Cynthia Howell
Stories by Cynthia
NLR schools delay hunt for new chief
posted: 05/25/2012 5:24 a.m. Discuss
The North Little Rock School Board voted 6-0 Thursday to suspend its search for a new superintendent until after the September school elections, a move recommended by their consultants in the search process.
Longtime superintendent dies
posted: 05/24/2012 3:49 a.m. Discuss
Don R. Roberts, a longtime urban school district superintendent and a former Arkansas Department of Education chief under Govs. Bill Clinton and Frank White, died Tuesday in Little Rock.
County teachers seek hearings
posted: 05/23/2012 4:42 a.m. Discuss
The Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers president on Tuesday handdelivered about 500 letters from Pulaski County Special School District teachers seeking hearings on the district-imposed changes in their 2012-13 contracts.
For board, applicants fall flat
posted: 05/23/2012 4:41 a.m. Discuss
The North Little Rock School District’s plan to hire a new superintendent for the coming 2012-13 school year was in doubt Tuesday, the day after applications were due for the position now held by Ken Kirspel.
Beebe: Go forth, come home
posted: 05/22/2012 2:27 a.m.
Discuss
High-achieving members of the Little Rock School District’s Class of 2012 are planning careers in fields such as pediatric oncology, aerospace engineering, song writing, foreign-language translating, art conservation, international mission work and creative writing.
Education board to crack down on struggling schools, districts
posted: 05/21/2012 4:23 a.m. Comments 2
Members of the Arkansas Board of Education want tougher state rules for dealing with chronically low-achieving schools and their parent school districts.
Education notebook
posted: 05/20/2012 4:57 a.m. Discuss
Vote-zone plans focus of 3 forums The Pulaski County Special School District is hosting three public meetings — starting with one Monday — to present options for revising School Board election zone boundary plans.
County schools union votes ‘no confidence’ in 2
posted: 05/19/2012 4:59 a.m. Discuss
The Representative Council for the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers has voted “no confidence” in Pulaski County Superintendent Jerry Guess and Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell, a union leader said Friday.
Learning shifts in digital age
posted: 05/18/2012 3:08 a.m. Discuss
An executive for the Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization that provides more than 3,200 video lessons in math, science and other academic subjects, said Thursday that the online system enables students of all ages to view lessons repeatedly without embarrassment.
3 more school districts on state’s distressed list
posted: 05/15/2012 4:20 a.m. Discuss
The Alpena, Bismarck and Drew Central school districts are the latest in the state to be classified by the Arkansas Board of Education as “fiscally distressed,” putting them in jeopardy of state takeover or even mergers with other districts.
Charter school location gets nod
posted: 05/15/2012 4:18 a.m. Discuss
The Arkansas Board of Education on Monday approved a grade expansion and new location for a charter school campus in Blytheville.
Education notebook
posted: 05/15/2012 3:54 a.m. Discuss
Unions respond to district cutting ties Activity in the Pulaski County Special School District regarding its withdrawal of union recognition and termination of the union-negotiated employee contracts is quieter than it has been but is ongoing.
LR board approves school-election lines
posted: 05/11/2012 2:39 a.m. Discuss
The Little Rock School Board voted 4-3 Thursday for an election zone boundary plan that will now go to the Pulaski County Election Commission for approval to use in school elections starting this September.
8th-graders’ science-test scores on rise
posted: 05/11/2012 2:33 a.m. Discuss
Arkansas eighth-graders last school year had one of the greatest achievement gains in the nation on the science section of the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2011 compared with 2009 results.
New school-vote zones due soon
posted: 05/10/2012 5:32 a.m. Discuss
The Little Rock School Board is facing a June 8 deadline for revising election-zone boundary lines to equalize the populations in the seven zones in time for the School Board election in September.
Education notebook
posted: 05/09/2012 5:13 a.m. Discuss
LR 5th-grader top Google doodler Kouadio Kondo, 11, a fifthgrader at Little Rock’s Otter Creek Elementary, is the state winner in the “Doodle 4 Google” competition.
Two school unions sue over axing
posted: 05/05/2012 3:23 a.m. Discuss
Teacher and support staff unions in the Pulaski County Special School District on Friday legally challenged state and district actions to end collective bargaining and terminate the employees’ union-negotiated contracts.
1% school raise approved in LR
posted: 05/05/2012 3:11 a.m. Discuss
The Little Rock School Board at a brief special meeting Friday approved a 1 percent across-the-board raise for nearly all employees and a $16.92 monthly increase in the district’s contribution to employee health insurance costs for the current 2011-12 school year.
Low-cost Internet offered to students
posted: 05/04/2012 3:22 a.m. Discuss
Low-cost computers and discounted-price Internet access are available to income-eligible families of Little Rock School District students.
Deal reached in LR district sets 1% raise
posted: 05/03/2012 5:03 a.m. Comments 9
Little Rock School District teachers and support staff will receive a 1 percent raise retroactive to the beginning of the current school year if a tentative agreement reached Wednesday is ratified by the School Board and union members.
$70,000 in food at Pulaski County schools expires
posted: 05/02/2012 5:26 a.m. Comments 3
Some 1,600 cases of food valued at more than $70,000 and provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at no cost to the Pulaski County Special School District became outdated and now must be destroyed, district officials said Tuesday.
Allow county-district split, aid phaseout, judge urged
posted: 05/01/2012 4:33 a.m. Discuss
The Pulaski County Special School District on Monday proposed an eight-year phaseout of millions of dollars in state desegregation aid and the formation of a new, 10-school Jacksonville school system as a way to meet desegregation obligations.
LR district, union fail to reach accord
posted: 04/28/2012 3:02 a.m. Discuss
Representatives of the Little Rock School District and the Little Rock Education Association ended a full day of mediation Friday over employee pay raises for the current school year, with plans to resume talks at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
LR School Board puts off decision on voting zones
posted: 04/27/2012 2:43 a.m. Discuss
The Little Rock School Board on Thursday deferred making a decision on new election-zone boundary lines until May 10 to give its members another opportunity to explore additional changes to the proposals.
LR schools, union to start mediation
posted: 04/26/2012 5:08 a.m. Discuss
Representatives of the Little Rock School District and the Little Rock Education Association will start work with a federal mediator Friday morning to resolve an impasse in negotiations on a compensation package for this school year.
NLR sets deadline in schools chief hunt
posted: 04/25/2012 5:21 a.m. Discuss
North Little Rock School Board members and a consulting firm hired last week to assist them in selecting a new superintendent agreed Tuesday to a May 21 deadline for candidate applications and took other steps to get the search under way.
School unions rule out strike but plan other steps
posted: 04/24/2012 4:25 a.m. Comments 16
Teachers and support staff employees in the Pulaski County Special School District won’t strike but will take other steps to preserve their union representation and negotiated contracts, leaders of the two unions said Monday.
Education notebook
posted: 04/22/2012 4:18 a.m. Discuss
3 state schools get diamond tag Cabot Middle School South in Cabot, Paris Middle School in Paris and Hellstern Middle School in Springdale have been named Arkansas Diamond Schools as part of the state’s Schools to Watch initiative, a national recognition program developed by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform.
State to district: Cut budget, lop off unions
posted: 04/21/2012 2:53 a.m. Comments 4
The teacher and support-staff unions in the Pulaski County Special School District lost all collectivebargaining rights, and their 2010-15 negotiated contracts were terminated as a result of Friday directives from the state’s education chief.
NLR schools set to search for new chief
posted: 04/20/2012 3:27 a.m. Discuss
The North Little Rock School Board is embarking on a six-week national search for a new superintendent for the 2012-13 school year, replacing Ken Kirspel, who has one year left on his contract and would spend that year assisting with the district’s $266 million construction program, officials said Thursday.
State gets 2 plans to cut costs
posted: 04/17/2012 4:19 a.m. Comment 1
The Pulaski County Special School District and its two employee unions submitted to state Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell by Monday’s deadline conflicting proposals for cutting about $11 million in costs in the state-controlled, fiscally distressed district.
Teacher charged in handgun case
posted: 04/14/2012 3:06 a.m. Discuss
A Jacksonville English teacher, arrested in January and suspended from her job at Jacksonville High after police said a student stole a loaded handgun from her purse, has been charged in Pulaski County Circuit Court with felony possession of a handgun on school property.
Time’s up, state tells district
posted: 04/13/2012 3:37 a.m. Comment 1
The Arkansas Department of Education is asserting its authority as decision-maker on the $11 million or more in budget cuts in 2012-13 that have been — up to now — debated without an agreement by the leaders of the Pulaski County Special School District and its employee unions.
County schools seek state OK to cut $6.8 million in benefits
posted: 04/12/2012 5:13 a.m. Discuss
The state-controlled Pulaski County Special School District is seeking state approval of a proposal to remove millions of dollars of benefits from teacher and support-service employee contracts as a way to cut expenses in the coming 2012-13 school year.
State board adds 5, 10 years to 2 charters
posted: 04/11/2012 5:22 a.m. Discuss
The Arkansas Board of Education on Tuesday approved a 10-year renewal of its charter with Haas Hall Academy in Fayetteville and a five-year charter extension — plus a 200-student increase — for LISA Academy in Little Rock, two of the state’s highest-achieving public schools. On the second day of a two-day meeting on charter schools, the state board also approved a three-year renewal for both the Vilonia Academy of Technology, for second through fourth grades, and Vilonia Academy of Service and Technology, for fifth and sixth grades. The two programs — charter schools within larger schools — are run by the Vilonia School District.
4 schools’ charters renewed
posted: 04/10/2012 4:27 a.m. Discuss
The Arkansas Board of Education on Monday renewed charter agreements for four schools, including Academics Plus Charter School in Maumelle and the Benton County School of the Arts in Rogers.
State: 3 more districts in distress
posted: 04/10/2012 4:23 a.m. Comment 1
The Arkansas Board of Education on Monday approved removing the Earle and Forrest City school districts from the state’s fiscal distress program and put the Brinkley, Hartford and Western Yell County districts into the program because of spending practices that over time are depleting district reserves.
Education notebook
posted: 04/08/2012 3:20 a.m. Discuss
Board to take up charter renewals The Arkansas Board of Education is scheduled over the course of Monday and Tuesday to decide whether to renew agreements for six of the state’s independently run open-enrollment charter schools and for three of the state’s school district-run conversion charter schools.
Talks resume at district
posted: 04/05/2012 5:31 a.m. Comment 1
Leaders of the Pulaski County Special School District and its two employee unions resumed negotiations Wednesday on possible budget cuts for the 2012-13 school year, ending a stalemate they hit in mid-March.
Changes in math courses coming
posted: 04/03/2012 4:20 a.m. Discuss
Names of math courses taught in middle and high schools will remain the same, but the content will be different and more challenging in some of those courses as the result of Arkansas school districts adapting to the new national Common Core State Standards.
Education notebook
posted: 04/01/2012 3:45 a.m. Discuss
State’s millions fixing up schools The state of Arkansas has contributed or committed to contribute $892.6 million for the repair, renovation, expansion and replacement of public school buildings, Charles Stein, the director of the state Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation, reported last week.
LR schools say state hurt desegregation
posted: 03/30/2012 3:34 a.m. Discuss
The state of Arkansas’ responsibility to desegregation efforts in the Pulaski County school districts goes beyond “just writing checks,” a Little Rock School District attorney argued Thursday in a federal court challenge to state-sponsored charter schools.
Court to hear LR charter schools debated
posted: 03/29/2012 4:25 a.m. Discuss
The disagreement between the state and the Little Rock School District over the establishment of publicly funded, open-enrollment charter schools in Pulaski County will get an airing in federal court today.
County district to pay intervenors’ fees
posted: 03/27/2012 5:05 a.m. Discuss
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis on Monday ordered the Pulaski County Special School District to pay nearly $150,000 in legal fees and costs to the class of black students in Pulaski County known as the Joshua intervenors.
Let state out of school case, court is urged
posted: 03/27/2012 4:43 a.m. Discuss
The state has substantially complied with its obligations under a 1989 Pulaski County school desegregation case settlement — including total payments of more than $1 billion in desegregation-related aid — and is now entitled to release from those obligations, the attorney general’s office said Monday.
Education notebook
posted: 03/25/2012 6:12 a.m. Discuss
Food by the item set to cost more The cost of individual food items sold in the school cafeterias in the Pulaski County Special School District are increasing by varying amounts, effective Monday.
Education notebook
posted: 03/20/2012 4:24 a.m. Discuss
Report assessing schools put online The 2011 Arkansas School Performance Report with data about student achievement in individual schools and school districts from the 2010-11 school year is now online for public viewing.
3 NLR schools officially to close
posted: 03/17/2012 5:16 a.m. Discuss
The North Little Rock School Board has made it official : Belwood Elementary and the Poplar Street and Rose City middle schools will cease to operate beginning with the coming 2012-13 school year as part of the district’s $265.6 million plan for building new schools and renovating others over the next five years.
NLR School Board OKs redrawn election zones
posted: 03/16/2012 3:10 a.m. Discuss
The North Little Rock School Board on Thursday unanimously approved reconfigured School Board election zones that equalize the populations in each of the seven zones on the basis of the 2010 U.S. Census.
District’s talks end stalemated
posted: 03/15/2012 4:45 a.m. Discuss
Representatives of the Pulaski County Special School District and its employee unions parted company Wednesday with no agreements on contract concessions that district leaders want from the employee groups.
