Little Rock Superintendent Mike Poore's celebratory recap Thursday of district events and award-winning students and staffers -- a monthly ritual for the Community Advisory Board -- took a surprising twist when Poore became the honoree.
In the midst of the announcements during the advisory board's online meeting to deal with the budget and instruction during the covid-19 pandemic, a cadre of leaders and members of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators pushed into Poore's office and presented him with the organization's 2021 Arkansas Superintendent of the Year Award.
Poore will now be honored at the American Association of School Administrators' conference early next year and is in the running for the National Superintendent of the Year. He is the first Little Rock School District chief executive to receive the state recognition that began in 1988, according to the award history on the association's website.
Richard Abernathy, the state organization's soon-to-retire executive director, said the honoree is selected every year from among those who are nominated. The "rather large pool" of nominees this year, he said, was scored based on factors that included leadership and community skills in the district, state and nation.
"Mr. Poore you landed up on top this year," Abernathy said and praised Poore -- a 2011 Arkansas transplant from Colorado -- for his involvement and engagement in the state, starting in Bentonville where he worked for five years and then in the Little Rock district of more than 21,000 students.
Abernathy and the association highlighted Poore's advocacy for career education programs and the district-business partnerships he has promoted in part as a way to provide students in the district's Excel program with real-world job experiences.
"You're passionate about kids," Abernathy told the 36-year educator. "Anybody who sits up on a rooftop to raise money for kids and then bringing in the One Book-One District program to Little Rock -- I can just go down the list of things I've watched you do.
"You are top-notch," he said and added later Thursday that Poore's accomplishments came during the same period in which he and his staff had to lead efforts to cut the district's budget by millions of dollars.
Poore is a 2016 state appointee to the Little Rock district, which has operated under state control without a locally elected school board since January 2015 because of academic distress at the time at six of the district's 48 schools.
The state Board of Education has voted to return the district -- with some conditions -- to local governance after a nine-member school board is elected in November. Those conditions require the new board to retain Poore as superintendent.
Joining Abernathy for the surprise presentation were Mike Hernandez and Mike Mertens, members of Abernathy's staff; state Division of Elementary and Secondary Education leaders Ivy Pfeffer and Stacy Smith; and former state Superintendents of the Year.
Poore's wife, Marianne Poore, also was in on the surprise.
The presentation was made to muted applause from the three advisory board members and district staffers who were all watching on the Zoom meeting platform.
The seven-member advisory board makes recommendations on policy, personnel and budget matters to Arkansas Education Secretary Johnny Key who acts in place of a school board in the state-controlled system.
Deputy Superintendent Jeremy Owoh, and Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Hope Worsham described for the three advisory board members present Thursday night the efforts underway to aid employees, students and parents in mastering the Schoology learning management system. The Schoology system is supposed to enable teachers to teach and students to learn, regardless of whether they are on campus or at home.
Poore and his staff were positive about the efforts underway on the learning management system, as well as services for struggling readers, and special-education, dyslexic and gifted students.
"We've had bumps. That's going to happen," Poore said. "We'll work through them."
Advisory board member Melanie Fox asked about teachers who are struggling to teach students online and in class.
Worsham said the campuses are continuing to adjust teacher and student schedules, and teachers are sharing instructional resources and trying other strategies to ease the workload.
Teachers who maybe had just two or three students to teach on campus may be moved to a fully virtual teaching assignment, she said. She cited Mabelvale Elementary School teachers who have divided up the work so that one teacher might teach all the literacy lessons in a grade while another teacher does all the math instruction.
Fox also asked for assurances that the district won't abandon its plan that enables students learning from home to be taught by teachers at their assigned school using the same curriculum being used for the students who have opted for on-campus instruction.
The Russellville School Board this week voted to end a similar two-prong instruction plan because of the hardship it was creating for teachers who were having to create different lessons for their on-campus and off-campus students.
Owoh told the advisory board members that more shipments of sanitizing wipes and thermometers are to be delivered to schools next week.
Kelsey Bailey, the district's chief financial officer, said the district's proposed 2020-21 budget will be ready for a vote at a special meeting Thursday. Preparation of the final document was hindered by statewide technology issues, he said.