The Arkansas Board of Education will hold a special meeting at 2 p.m. today to consider contracting with a third-party organization to manage the day-to-day operation of the state-controlled 306-student Marvell-Elaine School District in Phillips County.
The announcement of the meeting by the Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education states that the Education Board “will consider allowing the Marvell-Elaine District to enter into a transformation contract with the Friendship Education Foundation.” The Arkansas Board of Education on April 14 voted to assume authority of the 306-student Marvell-Elaine School District in Phillips County.
The board at the same time directed state Education Secretary Jacob Oliva to explore entering into a transformation contract with a third-party organization to operate the district as permitted by the new Arkansas LEARNS Act.
That law, Act 237 of 2023, authorizes a school district that has a D- or F-rated school or is in need of “Level 5 — intensive support” to be exempted from related sanctions — such as consolidation with another district — if the school board contracts with a charter school or another entity to operate a public school district transformation campus.
Marvell-Elaine meets both criteria as it is in Level 5 of the state’s accountability system and both its elementary and high schools have state-applied F grades on an A-F scale.
Three organizations — including the Friendship Education Foundation — responded to Oliva’s invitation to submit a notice of interest in becoming a third-party manager of the Marvell-Elaine system.
The Thursday announcement of the special meeting — to be in the Arch Ford Education Building auditorium, 4 Capitol Mall — did not include a draft or any details of what could be the first-ofits-kind-in-Arkansas contract.
The Friendship foundation is the sponsoring organization of open-enrollment charter schools in Little Rock and Pine Bluff and soon in North Little Rock.
The foundation on three occasions has absorbed, or is absorbing, open-enrollment charter school students from charter campuses started by other organizations. Those were the Covenant Keepers in Little Rock, Southeast Arkansas Preparatory School in the 2020-21 school year and, in the upcoming 2023-24 school year, Lighthouse Charter Elementary and Middle school students in Pine Bluff and Capital City Lighthouse School students in North Little Rock.
The Education Board meeting will be live streamed at https://bit.ly/39EiaSY.