Supporters of the small and academically struggling Marvell-Elaine School District in Phillips County have proposed that the district be made an innovation district and not annexed into another district or operated by a third party such as a charter school.
The nine-member Arkansas Board of Education is meeting in the Marvell-Elaine district's gymnasium beginning at 10 a.m. today for its regular monthly meeting.
The board's multi-item agenda includes possible action on the fate of the 306-student Arkansas Delta district that has not only fallen below the required 350-student minimum required by law, but is also classified in state's accountability system as Level 5 -- in need of intensive support. That classification is based largely on results on the state's ACT Aspire exam.
The Education Board in late 2022 denied Marvell-Elaine's request for a waiver from the state law that requires a district under 350 students in the two previous years to be absorbed by one or more other districts. Marvell-Elaine subsequently failed to present a plan to the Education Board for a voluntary merger, leaving the Education Board facing a May 1 legal deadline to decide the system's fate.
Ouida Newton, chairman of the Education Board, said Wednesday that she expects to hear several different options for the district at today's meeting.
"We may not even decide anything tomorrow -- I don't know," Newton said. "We have a May 1 deadline, so we will have to decide fairly soon."
In recent weeks, new options for dealing with small districts such as Marvell-Elaine have materialized.
State lawmakers have passed the omnibus Arkansas LEARNS Act, Act 237, which authorizes academically troubled districts to partner with a charter school. Legislators have also passed two other bills dealing with very small districts that could add to the options for dealing with the Marvell-Elaine issue.
Act 461 of 2023 eliminates a required administrative consolidation of a district of fewer than 350 students with another district but also establishes state authority over the small district's finances.
House Bill 1504 calls for the state to take control of a district of fewer than 350 students and remove the superintendent -- if the district is classified as Level 5 in need of support and a consolidation would cause students to have to ride a bus more than 40 miles to arrive at school. The bill, which has not been signed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, includes an emergency clause.
"Our request is for a Marvell-Elaine School District of Innovation," the Marvell-Elaine Community Plan distributed Wednesday says.
"Nothing less, nothing different," the plan states.
"Help us reset the trajectory of our school district and the well being of our city's economy and growth. The state owes us, this community, this opportunity. Please approve our request and let us begin this healthy, responsible, equitable, respectful and desired work together!"
The community plan was jointly prepared by The Concerned Citizens of the Marvell Area, Elaine High School Alumni Association, Grassroots AR along with parents, community members and stakeholders within these communities. The Arkansas Public Policy Panel is also supporting the plan.
"We would like to work with schools of innovation that are successful ... to learn how they develop the type of student/teacher ratios and school day/classroom structures that have improved student achievement, overall school morale, and growth," the plan says.
"We would appreciate this opportunity to begin the process of creating a MESD of Innovation that meets the needs of current student, parent, and community needs and will help us make preparations to receive more students that have been displaced by the 2006 consolidation" of the once-separate Marvell and Elaine school districts.
The plan cites Arkansas Code 6-15-2801, which allows the establishment of schools of innovation that use creative alternatives to traditional instruction and administrative practices to transform teaching and learning.
Other components of the community plan call for the existing Marvell campus to serve elementary and high school students.
The Elaine community would regain a pre-kindergarten through fifth grade campus, which was lost after the consolidation of the Marvell and Elaine districts in the wake of Act 60 of 2004 that closed dozens of districts of fewer than 350 students. Elaine's seventh-through-12th graders would attend schools in Marvell, according to the community plan.
"We have dedicated community members who are willing to put in the work together with the [state Department of Education] to do what we know is best for our children and community," the plan says. "This is about our quality of life. We deserve to have our tax dollars reinvested in our communities with our needs and voices driving the decisions being made."
Marvell-Elaine community members used the announcement of their plan Wednesday to object to a possible partnership they feared was in the works with the Friendship Aspire charter school system that has campuses in Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pine Bluff.
"The LEARNS Act advocated for parents having choice in deciding their children's education and where they attend school," Elaine Mayor Lisa Gilbert said in a statement accompanying the Marvell-Elaine community plan. "There's no choice when a charter school is already recruiting for Teachers for MESD before the parents and students have been notified and before parents have had the opportunity to speak before the State Board of Education and learn their decision."
The state Education Board meeting will be available for viewing via livestream at dese.ade.arkansas.gov/StateBoard/watch-meeting-live.