The Little Rock School District Community Advisory Board on Tuesday endorsed all facets of the plan to close or repurpose some schools except the portion about Hall High, choosing the table the issue.
The district plan proposes to create three campuses for early childhood through eighth grade, close or repurpose five elementaries and two middle schools, and open a new ninth grade.
The changes would require the district to redraw multiple school-attendance lines.
The board will send its recommendation concerning the plan to Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key, who acts as the school board for the state-controlled Little Rock district. Key will ultimately decide whether to enact the plan.
The proposal includes rebuilding McClellan High to replace Cloverdale Middle, and Baseline and Meadowcliff elementaries. Officials don't have any plans for what to do with the Meadowcliff Elementary building, Superintendent Mike Poore said. But the district staff is investigating how it could be used, adding that Poore doesn't want it to become a location for a charter school.
Members tabled the portion of the plan concerning Hall High to its Jan. 24 meeting. The advisory board did not think that the enhancements to Hall, which included developing science and medical career opportunities, were sufficient.
The members would like to see the district add to its plan for Hall or add new ideas that could increase the success of its students.
"I think the public demand for changes at Hall is significant," advisory board President Jeff Wood said.
He later added that "we must do more than just the curriculum tweaks."
At Tuesday's meeting, the board pushed comment from the public until after the members already voted on the issues.
While the members were discussing the plan to convert McClellan High into a facility for grades kindergarten through eight, a woman in the audience asked whether the public would be able to speak before the vote.
Wood said that the community would have to wait until after the votes to voice opinions. About 10 people left in reaction to his statement, leaving the meeting with about 20 people in the audience.
As one woman left, she repeatedly said, "This is B.S."
After the votes, when the board called for public input, all the people who had signed up to speak had already left. While the board members were ending the meeting, Little Rock resident Larry Hicks interrupted to advise the members to listen to the community.
Hicks later said that he would like to see the district seek more input from Little Rock residents and communicate more clarity on where the district will seek the money for these projects.
The McClellan project, which involves absorbing a middle school and two elementary schools, is estimated to cost under $50 million.
Poore has said the district will seek money to cover these changes through grants and donations. The district is also considering an additional second-lien loan and raising the property tax.
Melanie Fox, an advisory board member, made a motion to add a statement that the plans for the district -- excluding the new, planned southwest high school and the improvements to Hall -- are contingent to change and dependent on funding. The board passed Fox's motion, which members will send to Key with their other recommendations.
Wood also made a motion that advocated for the district to create multiple task forces to explore options related to adding a ninth grade to Pinnacle View Middle School, which was one of the issues the board endorsed. Wood said it is crucial to find a practical way to lay out how the district will add the grade to the existing school and where Pinnacle View students will go to high school.
Ninth-grade students would begin attending Pinnacle View during the 2019-2020 school year.
"This should have been done months ago," Wood said.
Along with those suggestions, the district will send a citywide survey to Key. The survey opened online Thursday and closes today. Poore said the survey allows the community to give a numerical quantity to its concerns and has a portion that allows people to write additionally about their problems with the new plan.
Poore advocated that the changes to the district -- particularly the ability to choose whether their children will attend a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school or a traditional facility -- will give parents more choice in their students' education. He said he thinks this will make the Little Rock district more competitive.
"If we don't create options for our children and have multiple layers of options, someone else will," Poore said, referencing charter schools.
The advisory board voted on each part of the plan individually.
Board member Anthony Hampton, who voted no on several of the proposals, disagreed.
"It's hard for me to look through some of this stuff and see that we're providing choice," Hampton said.
Metro on 12/19/2018