Lindsey Gustafson and Wendy Potter are vying for election Nov. 8 to the Pulaski County Special School Board's Zone 5 seat that Gustafson currently holds by appointment.
Zone 5 encompasses the top center of the district, taking in the east part of Maumelle, as well as the Marche, Crystal Hill and Camp Robinson areas of the sprawling 12,000-student district.
The zone features the only contested school board position in Pulaski County's four school districts this year.
The Little Rock and North Little Rock school boards each have two seats open this year that are uncontested and the candidates' names are not on the ballot. The Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District held its School Board election earlier this year as permitted by state law to do.
Gustafson, 52, currently the Pulaski County Special board's president, cited her experiences as a district alum, a mother of six current or graduated students, a school parent group leader, and a veteran law school educator. She is dean for academic affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law.
She was president in 2013 to 2016 of the district's Community Advisory Board when the district was operating under state control for fiscal distress and didn't have an elected school board.
She was appointed to the current board in August 2021 by fellow board members to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Alicia Gillen. She now has to run for and win the election to continue to fulfill Gillen's term.
The winner of the election this year will have to run again in November 2023 to be able to serve her own full, five-year term. School board members are unpaid.
"I am enthusiastic and optimistic about PCSSD," Gustafson said. "I am a proud PCSSD graduate, so I know the history of the district and its incredible potential. Because of the work of excellent teachers, I was well prepared for the academic expectations of my university."
Potter, 42, who works for Priority 1 Logistics, is a 1998 graduate of Bryant High School, attended some college and is the mother of three sons -- one graduated from Maumelle High and two are in Maumelle Middle and High schools.
She said she is running for the board seat to make changes in district operations.
"This election is a vote on the future direction of the district," Potter said. "If you believe everything is great at PCSSD, then vote for my opponent. But if you think PCSSD needs a serious wake up call, then vote for me."
Potter's concerns center in part on the operation of the board and its relationship with district administrators.
"I think the board should be more independent," Potter said. "There aren't enough checks and balances. We should hold the administration at least as accountable as they hold our classroom teachers."
Personnel policies and policies on student discipline are "very slanted in favor" of administrators, Potter also said, and that a line-by-line review of those policies is necessary. Any adjustments made to the policies would be just as much a boost to teacher morale as better pay, she said.
Potter called for strengthening the district's nepotism policy to prevent administrators from hiring their family members, a reference to Superintendent Charles McNulty, whose wife Yaa Appiah-McNulty, was principal at the district's Robinson Middle School for three years until she left the district employment this past summer.
Potter also would like the board to place its entire board meeting agenda online in a way "that is easy to locate and understand. The administration plays 'hide the cheese' with these agenda materials and it needs to stop," she said.
Asked if she was satisfied with McNulty as the district's chief executive officer, Potter said her election to the board should be seen as a message to McNulty from district stakeholders.
"Our voters want to see fundamental change and they want their School Board to step up," she said. "If he can adjust to that, I feel confident we'll work well together."
Gustafson said she has been impressed by McNulty's work and recently voted to extend his contract with the district. McNulty is in his fifth year as the school system's leader.
"Throughout the past year, he has been responsive to every question I've had as I've tried to learn more about the district and its needs," Gustafson said. "If he doesn't know the answers to my questions, he finds someone who does. He is out in the schools every day, and he knows the schools and their challenges. He uses data to drive administrative decisions, and he encourages from the top down attention to the needs of every child."
Gustafson cited as district strengths its broad diversity-- geographic, economic, racial and political -- and the hard work done by employees to inspire and support every student.
If elected, Gustafson said she would encourage greater academic rigor along with "careful fiscal management" as the district carries out "exciting, long-overdue building projects."
Both Gustafson and Potter said a focus on teachers was a priority for them.
"I would like to ensure the policies we have in place are as supportive of our good teachers as they can be," Gustafson said and added: "I'm concerned by the level of stress I see in our teachers. We demand so much of them. They were impacted by the disruption and trauma of covid just as our students were, and they are on the front lines, dealing every day with the learning loss and social and emotional needs of our students."
Gustafson said she would also like to "ensure parents feel considered, respected, and know how to engage with the district administration on decisions that impact their children."
Potter, who last year successfully argued to the Pulaski Special School Board in favor of parent choice on the wearing of face masks by students as a way to ward off the covid virus, said she would like to see greater stability of staffing at schools, along with payment of salaries to all employees that are competitive with neighboring school systems.
Another priority, Potter said, would be the improvement of school safety by implementing recommendations made by the Arkansas School Safety Commission.
Potter is the treasurer of the Moms for Liberty organization in Pulaski County -- a chapter of a national organization that describes itself as "dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government."
Potter said she decided to run for election after attending the Pulaski Special School Board meetings or watching them online for several months. She said she grew concerned about low achievement after hearing that as many as 40% of students were not scoring at the desired proficient levels on state-required exams.
She also objected to recently re-structured class schedules that result in 90-minute class periods that she says are too long for students, district spending practices and a lack of transparency to the public in regard to some district operations.
Asked about the district's strengths, Potter cited modern facilities for schools and high quality extra-curricular activities for middle and high school students.
Elsewhere in Pulaski County, the names of the unopposed candidates for election to open seats on the Little Rock and North Little Rock school boards won't be listed on the Nov. 8 school/general election ballots.
The elections of Greg Adams and Joyce Wesley to the Little Rock School Board, and Dorothy "Dot" Williams and Valerie Phaup McLean to the North Little Rock School Board, will be taken care of when at least one voter in each of those two districts marks the ballot oval indicating support of all "unopposed" candidates.
Each of the Pulaski Special, North Little Rock and Little Rock school districts will include on the school/general election ballots their current millage rates. None of the districts is seeking a change in their property tax rates, but they are required by the Arkansas Constitution to present those tax rates to voters annually. Even if a majority of voters oppose the existing millage rates, the rates are not changed.
The Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District, the fourth district in Pulaski County, held its School Board election that featured no contested seats in May.
Arkansas law enables school boards to choose between spring and November for their annual elections.