuesday calling for the Arkansas Board of Education to schedule an election that would establish a new district out of a portion of the Pulaski County Special School District.
LR schools official in running for W. Memphis job
posted: 03/31/2013 3:52 a.m. Discuss
Marvin Burton, the interim superintendent of the Little Rock School District, is one of three finalists for the West Memphis School District superintendent’s job, which Bill Kessinger has held for 40 years.
Education notebook
posted: 03/31/2013 3:45 a.m. Discuss
Group to update new-district effort The Jacksonville/North Pulaski Education Corps, an organization working to establish a Jacksonville/North Pulaski public school system apart from the Pulaski County Special School District, will update the community on its efforts at a town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Jacksonville Community Center.
Upgrades take center stage at LR arts magnet school
posted: 03/27/2013 5:19 a.m. Discuss
A dozen girls in black leotards and pink ballet slippers glided and twirled in the high-ceilinged studio, their moves reflected in the mirrors on two walls and partially illuminated by natural light from the clerestory windows.
Districts near ‘distress’ level in academics
posted: 03/25/2013 12:50 a.m. Discuss
The Lee County and Strong-Huttig school districts are well on their way to being classified by the Arkansas Board of Education next month as districts in “academic distress” because fewer than half of their students have scored at proficient or advanced levels on state exams over the past three years.
Bill axes seniors’ algebra exit test
posted: 03/24/2013 3:33 a.m. Discuss
Arkansas’ version of a high school exit exam will for the first time this spring affect a senior’s ability to graduate — unless a bill before the General Assembly eliminates the requirement in anticipation of “next-generation” exams to begin in 2014-15.
Education notebook
posted: 03/20/2013 4:39 a.m. Discuss
Registration dates posted to Internet The Pulaski County Special School District has announced March and April school-registration dates and places for new and returning students for the 2013-14 school year.
LR district announces temporary school chief
posted: 03/19/2013 4:26 a.m. Discuss
Marvin Burton, the Little Rock School District’s associate superintendent for high schools, will serve as the district’s interim superintendent after Superintendent Morris Holmes’ resignation takes effect on Friday.
Education notebook
posted: 03/18/2013 4:09 a.m. Discuss
Registration dates posted to Internet The Pulaski County Special School District has announced March and April school-registration dates and places for new and returning students for the 2013-14 school year.
LR district hunting help on facilities plan
posted: 03/17/2013 3:29 a.m. Comment 1
Little Rock School District leaders are taking initial steps to hire a consultant to aid the state’s largest district in crafting a facilities plan that will take into account the need for schools in growing parts of the city and the need for money to pay for the changes.
State renews charters for 3 school systems
posted: 03/12/2013 12:54 a.m. Discuss
The Arkansas Board of Education on Monday renewed the charters for three of the state’s most-acclaimed, independently run charter schools: KIPP Delta Charter Schools in Phillips and Mississippi counties, eStem Public Charter Schools in Little Rock, and LISA Academy-North Little Rock.
Education notebook
posted: 03/10/2013 4:50 a.m. Discuss
NLR cancels talk on construction The North Little Rock School District has canceled a public forum originally announced for 6 p.m. Monday at the Lakewood Middle School auditorium to update the public on the status of its districtwide school construction and renovation program.
Maumelle coach suspended
posted: 03/09/2013 4:58 a.m. Discuss
Lauren Brooke Buckner, head girls basketball coach at Maumelle High School, has been suspended without pay from her job pending an investigation into police accusations that led to her arrest earlier this week, a district spokesman said Friday.
School to lose pre-kindergarten
posted: 03/08/2013 5:03 a.m. Comments 2
The Little Rock School District will discontinue prekindergarten classes at its newest and largest elementary school next year to make room for the growing kindergarten through fifth grade enrollment in the school’s attendance zone.
Leader selected for LR schools
posted: 03/06/2013 12:44 a.m. Discuss
The Little Rock School Board on Tuesday selected Dexter Suggs Sr., the chief of staff of Indianapolis Public Schools, to be the next superintendent of the 25,000-student Little Rock School District.
Finalist: Can lift test scores
posted: 03/05/2013 4:36 a.m. Discuss
Walter Milton Jr., a candidate for Little Rock School District superintendent, said Monday that he has a record of improving student test scores and promoting community involvement in his 10 years as a superintendent in three districts.
Education notebook
posted: 03/05/2013 4:12 a.m. Discuss
Improvement plan focus of NLR forum The North Little Rock School District will hold a forum to update the public on the district’s capital-improvement program at 6 p.m. Monday in the auditorium of Lakewood Middle School/ NLR High School Freshman Campus.
