MAGNET REVIEW COMMITTEE AGENDA April 17, 2012 I. Call to Order II. Reading of the Minutes of December 13, 2011 III. Executive Director's Report IV. A. Correspondence B. Financial Transactions C. Newspaper Articles D. Recruitment Update E. LRSD Original Magnet Schools Personnel - Vacancies and New Hires A. Stipulation Magnet Schools Evaluation Report - Review of Final Draft B. Discussion and Review of Format for Stipulation Magnet Schools Annual Principal Reports C. Set Next Meeting Date IV. Adjournment ' MAGNET REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES December 13, 2011 The regularly scheduled meeting of the Magnet Review Committee was held in the Magnet Review Committee Office, 1920 North Main Street, Suite 101, North Little Rock, Arkansas on Tuesday December 13, 2011. Members Present: Guest: Dr. Sadie Mitchell, Chairperson - LRSD Bobby Acklin, NLRSD Dr. Robert Clowers, PCSSD Oliver Dillingham, ADE Danny Reed, ADE Joy Springer, Joshua Intervenors Margie Powell, Monitor - ODM The meeting was called to order at 8:35 a.m. by Chairperson Dr. Sadie Mitchell. She immediately called for a reading of the minutes of October 25, 2011. Joy Springer made a motion to accept the minutes as presented, after a correction of a date was made, and Danny Reed seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously, and the minutes were approved as presented. Donna Grady Creer provided the Executive Director's report. She called the Committee's attention to items in correspondence, with the first item being an e-mail to a parent requesting information about the application process for a magnet school. Copies of the e-mail were given to MRC members for their information, but no action was required by the MRC. An e-mail was sent to Diane Barksdale, Principal of Carver Magnet, acknowledging Carver's participation in the LEGO Education Showcase Grant to be held at Barnes and oble in North Little Rock on ovember 12, 2011. Copies were given to MRC members for their information. A copy of the Court Order from Judge D. P. Marshall, Jr., which transmitted the Stipulation Magnet Schools Budget to all parties in the case to request their response if they have any objections to the budget, was given to MRC members. No action was required of the MRC. Ms. Creer sent an e-mail to Diane Barksdale, Principal of Carver Magnet, to tell her how wonderful the LEGO event was at Barnes and Noble in November. Copies of the e-mail were given to MRC members for their perusal. A memorandum was sent to all Magnet Marketing University members (Magnet Marketing Team) to remind them of the upcoming Magnet Fair at Park Plaza on January 21, 2012. Copies of the memorandum were given to MRC members for their information. An e-mail was sent to Dr. Jeanne Dreyfus, Consultant for the Interdistrict Magnet Schools Evaluation Report, in response to her request for a list of MRC members. Copies were given to MRC members, but no action was required by the MRC. A series of e-mails between Donna Creer and Suellen Vann, Communications Director for the Arkansas School Boards Association, regarding Ms. Creer's attendance at the ASBA Conference during a session entitled "Using Data to Drive Student Success." Copies were given to MRC members for their information. Bills in the amount of $3,372.04 were presented for payment. Ms. Creer provided a recap of the expenses, and Oliver Dillingham made a motion to pay the bills. Danny Reed seconded the motion, and the motion carried unanimously. Newspaper articles since the previous MRC meeting were given to MRC members. Ms. Creer provided a recap of the articles. With regard to a recruitment update, Ms. Creer informed the MRC members that several activities are already in progress. She reported that Carver Magnet's LEGO program at Barnes and Noble was a tremendous success and had a great turnout. Magnet Fair will be held on January 21, 2012, at Park Plaza Mall. A component is being added for positive points. Some former magnet school students will speak about their time in a magnet school, and plans are to put their comments on video so it can be on the schools' websites. Plans are also being made to make an ongoing commercial that will appear on the district's website. The MRC Office is working with Little Rock School District to make sure that the LRSD newsletter will be covering magnet schools. Ms. Creer had sent an e-mail to the Stipulation magnet schools requesting updated, accurate information about the Math Science options available to students. Responses by some of the schools were provided to MRC members for their information. -2- An e-mail was received from the LRSD Student Registration Office providing information about available seats for the second semester. Joy Springer asked if PCS SD and NLRSD filled all their seats. Ms. Creer said that is the reason they are having a meeting for semester updates right now. Margie Powell, ODM Monitor, noted that her office has a new enrollment report for NLRSD. A new brochure from Parkview Magnet was received in the MRC Office via e-mail. Copies were provided to MRC members for their information. Ms. Creer reported that there are no changes in the Stipulation Magnet Schools personnel at this rime. Dr. Mitchell did inform the MRC members, though, that Dr. Felicia Hobbs, Principal at Gibbs Magnet, may be filling a few positions. Ms. Creer asked if any MRC members had a chance to read at any of the schools during Reading Day. She went to Williams Magnet and is going to try to put some information on Facebook, etc. A draft of the Stipulation Magnet Schools Evaluation Report was given to MRC members for their review. A conference call was then placed to Dr. Jeanne Dreyfus to discuss the report with her. Questions included: Research Magnet Schools Effect on Disparity Ten-Year Review Student Retention/Exit Parents' Perception Number of Free and Reduced Lunch. Several questions were brought forth to Dr. Dreyfus. The first one was if the district's policy was followed as the evaluation was being done. Ms. Springer also asked what the questions are that are being answered in this report. Dr. Dreyfus said that she looked for information if these schools are maintaining their role with regard to diversity in the schools. Are the schools able to meet state standards on core subjects? How are the schools maintaining their core goals of a magnet school? What are their strategies for doing that and do they have strategies for accomplishing this? How are they handling the challenges and how are they addressing them? Ms. Springer noted that she understood this and, as a member of the Joshua Intervnors, she wants to know the impact on African-American achievement. Ms. Springer then asked about the research questions. She asked Dr. Dreyfus if the questions to parents, students and teachers address the questions she asked? Dr. Dreyfus said that she used the climate survey PRE used for the district. -3- I !~ I I More questions were presented to Dr. Dreyfus with regard to disparity. Dr. Dreyfus said that she could go back over the last five years to find out that the data is accurate. Dr. Mitchell said that she would like for that to be done. Dr. Dreyfus said that she will use the same subgroups that LRSD uses with their accountability plan. It was agreed by consensus that the MRC's primary subgroup is Black and White. Oliver Dillingham also noted that numbers are important. Ms. Springer also asked about Pages 6-9 where Dr. Dreyfus talks about perception. Was there any reason why this information is lumped into one area and not broken down by schools? Dr. Dreyfus noted that it was determined by how many students answered the questions. She requested two years back to see if the year was represented. Dr. Mitchell said that next year, the sampling will be much better. LRSD is doing something different to make sure that they get better responses. Mr. Dillingham called attention to Page 7. He asked if the percentage was for magnet schools? Dr. Clowers said another column is needed. People looking at the report can then see that it would add up to 100%. Dr. Mitchell thanked Dr. Dreyfus for her participation in the conference call, and said that the MRC will be looking forward to the completed report. A discussion was held with regard to a raise in salary for the Donna Creer and Sandra Luehrs. Bobby Acklin made a motion that the MRC determine an average of the three school districts and approve a raise in salary. Joy Springer seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. When no further business was brought before the Committee, Joy Springer made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Dr. Robert Clowers seconded the motion, and the meeting was adjourned at 10: 15 a.m. -4- ! 17011)
!- . . Magnet Review Committee 1920 North Main Street, Suite 101 North Little Rock, Arkansas 72114 (501) 758-0156 {Phone} (501) 758-5366 {Fax} magnet@magnetschool.com {E-mail} TO: Dr. Jerry Guess, Superintendent - PCSSD Dr. Morris Holmes, Superintendent - LRSD FROM: Dr. Tom Kimbrell, Education Commissioner -ADE Mr. Ken Kirspel,~erintendent - NLRSD Donna Grady Cr ecutive Director SUBJ: DATE: Magnet Review C mmittee MAGNET SCHOOL FAIR 2012-January 21, 2012 January 11, 2012 Thank you for your support of the Interdistrict Magnet School Program. Your involvement in the program helps ensure its continued success. The 17th Annual Magnet School Fair will be held on Saturday, January 21, 2012, at Park Plaza Mall, from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. This memorandum comes to cordially invite you to attend. We welcome you to visit any, or all, of the magnet school booths staffed by school administrators, staff, parents, students and volunteers. They are prepared to answer questions about their school's program. Throughout the day, magnet school student performance groups will showcase at the stage area in front of the Men's Department entrance to Dillard's. We invite you to attend and to speak to the Magnet Fair attendees if you so desire. If you would like to briefly (3-5 minutes) address the Magnet Fair attendees, please have someone in your office contact Sandy at 758-0156. Once again, thank you. We look forward to seeing you at the 17th Annual Magnet School Fair on Saturday, January 21, 2012, from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. DGC:sl cc: Dr. Sadie Mitchell - LRSD MRC Rep Bobby Acklin - NLRSD MRC Rep Dr. Robert Clowers - PCSSD MRC Rep Oliver Dillingham - ADE MRC Rep Danny Reed - ADE MRC Rep "Pursue the Possibilities of Magnet School Enrollment" Magnet Review Committee 1920 North Main Street, Suite 101 North Little Rock, Arkansas 72114 (501) 758-0156 {Phone} (501) 758-5366 {Fax} magnet@magnetschool.com {E-mail} TO: FROM: SUBJECT: DATE: Tonya Click- LRSD Student Registration Office Deana Eggleston - LRSD Student Registration Office Maria Garcia - LRSD Student Registration Office Alisha Long - LRSD Student Registration Office Michelle Oliver - PCSSD Equity and Pupil Services Office Dr. Debbie Price - LRSD Student Registration Office Yolanda Richards - PCSSD Equity and Pupil Services Office Tameka White - NLRSD Desegregation Office Donna Grady Cre~tive Director Magnet Review Committee Magnet Fair Volunteers January 11, 2012 It's that time of the year again! The Magnet Fair is just around the corner and, of course, the Magnet Review Committee needs help!! The 1 ih Annual Magnet School Fair is scheduled for SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012, from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., in Park Plaza Mall. Any volunteer time you could provide for that day to help us man the "Magnet School Information Booth" would REALLY be appreciated. Please let Sandy know when you might be able to share a few hours of that Saturday. We really rely on your expertise. Thank you for your help. We appreciate each and every one of you. DGC:sl cc: Bobby Acklin, NLRSD Desegregation Office Dr. Brenda Bowles, PCSSD Equity and Pupil Services Office Dr. Frederick Fields, LRSDE Student Registration Office "Pursue the Possibilities of Magnet School Enrollment" Magnet Review Committee 1920 North Main Street, Suite 101 North Little Rock, Arkansas 72114 (501) 758-0156 {Phone} (501) 758-5366 {Fax} magnet@magnetschool.com {E-mail} TO: FROM: SUBJ: DATE: Tonya Click- LRSD Deana Eggleston - LRSD Maria Garcia - LRSD Michelle Oliver - PCSSD Dr. Debbie Price - LRSD Yolanda Richards - PCS SD Tameka White - N~~ Donna Grady Cret/f,Necutive Director Magnet Review Committee A Magnet Fair Thank You January 25, 2012 THANK YOU VERY MUCH for spending a portion of ( or most of) your Saturday helping parents and students learn more about magnet school enrollment! Everything you did to help make our Annual Magnet School Fair a success is greatly appreciated. We know it is hard to give us precious Saturday time. Thanks for doing such a great job of talking to potential magnet school parents seeking school enrollment information. We commend you for your service and willingness to participate. Thanks, too, for making sure that the parents who visit, call and e-mail your office know of their opportunity to enroll their children in a magnet school. It is good to have coworkers who share your passion to fill all magnet school seats. Please know that we appreciate you. DGC:sl cc: Bobby Acklin, NLRSD Dr. Brenda Bowles, PCSSD Dr. Frederick Fields, LRSD "Pursue the Possibilities of Magnet School Enrollment" Magnet Review Committee 1920 North Main Street, Suite 1 01 North Little Rock, Arkansas 72114 (501) 758-0156 {Phone} (501) 758-5366 {Fax} magnet@magnetschool.com {E-mail} January 27, 2012 Ms. Melissa Griffith Assistant General Manager Specialty Retail 6000 W. Markham Street Little Rock, AR 72205 Dear Melissa, Thanks to you and your staff for assisting us in the planning, production and presentation of this year's annual Magnet School Fair. I appreciate the time spent helping us to make things happen. You guys went "above and beyond the call of duty," making sure that we had everything for a successful Fair. Having thoughtful, community-minded staff and management at Park Plaza helped us achieve success. The Park Plaza management and staff has a commitment to service, a passion for people and productivity, and we appreciate you! We particularly enjoyed seeing your daughter participate in Booker's performance. She is a very talented child, and you should be very proud. Please feel free to call our office or any of our schools if you need us. Again, thanks! s 1 ~ onna G ady Creer, Executive Director Magnet Review Committee DGC:sl "Pursue the Possibilities of Magnet School Enrollment" Magnet Review Committee 1920 North Main Street, Suite 101 North Little Rock, Arkansas 72114 (501) 758-0156 {Phone} (501) 758-5366 {Fax} magnet@magnetschool.com {E-mail} TO: FROM: SUBJ: DATE: Magnet Marketing University Class (aka Magnet Fair Steering Committee Memb~ Donna Grady Cre~~ecutive Director - Magnet Review Committee A MAGNET FAIR THANK YOU! January 27, 2012 Thanks for playing your part to help make the Annual Magnet School Fair a success. We appreciate the work, service and passion of our dedicated Magnet Fair team! We got great media coverage which assures the calls, visits, and applications "keep on coming!" Thanks for ALL that you do. The magnet school booths, performance groups, and "give-aways" were all top notch. The attitude and information the booth staff/volunteers provided was AWESOME! Some ofus who have done this before might think it's old hat, but every chance we have to share magnet school information with a new/potential magnet parent is an opportunity to let magnets stand out. You make it happen at your magnet campus, at the Magnet Fair, and everywhere you are! Thanks to your work, we are ready to offer excellent magnet school education to the hundreds of students who will complete applications during the early registration period, and the many others who will apply before August, 2012. Once again, thank you for everything. We appreciate you and, if you need anything from our office, please do not hesitate to contact us. DGC:sl cc: Magnet Principal "Pursue the Possibilities of Magnet School Enrollment" 1. Capital Business Machines MAGNET REVIEW COMMITTEE BILLS TO BE PAID April 17, 2012 {Monthly Billing for MRC's Maintenance Agreement for the MRC Copier) 2. Wardell Laster, Jr. {Services Rendered to Print Application and Enrollment Forms) 3. Staples Advantage (Supplies for the MRC Office) 4. Sam's Club {Membership Renewal for the MRC Office) 5. American Home Life {MRC's Communications Expense for December, 2011) 6. Magnet Schools of America (MRC's Membership Renewal for 2011-12) 7. Kid's Directory (Advertising in January, 2012) 8. J. L. Designs {Services Rendered to Design Flyer for Magnet School Recruitment) 9. Clarence Thornton (Services Rendered to Provide Sound and Equipment for Magnet Fair) 10. Central Arkansas Newspapers (Advertising in the North Little Rock Times) 11. Capital Business Machines {Monthly Billing for MRC's Office Copier Maintenance Contract) 12. Park Plaza Mall (Facilities Charge for Magnet Fair at Park Plaza Mall) 63.72 1,725.00 174.54 70.00 182.50 225.00 515.00 35.00 1,100.00 46.50 70.20 500.00 13. Wardell Laster, Jr. (Services Rendered to Print Labels and Brochures for Magnet School Recruitment) 14. TB Productions (Services Rendered to Complete Video Recording at Magnet Fair) 15. Fastsigns (Services Rendered to Create Banner for Early Enrollment) 16. Compsys (Services Rendered to Remotely Repair MRC Office Computer) 17. El Latino (Advertising in the 1/19/12 Issue) 18. Sunbelt Convention Services (Services Rendered to Provide Set-Up for Magnet Fair 2012) 19. Allegra Print & Imaging (Supplies for the MRC Office) 20. American Home Life (MRC's Communications Expense for January, 2012) 21. Leader Publishing, Inc. (Advertising in January, 2012 for Magnet Fair and Enrollment) 22. Kid's Directory (Advertising in the February, 2012 Issue) 23. El Latino (Advertising in the 1/26/12 Issue) 24. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Advertising for Magnet Fair and Early Enrollment) 25. Mass Enthusiasm (Down payment for Services to Create New Website for MRC) 26. Capital Business Machines (Monthly Billing for M RC's Copier Maintenance Contract) 27. Central Arkansas Newspapers (Advertising in the North Little Rock Times for Enrollment and Magnet Fair) 230.00 350.00 79.21 48.28 350.00 1,619.51 219.70 182.50 340.80 275.00 350.00 1,110.62 866.66 70.20 501.00 28. Compsys 144.85 (Services Rendered to Correct Web Hosting Problem) 29. ARKNSPRA 25.00 (Membership for Donna Creer for 2011-12) 30. Staples Advantage 105.87 (Supplies for the MRC Office) 31. Leader Publishing, Inc. 113.60 (Advertising During Enrollment Period) 32. American Home Life 182.50 (MRC's Communications Expense for February, 2012) 33. Central Arkansas Newspapers 309.00 (Advertising in the North Little Rock Times and Jacksonville Patriot) 34. Capital Business Machines 70.20 {Monthly Billing for MRC's Copier Maintenance Agreement) 35. American Home Life 182.50 {MRC's Communications Expense for March, 2012) 36. AireArk, Inc. 65.90 (Services Renders for Two Months to Host MRC's Website and E-Mail) TOTAL BILLS TO BE PAID $ 12,500.36 Keep funding desegregation, state ordered To h~t school aid, hearing riecessaryU,. S.j udgess ay CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSADS EMOC~T-GAZETIE The state must continue to pay millions of dollars in desegregation aid to the three Pulaski County school systems - which use the funds for magnet schools, employee benefits and other operating expenses - as a result of a federal appeals court decision Wednesday. '1f the State wishes to obtain relief from its funding obligations, there must be a formal evidentiary hearing on the issue," a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at St Louis said 'We express no opinion on what the outcome of such a hearing should be," the court added in the 29-page order. The panel also concluded that the North Little Rock School District is entitled to unitary status and release from decades of federal court mohitoring of its operations. The Pulaski County Special School District, on the other hand, will remain under court supervision. As a result, the Pulaski County Special district will be the only one of the three Pulaski County districts to remain under court supervision, although all three districts remain parties in the 29-year-old school desegregation lawsuit The Llttle Rock district was declared unitary by a federal district court in 2007, a decision affirmed by the 8th Circuit in 2009. Wednesday's ruling, written by U.S. Circuit Judge Raymond Gruender of St. Louis, assures, at least for now, that Little Rock's magnet schools and a student-transfer program among the three school districts continues without the threat of lost funding. The decision of the threejudge panel - which included Michael Melloy of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Roger Wollman of Sioux Falls, S.D. - follows on the heels-of a Sept 19 hear- See SCHOOLPSa,g e3 A Schools Continued from Page 1 A ing on various challenges to U.S. District Judge Brian Miller's May 19 order. The May order called for immediately terminating all of the state desegregation aid except for funds for the majority-tominority interdistrict student transfer program. Miller had directed the districts to show why the funding for the student-transfer program, shouldn't be end~d as well. He stepped down from the desegregation case last summer, and U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. is now the presiding judge in the case. The three Pulaski County districts receive as much as $70 million a year, with about $38 million going to the Little Rock district, the state's largest with about 25,000 students. The state pays the money as the result of a 1989 financial agreement with the state, the districts and other parties in the case. The order to immediately end the state funding had been put on hold, or "stayed," by the 8th Circuit at the request of the districts until the appeals court could hold the September hearing and issue a decision. FILINGM OTIONIM PROPER The 8th Circuit concluded Wednesday that the state "'7' represented by the Arkansas attorney general's office in support of Miller's ruling - did not make a proper motion to the court to end the state aid. The appeals court said Miller did not hold a court hearing on the issue or prepare the typical findings of fact and conclusions of law used to support a ruling. "The state has long made known its view that such funding will become unnecessary after all three districts are declared fully unitary," the order said. "However, the state has not yet moved f9r relief from its funding obligations, and the scheduling order for the 2010 hearings on NLRSD's and PCSSD's petitions for declaration of unitary status did not provide for the presentation of any evidence regarding such relief." Additionally, the 8th Circuit panel noted that the state participated in the 2010 court hearings on unitary status but objected when questions were raised about its role, saying that its responsibilities in the case were not the subject of the hearings. Miller, however, released t~e s~ate from _the funding obligations, saymg that it was necessary to avoid "an absurd outcome" in which the districts would continue to 'receive state funding as long as they fail to meet the desegregation requirements. In his May ord1,r, Miller called the districts "wise mules that have learned how to eat the carrot and sit down on the job." The 8th Circuit opinion said the judge's frustration was understandable and his "conclusions regarding the perverse incentives created by the State's funding may well have some merit. Nevertheless, notice and a formal hearing are req,uired before the court terminates a constitutional violator's desegregation obligations." The 8th Circuit acknowledged that the issue of curtailing state funding was raised in documents submitted to the District Court and during a short status conference of the parties and the district judge in September 2009, but that was not sufficient "We have rejected the notion that such other avenues may substitute for a formal evidentiary hearing," Grue.nder wrote. "[T]he briefings and status hearing referred to by the State in this case cannot be cobbled together to form an 'adequate record,' particularly in the absence of detailed findings by the district court." Representatives of the Llttle Rock and North Llttle Rock dis- tricts were pleased with the 8th Circuit order. Steve Jones, an attorney for the North Little Rock ciistrict said the parties are back to where they started on the matter of state funding. "Nobody has yet made an actual motion," Jones said. "We all understand it's the 800-pound gorilla on the horizon. Everyo~e knows it's coming but at this point there is nothing before the court on which the court can act to terminate funding." Chris Heller, an attorney for the Little Rock district, called the ordei"important" and good for magnet schools. Like Jones, Heller noted that because the funding order was ''vacated" by the appeals court rather_ th~ "remanded" back to the DJStnct Court, there is no existing funding issue on which a court can act to end the funding. Heller also said that the 8th Circuit decision provides guidance on any future effort to end the state funding. The order specifically labels the state as a "constitutional violator," he said. The order then directs that in order for a constitutional violator to be released from it's obligations it must show both good faith compliance with its desegregation obligations and eliminate the vestiges of segregation caused by its unconstitutional conduct. State leaders said they looked forward to continuing efforts to end the long-running case. PAYMENTNSO TP ERPETUAL Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said in a prepared statement that the state "continues to move positively toward ending this litigation and taking the courts out of the classrooms of Pulaski County." , He said the taxpayer-funded desegregation payments are not perpetual. ''Today, I renew a call to the parties in this case to come together for a meaningful discussion about what is best for the children of these school districts and the taxpayers of this state," he said. Asked whether he will file a motion for a hearing on stopping state payments, a spokesman for McDaniel said, "We have not made that decision at this time. As the attorney general said, he sees this as another opportun.j.ty to btjng all parties together.''
Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe, said the governor appreciated the 8th Circuit's quick decision, which will aid state officials in addressing issues at the school district level The state Department of Education took over the Pulaski County Special district last June, replacing the superintendent and dissolving the School Board because of financial mismanagement. "We'll. continue to work with the attorney general's office as that office crafts what comes next," DeCample said. "We recognize that there are more steps to go through but I think our argument is going to remain the same.'' Damon Hewitt, a New Yorkbased attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. which helps represent black students in the case, said: ''Today's opinion should send a clear message to school districts throughout the country that compliance with desegregation orders is not optional. Both the courts and communities will hold these districts to both the letter and spirit of the law." State Rep. John Walker, DLittle Rock, an attorney who also represents the black students known as the Joshua intervenors in the case, said he was pleased with the ruling on the state funding but disappointed that the appeals court ruled in favor of releasing the North Little Rock school system from court monitoring. He has asked Marshall, the disq:ict judge, to review the testimony given Miller earlier and arrive at a di,fferent conclusion regarding the North Little Roe~ district's eligibility for full uru-tary status. . ''We will be back before the court of appeals on those," Walker said.' . NORTHLI TTLER OCK Miller had found that the North Little Rock district met the requirements of its desegregation plan in most areas - including student discipline and achievement - but failed to adequately document its efforts to recruit black teachers. Miller directed that the district do that documentation for two more years. The 8th Circuit panel reversed Miller's ruling. "While the goal of documenting compliance over t:in:ie is a laudable one, the district court abused its discretion by imposing new data collection and reporting requirements with respect to staff recruitment that were not agreed to by the parties in the 1992 Plan," the appeals court opinion states. The 8th Circuit found that the North Little Rock district's efforts constituted a good faith effort. It also found the remnants c
>vr estiges of a segregated school system had been eliminated to the extent practicable. That was shown by the fact that the percentage .of black teachers in the district - now 16.7 percent - exceeded that in the labor market. About 9 percent of the certified educators in the state are black. The appeals court directed the district judge to declare the district unitary and released from court monitoring. , "Itis a matter of real significance and pride to-North Little Rock that they will be unitary and o~t of court supervision," said Jones, t
lie ,district's attorney. North Little Rock Superintendent Ken Kirspel said there is likely to be less documentation and panPrwork required of district officials, who will no longer have to prove their efforts to the courts. But he said little else will change in the way the district does business. "Our attitude is not going to change. We are going to ke,ep doing things as we have been doing, which is acting in the best interest of kids," Kirspel said. PULASKCIO UNTSYP ECIAL The 8th Circuit affirmed Miller's finding that the Pulaski County Speci
district failed to meet its, obligations in regard to student assignment, .e,.dvanced Placement and gifted educati<
>n, discipline, school facilities, scholarships, special education, ~taffing, student achievement and monitoring. The appeals court-rejected arguments that the. district had better.desegregation outcomeS: in sorheofsthose areas than othe, custr}cts :that have been declared unitacy - ~ven though it had .failed to carry out the relevant'prov.isions of its Desegregation Plan 2000. Repeatedly the court wrote: "PCSSD has done nothing to demonstrate to the public and the parents and students of the once disfavored race that it intends to honor its commitment in good faith." Charters get 'slice' of school lawsuit Judgeli mitsr olei n desegregatiocna se ' CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSASDEMOCRAT-GAZETIE Charter schools in Pulaski County received permission Thursday to intervene in the long-running school desegregation lawsuit to fight Little Rock School District efforts to put limits on them. U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. said in a -15-page order that he "welcomes the chartc:r schools' participation in one important slice of the case." But the judge denied the open-enrollment charter school group's request to challenge the constitutionality of the 1989 fmancial settlement between the state and school districts, along with the operation of magnet schools in Little Rock and the long-standing majority-to-minority interdistrict student transfer. program. "They [the charter schools] may intervene to oppose that part of the LRSD/Joshua motion dealing with them," Marshall wrot~. The Joshua intervenors, who joined the Little Rock district in the dispute, are black students in the three Pulaski County districts. "The case will benefit from the charter schools' participation on the motion to enforce. "Their participation, however, is limited to opposing that motion. The charter schools' proposed constitutional offensive against the 1989 Settlement Agreement and related Stipulations comes too late in the case. It would unfairly prejudice the other parties, and lielatedly refocus the litigation at a newcomer's insistence, to bring these new constitutional issues front and center now. "[T)he Court rejects their effort to lead an eleventh- hour reorientation of this long-running dispute." In May 2010, the Little Rock district filed a motion contending that the state Board of Education gave unconditional approval to the establishment of taxpayersupported, independently operated charter schools in Pulaski County without regard to the effect the charter schools would have on desegregation efforts in the three Pulaski County school districts. The district said that See CHARTEPRa,g e 3A Arkansas Democrat azette Charter Continued from Page 1 A the charter schools - of which there are a dozen in the county - draw students who would otherwise choose to attend magnet schools or participate in the majorityto- minority transfer program, both of which are intended to promote racial desegrega-tion. ' The district further argued that more affluent, higherachieving students move to charter schools, leaving the districts with greater concentrations of high-need stucJ,ents and fewer resources to serve them. No action was taken on the Lit"Je Rock district's 2010 complaint fqr more. than a year while the court and parties dealt with other issues in the 29-year-old' federal lawsuit, but Marshall in August set up a schedule for the parties to collect evidence and present arguments: In September, a team uf attorneys headed by former Rep. Mike Wilson, D-Jacksonville, and Jess Askew III of Little Rock filed the motion to intervene on behalf of the charter schools. The charter schools' at-torneys argued thtt the 1989 financial settlement, the magnet schools and the majority- to-minor-. ity interdis- Askew trict student transfer pro-, gram - all elements of the desegregation lawsuit - are , unconstitutional and unenforceable because of their reliance on racial quotas for assigning students to schools and because there were no time limits on the use of those quotas. ' The charter schools' 'attorneys urged that the 1989 multimillion-dollar settlement between the state and the districts "be terminated and extinguished in its en-tirety." . The Little Rock district opposed the participation and arguments of the charter school group. The state - represented by the Arkansas attorney general's office - did not file a response in support or in opposition to the proposed intervention. "Today's decision is very good news for the charter schools," Askew said in an e-mail message Thursday. "They will be permitted to defend themselves and their contracts. That is what the charter schools sought. "The charter schools seek to drive fundamental change that will enhance public education optios and outcomes for children and to break away from failed and outmoded thinking. LRSD and the Joshua intervenors wanted to.complain about the charter schqols but did' not want them in the case to have their own voice.','. As for Marshall's decision to not allow the charter group to delve into the constitutionality of the 1989 settlement and other agreements in the case, Askew said the constitutionality issues "will not go away." Askew pointed to a part of Marshall's order in which the judge said he believes tlie constitutional- / ity of the agreements will be "adequately 'ventilated soon by the current parties." Askew said: "This is a significant development in the case. The fact that, in 2011,' LRSD is assigning children to magnet school seats based on race is troubling, to say the least, and demands close scrutiny, regardless of the tortured path that led to this point. This is the basic issue raised FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2011 3A by the 2007 [U.S. Supreme mit their written legal brief Court decision restricting in the case by Feb. 10. The race-based assignments], and state's brief is due March 12 the charter schools were the and Marshall suggested that first to highlight this issue." the charter intervenors join C h r i s with the state in preparing Heller, an at- . that written argument. torney for the A court hearing is set Little Rock for March 29 to determine district, said whether an evidentiary hearThursday that ing will be necessary. Marshall's de- Marsh a 11 cision "seems con c I u de d fair." in his order Heller That's be- Thu r s d a y cause "the charter schools will not be allowed to raise new issues but only argue against a'remedy that could change the way they operate," he added. Aaron Sadler, a spokesman for the attorney general's of- . flee, said Thursday that the state attorneys in the case were reviewing Marshall's order and didn't have a comment on it. 1n the order, Marshall gave the charter school intervenors until Jan. 15 to revise their complaint to omit the constitutional challenges and to respond to the Little Rock district's motion to enforce the 1989 settlement in regard to the establishment of charter schools. The Little Rock district and Joshua intervenors must sub-that the charter school intervenors have standing to par- Marshall ticipate in the 1 case because the Little Rock district and Joshua intervenors seek to limit enrollment at the charter schools and the charter group's re'l}lest was timely. But.it was "untimely". on the constitutional issues because. the other parties.in the case had made the agreements "decades ago" and the agreements are guiding the case. The judge added that the charter schools are not the party to raise the constitutional issues because ultimately the charter schools may not have standing to remain in the case. The judge also concluded that the charterschools are not entitled to intervene "as a right" because their interests are adequately represented by the state of Arkansas. The schools do, however, have "permission" to intervene, the "judge said, partly in case he is wrong about the adequacy of the state's representation and because the -charter schooi group's participation "will give the court the benefit of these intervenors' important views." "The Court therefore exercises its discretion to give the charter schools a limited, though important, role so this case will keep moving forward fairly and efficiently," M arsh!>.!w! rote. Appeals Court: Arkansas Can't Stop Desegregation Payments - ArkansasBusiness.com Registerf or arkansasbusiness.corIn Site Help I ContactA BPG arkansas Arkansas, Business Page 1 business.com SearchA rkansasBusiness.coj men terk e.ywordh.se re i .,?~ Sign up for daily updates from the ArkansasB usiness newsroom! i enter your email I m q:Jfijj\j ?i)ttt '""i,nr
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m, mmB rmm lliiJE Tuesday. January 03, 2012 1:13:1'1 PM education Recommend Twe,et O , 0 Appeals Court: Arkansas Can't Stop Desegregation Payments By The AssociatedP ress 12/28/201112:16:35 PM LITTLE ROCK -- A federal appeals court has ruled that the state can't stop providing desegregation money to Little Rock-area school districts Change font size
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rticle without a separate hearing and a judge's order. The ruling from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes months after U.S. District Judge Brian Miller ordered an end to most of the payments, calling them counterproductive. The districts appealed to the appeals court, which heard the case in September. The state has been spending about $38 million per year to help finance magnet schools that help keep a racial balance in the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County school districts. Wednesday's ruling vacates Millers order and keeps the money flowing until the matter is resolved in a separate court proceeding. (Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, broadcast or distributed.) Subscribe To Arkansas Business Nominate Arkansas llusiness 40 Under 40 Submit A Whi~:.per Submit Calendar Event Vote For Best Of Business Follow @ArkBusiness On Twitter Subscribe To N\VA BusinesJso urnal 1/1/7()1? Education otebook CYNTHIA HOWELL AND EVIE BLAD ARKANSADSE MOCRAT-GAZETTE Ex-chiesfe eking post in Louisiana Charles Hopson, the former superintendent of the Pulaski County Special School District, is now one of 43 candii dates for the superintendent's position in the 43,300-student East Baton Rouge Parish, La., school system. Hopson had headed the Pulaski County Special district for almost one year when Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell and the Arkansas Department of Education took control of the fiscally distressed district. The school board was dissolved and Hopson was immediately dismissed. Two years remained on his contract. . A state-appointed school district chief was named to manage the district. Hopson filed a federal lawsuit last August against Kimbrell, Gov. Mike Beebe and Pulaski County Special's current superintendent, Jerry Guess, challenging the constitutionality of Arkansas statutes that grant, or have been interpreted to grant, the Education Department the authority to "disavow" contracts with superintendents and teachets. The lawsuit, which is still pending, also accused the defendants of ending Hopson's contract without a fair hearing or due process and without just compensation. Officiahl ealing from heart attack Gene Whilhoit, a former director of the Arkansas Department of Education in the mid-1990s and now the executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, is recovering from a heart attack that he suffered on Christmas Eve, according to State EdWatch, a blog sponsored by the national Education Week newspaper. Wilhoit, 68, has told state education chiefs that he expects to make a full recovery and return to work within a couple of months. The Council of Chief State School Officers, to which Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell belongs, has been a leader in promoting the development and implementation of the national Common Core State Standards in math and English/language arts. The organization has also been at the forefront in working with Congress to re-craft the terms of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, known as the No Child Left Behind Act. of Marketing and Advertising, will serve as acting dean, replacing former Dean Tony Chelte, Chancellor Joel Anderson wrote in a note to faculty. ''After much consideration I have concluded that a change in leadership of the College of Business would serve the interests of the college," Anderson wrote. UALR spokesman Judy Williams would not say why Anderson had removed Chelte, calling it a "personnel issue." Wayland previously served as interim dean of the business college from 2007 to 2009. Chelte's salary as dean was $188,850. UAr anked5 3rd in best-valuleis t Kiplinger'sP ersonalF inance named the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville 53rd on its 100 Best Values in Public Colleges list. The organization compiles the list by ranking more than 500 public institutions in quality measures sudi as graduation rates and cost measures such as financial aid availability and total student expenses. The UA is the only Arkansas college or university on the list, released Jan. 3. Students at the Fayetteville The chancellor of the Uni- university graduate with an versity of Arkansas at Little average debt of $21,562
acRock has replaced the school's cording to Kiplinge(s. business dean, he said Friday. Businesdse an at UALRre placed Jane Wayland, currently chairman of the Department New countys Chootli mesu rged Districtp roposese arliers tartf or elementaryp upilsi n 2012-13 CYNTHIA HQWELL switch from the current bell for middle and high schools said. The late start time also ARKANSAS DE!v!OCRAT-GAZETIE schedule in the state's third- would range from 3:30 p.m. makes it difficult for parents Pulaski County Special largest district of about 17,600 to 3:55 p.m. to see their children off to bus School District leaders are students. . Elementary school start stops in the morning before proposing a change in the In genera( elenientary times are now 8:2S a.m. to they leave for work. ' start and dismissal times for schools would start between 8:30 a.m., and secondary "It was a fine-idea to have schools in 2012-13 to aJl:ay the 7:45 a.m. and 8:15 .a.m. next schools start about 7:30 a.m., tried this, but we really.think conce'rns of som'e i,arents school-year, with'seconc!ary .
an arrarigement,that has been this new,schedule would be and save money in the c:1),sh- schools beginning between a corn
:ern t6 pru-ents, Super- to the advantage of parents, strappeq dil\tzict. / ~ {'?~ 8": 10 a.m. and 8:35 a.m., ac- intendent JerrGyu ess said. particularly to the elementary : If th'fj:,r'oposai-i~ i~pl~
' :cording to th(, p~6posal put Many parents who start parents," _he said. meJ.?-t,e.de,l ementary
~c,R'.<i&($oVut. lf or publi<.:c 9nsideration. work at 8 a.m. have to drop :pelaymg _the s_econdary would'.,have',ead{er'.'.~'irii/' , Elementary, dismissal off their eleme.ntary children school startm~ times _also ing times' th~,.~p'i
IR. c_(a,}~_fitrn esw ould.',' IJI).gef rom 2:30 at school at 7:45 a:m, but cla.ss ! ~~:~~_. e_~~fic1~:,1h rr Sat1
and high schools,_wh:,i1j.).~a:g... m. t~3 P!Jl.
t~d dismissal doesn't start uritil 8:25, Gue~s , ...._ ..~~e~. T~~T~ Tl~-~~ age 7B Start time Continued from Page i B "They are starting as early at 7:30 a.m. Is it better to start . early, or is it better to start late? I havea 10th-grader that I'm raising, and it is hard as the dickens to get him up," he said. Guess acknowledged that some people like the system as it is, and he doesn't discount those opinions, "but this does gives l\S a chance to satisfy a lot of concerns and be more efficient in our bus system operation at the same time." The district was classified by the state as fiscally distressed last spring. In June, state Department of Education officials took over the district, dismissing the superintendent and disbanding the School Board because of continued financial concerns. State Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell appointed Guess to head the district until local control is reinstated or the state Education Board takes other action against the district. Kimbrell serves as the district's School Board. Derek Scott, the district's chief operations officer, said the district could save a minimum of $500,000 if the new schedule is instituted. The savings would result from combining routes, reducing staff through attrition and retiring at least 20 buses, depending on transportation needs in the new school year. Currently the district has a fleet of about 375 buses, Scott said. Deborah Roush, a spokesman for the district, said district leaders wanted to give the public ample time to react to the possible schedule change. "We know some would celebrate this news, and for others it will mean the need to make scheduling changes. That's why it was critical to begin discussions about this as soon as possible," Roush said. Roush said parents with questions or comments may contact the district at (501) 234-2038 or send the district a message about the plan via a contact form on the district's ,web site: pcssd.org. The district's current bell schedule has been in place since September 2010. The schedule was the end result of months of disae:reement between the district and the Pulaski Association of Classroom T~achers on school-day schedulmg and other issues. The schedule resulted in the purchas"e of39 additional buses - bought used from the Memphis area - and the hiring of as many as 50 drivers. Initially, district leaders instituted a restructured teacher workday in which elementary teachers' 45-minute planning time was incorporated into the students' school day, rather than before or after the student day. That resulted in a longer student class day. State law requires that teacher preparation time be built into the student day unless that is waived in contract negotiations between a district and its teachers, as it had been in the Pulaski County district. But in early 2010, the district's School Board voted to end its recognition of the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers as a represent~ tive of the employees, making the change'in teacher preparation time and student class day necessary to conform to state law. Individual teachers and the teachers' association sued the Pulaski County Special district and some School Board members over the altered schedule, contending that the restructured day violated the terms of the teachers' contract. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox ultimately voided the School Board votes that ended recognition of the teacher union and directed that the district recognize the existing teacher contract that put the 45-minute planning periods before and after the elementary school day. Then-Superintendent Charles Hopsqn attempted to retain the n~w start and stop times for schools., arguing that the longer school day was beneficial to students. Just before a court hearing in the teachers' legal challenge to the altered bell schedule, an agreement was reached that created the current start and dismissal times. As a result of the agreedupon schedule, the elementary and secondary schools were dismissing at close to the same times in the afternoon _,_ about 3 p.m. That prevented the district from staggering the use of its buses !n the afternoon and making 1t necessary to acquire addition
i l h11sPs. Educationno tebook CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSADS EMOCRAT-GAZETTE Firmt o helps tate seek law leeway The Arkansas Department of Education has contracted with EducationCounsel of Washington, D.C., for help in crafting a proposal to the U.S. Department of Education for flexibility in complying with the federal No Child Left Behind Act. In September, as efforts in Cong~ess to alter the law stalled, the federal Education Department invited states to propose waivers to the law - including the provision that calls for 100 percent of students to score at prbficient or advanced levels on. state mathematics and literacy tests by 2013-14. To that end, the state has set minimum annual student achievement requirements for schools. Schools in which the student body as a whole or subgroups of students fail to meet the annual requirements are labeled as needing improvement and penalized. The Arkansas Education Department in November and December held forums around the state to solicit ideas for revisions to the state's system for holding schools accountable. Education Counsel is a law, policy, strategy and advocacy organization that works to improve education systems, close achievement gaps and expand student access to educational opportunities. State officials hope to take a draft proposal to Dallas at the end of this month for rev. iew by the_ Council of Chief State School Officers and submit the state proposal to the federal Education Department by a Feb. 21 deadline. Districat ddss ite for registrations A change has been made this year in one of the locations for the Little Rock School District's annual reg- I istration for students who will be new to the district in 2012-13o r who want to attend schools other than their attendance- zone schools. The registration period is Jan. 23 through Feb. 3. As in the past, parents may register theii: children in kindergarten.through 12th grades at their attendancezone schools or at the schools they would like to attend. Additionally, in the first week of registration, which is Jan. 23-27, parents may register their children who will be in prekindergarten through high school at a site being used by the district for the first time this year - St. Mark Baptist Church, 5722 W. 12th St. The hours for registration will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. During the second week of registration, Jan. 30 through Feb. 3, parents may register at the district's Student Registration Office, ,501 Sherman St., near East Capitol Avenue and Interstate 30. The St. Mark site is being used this year because it is larger and more centrally located than the district's Student Registration Office. Communications chief to resign Tiffany Hoffman, the Little Rock School District's director of communications for the past five years, is resigning from the job effective March 1. Hoffman, who is a former district teacher, said she is taking a position with a local real estate company. Little Rock Superintendent Morris Holmes announced the resignation at a School Board meeting Thursday night in which he asked the School Board members to provide him with ideas about commu11ications and public relations for the_s tate's largest school system. FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2012 3B Judge sides with state on school data : EVIE BLAD ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE A federal judge refused Thursday to require the Arkansas Department of Education to provide some information requested by attorneys for the Little Rock School District to prepare for a hearing in the decades-long Pulaski County school-desegregation lawsuit. The Arkansas attorney general's office, the district and an intervening party representing black students in the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts are preparing for a March hearing regarding the impact of charter schools on enforcement of a 1989 settlement agreement in the case. U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. said information that the state provided was adequate for the hearing, which was scheduled to determine if the issue merits consideration by the court. He said he may require the state to provide the requested information later if the issue goes to trial. "While the data that has been provided is not perfect, it is substantial," Marshall said. "I believe it is adequate for the parties to argue to the court on whether or not the matter should proceed." The state provided data showing numbers of students who transferred from Little Rock schools to charter schools in Pulaski County and what percentages of them were of certain races, and academic and income levels. Chris Heller, an attorney for the Little Rock School District, said that information was sorted in a way that makes it difficult to track patterns involving race, academic achievement and poverty. The data lacked "linking information" that would allow researchers to identify one student by multiple characteristics. -\. I More information Desegregatiofnil es arkansasonline.com/desegdocs/ Assistant Attorney General Scott Richardson said providing that level of detail could put the state at risk of violating the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Such a violation could put millions of dollars of federal funding that the state receives annually in jeopardy, he said. "As you increase the level of detail about students, you increase the likelihood of identifying those students," Richardson said. Heller said court precedent showed that such information could be provided under a court order without violating the privacy act. The district would be willing to sign a protection order, agreeing not to use the data to determine the names of individual students, he said. Marshall said the state was likely being "overly cautious and hypersensitive" about.providing the information, which does not include students' names or addresses. "If we have this fight on the merits eventually, th.is may well come out another way," he said. The Little Rock district and the Joshua intervenors, repre-senting the black students in the desegregation case, contend that the state gave unconditional approval to the establishment of taxpayersupported, independently operated charter schools in Pulaski County without regard to the effect the charter schools wo'L)ld have on desegregation efforts in the three districts. They have argued that the charter schools - of which there are about a dozen in the county - draw students who would otherwise choose to attend magnet schools or participate in the majority- to-minority transfer program,. both of which are intended to promote racial desegregation. The district further argued that more affluent, higherachieving students move to charter schools, leaving the districts with greater concentrations of high-need students and fewer resources to serve them. Auditors again cite districtf or bank.lags CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKAN~ASD EMOCRAT-GAZETTE Auditors cited the North Little Rock School District for failing for the fourth consecutive year to reconcile school district accounts and bank statements in a timely manner. However, the audit also noted that since the June 30 end of the audited fiscal year, school district officials are reconciling accounts as required. "We recommend that the district take steps to resolve any reconciling differences and continue preparing future reconciliations in a timely manner," the.Hudson, Cisne & Co. audit said. ' The North Little Rock School Board on Thursday approved the district's 2010-11 audit. The district's failure in 2007- 08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 to do regular bank reconciliations through01.1tth e year resulted in the 9,000-student district being classified by the state Board of E?ucation last May as "fiscally distressed." School districts in the state's fiscal-distress. program must develop and carry out a stateapproved financial improvement plan, and they are subject to state supervision of all fman- ' cial practices, including district spending. Denise Drennan began woJk July 1 as the North Little Rock distric
t's chief financial officer. At that point Drennan and her staff could not correct the earlier reporting on the bank statements. "The [fiscal] year was already complete," Drennan said in an interview after the board vote Thursday. "Even though we went back and looked at those statements for accuracy we still couldn't change the time that they were turned in. So we kne~ we "':ere going to have an audit fmding for timely reconciliation of bank statements." Drennan said that while the auditors were preparing the 2010-11 audit in October and November, they could see c_hanges in the district's operations. 'We had already implemented a lot of new procedures," Drennan said. "Our bank statements are being tu~ned in by the 10th of the month like they are supposed to be. They are accurate. The auditors could see tl
iose changes." In each of the first six months of the 2012 fiscal year the variance between bank and district accounts has remained at a constant $98,128.75. "In our detail for the month we can get to zero, but we still have the $98,000 that carries forward:' Drennan said. She said she anticipates that the state Department of Education will eventually authorize correcting the district's financial records to elii
ninate the longstanding variance. Countys chool ~ct puts7 8 projectso n fix-upl ist EVIE BLAD ARKANSADSE MOCRAT-GAZETTE Leaders of the Pulaski County Special School District presented Thursday a list of an estimated $7 million in facilities projects designed to keep the district's buildings "dry, safe and warm." The district will prioritize the 78 projects "through the desegregation lens" to en,sure it applies greater emphasis on Projects Continued from Page 18 facilities in majority-black and poor areas, Chief Operating Officer Derek Scott said. Work on the six-year plan will start in the next few months, with about $2 million to $3 million of projects completed in the first year, he said. The list, which includes repairing roofs, adding security lighting and replacing heating systems, is dwarfed in comparison to a $104 million construction plan supported by ,former Superintendent Charles Hopson last year. That plan, which called for new construction, aggressive rehabilitation and consolidation of several campuses, was shelved indefinitely when the state took control of the fiscally distressed district in June, dissolving its board and removing Hopson, said state-appointed Superintendent Jerry Guess. The previous plan was "not supported by the current financial situation of the district," he said. Exercising authority under school-finance laws, the state took control of the district after several audits turned up problems and after public infighting among School Board members. and achievement. But tixin_gfa cilities to the court's satisfaction will likely require additional funding through a voter-approved tax increase, he said. Arkansas Department of Education employees quickly discovered the district had spent nearly $7 million more than it took in the previotis year. That.led to cost-cutting and careful.spending, Guess said. "What we're trying to do right now is take care of the buildings that we have," he said.' See PROJECTPSa,g e 68 At therneeting, Scott showed slides of deteriorating roofs, poorly draining sidewalks and crumbling metal exterior doors with holes that let sunlight peek into buildings. Rizelle Aaron, an officer in the Jacksonville chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, asked Scott how the funds would be targeted to "predominantly minority areas." Federal judges in the decades- long Pulaski County school desegregation lawsuit, which also involves the Little Rock and North Little Rock districts, have cited greater facilities spending in majority-white and afiluent parts of the county district when they refused to declare it unitary, or desegregated, in the area of.facilities. "Given the state of the economy right now, I don't think we can get voters to approve that," Guess said. Scott said the list of projects would be fulfilled with schools in areas targeted in the desegregation rulings receiving top priority. "Right now, we're fiscally constrained," he said. ''But we're going to do what we can with what we have." State law requires school districts to file annual facilities plans with the Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division. Those plans must first be reviewed in public hearings, like the one held Thursday, and approved by the district's school board. Under state controL Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell will review the documents in place of a school board, Scott said. Teachers and parents attending Thursday's hearing listed additional facilities needs, citing warped and missing ceiling tiles, faulty heating systems and lack of exterior lights on some buildings. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis last month upheld a lower court's ruling that denied unitary status to the county district in nine areas, including facilities. Guess said Thursday that he believes the district can quickly remedy problems in other areas, such as student assignme!lt Replacing a 40-year-old roof at the Fuller Middle School main building will be the first project, he said Other projects include resolving drainage issues at several buildings, adding awnings, replacing sewer pipes in some facilities and remodeling bathrooms. The projects will be funded through the district's facilities fund, which has about $3 million, Scott said. Guess said the district has worked to trim el(:penses by. changing its fringe benefits plan, reworking its bell sch~dule for students and negotiating new contracts with some suppliers. - Districrt egistration set for new students ARKANSASD EMOCRAT-GAZETTE will register at the Pulaski New student registration County Special School Disfor the 2012-13 school year trict administration buildin the Pulaski County Spe- ing, 925 E. Dixon Road
Little cial School District is set for Rock. Monday through Feb. 3. Students who want to The registration period attend magnet schools or is for pre-kindergarten, kin- participate in other types dergarten and any other stu- of school-choice progr
ims, dents who will be first-time inclu.ding the majority-tostudents in the Pulaski Coun- minority interdistrict stuty Special district, which en- dent transfer program or an compasses Maumelle, Sher- academic specialty program, wot>d, Jacksonville, parts of also must sign up at the diswest Little Rock and w'est trict's administration buildPulaski County, and south- ing. Permission to participate east Pulaski County. in school-choice programs is To aid parents in making granted on a first-come, firstdecisions about schools for served basis. their children, the district is To register a student, hosting an open house at all parents or guardians need schools in the district from to present identification for 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday. the child, such as a birth cerParents may use that time to tificate or a registrar statetour schools and meet school ment, baptismal certificate, personnel. passport, affidavit or military Locations for registration identification. vary according to the stu- Also necessary are the dentt's grade level and other child's previous school re-acp o rs.i ,
"d t' kinde cor d s, rm muruz atlo n recor d s, re-NM' erg~.r
e n, _,
-::a. transcript or last report garten and elementary pupils are supposed to register at card, and Social Se':ur~ty the schools they will attend. ~a.rd. H~wever, the d1st~1ct Registration for mic!dle will assign an alternative and high school students will number to any student whose be held at regional registra- paren_ts choos~ not to reveal tion hubs as follows a Soc1al,Secunty number. Students who will attend Address verification also Jacksonville and Sherwood is necessary in the form of area middle and high schools a curre~t utility bill, a Little will register at Sylvan Hills Rock Air Force Base housMiddle School,.10001 John- ing verific
ation form, homeson St., Sherwood. purchase closing papers or Students who will attend home lease agreements. Robinson ar{d Maumelle area More information about middle and high schools will Pulaski County Special register at Maumelle High School District schools and School, lOQ Victory Lane, the registration procedures Maumelle. is available by calling the S'tudents who will aftend district's Office of Equity Fuller Middle School and and Pupil Services at (501) Mills University High School 234-2020. Open~ nrollment 1begins Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STEPHEBN. THORNTON Victoria Williams, 3, plays as her mother, Jessica Williams, signs her up for the Little Rock School District's 4-year-old program Monday at St. Mark Baptist Church, 5722 W. 12th St. Enrollment shifts next Monday to the Student Registration Office at 501 Sherman St. Registration under way for NLRschools ARKANSASD EMOCRATGAZETI"E Registration is under way for students who will be new to the North Little Rock School District in the 2012-13 school year. To register children in the North Little Rock district, parents must present proof of residence at their neighborhood school. Additionally, parents of North Little Rock students who want to attend specialprogram magnet schools in Little Rock School District must apply by Feb. 3 at the North Little Rock School District's administration building, 2700 N. Poplar St. Students who live in the Pulaski County Special School District but want to enroll in the North Little Rock School District through the majority-to-minority interdistrict school-transfer program should complete an application at the administration building in the district in which they reside. The majority-to-minority transfer program allows students who live in a Pulaski County district in which their race is predominant to transfer to a district where their race is in the minority. Students who live outside the district but want to attend North Little Rock schbols through school-choice programs other than the majority- to-minority program must register at the North Little Rock district's administration building. Children who will be 5 on or before Aug. 1 this year are eligible to attend kindergarten for the 2012-13 school year. 2B WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2012 Sclioorle gistratioin NLR. ! ' , I Arkansas Democr
it-Ga,z~tte/RICK McFARLAND The North Little Rock School District's director of student affairs, Fran Jackson (right), display~ a map while helping Matf.a~d Jennifer Reed register their son, Jack, 4, for kindergarten as his sister Georgia, 2, sits patiently. Registration in the district runs through Feb.-3. Educationno tebook CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Reimbursements soughitn lawsuit The Little Rock School District and black students known as the Joshua intervenors are seeking reimbursement for legal fees and costs in their successful challenge last year of a court order that would have ended most state desegregation aid to the three Pulaski County school districts. The Little Rock district filed a petition in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at St Louis seeking nearly $95,000 from the state, Chris Heller, an attorney for the district, notified the Little Rock School Board late last week. The state had defended U.S. District Judge Brian Miller's May 2011 order to immediately end most of the $70 million a year in state desegregation aid to the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County school districts. A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court on Dec. 28 negated Miller's order, saying that if the state wished to obtain relief from its funding obligations there had to be an evidentiary hearing on the issue. Heller and Clay Fendley, who represented the district on the appeal, routinely discount their hourly fees for their work for the district. But they petitioned the 8th Circuit for their standard rates of $300 and $160 an hour. 'The rates charged to LRSD for th~ appeal were $200 and $120, respectively," Heller told the board. "Clay and I have agreed, however, that all fees awarded by the Eighth Circuit should go to LRSD and not to compensate us for the difference between our regular rates and our discmunted rates." Heller said attorneys for the Joshua intervenors, who successfully defended Miller's ruling that the Pulaski County Special School District had failed to comply with its desegregation plan, have petitioned the court for more than $366,000 in fees and costs. Reporitn cludes data on absences Morris Holmes, superintendent of the Little Rock School District, ha~ begun regularly updating the School Board on the progress the district is making toward meeting its goals of raisipg student achievement. The resulting quarterly report is a big one, 348 pages, chock-full of2010 and 2011 data - including teacher absenteeism and stu~ent absences and tardies - information that previously hasn't always been as timely or easy to put a finger on. There were 6,046 schoolbased certified-employee absences for illness in th.e second quarter this year that ended in December. That was 265 more days than the 5,781a bsences f?r illness in the second quarter m the 2010-11s chool year. A total of 711.5 personal leave days were taken by teachers and principals in the second quarter of this school year. That's up from the 603.5 personal leave days taken in the same time period last year. The number of absences for professional leave dec~d from 2,053 in the second quarter in the previous school year as compared with 1,460.5 in the second quarter that just ended. As for the district's 25,027 students, an average of 1,256 students were absent ~ach day in the second nine-week quarter of the school year. In that same period, there were 12,497 students who were tardy to school a total of36,358 times. The quarterly report also includ\!S grade-by-grade and school-by-school test results, as well as numbers of students in gifted education, special education and English-languagelearning programs. Data on student enrollment in foreign language, art and Advanced Placement courses is included, as are data on how many students qualify for subsidized school meals and how many 1 students were disciplined so far this year as compared with 1,.,.,... Theaa nnounces scholarshwipi ns The Thea Foundation of North Little Rock has announced the winners of its 2012 Performing Arts Scholarship Competition in which 77 high school seniors competed Jan. 7 for scholarships. John Hatfield ofRussellville High School won first place and a scholarship of $4,000. Mary-Katelin Ward, North Little Rock High School, won second place and a $3,500 scholarship. Stacy Hawking, North Little Rock High School, received third-place honors and a $3,000 scholarship. Sara Williams, a homeschooled student from Roland, won fourth place and a $2,500 award. Meredith Short, North Little Rock High School, placed fifth
Dominic Smith of Rogers Heritage High was sixth
Elizabeth Wheeler, a home-schooled student from Alexander was seventh
Walter Dodd, Little Rock Parkview Magnet High
was eighth
Dylan Worth, Cabot High, was ninth
and Ashley Tramel, Russellville High, was 10th. Each of the fiftb-throughlOth- place winners received $2,000 awards. Hono~able mention awards went to Robert Brave, Little Rock Central High
Chacall Charles, Little Rock Central High
Grace Dyer, Rogers High
Taylor Jacob, Joe T. Robinson High
Jenna O'Dell, Farmington High
and Michael Roberson, Little Rock Catholic High School for Boys. District piles up fiscal distress Statef urtherc itesc ountys chools . CY:}!"THIA,}J:QWELL i_r~figul_ari5\u~~.s,.~ _oy~redb y 'ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE stl#tanq private aui:hts. The Arkaqsas P!'!par.t- The district, which has al-ment of Education is recom- ready lpst its locally elected mending that the Pulaski School Board and its boardCounty Special School Dis- hired superintendent, is in trict be classified as fiscally jeopardy of being merged .distressed because of a $5.5 with one or more other million drop in the. district's school systems if it cannot financial reserves between fix its financial problems. the beginning and end of the Bill Goff, the Pulaski 2010-ll school year. County Special district's The agency recomrnenda- chief financial officer, said tion to the Arkansas Board of the district will very likely Education is unprecedented have to cut at least $7 million because the school system in 17penses for the coming is already in the state's fiscal 2012-13 school year. distress program and actu- He characterized the ally under state control. The state's latest recommendastate classified the district as tion as a call for the district fiscally distressed in March to add to a plan it prepared 2011 for a different reason last year in response to its - financial management See PCSSDP,a ge 3A PCSSD al times that were last used throughout the district in 2009-10. That change would Continued from Page 1A save about $500,000, offiinitial placement in the state's cials estimate. A new schoolfiscal distress program. bell schedule would require "We will have to revise our fewer bus routes and buses financ::ial imprqvemen't plan as well.a.sfewer.payments to to ~l)_()w,.tiowwew ill:remedy employees for before- and our de.dining balances
"' said after-school supervision qf Goff. sjf1ents.-' .. Thit is necessary, he said, . Additionally, the 'district to build.up 'the district's year- has restructured its employend b~Iahies while accom- ee fringe benefit package in a modating some new but nee- way that will save the district essary costs such as replacing money, Go.ess ~aid'. buses. And district administrators The state Education Board and leaders of th'e teachers is to act on the department's and support ~ervice employee latest recommendation for unions haye agreed to no genfiscal distress at its meeting eral raises for this school year, at 9 a.m. Monday. although eligible employees .Jerry Guess, the district's are rec::eiving a step inerease state-appointed superinten- fortheir additionalyear of _dent, notified the Education work experience. . . Department that the state's -- Gue.ss s'aid the dis,trict is third-largest_ district ~on't pi~mii,n'g. touse rdoney in oppose the state's rriove to, its building fun:d toCrehcivate expand the list of problems about a dozen schools: ithl disfrict must correct. He :''[n cl:oing Hiat work, we will
chowever, attend'Mon- believe'thatwill increase ef- d.a . _ r,,
Isw.e. .i_llb~tein e~r.. ed.p.'..,'.L.: a,.rt.'a..:.t-..f,.,.e.i
d ency .iri some of those " rn , l:iJ~gs arid:th
:i.i:wilSl !Vues meeting to address the' state costs," he said: "We are hopBoard with a statement of ing that by doing those renowhat has been done, as well as vation projects we will entice my proposal for future action, the community to continue to to remove PCSSD from its attend our schools and perfiscal distress status," Guess haps return' some kids who wrote last week to Kathleen are not in our schools back Crain, interim assistantcom- to our schools." missioner for fiscal and ad- The district .would likely ministrative services at the receive an increase in state Education Department. aid for any growth in s~dent "We are looking at a lot enrollment. of things for the new year," Enrollment is 17,637 this Guess said in an interview year, a 136-student inqease Monday about possible cost- over the previous year. Over saving measures. the long term the district's Those measures include enrollment has decreased, the possibility of returning to falling from 21,871 in 1988-89 school opening and dismiss- to 18,710 in 2000-01. Guess also welcomed what could be a warmer-than-average winter this year as away to save tens of thousands of dollars in utility costs. "We need some things to break our way," he said. Guess said he and Goff are continuing this week to consider other options. "We are spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to approach these issues in the most reasonable and equitable way possible." Adding to the reasons why the Pulaski County Special district is in fiscal distress won't buy the district any more time to correct its financial deficiencies, Seth Blomeley, a spokesman for the Education Department, said Monday. The district now has a little more than a year left to comply with what will be its revised financial improvement plan. The district's revised plan will be subject to state approval. A district in the state's fiscal distress program, by Jaw, has no more than two years to correct its financial problems. The state board must consolidate, annex or reconstitute any school district that fails to remove itself from the fiscal distress classification within the two-year window, uniess the state board finds that there are extenuating circumstances at play beyond the control of the school districts. The Education Department can take over a fiscally distressed district at any time before the two years expires if the agency staff determines that the district is not making TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012 3A satisfactory progress. ders in excess of the district's ' Indeed, the department policy of $1,000 per vendor took over the county district per month. last June, dismissing Charles At the time, state officials Hopson, who had been su- thought the district had suffiperintendent for just about cient reserve funds. But after a year, and dissolving the the state took over the district seven-member school board. last June, state officials deterGuess was appointed super- mined that the district had intendent by Arkansas Edu- drawn from its reserves. cation Commissioner Tom Goff said Monday .that Kimbrell. Kimbrell serves as the district's legal balances the district's school board. dropped from $9.5 million to Last month, Kimbrell called $4 million by the end of last on state lawmakers to amend year. Legal balances are those the state's fiscal distr.ess law to that the district has discretion aliow tb~--statetc' i hold on to on ho:w to"s pend and are not contro'I.ofajo~~~cooldistrict earmarked for specific purfor ..u p:tq fj.\r(!y e:s. Kimbrell poses. s~ld tw9
.years is not always The district is benefiting enough.time for a community this school year from a oneto:- be re1dy to choose school time, $15.4 million windfall boarcL~e.mb~rs who can man-. in operating funds, which is age dismctfmances: and select the result of a change in.state a cap~ble sperinte~qent. . law on the ~ccounting for lo- Th~
Jtuli\ski Goiin
-t~yp e- cal property'tax revem.ie,to dal qidtrictJ i.its'p l'ii.c
'_eind the district. . fiscahdistress-fn 2011. after As a resuit of that ~barige, State'f)iv.i~ion ofLegisiative Arkansas s~hool districts no Audit:w.vi'stigationsihito the 101:ger defer tax revenue redistricfcjtedinternal control ce1ved befor~ June 30 to the d~fici('iri:ci1'etlh a:leta to'::rru.ir, ' next school year. . a~pr~:bt-i~fion' of.:'iqre tli'~n: \> 9o_ff hafsaid that the. a,c$ 400,000'in cine department,, com:itmg change g~ve t~e ~uexcess pay to a former SU- laski ~ounty Special d1stnct perintendent, and unallowed more time to get current-year expense reimbursements to reve~ue an~ current year exadministrators and School pend1tures m sync. Board mernl:iers. State aiidi-tors also found failure in the district to follow purchasing policies and poor oversight of overtime compensation: Additionally, private auditors cited the district in fiscal years 2008, 2009 and 2010 for failing to put controls in place for reconciling bank statements in a timely manner, failing to document funding sources for employee pay, and issuing blanket purchase or- Countys choold istrictt o cut 77 jobs ' . CYNTHIA HOWELL ' ARKANSADS EMOCRAT-GAZETrE ' The Pulaski County Special School District will reduce its staff by 77 positions through attrition and layoffs, and it will seek concessions in benefits and working conditions from employee unions in an effort to cut a total of $13 million for the 2012-13s chool year. Superintendent Jerry Guess and Bill Goff, the chief financial officer in the 17,000- student district, announced the budget-cutting plans at an Arkansas Board of Education meeting Monday in which thestate board added declining year-end balances to the reasons why the district is classified as fiscally distressed. As part 9f the fiscal distress program
, th(! district's expenditures'are subject to state Department of Education approval. The district has the remainder of this year and tpe coming school year to right its financial problems or the state board must take action, such as merging the district with one or more other districts. ' The state board initially classified the district as fiscally distressed in March 2011 because of financial mismanagement of pubHc funds uncovered by state and private audits. After the state Department of Eduqation took control pf the district last June by dissolving the School Board and See PCSSDP, age6 A Pesso Continued from Page 1 A dismissing the board-hired superintendent, officials determined that the district's legal balances in 2010-11 had dropped from $9.5 million to $4 million by the end of the year. Legal balances are funds that a district generally has discretion on how to spend, and are not earmarked for specific purposes. Guess told the board the district has identified more than $6 million in cuts but needs to reduce $7 million in employee benefits that are in excess of those required by the state to take effect iri 2012-13. Most employees in the district are represented by either the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers or the Pulaski Association of Support Staff. Guess told the Education Board he would notify the unions today that the district will request reopening negotiations on those contracts. "Our goal is to first convince the union that the situation ... is critieal and it does exist and that it will be fatal to the continued existence of the district if those conditions are not corrected," said Guess, who was appointed in late June to head the district by state Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell. Kimbrell serves in the role as the district's School Board. "I do not want to approach these negotiations with an attitude of not succeeding or in a threatening posture," Guess said. But he also said: "What I will do if we do not succeed, suffice it to say that I do have a plan for unilateral implementation of the district's last, best and final offer to the unions during these negotiations." Pressed by state board members to elaborate, Guess only said he was committed to reaching an agreement and to having a productive 2012-13 school year for students. Goff told the board that without budget cuts, the district - which has a $170 million budget and more than 2,800 employees - would exceed revenue by $13,633,277 in th~ coming school year. The district has identified $6,667,680 in reductions, including the elimination of 77 positions through retirements and resignations or, if necessary, a reduction-in-force to save a projected $3.85pilllion. Those would includ~ teaching, administrative ahd support staff positions. Another $775,328 will be saved by not filling positions already vacant. To offset eliminated jobs, the district would fill classes to the maximum number of students permitted by state standards. Other identified cuts include a $1.5 million change , in the employee's insurance i
,p.ckage, as well I\S a new copier machine contract, and a change in the opening and dismissal times for schools. Goff has identified $14.85 million in benefits that are not required by the state and could be cut from the contract with the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers. Another $1.4 million in benefits also could be cut from the district's contract with the, Pulaski Association of Sup-i port Staff, he said. ( Provisions in the emploriee contracts that could be cut include reducing the teacher work year from 192 to 190 days at a savings of $795,000, restricting the payment of teachers for noninstructional duties such as bus and recess duty at a savings of $642,752, and discontinuing the salary credits to teachers for professional groyVth classes given in the district, a savings of $2.8 million. . Other contracted benefits subject to cuts include $669,678 in "severance" pay to teachers who retire, $135,032 in stipends'to 37 teachers who earned-certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards and $996,137 in longevity pay to 556 teachers and administrators who have reached the top of the salary s.chedule. The district would save nearly $3 million by contributing only the state-required $131 per month to employee health insurance versus $272.80 per month now paid to 1,747 covered employees. Another $1.4 million could b~ !ealized by cutting dental, v1s1on and disability insurance. Additional benefits now provided in the teachers' contract that are subject to possible cuts dea,1w ith leave time in excess of one sick day for each month of employment. The current leave policies cost the district about $2 million a year in substitute teacher pay. Goff tpld the board that the $7 million in cuts to employee costs are needed to compensate so~e antic~pated increases, mcluding $1.4 million in experience step increases to employees for next year a $2.8 million bus replacenie'.nt program, a $500,000 increase in workers' compensa:ti,
m insurance, a $588,000 transfer of funds to the food service program, and a 1 percent fucrease of $1.7 million to the legal balance fund to protect the district in case of emer- genci~s. Education Board member .~rend_a Gullett of Fayetteville questioned why Guess and the Education Department had to adhere to the employee contracts since the state takeover. "Why do you have to negotiate with anyone?" she asked. "It would be in the best interest of the district to come to an agreement and work together," Kimbrell said. "This pathway is in the best interest of the kids and the school . district." Curtaicl harters, LR schoolsu rge District tells U.S. court that state vi9lateds ettlementm, akei t pay CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSASD EMOCRAT-GAZETTE The state should be stopped from opening or expanding charter schools and forced to pay Pulaski Coun- . ty's three school districts for di~trict students who moved to the independently run charter schools, attorneys for the Little Rock School District and black students known as the Joshua intervenors said Tuesday. In a motion submitted to U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr., the attorneys argued that the state - including the Arkansas Department of Education and the state Board of Education - have violated in multiple'ways a 1989 settlement agreement in the long-running Pulaski County school desegregation lawsuit. , Chris Heller and Clay Fendley, attorneys for the Little Rock district and Rep. John Walker and Robert Pressman for the Joshua intervenors contend that the violations include state retaliation against the three Pulaski County districts because of the settlement. Those retaliatory acts inSee CHARTERPSa,g e 7A Charters Continued from Page 1 A elude limiting payments for school bus transportation in the districts, subjecting the three districts.to special fmancial audits and failing to reimburse the Little Rock district for legal fees incurred in the district's successful attainment of unitary status in 2007. "The State's admissions and other undisputed evidence show significant and continuing State violations of the 1989 Settlement Agreement," the attorneys wrote. "None of the facts necessary for the Court to rule in fa\! Or of LRSD and Joshua are in dispute. LRSD should be granted summary judgment," the attorneys said in the filing that totaled more than 1,000 pages, including depositions and reports. Summary judgment is a court order in which a judge decides that there are no disagreements about the facts in a case and that a judge can make a decision without a trial or court hearing. Tuesday's motion comes in the aftermath of the Little Rock School District's May 2010 motion to enforce the settlement agreement in regard to the state-approved establishment of independently run charter schools"in Pulaski County. The district has argued that the charter scho9ls - of which there are 12 - were approved witho'ut considering the ef fect the schools would have on,magnet schools and the majority-to-minority student transfer program in the three districts. Those interdistrict student transfer programs are part of the 1989 settlement agreement and are an effort to promote racial desegregation in the three districts. Attorneys said in Tuesday's filings that 331 Little Rock students moved directly froln magnet schools td, char- More information Schoodl istricttsa keovear nd desegregation arkansasonline.com/dese' gdoc/ ter schools between 2005-06 and 2010-ll, and 20 more Little Rock district students moved from the majority-to-minority student transfer program to charter schools. In August, Marshall directed the district and the Joshua intervenors - who contend that the state failed to meet its obligations to work to improve the achievement of black students in the three districts - to file a joint statement of facts in the case this month. The state, repr:esented by Attorney General Dustin McDaniel's office, and the Pulaski County open-enrollment charter schools, have been directed by the court to file their own statement of facts by March 12. Marshall has set a March 29 hearing to decide what steps to take next. Representatives of the attorney general's office and the charter school intervenors said late Tuesday that they had just received the motion for summary judgment and accompanying documents and had not had time to review them. "I will ... respond in court according to the time frame established. by Judge Marshall,'' said Jess Askew III, an attorney for the charter schools. The Little Rock district and Joshua intervenors told Marshall that state officials had approved charter schools without court approval
had failed to identify or develop programs to remediate achievement disparities between black and white students
and had "abandoned" its responsibility to monitor desegregation and remedia-tion efforts in the district. The attorneys wrote that state officials limited the amount of ai:'d for state school-bus tr'ansportation to the three school districts in - such a way that the districts are reimbursed at a lesser percentage than the state average, a violation of the settlement agreement. They also said that the attorney general and "other state actors" including University of Arkansas departments in Fayetteville and "private persons and entities have engaged in an orchestrated public relations campaign designed to discredit desegregation efforts in Pulaski County generally and LRSD specifically that has created something lik~ the 'hysterical political atmosphere' surrounding desegregation reminiscent of the 1960s." The 1960s reference is from a 1985 court decision in the case. The attorneys asked that the state Board of Education be enjoined from approving any new open-enrollment charter schools or increasing the size of the schools unless court approval is granted to do so. The state also should be directed to retroactively pay the three Pulaski Coupty school districts the .state aid the districts would have re-ceived had charter school students participated in the majority-to-minority student transfer program, the attor-neys said. Additionally, they said, the Arl<aJ1saDs epartment of Education should be directed to identify programs, policies or procedures designed to remediate the racial achievement disparity that exists between black and white students in Pulaski County district schools. The state agency should further be directed to develop a .revised plan for monitoring the remediation of that disparity, the. attorneys said. The attorneys also asked that the state be prevented from enforc
ing a state law that authorized."forensic" audits of the three districts and that the state be precluded from consolidating, annexing or reconstituting the three Pulaski County districts unless authorized by the federal court. The potential for such consolidation exists because both the North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special districts have been placed in the state's fiscal distress program and must correct financial problems identified by the state within l years or forced by the state to merge with one or more other districts. Lawmakersu rgep ush to end desegregatiocna se ARKANSASD EMOCRAT-GAZETTE I Two state lawmakers have proposed a resolution for the Arkansas House of Representatives and Arkansas Senate to offer their "full support" for ~he governor and attorney general to take "every lawful and responsible action" within their authority to seek and litigate for a court order bringing an immediate end to the Pulaski County school desegregation case and the settlement agreement involving the state. State Sen. Gilbert Baker, RConway, and Rep. Tim Summers, R-Bentonville, filed a resolution for the Legislature to consider in the fiscal session. Since the 1988-89 school year, the state has paid more than $1 billion in total and about $70 million a year in desegregarion funding to the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts, according to the resolution. Baker said he proposed it to show that Gov. Mike Beebe and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel "have the support of the Legislature behind , them as they move forward" trying to settle the case. "There is a pretty strong view across Arkansas that it is time to deal with that case," Baker said. As a result of the order from a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis, desegregation efforts by the Pulaski County Special district will continue to be monitored by the federal courts for the foreseeable future. The Little Rock and North Little Rock districts have been released from court supervision in the 29-year-old lawsuit. All three districts, however, remain parties in the lawsuit and receive about $70 million a year in state desegregation aid that other districts in the state do not get. ARKANSADS EMOCRAT-GAZE'ITE a-periocdl assd ay focuso fs essions The Little Rock School District is hosting a series of informational meetings this month for parents of upper-elementary and middle-school pupils regarding a proposal to establish an eight-period class day in the district's seven middle schools. The change would begin in the 2012-13s chool year. Most of the middle schools currently operate on a college- style block schedule in which students alternate between four 90-minute classes one day and four 90-minute classes in other subjects the next day. The revised schedule would be made up of eight 44-minute classes every day. The district has arranged the schedule so that district officials can meet with parents from up to two schools at a time. On Monday, a session will be held at Forest Heights Middle School for parents of pupils who attend or will attend Forest Heights or Pulaski Heights middle schools. The session will be from 5:30 to7 p.m. A second session is planned for 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Dunbar Middle School for the parents of current or future pupils at Dunbar and Horace Mann Magnet middle schools. A final session is planned from 5:15 to 6:45 p.m. Feb. 27 at Henderson Middle School for the parents of current and future Henderson pupils. Current middle-school parents and parents of children in third, fourth and fifth grades are encouraged to attend the meeting at their closest neighborhood school. School Board members will attend the sessions. A session was held Thursday for parents of Cloverdale and Mabelvale middle-school pupils. Educationno tebook Thea competition winnerrse vealed The Thea Foundation has announced the winners of its 2012 Visual Arts Scholarship Competition for high school seniors and its Visual Arts Competition for high school juniors. to Anna Britton, Harding Academy
Amber Ivey, Cabot High
Mykel Rodriguez, Conway High
Ashley Swindle, Jonesboro High
Madison Teague, Harding Academy
Heather Watson, Jacksonville High
and Kathryn Wells, Bauxite High. The junior winners each received $100. They were: Jacob Schlag, North Little Rock High
and Ashley Trieschmann, Hot Springs High. The artwork of the winning students will be on display in the Thea Foundation gallery through March 23 at 401 Main St. in North Little Rock. A total of 160 high school seniors competed for a combined total of $25,000 in scholarships. A total of 64 high school juniors competed for a total of $1,000 in cash prizes. The artworks of any medium were based on the theme, "Happy Remembrances of the Holiday Season," taken from Thea Kay Leopoulos' journal entry titled "Christmas." The winning seniors were Tulsi Patel, Morrilton High, first place, $4,000
Valeria Chavez, El Dorado High, second place, $3,500
Michaela Osborne, Bentonville High, third place, $3,000
Derek Schultz, North Little Rock High, fourth place, $2,500
Austin Benson, Morrilton High, fifth place, $2,000
Katie Connelly, El Dorado High, sixth place, $2,000
Cole Harken, Morrilton High, seventh place, $2,000
Darren Waddles, Mountain View High, eighth place, $2,000
Haley Martin, Lake Hamilton High, ninth place, $2,000
Eun Ha, Little Rock Central High, 10th place, $2,000. t:Honorable mentid'\s went Districtosf fered Emmanuelle Esters, North transitioninhge lp Little Rock High, first place
Jamie Freeman, Cabot High, The Arkansas Public second place
Chris Graham, School Resource Center is ofBen ton High, third place
fering its member school disSergio Garcia, North Little tricts assistance in transitionRock High, fourth place
ing from Arkansas education Rebecca Richmond, North standards to the new 1ComLittle Rock High, fifth place
mon Core State Standards in Holly Roomsburg, El Dorado math and English/language High, sixth place
MacKenzie arts. Thompson, Little Rock Cen- The pilot initiative, Achievtral High, seventh place
An- ing by Changing, is funded gela Eichhorn, Harding Acad- with a grant from the Wale my, eighth place
Morgan ton Family Foundation and Thompson, Paris High, ninth through fees paid bv the 26 place
and Rebekah Cooley, schools that were selected to Paris High, 10th place. try the program. Additional Honorable mentions went schools will be added in the t~ Mic_helle ~allantine, F_lip- fall for the program, which is pm ~1gh
:r1ffa1
1yC ollm~, designed to provide teachers Sheridan High
Dianna Godi- , with research-based stratenez, North Little Rock Higi_: I gies for teaching from the new and more rigorous standards. The Achieving by Changing program is being carried out through the use of regional hubs. Each hub is matched with an Achieving by Changing coach who will teach the strategies, provide on-site support and monitor each school's progress. Keepingey eso nt he ball ,_,,
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the Harlem Globetrotters star, shows o~ his skills Wednesday for fifth-graders, including Syqney Kellam (l~ft) and Audrey Hall, at Williams Magnet Elementary in Little Rock. Talksb etweend_i strictu, nionss hort,n ot so sweet CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSDAESM OCRAT-GAZETTE Contract negotiations between leaders of the Pulaski County Special School District and its two employee unions ended Wednesday almost as soon as they began, leaving unanswered the question of how the district will cut $13.6 million from its 2012-13b udget. the Pulaski Association of employee salaries and insurClassroom Teachers, said the ance benefits for next year district's contract negotiating before discussing potential team "walke'd out" of the con- budget cuts. district since July, declined could resume,although nothWednesday to talk specifi- ing is scheduled. cally about the.brief negotia- "I don't know what is gotions session, citing terms in,_ ing to happen next," Guess the district's contract with said. 'Tm trying to act very teachers prohibiting the dis- responsibly and very carecussion with media_ of con- ftilly to make sure that whattract proposals or the status ever steps we take next. are of bargaining before an,im- defensible, appropriate and tract talks within a half-hour "We gave a proposal that of their start. addresses the budget by not The district's team left, Nix increasing it
'' Nix said. "Jney said, after she and representa- refused to sign it unless we tives of the Pulas_ki Associa- 1 agreed to open the entire tion of Support Staff repeated contract. That's not going to the assertions that they made happen." passe is declared. made with integrity." Guess said neither side de- Guess and Bill Goff, chief Marty Nix, president of in earlier letters that agree- Jerry Guess, superintenments had to be reached on dent 'of the 17,000-student dared an impasse Wednes- financial officei: in the district day, meaning the negotiatioru
See TALKSP,a ge 9A Talks Continued from Page 1 A - which is operating under state control and without an elected school board - told the Arkansas Board of Education on Feb.13 that the district needed to cut $13.6 million in the coming year to balance the district's $170 million budget. The district leaders told the Education Board that they had already identified about $6.6 million in cuts, including the elimination of some 77 jobs through attrition or layoffs, but needed contract concessions from employee groups to save another $7 million. <
off said there is about $14 million in benefits and costs in the teachers' contract and abo4t $1.4 million in the sup-port staff contract in excess of what is ,,, required by state law for school district employees. Some of those additional benefits include a 192- Goff day work year for teachers as opposed to 190 days required by law, pay for lunch and bus duty, and a $272.80 monthly contribution per employee for health insurance as compared with the $131 required by law. Guess told state officials that failure to convince the unions of the district's financial problems and to resolve the problems would be "fatal" to the district's continued existence. He also said he had a plan for "unilateral implementation of the district's last, best and final offer to the union" that he was prepared to carry out if the negotiations are not successful. The employee associations Wednesday proposed to the district's negotiating team :, that there be no acrossthe- board pay raises and no increase in employee health insurance payments for the . coming school Nix year, Nix said. The district's team refused to accept that proposal without an agreement from the employees to reopen their entire contracts that are otherwise due to expire in 2015. The employee groups refused to reopen the entire agreements. "We'll address a lot of the budget concerns, but we are not going to agree to open the contract to do it," Nix said, adding that most of the terms in the 172-page teacher contract don't deal with monetary issues. "I've said it everywhere: We will address their budget concerns once [a revised] contract is implemented," Nix said. Any employee concessions or exceptions to the terms of the contract produced in the budget talks could be enacted through a signed "memorandum of understanding" between the employee groups and the district, she said. Such memoranda have been used routinely, she said, the most recent one dealing with a change for next year in class scheduling at some of the secondary schools. Guess said he has told the union leaders that "We have to be able to discuss all of the negotiated agreement." That's necessary, he said, if the district is to ensure that students are well-served academically next year and if the budget changes are going to be softened for as many employees as possible. Nix and Emry Chesterfield, president of the Pulaski As_sociation of Support Staff, said Wednesday afternoon that they were uncertain what would happen next but that their organizations were willing to continue talks with the district leaders. ''.Anytime, anyplace," Chesterfield said. He said the district's use of two outside attorneys and a c!onsultant on its negotiating team at a time when the district is in financial trouble was objectionable. The attorneys earn $175 to $20d an hour. Guess responded in a separate interview, "My imperative is to do this well. I want all of the advice I can get. "I think this is a very, very complicated process, and I think experienced people should be consulted to be sure that the course we pursue is the right course and pursued the right way." Attorneys Allan Roberts qf Camden,the district's chief negptiator, and Jay Bequette of the Bequette & Billingsley law firm in Little Rock, participated in Wednesday's negotiations .. Don Stewart, a former assistant superintendenffor business in the district, was the consultant. He has been assisting the district with financial matters since shortly after the state Department of Education took o.ver the Pulaski County Special district in June because of financial mismanagement issues. The state takeover occurred after the state Education Board classified the district as being in fiscal distress in March 2011. As a result, the district has up to two years to correct the financial issues, which include mismanagement and spending more than it is receiving, before the state board is compelled to take action against it. That could be mej-ging the di_stricJt o_p ne or more other school districts. Besides Stewart and the attorneys, others on the district's negotiating team are: Guess
Goff
Paul Brewer, chi~f executive officer/executive director of human resources
and Linda Remele, deputy superintendent ()f elementary education/chief academic officer. Representatives for the employees include Nix
Chesterfield
Sandra Roy, executive director for both unions
and chief nego'tii!tors .Deen . Minton for the teachers and Don Clevenger for the sup~ port staff. Letters exchanged between the district and associations set the stage for the dispute Wednesday. The teacher association sent letters last week that proposed Wednesday's meeting, citing Article XVII of the teachers' contract that says the district and teachers agree to annually open negotiations on the salary and insurance provisions. Guess responded with a letter giving the association notice that the district was seeking modification to the entire conGuess tract under the modification provision, Article I, Section 5. "The administration proposes modification of the entire agreement in order to comply with the Arkansas Department of Education fiscal distress 'removal mandate," Guess wrote. "That mandate is that the district negotiate ~Ith PACT changes ln the certified employee compensation package1 set forth in the PACT agree~ ment that will result in substantial economic savings.''. Guess acknowledged in his letter that the contract negotiations "are going to be regressive." - . . The -union -leader,s. wrote Guess,fate Wednesday__: after the meeting - stating that they were "extremely disappointed" with the district team leaving the talks. "Your chief negotiator gave us a 'take it or leave it' ultimatum. Dr. Guess, we will not be bullied in this process," Nix and Chesterfield wrote. The two said the district's refusal to accept union offers that deal with the highest cost items in any district budget in the midst of a budget crisis are "unconscionable." The district has about 2,800 employees. 2 schoolu nions declareim passe in contractta lks PulaskiC ountyd istrict'iss sues now on mediationfa st track CYNTI:!IA HOWELL ARKANSASD EMOCRAT-GAZETTE The teacher and support staff unions in the Pulaski County Special School District declared an impasse Friday in the 2012-13c ontract negotiations with district officials. The unions have scheduled federal and state mediators to work with bargaining teams on Tuesday. The declaration of an impasse is the latest development in efforts by the state's third-largest district ofl7,000 students to cut $13.6 million in expenses from its 2012-13 budget. District leaders have said they need employee concessions to balance the budget of about $170 million. Union leaders have said they want to lock in salary and insurance terms for next year at this year's rates before working with district officials on any additional budget matters. "We believe that media-tion is the most expeditious way to resolve the issues before us," Marty Nix, president of the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers, and Emry Chesterfield, president of the Pulaski Association of Support Staff, wrote Friday to school district Superintendent Jerry Guess in a letter declaring the impasse in contract talks. Guess quickly responded with his own letter: "I welcome your decision, and we will be agreeable to return to the table." . However, Guess added that the district's negotiating team was not consulted about mediation or the date. "I am unable to confirm all team members for Tuesday and would agree to a meeting on Thursday," the superintendent wrote. In the third letter of the day, Nix and Chesterfield held fast to the Tuesday date. "We understand if all of See PCSSDP,a ge3 A PCSSD Continued from Page 1 A your team is not able to attend. As you know we have met with you in negotiations when not all of our team was in attendance," Nix and Chesterfield wrote. "The urgency of resolving our differences is of paramount importance
therefore we look forward to seeing you on February 28." Guess said in an interview that he wants the parties to meet, but he doesn't plan to do it on Tuesday. "I don't think I can get all of my folks ready for Tuesday," he said. "I will sit down with the leadership of PACT and PASS and we will contact those mediators together and we will find a time when we can all meet. Or, if they don't want to be in the room when I contact them, I'll contact them by mysel I want to work together. I don't know how I can try any harder. "I didn't know about the impasse," he said. "I didn't know that they had contacted mediators. I didn't know that a meeting was being planned. So, I'm going to have to do the best I can to find a ytay to get us all together." The impasse declaration Friday comes in the aftermath of the first and only recent bargaining session that took place Wednesday between the district and the two employee unions. It lasted no more than 30 minutes. The district's negotiating team left the talks when representatives of the employee associations insisted on settling salary and insurance provisions before dealing with the district's call to cut $13.6 million in expenses to balance the 2012-13b udget. The employee associations on Wednesday had proposed locking in the salaries and the district's contributions to employee health-insurance coverage at this year's rates, meaning no across-the-board raises for employees - although step increases for experience presumably would be paid to employees eligible for them. Guess and Chief Financial Officer Bill Goff told the Arkansas Board of Education on Feb.13 that the Pulaski County Special district - which is operating under state control and without an elected school board - had identified nearly $6.7 million in expenses to be cut. Those cuts will include the elimination of 77 jobs through attrition and layoffs, but district leaders said they need concessions from employees to cut an additional $7 million. Goff has said the teachers' existing contract - due to expire in 2015 - provides teachers with about $14 million and support staff with $1.4 million in benefits over and above what is required by state law. For teachers, those extra benefits include a 192-day work year as opposed to a 190-day year that is required by law. Additionally, the district contributes $272.80 a month for employee health insurance versus the $131 a month required by the state. The district also pays teachers for noninstructional duties such as recess and.bus supervision, whereas state law says teachers can do up to an hour of duty a week without additional pay. Nix on Friday, in an interview, said that declaring an impasse was the fastest way to resolving the issues. "We are going to address the financial needs that they presented to the state Board of Education on Feb. 13," she said, reiterating her position from Wednesday. "But we are not going to give up all of our contract, all of the agreements that we have in there, which it seems like the superintendent wants us to do." Nix said it is the associations' intent to address with district leaders all of the potential areas for cost-cutting that Goff listed as being extra in the employee contracts. "We definitely want to," she said, but she added that the associations want to deal with the salaries and insurance issues first. Those two issues are specifically identified in the teacher contract as being subject to annual negotiations. Other parts.of the contract can be opened if there is mutual agreement of the bargaining teams. Nix has suggested that any changes in employee benefits and working conditions made necessary by the _budget problems could be handled through memoranda ofunderstanding. More than half of the district's teachers and support staff mustbe members of their respective associations for the associatio~s to i
epresent them in contract.talks. Usually, employees pay for their union dues through payroll deductions. District officials reported Friday that there are 1,327 teachers, of whom more than half - 794 - pay dues to the teachers' union through pay-roll deductions. A total of 423 support staff employees pay dues through payroll deduction to the Pulaski Association of Support Staff, which is slightly less than half of the 851 employees who are eligible to join the association. It couldn't be immediately determined Friday night whether enough J support staff employees are paying dues out of pocket to get the membership number over 50 percent The teachers' contract includes an impasse resolution section. When eitherparty declares an impasse on any unresolved item, both parties agree to contact the Federal Mediation Conciliation Service to request the agency's services. Mediation will commence within five days after a metliator is appointed or at the earliest convenience of the mediator. A mediator typically goes back and forth between the teams to work out differences. Either team can declare a second impasse, at which time the issues go to a factfinder. The fact-finder listens to what the teams say are their final, best offers and_p repares a written nonbinding opinion on how the matter should be resolved. If no agreement is reached between the parties after factfinding, either team can ask for an impasse hearing before the school board, according to the teachers' contract. Since the Pulaski County Special district was taken over by the state last.June because of financial mismanagement, Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell will serve as the district's school board. School'districdt elays bargainingm eeting. ARKANSASD EMOCRAT-GAZETTE "We have contacted the Representatives of the Pu- mediators and look 1for,ward laski County Special School to seeking you on Thursday," District and the district's teach- Marty Nix, president of the er and support-staff unions teachers' organization, and will meet, with state and ,fed- Emry Chesterfield, president eral mediators Thursday ih a of the support staff association, renewed effort to reach 'agree- wrote to Guess on Monday. : merits aifectmg' employee con- "We are very hopeful that we tr.ad.s_ andt he school district's can reach a resolution to the . bu~get i 2012-13. } . issues befor~ us, they adde\i. The mediation session will The unions had declared an be.~in at 10:30 a,Jll, at the Ar- impasse Friday after a 30~rninkansas Education Association ute J:?argain:ing_sessi<:>nWednesheadquarte~ s. . . day between the district and \ The mediation session
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J.ns ~cj !Ilediators ,cm the .i{terna- from egipl~yeei to.ht ari:ail.- tiye date. ., :',, ' , . , - diJJonal' $7 ~qn. . 4B WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2012 Uniformeeds cort Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/BENJAMIKNR AIN Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps student James Sudeen waits in the hallway at Parkview Magnet High School to escort the Little Rock school superintendent and other administrators during a tour of career-technical education classes in the district's high schools Tuesday. Arkansas Democrat ~(f,azette Gettingth e point Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/BENJAMIKNR AIN Tyler Robinson gets a finger stuck Tuesday by University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences nursing student Kathryn Dawson during an optional screening at a health fair for students at Parkview Magnet High School in the Little Rock School District. Sessionsm ediated, but no deal struck 'EVIEBLAD ARKANSASD EMOCRAT-GAZETTE The leaders of the Pulaski County Special School District and its employee unions were unable to reach an agreement Thursday after three hours of mediated . discussions about proposed changes designed to help the district trim $7 million from its 2012-13b udget. Staff, which represents em_ ployees ~ the 17,000-student district, met in one room of the Arkansas Education Association headquarters Thursday, discussing proposals with a state and fedt! ral mediator, who met with Guess and an attorney in a separate .room. District, The groups plan to continue~ alks at io,:'30 a.m .. Monday at the district's administration building. Union leaders and stateappointed Superintendent JE
rrY Guess described Thursday's talks as "positive," but they wou-ld not discuss the specifics of the negotiations. Union leaders have said they want to lock in salary and insurance terms for next year at this year's rates before considering any other budget matters. Those issues weren't settled Thursday, Nix said. _She would not say if the ~ons held the same position on the matter. .. umons Guess wouldn't speculate about whether another' day of negotiations would yield an agreement among the groups. in talks 3 hours "We're all going to do the right thing, and I think the presence of mediators have brought us closer to that," said Marty Nix, president of the Pulaski Association of Class.room Teachers, the teachers' unibn. "I think this has been a good day, and we've been talking about important issues," he said Thursday. "But there have been no p_i:oposals and no d,ecisions." Nix and Emry Chest~rfield, president of the Pulaski Association of Support The mediators - contracted through the Federal Mediation Conciliation ~aIk s _ its financial situation through I , a state-approved plan within two years, Arkansas law al- . Continued from Page 1 B lows the state to take further Service - determined when actions - including merging to break for the day, Guess it wi
This project was supported in part by a Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives project grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Council on Library and Information Resoources.

<dcterms_creator>Arkansas. Department of Education</dcterms_creator>