The North Little Rock School Board's unanimous approval to remake Seventh Street Elementary is setting off activity on hiring staff, assembling a student body and creating a community advisory panel.
Last week, all job openings were listed online and each has several applicants already, Superintendent Greg Pilewski said. One of the biggest decisions that will happen first, Pilewski added, is "finding our new leader, which will be the next principal."
With the reconfiguration to grades prekindergarten through eighth grade by 2026, all licensed staff now have to reapply for their jobs at the start of the 2023-2024 school year to allow for Seventh Street to have the best possible team of teachers, Pilewski said. The school will also hire a literacy and math coach for small-group intervention.
The reconfiguration will start by adding a sixth grade for the 2024-2025 school year, a seventh grade the following year and an eighth grade the year after that.
For the 2023-2024 school year, all licensed employees prekindergarten through fifth grade will be given a $10,000 stipend paid in three installments; in the 2024-2025 school year, all licensed employees prekindergarten through sixth grade will be given a $4,000 stipend paid in two installments; and in the 2025-2026 school year, all licensed employees prekindergarten through seventh grade will be given a $3,000 stipend paid in two installments.
An extended-day and extended-year model will be implemented to allow for more intensive support in identified areas for students. Theme-based learning will continue in both of these models and embed industry partners into the programming.
The estimated budget for the next school year -- with staffing, reconfiguration stipends, professional development, curriculum and instructional materials, field experiences and the extended day and year programs -- amounts to $702,000.
Maurice Taylor, a North Little Rock City Council member representing Ward 2, said he grew up in the Seventh Street neighborhood and knows all the "ins and outs."
"I really think that [the reconfiguration] is a great opportunity for that school to grow," he said. "I think that the opportunity for everyone to be rehired is a plus, as well as adding some additional staffing and then, of course, we'll do a broad search for leadership, make sure we got the right principal in place, so I'm really looking forward to how that's gonna turn out."
A community advisory board is starting to form from the district community, Pilewski said. The completed board will feature parents, school staff, non-profit leaders, faith-based leaders, local government, student representatives and a school innovation coach.
"We're excited about the response -- we've had people reach out to us say, 'wow, this is really cool, I really want to be a part of it,'" Pilewski said.
A master schedule for all of the grade levels is included in the plan, with Wednesdays being dedicated to intensive support groups, presentations and possible field trips. The students would also have an early release on Wednesdays to allow teachers to have more time for lesson planning, approximately 40 more hours per year, Pilewski said.
"We're planning all the professional development that we have outlined in the plan, project-based learning, which will be a foundation for that," Pilewski said. "But it also then gives us -- with the community advisory board -- to plan successfully, to open the sixth grade in the following year. The community advisory board, their big first thing they're going to chew on is the theme."
The theme options for the school include "ASTEAMED," or Animal Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math, Environmental Science and Design Thinking, Animal and Veterinary Science, or Technology Integration and Ingenuity.
Each theme would focus on a concept per grade level with the option to incorporate more content as students move up in grade level. No other school in the state has a theme of animal and veterinary science, so Seventh Street would be the first.
Pilewski said the goal is to have a theme picked by early summer to open the school in the fall with proper marketing.
"I love theme-based learning," said Tracy Steele, a member of the school board for Zone 2, who attended Seventh Street Elementary as a child. "I also really appreciate applied learning, actually having kids do it and learn it at the same time ... We have to do more for our children at Seventh Street."
Taylor agreed, adding that "a lot of thought went into the dynamics of what's going to happen with the school."
Students living in the community and currently enrolled in the school will have first priority for attendance. If seats are still available after that, students in or out of the school district can enroll through a lottery system, according to the plan.
Originally, the reconfiguration plan included a name change for Seventh Street Elementary. But Pilewski amended the plan to not include the name change at this time.
In the first proposal, the name "6-57" was brought forward to honor the North Little Rock Six, the six Black students who tried to desegregate the high school for the first time on Sept. 9, 1957.
Seventh Street families in a survey rejected this name for their school, but 50% voted in favor to change the school's name to honor the North Little Rock Six, and 61% of families districtwide voted in favor to change the name to honor the North Little Rock Six.
The Community Advisory Board will vote on a new name in the future.
"The takeaway is we got a conversation started and there's support for it," Pilewski said.
Exposure is a large focus for the school, he added, saying the district is excited about launching the bigger vision and being "future-ready."
"I'm also excited [about] the project-based learning, the engagement that kids are going to get, in relevant, real, hands-on, inquiry-based learning -- and that, to me, is what it's all about. That's the paradigm shift, helping a child learn reading, writing, speaking, listening, math.
"Your core subjects, through a themed approach, makes the learning relevant and more meaningful."