The Little Rock Board of Directors won't take up a resolution asking the state to return control of the city's school district to a locally elected school board until its June 6 meeting.
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola had originally emailed to city directors the proposed resolution Monday evening and said he wanted to introduce it at Tuesday's board meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting, he said school district Superintendent Michael Poore wanted to attend the discussion. Stodola then requested that it be put on the agenda for the May 30 discussion-only meeting, with a vote scheduled for the full meeting at 6 p.m. June 6.
The Little Rock School District has been operating under state control since January 2015 after a 5-4 vote by the Arkansas Board of Education to take over the district.
The takeover was the result of six of the district's 48 schools being labeled as academically distressed for chronically low student achievement on state math and literacy exams. Three of those schools still have the label.
The city's resolution asks the state Board of Education to set an election for a new Little Rock School District board as early as possible.
The resolution proposal comes after the May 9 election in which voters turned down a proposal to extend the levy of 12.4 debt-service mills by 14 years to 2047 as a way to finance bond issues for school construction and campus updates.
Opponents of the plan cited the district's lack of a locally elected school board that could be held accountable for how bond money would be spent. The tax plan was defeated in 59 of 68 precincts.
Stodola and most members of the Little Rock Board of Directors supported the tax extension.
Metro on 05/17/2017