Seventh Street Elementary School hosted two community forum meetings for feedback on the North Little Rock School District's proposal to change the school to a prekindergarten through eighth grade model.
Superintendent Greg Pilewski gave a presentation highlighting how Seventh Street Elementary has historically ranked in the bottom 5% in student achievement data over the past several years out of all schools in the state.
The state could take over the school and the entire district if one school continues to underperform, Deputy Superintendent Torrye Hooper said.
"We're trying to create various systems for them to be successful, whatever pathway they choose," she added.
In the forums, administrators pointed out that from 2016-2022 Seventh Street had 83 staff members leave. It also changed principals four times and lost 46 licensed classroom teachers and 37 classified employees.
The reconfiguration to a prekindergarten through eighth grade school would reduce the number of transitions students will have after middle school and into high school, Pilewski said.
The school would add a sixth grade for the 2024-2025 school year, then add a seventh grade the following year and an eighth grade the following year to complete the reconfiguration by 2026.
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 proposal.
"What made this an option is the fact that there's space here and that enrollment has declined," Pilewski said. "It's declined 1,500 students over the last decade, so part of our challenge to the school district is, number one, to keep the students we have, but we want to attract students. There's two ways to do that, one is to provide a niche, curricular opportunity, and to provide an option to families in North Little Rock that doesn't exist."
The school would also add a theme and change its name to honor the North Little Rock Six, the six Black students who tried to desegregate the school for the first time on Sept. 9, 1957.
The first proposed name was the "6-57 Learning Institute," which 71% of Seventh Street families voted no on, but 50% voted in favor to change the name to honor the North Little Rock Six and 61% of families in the district voted in favor to change the name to honor the North Little Rock Six.
Upon the approval of this proposal, Pilewski recommended that Sept. 9 be recognized as "North Little Rock Six Day" districtwide each school year.
"I will tell the board if the community is not ready for this [name change]," he said. "They're not ready for this, and we'll take that feedback and we'll keep going. Because the most important thing is I got 180 days to open the school with a whole new staff approach."
At the board meeting on Thursday, an idea for the school to be named "North Little Rock Six Elementary," came up from the survey feedback.
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.
An extended-day and extended-year model would also be implemented to allow for more intensive support in identified areas for students. Theme-based learning would continue in both of these models and embed industry partners into the programming.
A master schedule was also presented for all of the grade levels, 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.
All licensed staff would have to re-apply for their jobs at the start of the 2023-2024 school year to allow for Seventh Street to have the best possible teachers, he added. The school would also hire a literacy and math coach for small-group intervention.
For the 2023-2024 school year, all licensed employees prekindergarten through fifth grade would be given a $10,000 stipend paid in three installments; in the 2024-2025 school year, all licensed employees prekindergarten through sixth grade would be given a $4,000 stipend paid in two installments; and in the 2025-2026 school year, all licensed employees prekindergarten through seventh grade would be given a $3,000 stipend paid in two installments.
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.
A community advisory board was also discussed to bring together industry partners, parents, school staff, non-profit leaders, faith-based leaders, local government, student representatives and a school innovation coach. The superintendents said they hope to have this board formed in April.
Pilewski said he doesn't want to delay an official board vote any later than July or August to inform parents of the change.
"Getting the staff on board is the most important thing first when we've got to have everybody reinterviewed -- that's my number one priority right now because we're competing with other areas for teachers," he said.
Sandy Williams, director of North Little Rock Academy, said he thinks the change is an excellent plan for the future.
"It leads students in school in a progressive way, it gives students the wraparound services that they need, because these students need a great deal of services," he said. "It's going to also include community members to know what's going on in school. I've seen K through eight schools be successful, so I know that that can happen. It takes work and it takes transition and it takes time."
Williams also said he hopes people "move out of their fear into their reality."
Kendoris Lewis, a second grade teacher at Seventh Street, said she's excited for the transition to pre-K through eighth grade.
"It's something that's new and better, I feel like our kids need this opportunity, they deserve this opportunity," she said. "I'm excited that our superintendent is finally putting the spotlight on Seventh Street. And we can be that school, they can say, 'hey, I want my kid there because they're doing something different, they're doing something new.'"
Tracy Steele, a member of the district's school board, said it's good to see a positive change at Seventh Street and it'd be "even more special" if they could honor the North Little Rock Six.
"I'm very optimistic we can turn this school around and be one of the best schools in this district, not only in this district, in the state," he said. "Because what we have now that we didn't have before is one, a plan, and two, the community support. This is my zone, so I want to continue to work hard to keep the community engaged. They're excited, and we're going to keep it going."