Little Rock School District to close through March 27; online town hall set tonight

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.

6 P.M. UPDATE:

Though the schools will be closed, Little Rock area students, regardless of where they are enrolled, can pick up a lunch between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Friday at most schools in the district.

Starting Friday at 8:30 a.m., parents can visit littlerock.gov/covid19 or lrsd.org to find the nearest school providing meals.

To prevent the spread of the virus, students will not be allowed to eat the meals onsite, the city said in a news release Thursday evening.

Those in need of transportation are advised to travel via Rock Region Metro. Youth ages 12 to 18 will be able to ride Rock Region Metro buses free from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Children age 11 and under are required to travel with one guardian, and each will be able to ride for free during the same time frame.

The meals come from a partnership between the city, the school district, the Central Arkansas Library System, the Clinton Foundation and the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance.

Officials are expected to provide more details about an extended feeding program by Monday.

— Rachel Herzog

2:17 P.M. UPDATE:

The Little Rock School District will hold a town hall-style meeting on Twitter from 6 p.m.-7 p.m. this evening about covid-19 and the temporary closing of the schools.

People can access the meeting on the Little Rock School District's twitter page — @lrsd — or watch Comcast Channel 4 or U-verse Channel 99. The district will update information on www.lrsd.org, social media and mass notification system.

Earlier today, officials canceled the Community Advisory Board meeting originally scheduled for tonight.

EARLIER:

The Little Rock School District will finish the school day today and then be closed through March 27, Superintendent Mike Poore said early Thursday afternoon.

The week of March 23-27 is Spring Break, and the schools would have been closed anyway.

The district's after-school child care program will remain in operation on Thursday. However, all other after school activities will not be held.

[FULL LIST: Latest cancellations » arkansasonline.com/news/2020/mar/12/coronavirus-cancellations/]

A district Community Advisory Board meeting set for 5:30 p.m. is canceled but Poore anticipates holding a Twitter town hall event tonight to provide information and answer questions from district families.

Poore said schools in all four Pulaski County school districts — Little Rock, North Little Rock, Pulaski County Special and Jacksonville-North Pulaski — will be closed as a means to limit exposure to the coronavirus.

Dustin Barnes, spokesman for the North Little Rock School District confirmed Thursday the district will be closed, per the Secretary of Education's mandate. He said a meeting to discuss further details on the situation was underway.

[CORONAVIRUS: Click here for our complete coverage » arkansasonline.com/coronavirus]

This story was originally published at 1:04 p.m.

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