Attendance zones get look in Little Rock district

3 options proposed for high schools

FILE — Little Rock School District headquarters are shown in this 2019 file photo.
FILE — Little Rock School District headquarters are shown in this 2019 file photo.

Different options for reconfiguring Little Rock School District high school attendance zones for the 2020-21 school year vary based in part on whether Hall High is made into a STEM magnet school that would be open to students districtwide.

Leaders in the Little Rock district have proposed changes for elementary, middle and high school attendance zones in anticipation of opening the new Southwest High School and closing or combining other district schools in the coming year.

The proposed school zone changes -- more extensive at the high schools and middle schools than at the elementary schools -- were recently introduced to the state Board of Education and are now an agenda item for the Little Rock district's Community Advisory Board meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

The advisory board, which will ultimately send a recommendation on the attendance zones to state officials, serves as a liaison between the state-controlled district and Arkansas Education Secretary Johnny Key, who acts as the school board because the district is without an elected body.

"I'll say up front that it is nearly impossible to get an overwhelming majority to say, 'We love this,'" Little Rock School District Superintendent Mike Poore told the Education Board about the long-awaited attendance zone proposals.

The attendance zone proposals come just before district parents are to make school selections for their children for the 2020-21 school year. A link to the proposed school zone maps and an online form for commenting on the zone maps are available on the homepage of the district's website: www.lrsd.org.

The proposals are based on the Little Rock district's Community Blueprint Facility Plan that was approved by Key in February. Key's approval of that facility-use plan occurred after multiple public forums were held throughout the city and after a Community Advisory Board vote of approval in January. The proposals also are the result of a settlement in a federal lawsuit in which the district committed to making race-neutral attendance zone changes for its high schools.

"We don't want to have any form of re-segregation," Poore told the Education Board about the parameters for developing the proposals. "We want to improve feeder zone problems. We also want to enhance school choice options so that we have more things that make the district attractive to bring in families or hold onto families. We want to use our district resources efficiently. And naturally, the most important thing, we also want to elevate academic performance."

The initial blueprint plan was developed in part to right-size the district facilities to fit the declining student enrollment in the district. The district has 23,200 students this year, counting prekindergarten pupils, which is down about 100 students compared with the previous school year and is a drop of more than 700 students compared with two years ago. As a result, the blueprint plan calls for closing or combining campuses.

As for the attendance zone changes, there is one proposal for the elementary schools and one proposal for the middle schools. There are three options for the high school zones.

The four affected elementary schools are Romine, Dodd, Washington and Rockefeller.

The Romine and Dodd elementary school zones would be combined, and pupils living in those zones would be assigned to what is now J.A. Fair High, which will be turned into a prekindergarten-through-eighth-grade campus.

On the east side of the district, the Washington and Rockefeller elementary attendance zones would be combined. All pupils would be assigned under the plan to Washington Elementary. Rockefeller will become a prekindergarten center.

Middle schools that will be affected if the proposed boundary zone changes are approved are Henderson, Mabelvale, Cloverdale, Dunbar and Pulaski Heights.

Under the plan, Henderson Middle School would be closed, and pupils in what is now Henderson's attendance zone would be assigned to the J.A. Fair campus along with the Romine and Dodd elementary school pupils. That new J.A. Fair attendance zone would encompass the Henderson zone and a portion of the Mabelvale Middle School attendance zone, according to the plan.

The district's Dunbar Middle School would not only take in a section of the Cloverdale Middle School attendance zone but also a large swath of the Pulaski Heights Middle School attendance zone. Everything that is east of Woodrow Street that is now assigned to Pulaski Heights would become part of the Dunbar attendance zone. That includes downtown and east Little Rock.

Poore said Dunbar can accommodate additional students, as can Pulaski Heights Middle.

Three options are being considered for the high school boundary changes. Parkview High School is to remain a magnet school without an attendance zone. All of the district's other high schools would be affected in some form or another by the attendance zone changes, district leaders say.

OPTION 1

High school Option 1 would make Hall High School a magnet school with no attendance zone, enabling it to attract students districtwide with an academic focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM subjects, possibly in partnership with the city's medical facilities and using a career-academy organizational model.

Hall's existing attendance zone would be divided among Central, Southwest and what is being called West High School, which now just has a ninth grade attached to Pinnacle View Middle School on Ranch Road.

This year's ninth-, 10th- and 11th-graders at Hall High would remain at the school until they graduate, Poore said.

Pupils attending the nearby Forest Heights STEM Academy for prekindergarten through eight grade would be given priority for enrollment at Hall over other students in the district.

The current school attendance zones for McClellan High and J.A. Fair High would be combined, and those students in the merged zone would be assigned to the new Southwest High School at Richsmith Lane and Mabelvale Pike. Additionally, a section of the current Hall attendance zone -- south of Interstate 630, west of University Avenue and east of Shackleford Road -- would be attached to the Southwest High zone.

Additionally, Option 1 creates an attendance zone in northwest Little Rock for the so-called West High attached to Pinnacle View Middle School. That school will serve ninth- and 10th-graders in the 2020-21 school year. The new attendance zone would take in the northwest portions of the existing Hall and Central high attendance zones -- an area west of Interstate 430 and north of Hinson Road.

OPTION 2

The proposed high school Option 2 is nearly identical to Option 1, with the only difference being that all students in the Pinnacle View Middle School attendance zone would have the option to attend the West High program -- based on seat availability -- instead of Central High.

The Pinnacle Middle School attendance zone is made up of the Terry, Don Roberts and McDermott elementary school zones. The area that could choose between Central and West High would be south of Hinson Road, west of I-430 and incorporating the Peachtree and Cherry Creek neighborhoods.

As in Option 1, Hall would not have an attendance zone but would be a magnet school open to students citywide.

OPTION 3

In high school Option 3, Hall High would not only retain an attendance zone, but the zone would be expanded on its west, southeast and northeast sides.

More specifically, the Hall zone would include a section of the current Central High zone that is north of I-630 and east of I-430 and south of Rodney Parham Road.

It would also expand into the very northwest part of the district west of River Mountain Road, including the Walton Heights neighborhood.

On the east side, the Hall zone would expand to include an area south of Lee Avenue and west of Woodrow Street. The Hall zone would also encompass a wedge of what is now Central's zone south of Asher Avenue, north of 28th Street and west of Thayer Street.

A Section on 11/19/2019

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