Members of the Arkansas Board of Education will host three public forums beginning Tuesday and going through early September regarding the status and future of the state-controlled Little Rock School District.
Tuesday's session will be 6:30.-8 p.m. at Arkansas Baptist College's auditorium at 1600 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
That will be followed with a second evening forum at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 27 at Saint Mark Baptist Church, 5722 W. 12th St., and a third forum at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 3 at the Arkansas Department of Education's auditorium, 4 Capitol Mall.
The three public meetings -- announced Thursday by Education Department spokeswoman Kimberly Mundell -- come in advance of the January expiration of the Little Rock district's five-year deadline to correct its student achievement deficiencies.
Chronically low test scores at six schools in early 2015 led the state board to vote to assume control of the Little Rock school system by dismissing the locally elected School Board and placing the superintendent under the supervision of the Arkansas education commissioner.
"We want to begin to listen to the public to see where they think they are with their children," Diane Zook of Melbourne and Little Rock, chairman of the state Education Board, said Thursday about the purpose of the sessions. "We want to hear from the parents of these children. We want the public to realize that we are listening -- because we have a lot of decisions that need to be made for the future."
Zook said that any upcoming Education Board decisions on any kind of transition from state to local control in the Little Rock district must be "student-focused."
"Our real goal is that, whatever final decision gets made in January, that it results in a smooth transition and that it works to the benefit of the kids and for the benefit of the whole community," she said.
While the state has released results of the 2019 spring ACT Aspire exams given to students statewide in English/language arts, math and science, the state won't release the more detailed Every Student Succeeds Act score for each school until this fall.
That score takes into account the achievement changes from the previous year as well as student success and school quality -- including graduation rates and student attendance. That Every Student Succeeds Act score determines the A-to-F letter grade applied to each school.
The state has called for the Little Rock district's F-graded schools to show an improved letter grade this year as one of the criteria for exiting state control. Another criteria for exiting state control calls for the number of students achieving at close or better levels on the state tests to exceed the number of students achieving at the lowest, "needs support" level.
Zook said Thursday that she doesn't expect new information about the performance of students on state exams or the letter grades to be announced at the public meeting -- particularly not at the early sessions. Nor will the Education Board make any kind of formal decisions on district operations at the sessions, she said.
State board members Charisse Dean and Fitz Hill, both of Little Rock, will moderate the sessions, Zook said.
The first couple of sessions are likely to start off with small group conversations and brainstorming on particular topics, which would then be presented to the full assembly, Zook said. There are also likely to be one or more presentations from state education leaders recapping what has transpired in the district and between the district and state agency in recent years.
"We're trying to get good, solid feedback to be sure we have thought of everything as we go into making the decision," Zook said about the forums and the district's future.
Since 2015, federal and state law and state rules on school accountability have changed, as have the state-required student tests on which schools and districts throughout the state are evaluated.
The Little Rock district was taken over by the state in January 2015 because six of its 48 schools were categorized as being in "academic distress." Under new law, the process of identifying and labeling schools and districts as being in academic distress has been abandoned. The Little Rock district, as well as a few other districts in the state, is classified as being in need of "Level 5-intensive support."
Act 930 of 2017 and accompanying state rules for carrying out that law allow the Education Board -- with a recommendation from the education commissioner -- to return operation of a Level 5 school district to a local board -- either through election or appointment of board members.
The state board, also according to the law and rules, may define and limit the powers and duties of the district board and even restrict the local board to serving in an advisory role to the state until the local district demonstrates progress toward improving the issues that resulted in the Level 5 classification.
The law also states that, "If the public school district has not demonstrated to the state board and the Department of Education that the public school district meets the criteria to exit "Level 5-intensive support" within five years of the assumption of authority, the state board shall annex, consolidate, or reconstitute the public school district."
Zook said in an interview Thursday that in the case of the Little Rock district, consolidation or annexation are probably not viable options.
That's because, she said, the Little Rock district is bordered by the Arkansas River and the Pulaski County Special School District.
The boundaries of the Pulaski County Special District are protected from any changes until such time as that district meets its federal court-approved school desegregation obligations and is released from federal court supervision. A multiweek court hearing on that possible release is set for next July and August, with the judge's ruling to follow later in 2020 or even in 2021.
"We can't consolidate with a district that is still in federal court," Zook said about Little Rock. As for annexing, the Pulaski County Special district is the Little Rock district's only neighboring district other than the North Little Rock district, which is across the river.
On the other hand, reconstitution -- the third choice given in law to the Education Board -- offers some opportunities.
"Reconstitution is a pretty flexible term," Zook said.
Thursday's announcement of the public meetings comes after a suggestion made in June by outgoing Education Board Chairman Jay Barth of Little Rock. He urged his colleagues to prepare for deciding the fate of the state-controlled district, rather than waiting to react to a Department of Education plan. His board term expired at the end of June.
"We know there are real constraints on what actions can be taken because of a variety of reasons," he told his fellow board members in June. "But I really do think it would make good sense for this body to create a small task force to ... come up with a plan that makes good sense and does get community buy-in -- so that the board is not having to scramble to try to figure out what to do that will do the least amount of damage."
Zook said state board members want to know what the public is thinking about the district's future.
"We really hope lots and lots of people will come -- whether they have ever come to a meeting like this. We'll post all the comments so that people can see them at their homes. We just want this to be a whole community effort. Let's think about the kids. Let's have trust. Let's work and have the best possible school district we can have."
Metro on 08/16/2019