The Little Rock School District's effort in recent days to form a legally mandated teacher personnel policy committee was redirected in midstream Friday with an Arkansas Board of Education 5-4 vote to increase the committee's size.
At a meeting that wasn't as well-attended but almost as tense as the Education Board meeting the day before, board member Kathy McFetridge of Springdale made the motion to require that there be one representative per building on the new personnel policy committee for Little Rock teachers. Education Board member Sarah Moore of Stuttgart seconded the motion.
The state board's approval means that the teacher policy committee will grow from an initially planned eight teacher members -- the two-stage election for which was underway -- to more than 40 teacher members. There also will be three district administrators on the committee.
Friday's meeting was on the heels of Thursday's one-day employee strike in which employees called for a locally elected school board and an end to what they see are state proposals that would separate or segregate management of schools that are academically struggling from other schools in the district.
Both Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Arkansas Education Secretary Johnny Key on Friday defended the decisions made by state leaders in regard to the state-controlled district, specifically denying accusations of segregation and saying that local governance will be returned to an intact district within the constraints of the law.
The purpose of the personnel policy committee -- just recently required by law for every Arkansas school district -- is to advise district leaders and school boards on employee compensation and other employee-related matters.
The state board vote came despite concerns expressed by Little Rock Superintendent Mike Poore and after two absent Education Board members were brought into the meeting by phone. The vote, however, occurred before any public comments were heard on the topic -- although audience members had signed up to speak.
Education Board Chairwoman Diane Zook of Melbourne and Little Rock refused requests from audience members to speak about the proposal in advance of the board vote, prompting at least three audience members to audibly object and one of those to be escorted out of the meeting room by Capitol Police officers.
"I move we have public comment," audience member Laura Danforth had called out, resulting in Zook asking that Danforth be removed for violating the meeting rules that Zook reads at the start of meetings.
"This is so heartbreaking. You don't care about public input!" Danforth said as she was led out.
CANCELED ELECTION
Poore sent a letter to district employees later Friday announcing that the election process was canceled.
"We will work to create a new process for nominations and selections that will be provided to you next week," Poore wrote. "The company that we are using, American Arbitration Association (AAA), has shared that we will have to begin the process afresh and all current nominations will be null and void. All certified employees will have the opportunity to participate once the process is established."
McFetridge told her board colleagues Friday that she wanted the policy committee membership to be expanded to include one representative from every Little Rock school because a similar structure has worked "very well" in the Springdale School District, which has about 30 campuses and where she was previously a school board member.
"I felt like teachers felt that every building had a voice," McFetridge said. "Every building is a little different; every building has a different culture. I felt like they felt like they were represented," she said, adding later that the school board routinely heard from both the teacher policy committee and from the Springdale Education Association, which exists but does not have exclusive contract bargaining rights.
McFetridge, Moore and Zook indicated Friday that they had believed the one-representative-per-building plan would be enacted after the matter was proposed last month. They didn't realize until later that the expansion plan did not occur.
Back in September, Moore had called for an end to collective bargaining for Little Rock employee contracts and for the establishment of employee personnel policy committees for teachers and support staff.
In October, the Education Board voted to end the district's recognition of the Little Rock Education Association as the contract bargaining agent for teachers and other employees. The state board then waived state laws that call for teachers and support staff to conduct their own elections of personnel policy committees without administrative interference.
By that Oct. 10 meeting, the Little Rock district leaders had already arranged for the American Arbitration Association, a nonprofit organization in New York City, to conduct the committee elections -- including first a nominating round and then the actual election of eight teacher members from those who are nominated.
The names of as many as 300 teachers and 82 support staff employees nominated for the committee were supposed to be announced Friday, Poore told the Education Board, in advance of the final round of elections to take place before year's end.
Poore told the state board that the change in committee size would require the company to start over on nominating and election process, and prevent the formation of the teacher committee by early 2020. An eight-member committee would be "a good starting point" for creating the committee's founding bylaws -- one of which could be to alter the size of the group, he also said.
Poore noted that the changes would be done at an additional expense to the district. The election as it stood was projected to cost about $18,000.
Key, who acts as the school board for the state-controlled Little Rock district, also told the state board that he was comfortable with an eight-teacher committee, which would be comparable to that in the neighboring Pulaski County Special School District.
EXPANSION RATIONALE
Moore said she was impressed by the large number of teacher nominees in the Little Rock district and suggested that there may already be at least one candidate from every school or that by extending the nominating process a few more days there could be candidates from every school.
Having a committee representative in every building assures greater communication, Moore said, noting that a new teacher might not feel comfortable calling a committee member working at a different campus but would not hesitate to speak to a member who is also a school colleague.
"It's unfair to have such a small number on the committee in such a large district," Moore said.
She acknowledged there are challenges posed by having such a large group but suggested that the group could be divided into subcommittees in its efforts to create foundational bylaws.
Zook said she received calls from Little Rock teachers who feared that all eight elected committee members will be Little Rock Education Association members. The callers, who said they worked through Thursday's one-day employee strike -- are reluctant to speak out publicly because they may be attacked on social media, Zook said.
Arkansas Teacher of the Year Stacey McAdoo of Little Rock Central High, an ex officio Education Board member and a member of the Little Rock Education Association, urged the Education Board to adhere to the initial election plan and guard against fueling a community perception that the state-set "goal posts" for the district to keep moving.
McAdoo said the initial election was well publicized to faculty members. She also said teachers have every opportunity to have their voices heard in that district through school committees and through the building representatives to the Little Rock Education Association.
Board members Susan Chambers of Bella Vista and Fitz Hill of Little Rock were agreeable to supporting Poore's position on the matter. Ouida Newton of Loyola and Charisse Dean of Little Rock also said they supported the eight-teacher member plan but would have favored the larger committee had the election process not already begun.
Those voting for the larger committee were McFetridge, Moore, Chad Pekron and Brett Williamson.
Zook cast the vote to break the tie and require the larger-size committee.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Audience members Ali Noland, Veronica McClane, Julia Taylor and Justin Bird criticized the Education Board for voting without taking public comments.
Noland noted that the public comments before the close vote could have swayed the vote.
"It is laughable to talk about community engagement when you won't listen," said Taylor, who defended Thursday's striking teachers, saying "they did everything to avoid a strike."
Michele Ballentine-Linch, executive director of the Arkansas State Teachers Association that is a non-union organization -- and Molly Humphries, an advocate for children with characteristics of dyslexia, voiced support for the expanded teacher policy committee.
Humphries said every school in the district is different and has different needs, and that teachers and parents want every building to be represented on the policy committee.
The Education Board had intended to vote on all matters about the state-controlled Little Rock district, including the personnel committee membership, at the end of its daylong meeting Thursday. However, those votes were delayed when the Thursday audience began chanting "No taxation without representation" and the Education Board adjourned.
GOVERNOR REACTS
Hutchinson, in remarks after an event at the Poultry Federation, said Friday that he has confidence in the Education Board and its efforts in the Little Rock district to comply with mandates in state law for an equitable and adequate education system.
"[T]he state Board of Education is trying balance returning it to local control with the responsibility that the Lake View [Arkansas Supreme Court] decision gave the state leaders under our constitution," the governor said.
Asked if he takes it personally when he is compared to Gov. Orval Faubus, who in the 1950s resisted the racial desegregation of Little Rock Central High, Hutchinson said that "in politics, you try to a avoid taking things personal."
"But any time somebody, anybody makes that kind of historic reference, they better be prepared to say why that's the case. There is no segregation in the Little Rock School District," he said. "The Little Rock School District is unified. That was really at the request of the public. So I am here fighting today to keep the Little Rock School District open and strong and available to every student, regardless of race or income level.
"You have got others that were trying to close the schools yesterday," he said, "so historically I want to be on the side of providing the best education for every student in the state of Arkansas, including the Little Rock School District, and keeping those schools open and the education continuing for those students."
Key said Education Board members have been and will be continuing to listen to the Little Rock community members. As an example, he said the Education Board last month backed away from a proposed three-tiered system of governing schools, with the lowest performing schools under direction different from other schools. That was viewed as re-segregation of the district.
"We have put forward a process where local control will be restored in November 2020 -- that is moving forward. The board has done that," he said, and added, "As for the steps we are taking to move forward with the election of a school board in November next year, there will be a lot of opportunities for the public to weigh in," Key said.
A Section on 11/16/2019