The tiny Marvell-Elaine School District in Phillips County has shed its state-applied fiscal distress label.
The Arkansas Board of Education voted Thursday to remove the 319-student district from the classification based on the recommendation of state Education Secretary Johnny Key and his staff.
"It has been an uphill journey," Ashley Granberry, the district's business manager, told the Education Board. "We are elated to be here."
Granberry addressed the board in the absence of Marvell-Elaine Superintendent Henry Anderson, who had covid-19 and couldn't attend the state board meeting. She told the board that Anderson, a former longtime educator in Pulaski County area school systems and starting his third year as chief in Marvell, had worked round the clock to right that district's finances.
The district has been able to build up its reserves from about $250,000 to $2 million, she said.
Strategies to improve the district's finances included reducing the number of staff positions two years ago to save about $500,000 and using federal funding for allowable expenses that were previously paid for with state and local revenue, she said. Additionally the district has gone so far as to acquire supplies from other districts' surpluses or at yard sales, and to use coupons, Granberry said.
The Arkansas Board of Education voted in April 2019 to classify the Marvell-Elaine district as being in fiscal distress. As a result, district spending was monitored by the state and the district was obligated to carry out a plan to correct its financial issues.
Greg Rogers, the states's assistant commissioner of fiscal and administrative services, said in 2019 that the district had drawn down its year-end reserves by $1.6 million since 2016. He said the fiscal distress label was prompted by that and other issues including the theft of some $470,000 from the district by a former business manager over the course of four years.
Granberry told the Education Board that the Marvell-Elaine School District is working to increase its student enrollment by adding program offerings and using social media to highlight the system.