All Little Rock School District campuses open for on-site instruction

Little Rock School District Superintendent Mike Poore is shown in this file photo.
Little Rock School District Superintendent Mike Poore is shown in this file photo.


All Little Rock School District campuses are scheduled to be open for on-site instruction today, Superintendent Mike Poore said.

Poore said the the decision to have on-site instruction was made after seeing a decline in the number of students and employees that are being required to isolate or quarantine.

All district campuses were closed to on-site teaching early last week because of covid cases and quarantines. More than a dozen campuses remained closed for nearly all or all of the week.

"We know these have been challenging times for all of us and sincerely appreciate your patience as we work daily to make decisions in the best interest of the health and well-being of our students and staff," Poore wrote.

"We will continue to work with the Arkansas Department of Health and our point-of-contact team to monitor cases today, as well as the rest of the week, and will make adjustments as necessary," he stated.

Poore urged families to take steps to help prevent the spread of the virus.

"This includes: following mask and social distancing guidelines, staying home if you are sick, and getting the covid-19 vaccine," he wrote, adding that vaccines are available for individuals ages 5 and up. "If you have questions about vaccines, talk to your family doctor."

Poore's message to parents included a link to a list of vaccine-providing pharmacies, which is here: https://bit.ly/3rrNLir.

Elsewhere in Pulaski County:

• Pulaski County Special School District campuses are scheduled to be open as they were at the end of last week.

• North Little Rock School District students and families continue to have the option through today to attend classes on campus or use virtual, asynchronous instruction. All North Little Rock students are to return to campus for on-site instruction Wednesday.

• Jacksonville /North Pulaski School District will continue the use of a modified A/B class day schedule through Jan. 21 at Jacksonville Elementary School, Jacksonville Middle School and Jacksonville High School. The schedule reduces the numbers of students in school on a daily basis. Plans call for students to resume their regular school day schedules next Jan. 24.

Districts across the state by law are able to use up to 10 alternative methods of instruction or AMI days when it becomes necessary to close campuses to on-site instruction because of widespread illness, inclement weather or utility outages.

On AMI days, students do their school work at their homes using online or paper assignments. The AMI days are considered school days and do not have to be made up. When a school or district exhausts its AMI days, missed school days do have to be made up so that students are provided a school year of at least 178 days.

In Northwest Arkansas, the state's second-largest region population-wise, the Huntsville and Siloam Springs school districts, as well as two Springdale schools and one in Rogers, are starting this week in remote learning mode.

Huntsville announced in a social media post Friday that its schools would transition to alternative methods of instruction today and Wednesday due to an increase in positive covid-19 cases, quarantines and staff shortages. All schools were closed Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Today represents Huntsville's first shift to remote learning this calendar year. Huntsville is a district of about 2,200 students.

The school districts of Rogers, Fayetteville, Siloam Springs, Elkins, Greenland, Prairie Grove, Alma and Lincoln all ended last week doing remote learning amid a sharp increase locally in covid-19 cases. All except for Siloam Springs are expected to reopen for on-site instruction today.

Information for this article was contributed by staff members at the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.


Upcoming Events