The Arkansas Board of Education on Friday voted in favor of a proposal that would return the Little Rock School District to a locally elected school board but with limits to its authority.
In a special meeting Friday morning in Little Rock, the board also tabled a separate measure that seeks to end recognizing the Little Rock Education Association union as the exclusive bargaining agent for employees of the state-run district.
The recommendation for returning the district to a local school board is based on a scenario in which the district fails to meet exit criteria from state-control.
The proposal calls for:
- Continued “intensive support” from the state Education Department.
- Ordering the election of a nine-member school board, following the redrawing of the school board election zones of which there are currently seven. The election would take place in November 2020. A local board “may have limited authority as defined by the State Board, or which may operate under the direction and approval of the Commissioner of Education.”
- Establishing three categories of schools.
The split of the district’s schools would be:
- Category 1 would be schools with a 2019 letter grade of “D” or higher. The nine-member local school board would have control over those schools.
- Category 2 would be schools “undergoing reconfigurations.” Those schools “may operate under the elected 9-member Board of Directors.” The state Education Board would decide which schools fall under this category.
- Category 3 would be schools with a 2019 letter grade of “F.” Those schools “will operate under different leadership than the remaining schools in the district, but in partnership with the District.”
The board voted to table until its Oct. 10-11 meetings the motion to direct Arkansas Education Secretary Johnny Key to end recognition of the Little Rock Education Association employee union as the exclusive contract bargaining agent for the district's employees.
State Board of Education member Sarah Moore of Stuttgart proposed the measure, which would end recognition of the union at the time of the Oct. 31 expiration of the current Professional Negotiations Agreement or teachers' contract.
Education Board member Chad Pekron made the motion to table Moore's proposal, saying that he favored the withdrawal of recognition but was uncomfortable with the lack of notice to the public about it.
The board followed the vote to table with a motion and vote to direct that a third party begin the process of setting up the election of a personnel policies committee in the Little Rock district.
Teresa Knapp Gordon, president of the association, was among those who addressed the board on the different issues Friday. She said that a vote to end recognition of the association as the bargaining agent runs counter to the Education Board's frequent call for student-focused education. She also said that the third-party involvement in the election of personnel policies committees violates state law.
The union has been the bargaining representative for district employees for decades.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.