I. Call to Order MAGNET REVIEW COMMITTEE AGENDA May 15, 2012 II. Reading of the Minutes of April 17, 2012 Ill. Executive Director's Report A. Correspondence B. Financial Transactions C. Newspaper Articles D. Recruitment Update E. LRSD Original Magnet Schools Personnel - Vacancies and New Hires IV. Business or Action Items A. Stipulation Magnet Schools Evaluation Report- Discussion and Vote B. Set Next Meeting Date C. Stipulation Magnet Schools' Annual Principal Reports 1. Booker- Dr. Cheryl Carson, Principal - 8:35 a.m. 2. Carver- Diane Barksdale, Principal - 9:10 a.m. 3. Williams - Sandra Register, Principal - 9:45 a.m. 4. Mann - Patricia Boykin, Principal -10:30 a.m. 5. Gibbs - Dr. Felicia Hobbs, Principal -11:05 a.m. 6. Parkview - Dr. Dexter Booth, Principal -11:40 a.m. V. Adjournment DRAFT MAGNET REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES April 17, 2012 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, April 17, 2012. Members Present: Bobby Acklin, NLRSD-Acting Chairperson Dr. Robert Clowers, PCSSD Oliver Dillingham, ADE Danny Reed, ADE Joy Springer, Joshua lntervenors Absent: Dr. Sadie Mitchell, LRSD- Chairperson Guest: Margie Powell, Monitor- Office of Desegregation Monitoring The meeting was called to order at 8:40 a.m. by Acting Chairperson, Bobby Acklin. He immediately called for a reading of the minutes of December 13, 2011. A motion was made by Joy Springer to approve the minutes as presented, and Danny Reed seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Donna Grady Creer provided the Executive Director's report. She called the Committee's attention to items in correspondence, with the first item being a memorandum to all three Superintendents and to the Education Commissioner inviting them to attend the Magnet Fair to be held at Park Plaza Mall on DRAFT DRAFT January 21, 2012, from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Copies were given to each Committee member for their information. A memorandum was sent to all three districts' student registration personnel requesting their assistance for Magnet Fair. Copies were given to each Committee member, but no action was required by the MRC. The next memorandum was a thank-you to all student registration personnel who worked at the Information Booth at Magnet Fair. Copies were given to MRC members for their information. A thank you letter was sent to Melissa Griffith, Assistant General Manager at Park Plaza Mall, thanking her for her and her staff's help during Magnet Fair. Copies provided the MRC were for information only. Last, but not least, a memorandum was sent to all the school volunteer participants for Magnet Fair. Ms. Creer thanked everyone for their help in making the Fair a success. Copies were given to MRC members. A Court Order was received which approved the interdistrict magnet schools' final 2010-11 budget and proposed 2011-12 budget. No parties objected, so Judge Marshall issued the Order dated 27 December 2011. Copies were given to MRC members. Bills in the amount of $12,500.36 were presented for payment. Ms. Creer explained that the bulk of the expenses covered the Magnet Fair and enrollment advertising, form printing, etc. for the early enrollment period which began on January 23, 2012. Danny Reed made a motion to pay the bills, and Oliver Dillingham seconded it. The motion carried unanimously. Newspaper articles since the previous MRC meeting were given to MRC members for their perusal. Ms. Creer provided a brief recap. An article from Hogan Lovells providing information about how school districts may use race and race-neutral approaches in making student assignment -2- ORAFT Decisions was given to each Committee member. No action was required by the MRC. With regard to a recruitment update, a packet of information that was used during the registration process this year was given to Committee members. A detailed timeline was presented, advertising about locations where to apply, copies of the letters that the MRC Office provided to parents of rising 6th and 9th grade students, and the actual allotment numbers provided by the LRSD Student Registration Office was included in the packet. Each Committee member received their own copy of the packet, but no action was required by the MRC. Ms. Creer reminded MRC members about the process Little Rock School District used this year for registration. The first week of registration was held at an offsite location, while the second week registration returned to the Student Registration Office. The registration went so well that it most probably will be used again next year. Magnet Fair was a success again this year. Some of the schools want it to be earlier next year. The MRC Office is looking into this possibility. We want to do all we can to do what is best to maintain enrollment in magnet schools. All three districts would have to agree to this. Oliver Dillingham asked if a significant number of people asked to make this change. Bobby Acklin asked if the first day of application could be pushed back. Mr. Dillingham also mentioned that the time the Mall can accommodate the Fair is another thing that has to be considered. Parkview's Spring performance, Annie, had a great turnout, and Parkview's Senior Art Exhibit is being held this date. Several other events are scheduled, and Ms. Creer said that Parkview is making a big effort to advertise about applying to attend a magnet school at each of these events. The Stipulation Magnet Schools Evaluation Report was the next item on the agenda. A copy of the final draft was given to each Committee for their review. Ms. Springer said that she wants to read this first before making comment and voting on approval. It was agreed by consensus that all members would peruse the document and be ready to vote at our next meeting scheduled in May, 2012. -3- DRAF1 Mr. Dillingham says he wants to see something that addresses the disparity gap. It was further agreed by consensus that MRC read the report and e-mail the MRC Office with any questions. These questions would then be forwarded on to Dr. Jeanne Dreyfus, Consultant, for clarification. Dr. Robert Clowers noted several items that he questioned. There were a number of places that are printed in bold, and he felt that this needed clarification. A discussion was held with regard to the Stipulation magnet principals' reports. Ms. Springer said that she wants to see the information disaggregated by race and gender in all the data that is presented. Wants to see things as to who met AYP, etc. Dr. Clowers says he is interested in seeing the gap closed over time. Ms. Springer said this type of information should be available. Gibbs' principal was able to talk about who was not performing on items in the tests. Booker was one of the other ones. We need to get on the same page. It was agreed by consensus to hold the next MRC meeting on May 15, 2012, with the principals' reports on the agenda. The MRC meeting will begin at 8:00 a.m., and the principals' reports will begin right after the meeting. When no further business was brought before the Committee, Oliver Dillingham made a motion to adjourn, and Joy Springer seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously, and the meeting was adjourned at 9:30 a.m. -4- MAGNET REVIEW COMMITTEE BILLS TO BE PAID May 15, 2012 1. Capital Business Machines 70.20 (Monthly Billing for MRC's Office Copier Maintenance Contract) 2. Aire Ark, Inc. 65.90 (Two Monthly Billings - February and March - to Provide Hosting for MRC's Website and e-Mail) 3. Mass Enthusiasm, Inc. 866.67 (Second Installment for Services Rendered to Provide New Website for MRC) 4. Aire Ark, Inc. 65.90 (Two Monthly Billings -April and May- to Provide Hosting for MRC's Website and e-Mail) 5. CompSys 240.30 (Services Rendered to Repair MRC Office Computer) 6. American Home Life 825.00 (MRC's Office Rent for May, 2012) 7. American Home Life 182.50 (MRC Communications Expense for April, 2012) 8. Capital Business Machines 70.20 (Monthly Billing for MRC's Office Copier Maintenance Contract) 9. Staples, Inc. 116.57 (Supplies for the MRC Office) 10. Central Arkansas Newspapers 229.00 (Advertising in the 2012 Baseball Magazine for North Little Rock, Jacksonville, Sherwood and Maumelle) TOTAL BILLS TO BE PAID $2,732.24 State gets 2 plans to cut costs School district has to find $11 million CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE The Pulaski County Special School District and its two employee unions submitted to state Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell by Monday's deadline conflicting proposals for cutting about $11 million in costs in the state-controlled, fiscally distressed district. In a letter late last week, Kimbrell "respectfully request[ed]" that the school district, the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers and the Pulaski Association of Support Staff provide to him "specific, written recommendations on how the staffing and the fiscal practices of the [district] should be modified in order to realize $11 million in cost savings by the end of the 2012-13 school year." Kimbrell told the two sets of parties that the Arkansas Department of Education staff will use the proposals in deciding "what binding recommendations" to impose on the district. The Pulaski County Special district of 17,000 students and 3,000 employees is classified by the state as fiscally distressed because of past financial mismanagement and for expenditures exceeding revenue. The district is operating See DISTRICTP,a ge ~ District Continued from Page 1 B with a state-appointed superintendent and no locally elected school board. It has only until the end of the 2012- 13 school year to correct its financial problems or, by law, face merger with one or more other districts .. The budget-cutting plan offered Monday by Superintendent Jerry Guess and his staff includes slicing two days from the teachers' 192-day work year, discontinuing "severance" pay to retiring teachers and phasing out the salary credits that employees receive for completing district-taught short courses. In all, the district's proposal calls for cutting about $4 million in the 2012-13s chool year from provisions in the teacher and support-staff contracts that don't expire until the end of the 2014-15s chool year. The district plan envisions the budget cuts growing to $5.6 million in 2013-14, and $6.67 million in the next year, which would help the district cushion the possible loss of $11.6 million a year in special state desegregation aid. The state has asked a federal judge to end desegregation aid to the three Pulaski County districts, an amount that totals $70 million annually. The proposed $4 million in cuts identified by district administrators in the contracts would be paired with about $6.5 million in cuts outside the Professional Negotiations Agreements and include eliminating about 77 positions through layoffs, retirements and resignations, plus altering the school opening and dismissal times to save transportation and supervision costs. Those $6.5 million in cuts are not in dispute. The district plan envisions ending the coming school year with $14.1m illion, or 8.28 percent of annual expenditures, which is short of the district's goal ofl0 percent in reserves. But the district would attain its goal in future years as more of the salary costs for the district- taught short courses are removed. While the district is proposing $4 million in cuts directly affecting employees and their contracts, union leaders Marty Nix and Emry Chesterfield in their documents submitted to Kimbrell proposed an alternative $5.9 million in budget cuts that would not require a change in the contract language. Instead, the associations offered several short-term memoranda of understanding that would freeze or reduce employee costs next year but preserve the contract benefits over the long term. The associations, for example, proposed memoranda that would suspend employee attendance incentives
reduce the amounts paid to employees for district-taught training and short courses
and reduce the amounts paid to employees for supplemental work, such as coaching or sponsoring spirit group, music, drama and journalism programs. Employees with those supplemental contracts and are eligible for pay based on seven or more years of work would be frozen for one year at the pay level for six years of work. The unions' plan does not include reducing the teacher work year. The plan calls for saving $2.5 million by ~placing as many as 125 retiring teachers with lesser-paid teachers. The plan also calls for cutting by 10 percent the cost of district-purchased services and cutting by 10 percent the cost of materials and supplies purchased by the district - but not those supplies affecting students. District officials in their plan to Kimbrell anticipated that the unions would seek the 10 percent discount and argued that it wasn't realistic savings unless it could be ap-plied to fuel, insurance,utilities and building repairs. "Fiscal prudence requires these expenditures to be budgeted sufficiently since there is often little control over the actual cost," district leaders wrote. Nix, the president of the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers, said the unions' proposed plan would result in total expenditures of $167.6 million and yearend balances of $16.9 million, which is 10.1p ercent of annual expenditures and the goal of district leaders. In the documents sent Monday to Kimbrell, the unions accused district leaders of attempting to void the Professional Negotiations Agreements in their entirety and replace them with their own set of personnel policies. The leaders of the unions "appealed" to Kimbrell to direct Guess to resume talks with the union leaders to resolve the budget issues. "We too, as employees, voters and taxpayers are committed to a win/win result," Nix and Chesterfield wrote. "The Unions and the Professional Negotiations Agreements are not the enemy," they continued. Kimbrell has invited the leaders of both unions to meet with him at 8 a.m. today. Arkansas Democrat-Gazettef ile photo William Goff, Pulaski County Special School District chief financial officer,( left)a nd districtS uperintendentJ erry Guess answer lawmakers' questions last week. On Friday the state ordered the district to cut its budget. PCSSD Continued from Page 1 A est - are to receive letters by May 1 notifying them of the contract changes, including some pay reductions, Guess said. Kimbrell's Friday letter to Guess brings to an end several weeks of budget discussions between the district and the unions. Those talks began after Guess announced in midFebruary that failure to make millions of dollars in budget cuts - including contract concessions from the unions - would be "fatal" to the district, which has been categorized by the state as fiscally distressed. The district is operating with a state-appointed superintendent and no locally elected school board. It has only the next school year to improve its financial condition or face being ordered by state Board of Education to merge with other districts. . The district has an operatmg budget of about $170 million. Leaders of the two unions offered in the talks with Guess to forgo across-theboard raises and increases in district contributions to their insurance costs. Union leaders also proposed one-year suspensions of some benefits through "memoranda of un, derstanding," but refused to agree to any changes in actual language of the contracts. Statet o districtC: ut budget,l op off unions County schools told to slash $11 million CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSASOEMOCRAT-GAZETfE The teacher and support- staff unions in the Pulaski County Special School District lost all collectivebargaining rights, and their 2010-15 negotiated contracts were terminated as a result of Friday directives from the state's education chief. Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell di- Last week, Kimbrell asked the two sides in the talks to present to him their budgetcutting plans with the admonition that he would make a fmal, binding decision. "I would have preferred that PACT, PASS and PCSSD arrive at a mutually-acceptable agreement because that would have been the best outcome for the district's students, staff, administration, patrons," Kimbrell wrote to Guess in the Friday letter, copied to the leaders of the two unions. "Regrettably, that did not occur," he said ''If PCSSD is to rected Pulaski County Special School District Superintendent Jerry Guess in a six-page letter to sever ties with the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers and the Pulaski Association of Support Staff, and to carry out nearly $11 million in budget cuts for the corning school year. days, ending employee attendance incentives, eliminating "severance" pay to teachers who re.tire, and phasing out over three years the salary increases paid to a majority of employees for courses taught in the district that fall short of college credit courses. Those budget cuts will include reducing the teacher work year by two days to 190 All state-certified employees in the 17,000-student district - the state's third-largSee PCSSDP, age 7A return to local control as a district that is fiscally sound now and in the future, significant action must be taken without further delay. In this regard, the PCSSD administration must be given the flexibility to swiftly implement several necessary actions aimed at removing the district from fiscal distress within one year." Marty Nix, president of the teachers association, and Emry Chesterfield, president of the support-staff association, issued a terse statement calling the action by the commissioner and the superintendent "mean-spirited." The associations have called an emergency joint meeting of their members for 5 p.m. Monday at the Arkansas Education Association building for the purpose of taking direction on how to respond to the Kimbrell directives. A representative of the associations declined to speculate Friday on the possibility of employees taking a job action, such as a strike. Both associations have gone on strike in the past but, in.more recent years, successfully relied on Pulaski County court decisions to preserve their contracts and bargaining rights. Guess, the former superintendent of the Camden-Fairview School District who was appointed by Kimbrell to the Pulaski County Special district job last July, responded immediately on several fronts to Kimbrell's directives. His actions included sending e-mails to the union leaders and to all district employees and asking a fedem.l judge presiding in the 29-year-old Pulaski County school desegregation lawsuit to expedite a judicial review of Kirnbrell's More information on the Web PACT and PASS. PACT and PASS wouldn't even seriously discuss this possibility with me." "So be it," Guess said. "I re-the Pulaski County Special School District, filed a federal court motion asking U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. to quickly issue a judgment declaring that the state's binding recommendations to the district are "legal, proper, and binding and should be obeyed by all parties to this action," including the two unions. tion taken in the long-running desegregation case, nor do I have the luxury to adopt the sense of certainty possessed by PACT/PASS." He said the unions overlooked the fact that the district must be declared unitary, or desegregated, by the federal court. To accomplish that, the district must have adequate funding to improve its school buildings that serve high percentages of black students. Kimbrell's letter, filings, and more arkansasonline.com/desegdocs actions, declaring them legal. new my commitment to you to be here with you - and for you - doing everything in my power to make this school district work. "[T]h.is letter serves as notice to you both that the PCSSD is withdrawing recognition of PACT and PASS as the collective bargaining units for the District's licensed and classified staff effective immediately," Guess wrote to Nix and Chesterfield. "Working together we can give you, the PCSSD employees, real job security - the real job security that is found in an economically sound, conservatively managed school district. It is found in hard-working, dedicated teachers guided by fair-minded, hard-working administrators working together Both unions have announced intentions to challenge the state's withdrawal of their recognition in state court, Jones said. But the federal court is the proper forum to decide the dispute "and to do it most efficiently and with the greatest economy of time," Jones continued. "Further, this letter serves as notice that the PCSSD is immediately terminating the PACT. and PASS [professional negotiations agreement] and simultaneously implementing the personnel policies for certified personnel and support- staff personnel. However, the District will continue to observe the co.mpensation/ fringe obligations of individual employee contracts until June 30, 2012." Guess sent a more conciliatory e-mail to the district's 3,000 employees, saying the onions "simply weren't interested in making a deal." "I want to prepare you for the coming bombardment," he said after assuring employees that their current salaries will continue for the remainder of this school year. 'Tm sure you'll hear over and over in days to come that getting rid of PACT and PASS was my main goal all the time. That's simply not true. I assure each of you that I did everything humanly possible over the past four months to negotiate new [professional negotiation agreements] with to provide the best possible education for their students." In an interview, Guess said the district's reliance on personnel policies committees to advise school boards and district leaders on employee working conditions is consistent with what is done in almost all Arkansas school districts. He said the new sets of proposed policies for teachers and the support staff are "sit-ting on Dr. K.irnbrell's desk." Kimbrell, who serves in the role of the district's school board, will have to approve the policies. The unions last month filed two lawsuits in Pulaski County Circuit Court challenging the legality of forming personnel policies committees at a time when the district had recognized unions as contractbargaining agents. "We are going to finish the year well, and we are going to have a good 2012-13," Guess said Friday. "Parents should be reassured that th.is is a move to put the district in solid fmancial condition. It is a move in the right direction." Sam Jones, an attorney for Much of K.irnbrell's Friday letter dealt with the budgetcutting measures presented to him earlier this week by the unions, including a position statement in which the unions argued that the district was likely to win a multimillion- dollar court award from the state for inadequate transportation funding. Kimbrell called the associations' financial plans, in part, "unclear" and inadequate in terms of assuring the district's solvency in later years should the federal court allow state desegregatic
>n aid to the district - about $ll million a year - to be terminated at once or phased out. "PACT/PASS appear to request that PCSSD defer important decisions until a later date, arguing that beyond salary freezes for the 2012-2013 school year, '[t]here is no urgency for anything more at the present time,"' Kimbrell wrote. "I will not attempt to argue the merits of any legal posi- "Second, whether state desegregation funding ends in one year or several years hence, sound budgeting practices dictate that PCSSD should not depend upon state desegregation funding in order to continue its operations," Kimbrell said. "PCSSD must be able to show that it can continue its operations for the benefit of its students with or without state desegregation funding." Kimbrell said the district's budget plans, which include nearly $ll million in cuts the first year and will grow to $13 million when fully realized in the 2014-15sc hool year, address the potential loss of desegregation aid. Kimbrell said that without action, the school district would spend more than it receives in revenue to the point that it would have only $3 million in reserves next year, and by the 2013-14 school year, it would have an illegal $5 million deficit. "It is my utmost hope and desire to return control of the PCSSD to whom it belongs - the district's patrons and locally elected school board," he said. Information for the article was contributed by Evie Blad of the ArkansasD emocrat-Gazette. . Educationno tebook CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSASD EMOCRAT-GAZETTE 3 state schools getd iamontda g Cabot Middle School South in.Cabot, Paris Middle School in Paris and Hells tern Middle School in Springdale have been named Arkansas Diamond Schools as part of the state's Schools to Watch initiative, a national recognition program developed by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. The schools were cited for using research-based strategies within a school schedule to give every child access to a rigorous
high-quality education. The schools are studentcentered with teachers and administrators who are deeply committed to the academic achievement of all students, .Arkansas Schools to Watch co-directors Charles Green . and Mona Briggs said last week in announcing the selections. 4rkansas has had 10 schools feceive the honor since 2007.,Schools are designated fqr a three-year period, after which they must be redesi~ated. ,. Sho.wto feature studentsa'r tistry The Little Rock School District will showcase to the public the artistic talents of its students in kindergarten through 12th grades at the second annual Artistry in the Rock event April 29-30 in the Metroplex Event Center at 10900 Colonel Glenn Road. Musical and dramatic performances, as well as artwork exhibits, will be part of the free event that will be from 1-7 p.m. April 29 and 9 a.rn. to 2 p.m. April 30. The Artistry in the Rock is the result of work by the Little Rock School District's fine arts department that includes among its offerings elementary beginning band, piano laboratories at some elementary and middle schools, band and choir at all middle and high schools, orchestra at some middle and high schools, drai:ha at all high schools and dance at magnet seconda,ry sch9ols. Additionally, l3 of the fine arts specialists in the district have achieved national certification by .the National Board for Professiopal Teaching Standards. App developed ons tate'ss chools The Arkansas Department of Education's Research and Technology Division has developed an application that enables users of smart phones ard computer tablets to access information on Arkansas school districts, schools and educational cooperatives. The application, which can also be used on desktop and laptop computers, includes contact information and quick links to maps locating each school. The application is available for use by the general public. Those wishing to access the sitecan open a browser and navigate to adedata.arkansas. gov/mobile/. 8 LRp upils4, teacherws in StephenAs wards and Akef Abu-Rmaileh
of Anne andJeffSimmermakMargaret Anne Beetstra of er
Aaron Yin of Little Rock Episcopal Collegiate School, Central High School, son of daughter ofJoan and Stephen Fengjuan Zhang and Wendud Beetstra
Catie Edwards of Yin
Tiancheng Zhang of PuParkview Arts and Science laski Academy, son of Jinfen Magnet High School, daugh- Li and Werile Zhang. ARKANSASDEMOCRAT-GAZETfE Eight Little Rock high school seniors and four teachers received 2012 Stephens Awards on Monday. This, year, The City Education T,rust is providing $5,000 scholarships to the outstanding students and $7,500 cash awards to the instructors, a new~ release said. Jackson T. Stephens and W.R. "Witt" Stephens formed, the trust in 1985 with proceeds from the sale of the Stephens' interest in River- "Ii. Video on the Web www.arkansasonline.com/video side Cable Television Co. The ceremony was Monday in the AT&T Auditorium at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce office. Student winners were: Muhammad Abu-Rmaileh of Little Rock Central High School, son of Aida Shanti ter of Joanne Edwards
Whit- Winning teachers were: ney Gao of Little Rock Cen- Kara Branscum of Little Rock tral High Schoo.I, daoghter Christian Academy, Michelle of Li Tong and Xiang Gao
Dowell of Episcopal ColleRachel Madigan of Mount giate School, Melissa Anne St. Mary Academy, daughter "Missy" Gazette of Mount of Susie and Steve Madigan
St. Mary Academy and Betsy Tom Simmermaker of Cathe- Hall of Little Rock Central lie High School for Boys, son High School. EDITOfUALS Itf inallyh appened Necessityc ouuin't lYaifto rever "I'm tired of negotiating with you." -Every boss who ever lost patience with a staff of demanding whiners. "I'm tired of negotiating with you." -Every long-patient, over-stressed teacher who ever had to put up with a spoiled brat in her classroom "I'm tired of negotiating with you." -Every judge who was ever exasperated with an attorney who thinks of himself as some kind of privileged character. "You're so 'SPE-cial." - The Church Lady on the old Saturday Night Live show. THE TEACHERS' union and its mate, the one representing staff workers in Pulaski County's long mismanaged school district, can't say they weren't warned. Time and again. The last warning came February 13th from the school district's emergency supennteilde"nt "and surgeon, Jerry Guess, who put it as plain as he could, as plain as it was, as plain as it should have been for years: "What I will do if we do not succeed [in these negotiations], 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." . Sure enough, he did what he had to do. It had long been time to either fish or cut budget He cut The school distric:t could go oI).ly so long dithering with unions that had been allowed essentially to negotiate with themselves. And the result was years of special privileges that ran counter to the interests of public and taxpayers, students and parents, the State of Ark
msas and good sense in general. Not' to mention just plain economic necessity. At day's end Friday, necessity finally caught up with the special pleaders and especially privi-leged. ,The unions .lost all their collectivebargaining powers, and a total of $ll million in budget cuts is to. be made during the corning year. The day of reckoning finally came: Friday, April 20, 2012. It took long enough. . Pulaski County's school district, now under new and long-needed management, just couldn't go on eternally dithering with its unions. The bills had to be paid. The school district had to be saved. For years the ruinous results of letting the unions have their every little way and whim have been all too obvious: Featherbedding contracts that were costing the much-burdened taxpayers millions in unnecessary expenses. How much? An estimated $13 million a year as of last February. And it hasn't been reduced by much since. Now it's down to $ll million and must be cut Eleven million dollars. That's how much fat still needs to be cut to avoid the school district's not being a school district any more but just part of anoth- er. (little Rock's? North little Rock's?) How to put this delicately? Folks, Pulaski County's school district is broke. And the brokenness is because of all the provisions in contracts "negotiated" by that former, elected, pandering management. (Read: the now-disbanded school board) The district could no longer afford those provisions, not that it ever could. Llke "severance" pay for teachers that were retiring, not being severed from the payroll. What a sweet deal. That, too, is over. How did this all happen? Well, there were elections to win, seats to hold, influence to peddle, unions to please. So what if the books got worse year after year? That would be somebody else's problem Kick it down the road. Well, we've come to the end of the road Somebody else rs now representing the long-suffering public, Le., the State of Arkansas. His name is Jerry Guess, appointed superintendent and.respon-sible party. Over the I past few months, there were some piddling agreements, but no Agreement. And now the state has done what it needed to do. Jerry Guess' message to the unions was unmistakable Friday. "I'm tired of negotiating with you" MUCH TO the union's chagrin, an employer-in this case, the S~te. of Arkansas-can't just go on negotiating forever. Not without conducting its end of the negotiations from a banlauptcy court. Under the law, management can simply impose its final offezA: nd now it has done just that The taxpayers had been soaked enough by a school district run entirely too long by
for, and of the teachers' unions. The head of the teachers' union ~all~~ th~ state's decision "mean-spirited, w~~h we g_uess is her synonym for realistic. But m a way the unions deserve . to be congratulated At last they've ended all their own special benefits and privileged positions. By abusing therp. for years. . Since the district is now the state the State of Arkansas has gone ahead and made the cuts it needs to make to keep the district solvent. And eliminated all the excesses in the contracts signed, lo, these many years ago. It had to. So we can keep school next year in Pulaski County. "!'m d.:ed of negotiating with you," D:"'1ght Eisenhower might as well have said to Orval Faubus in 19.57t,h e year when defiance and delay fmally came ' a-cropper here in Arkansas. Only Ike didn't need words
he had the 101st Airborne. In 2012, the people of Pulaski County and the State of Arkansas have a D~partment of Education, Tom W. Kimbrell, Commissioner. And now he's taken action, too. Let's hope it'll be an education, the real thing, for all concerned Not just the end of a contract stuffed with all manner of supposedly ever-flowing goodies at taxpayer expense for a couple of spoiled unions. 1-/-Z.'lIL Schootu nionsr uleouts trikeb utp lano thers teps CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSAS DEMOl
RAT-GAZEITE Teachers and supportstaff employees in the Pulaski County Special School District won't strike but will take other steps to preserve their union representation and negotiated contracts, leaders of the two unions said Monday. "Morale is low, but they. are going to go ahead and work out the year," Marty Nix, pr.esident of the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers, said about district teachers and the support staff after a 2-hour emergency membership meeting that was closed to the public. "We want to put people's fears to rest," she said. "There won't be a strike, especially in the near future. These students are going to finish the year on a good note." The joint meeting of the teachers' union and the Pulaski Association of Support Staff was called in the wake of Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell's directive Friday telling Pl).laski County Special district Superintendent Jerry Guess to PCSSD Continued from .Page 1 A sever ties between the district and its unions and terminate the employee contracts negotiated with those unions. Kimbrell further directed Guess and the school district - the state's third largest, with 36 schools and 17,637 students - to proceed with making nearly $ll million in cuts in the district's 2012-13 operating budget, including $4 million from employee benefits in the contracts. Guess welcomed the nostrike news Monday night. "I'm really pleased they aren't contemplating any kind of job action," he said. "I think what we do is really important, and. missing days for some sort of job-related statement - I would hate to see that happen to kids in the district." The budget cuts are intended in part to rebuild the financial reserves in a district designated by the state as "fiscally distressed." It is operating under state control, with a state-appointed superintendent and no locally' elected school board. Union members at the meeting affirmed support for their leadership and formed a crisis committee to involve parents and taxpayers in the dispute. "We are going to handle it in court and in the court of public opinion," Nix said about the efforts to retain collective- bargaining rights and contracts that carry an expiration date of June 30, 2015. "We're not going anywhere," she said. Teachers interviewed after the meeting said repeatedly that it was unfair that they will lose pay and other benefits while the superintendent makes a salary of $200,000 plus benefits. "No one wants to give up a percentage of their salary when they see what the others are making," teacher Mi gnon Hatton said. Another teacher questioned why she should suffer losses as the result of the district being placed in }seal distress. "I was in my classroom teaching," she said. "I didn't sign a single check _or hire a single person." The stage is already set for the legal fight in both federal court and Pulaski County Circuit Court. The district filed a federal- court motion Friday asking U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. declare that the state's directives are "legal, propet, and binding and should be obeyed by all parties to this action," including the two unions. Attorneys for the associations will file a response in opposition to that in the next few days, Nix said. , '. , Additionally, the associations last month filed lawsuits against teachers and supportstaff members elected to new district personnel policies committees. The committees are authorized in state law to malce recommendations on employee working conditions and benefits'in lieu of a union-negotiated contract: Nix said. she expects that those lawsuits, now pending in two different Pulaski Conty Circuit Court venues, will be expanded in light of more recent developments. Earlier Mond.i.y, Guess sent to all certified employees in the district a letter telling them that th,eir contracts will not be renewed for the2012- 13 school year. He is recommending instead that their employment be continued for the 2012-13 school year on different terms and conditions. The letter lists about a dozen changes that include reducing the teacher work year and pay by two days, from 192 to 190 days. O~her changes include the elimination of two days of sick leave a year, elimination See PCSSDP, age 6A of one day of bereavement leave, elimination of pay for some bus and recess duty, elimination of art attendance incentive, and the elimination of '.'severance" pay~ents to teachers who retire. The attendance incentive is $100 per semester if a teacher takes no more than one day of leave, or $300 for the school year if no leave is taken. The severance payment is one day's pay times years served in the district. Another significant changes is the phaseout of salary credits that teachers receive for taking district-taught courses r<1ther than collegecredit courses. More than 570 teachers are placed on advanced steps on the salary schedule because of district courses rather than college courses. Guess' letter advises the employees that they have a right to a hearing on the proposed changes to their PCSSDc osctu tsa tfe.ctingem ployeceo ntracts TheP ulaskCi ountyS peciaSl choolD istricti s makinga bout$ 11m illion in budgetc uts in the2 012-13 schooly ear,i ncludinga bout$ 4 milliont hat will be takenf rom benefitsp rovidedt o teachersa nds upport staff in theirn egotiatedco ntracts.T hes cho'odl istrict,a t the directiono f ArkansasE ducationC ommissioner TomK imbrelol n Fridayw ithdrew-recognitioonf thee mployeeu nionst hat negotiatedth ose contractsa nd terminatedth e contractsfo r teachersa ndf or supports taff. Followinga re thec uts thata re beingm adet hat affectt hee mployeesc'u rrentb enefits. Costs avings 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 Eliminateb us duty overages paid to teachers En.niirlatepayme3n6tm sitfo1ru t8'SuperVpiS8ifOOn re . .
. ... $35,002 $35,.00~ $35,002 breakfast tutoring Eliminatel unch/recessd uty compensationt o teachers Reduce the number of bus duty stipends by 1/3 Reduce the teacher salary schedule by two days, from 192 to 190 days Eliminatet he annuala ttendancei ncentivep a'y fort eachers: adn,inistrators, support staff El_iminaoten e bereavementl eaved ay. . . Phase oui over three.years the.4% payment for proiessionai 101,578 107,678 132,599 795,000 102,615 30,000 101,578 101,578 107.,678 107,678 132,599 132,599 795,000 795,000 102.,615 102,615 }.0_.090 30_.000 gr~.Vvt~.~~.ntf~f~~rt ~t~. a,chers... .... .. ..... _ .. .. ....... . ... 409,.000 800,000 1,200,000 P.~~~~ .out.~t.a.ff..~~~~l~p_rn~~.t.son,p.f~~nr.,~~a.~t!p~p.ons~ ta .t.t. .............. 1.1.~A?..~. :)~~/~~. :::: :3-~1 ~6.?~ Phase out placement on salary schedule based on district courses 1,396,542 2,308,917 2,800,383 01sdiiiiiiiii"1i"s"ii'ver~
Eeiiaimeiii"iii.reiir1riii.iii.i.i ii1:iiyeiis":'' .:: ::~~ :.s .~:.. q:o$..::~::o:~.:~.:: ~ao: s.:oa~ ctiann.agmee'6 f accruecfl eafvoe si ck'lea.:,eaii.d.. ................... ,. reduce by two days .. Totalc oste duclionfrso mt hee mployees'ineg91iated contractasn dr elatedp oliciefso ro there mployees Additionaels tirTJacteods to f unusesdi ckl eavlbonus for supporst tafft o matchp olicyfo r t~achers..-, ' Netc ostr eductionfsro mn egotiatecdo ntractasn d relatedp.o liciefso ro there mployees SOURCEP:u 1asCklo untyS peciaSl chooDl istrict contract and that the hearing must be requested within. 30 days of receipt of the letter. Nix said Monday that the employees will fight the changes in their contracts by asking for those hearings. The hearing is typically held before the school board. In the case of a district in state control, the state education commissioner serves as the school board. Guess' letter gives a website [pr the district's newly completed set of personnel policies, which will replace the terms of the current contract: www.pcssd.org. Communityreaction to the state action agasf the llilion recognition and tliircontracts, as well as the budget cuts, was mixed Monday. , . Gov. Mike Beebe :is supportive ofKimbrell's d_edsion to end union recognition and mandate budget cuts, spokesman Matt DeCample said. . '1Commissioner Kimbrell kept the governor apprised throughout the process, and he obviously felt that this was the step that had to be taken to resolv~ ~e problems in the district," DeCample said. The governor's office trusted the Education Department's attorneys to consider potential leg
hurdles before Kimbrell opted to end union contracts, I
>eCample said. "Y,,e trust them that they k>oked through all the possibilities before takil).g that step," he said. State Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, said she originally spported the state's takeover of the district. But Chesterfield, a former teacher union member and husband of Pulaski Association of Support Staff leader Emry Chesterfield, has since developed concerns about the "broad and vague powers" that state laws give leaders qver~eeing fiscally distressed districts. Particularly "distressing'' is having two appointed employees - Guess and Kimbrell - making major decisions once voted on in public meetings by an elected school board, Linda Chesterfield said. 218,970 218,970 218,970 .. \. t " . :/ , $4,239,941 $5,667,190 $6,673,530' .-:-1$4
03~-~154 038 -154,038 ...... \ 'ti ... , 1 , t $4,085,903$, 5,513,152 $6,519,492 ArkansaDs emo~rat-Gazette "I have not seen any change in the spending powers of this administration versus the previous one," she said. "What I have seen is a lack cif parental involvement, period." L Ending union recognition is not the solution to the . district's financial pr.oblems, Chesterfield continued. Under.proposed cuts, administrators will keep their current contract l.eri.gths while teachers will lose time, she said. "No one identified the unions as a problem
, Chesterfield said. ''If we're going to change what is going on, there has to be shared sacrifice." In addition to parts of Little Rock, the district covers several smaller commui: J.i.tiesi,n cluding Jacksonville and Maumelle. . . Maumelle Mayor Mi.~hael Watson said he supported trimming some teache't benefits that weren't "on par with the rest of.tM.state" but he hadn't yet.formed an opinion .OI_l Kimbrell's decision to end union recognition. . "I think there were sorpe ltems that needed to be looked at," he said. "I don't know if doing away with the contract completely was the way to go, but Ilhink it needed to be addressed in some form or fashion." In Jacksonville, residents are hopeful that the state's takeover and financi~l deci- sions will put the city a step closer to its goal of having a separate, independent school district, Mayor Gary"Fletcher said. "I th0k that we're getting to a pomt to recognize that the district is just too big to be managed," he said. . Information for this article was contributedb y Evie Blad of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. NLRsets deadline in schools chiefhunt CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSASD EMOCRAT-GAZETTE North Little Rock School Board members and a consulting firm hired last week to assist them in selecting a new' superintendent agreed Tuesday to a May 21 deadline for candidate applications and took other steps to get the search under way. Kieth Williams, a retired Arkansas superintendent and now representative of the executive search firm McPherson & Jacobson of Omaha Neb., told board membe
s that the timeline that calls for the po'ssible hire of a new superintendent by early June with _a start-work date of July 1 1s the shortest with which he has ever dealt. "Nothing is goi~g fo ~e lessened in the process m regard to what we are doing in our home office and the effort [ we] are .putting into this " Williams said in referenc~ to himself and his colleagues Bobby Lester and Diana Julian, who are both retired central Arkansas educators who work with the recruiting firm. The School Board voted in mid-March to seek a superintendent to succeed Ken Kirspel, whose contract does not actually expire until June 30, 2013, See SEARCHPa, ge 10Bf Search the characteristics and skills that the School Board would like to see in a new superin- Continued from Page 1B tendent and will meet with community members at a 6 which is when he has said he p.m. meeting next Tuesday to wants to retire. do the same. Board members Board members have said are in the process this week they want'to try to put a new of nominating people to be superintendent in plac~ right invited to participate in that away, if possible, so the new "stakeholders" meeting. leader will be on hand for the Board members said they start of the district's five-year, would like a new leader to be $266 million school building a visionary, charismatic and and renovation program rath- experienced superu:itendent er than starting the job a year with proven leadership, ac~from now in the midst of the demic-improvement and f1- planning and construct_ion. nancial skills. School Board members The new superintendent said earlier this month that also should be willing to work Kirspel continues to have the in partnership with the School full support of the board and Board and able to work well he will remain the superin- with a diverse student body tendent in the coming year and staff in an urban setting, if a satisfactory successor is the board members agreed. not found. They also called for a new "If we start this process leader to be open to instrucnow we are going to be with tional innovation, committed you until it is finished," Wil- to community health initialiams told the board Tuesday. tives and embrace technology "If it is not finished July 1, then-as a learning tool. we are going to be with you To get further informaagain in September, starting . tion about what the general again, and we will go through public would like to see in the whole gamut of the pro- .a new sc.hool-district leader, cess and assist you in finding the McPherson and Jacobson someone. Our goal would be firm will place on its website to find someone by the end of and on the district's website December." a survey open to the general The district is expected public that will ask about the to pay no more. than $22,300 strengths of North ~ittle Rock in fees and expenses for the and the North Little Rock search, although Williams School District, and what a said that total will be less than new superintendent should that if a candidate is selected accomplish and what the obthis spring. stacles the new superinten- The company has already dent might face: , begun placing advertisements The_ supenn tendent s about the job opening in the salary m the 9,000-student Arkansas Democrat-Gazette . district is currently about ~d with state and national $152,000. Willi~s said t~at education organizations and the avera~e p~d _to supe~mpublications. The job is also tendents ll_l d1stncts_ similar advertised on the company's to North Little Rock 1s about website, http://www.mac- $170,000. He ur_ged ~o~rd njake.com. members to begm thmking The consultants spent about the amount t~ey want time Tuesday determining to pay a new executive. School Board member Scott Miller told his board colleagues that some North Little Rock businessmen approached him this week with a plan of possibly supplementing the district's salary offer to entice a "world class" superintendent candidate. That funding raised by the business community could be up to $100,000 a year for multiple years if the qistrict chooses to accept it, Miller said. . If the board is successful m hiring a new superintendent, it plans to retain Kir~pel to assist the new supermtend~~t and possibly serve as a lJaJson between the board and the building plan consultants, DLR Group of Overland Park, Kan. LR schoolsu, nion.. to startm ediation Pay impasse takes federal step Friday CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSASD EMOCRAT-GAZETfE Representatives of the Little Rock School District and the Little Rock Education Association will start work with a federal mediator Friday morning to resolve an impasse in negotiations on a compen~ation package for this school year. Cathy Koehler, president' of the Little Rock Education Association, which is the union that represents all district employees except administrators, said Wednesday that there is "a significant difference" in the positions taken by the two negotiating ,teams on issues related to raises and health-insurance benefits. The association's team declared an impasse in the talks April 13. That prompted the call to mediator MarkMartin of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. tonight includes no items related to employee contracts and so no board action is ex~ _pected. Teachers in the 25,000-student district have a three-year contract that calls for annual negotiations on salaries and other financial benefits. In recent years, inclui:ling this year, district leaders and teachers have waited until mid-school year to begin salary talks so that the district officials have more accurate information on revenue that is available for across-theboard pay raises that are then retroactive to the beginning of the school year. Koehler said Wednesday that the association membership "has been exceptionally patient" and that won'.t happen next year. "We are well aware of tlie responsibility of the district to not allow its fund balance to drop, but that' does not mean we ar~ .. going to lay over a.d t~e ri~yiing wh~J?:'th~y
~aV\:/ chosen to spend money Jar eignt:o)."n ,inem 9.nths without thinking.about their emplo'f ee.s _t,all"'K'b l ,-,i,~dr, a,1 ,,., oe ,er sai ::f Koehler and Associate Superintendent Dan Whitehorn, who is the district's chief nego_tiator, both declined Wednesday io describe the offers and counteroffers in the nego_tiations, citing restrictions! in the ground rules that are used by the bargaining teams. "I'm certainly coming to listen and learn and keep an open mind," Whitehorn said about the mediation session.
Di~tric:t employee's' l'iave no't: !eceived aqross-the bbard raises this year, but eligil
>lee mployees who have not reached the !OP of the salary scale have-received step increases for their additional yeru
, di"Jw
t>erk}'P erience. "My true hope is that we get this resolved using the federal mediator,''. said Koehler, who plans to lead informational pic)<ets to inform the public about the dispute, outside today's 5:30 p.m. Little Rock School Board meeting. The board's agenda for FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2012 3B No chan' gef orN LRs choolv ote, Boards taysw ithr egulare lections chedulea fterz oesr edrawn EVIE BLAD exemptions for districts that cree, similar to North Uttle er was the soJevote against ARKANSASD EMOCRAT-GAZETTE 'meet certain criteria, includ- Rock's, to prove it qualified the resolution, citing some The North Little Rock ing compl\ance with the fed- for the exemption. uncertainties about the state School Board voted Thurs- era! Voting Rights Act. The state Jaw s,ays certain Jaw. day to continue with its.reg- The district has never districts "shall be exempt," The three board members ular election schedule rather opened all of its zones in Jones said .. ' . whose terms expire this year than opening all seven seats one election sinceit began ".Courts have found that are Miller, who represents up for election in Septem- its current voting schedule. 'shall' is mandatory unless Zone 2
Darrell Montgomery, ber. in 1989, Superintendent Ken it results in absurdity," he. who represents Zone 3
and State law requires re- Kirspel said. said. John Riley, who_represents drawing boundary lines in "I would advise that we Abo.ut eight protesters Zone 7. , all zoned Arkansas school continue as.we have done," gathered outside the dis- The district's seven newdistricts where zones have he said. trict's administration build- ly reconfigured zones, apgrown unequal in population North Little Rock School ing to demand the board proved in March, are similar since a U.S. census. North District attorney St~phen open up all seats for elec- to the previous zones, but -Little Rock's board had al- Jones told board members tion. They waved signs with Zones 1, 2 and 3 that encomready approved new zone that federal courts previ~ slogans like "shall is not pass the southern half of the boundaries. ously upheld the decision of mandatory." clistrid are more compact In those situations, the. the Marvel] School District No one spoke in opposi- than before. Jaw also requires alJ school to claim an exemption from tion to' the board's plan reboard seats to be open for the election requirement. gardihg elections during the election after the zone lines That district pointed to a 30- meeting. ' are altered
but it provides year-old desegregation de- Board member Scott Mill- I NLR School Board rejects proposaflo rt eacherr aises EVIE BLAD ARKANSASDEMOCRATGAZETIE The North Little Rock School Board rejected a request from _itsP ersonnel Policies Committee on Thursday to provide a 3 percent raise to the district's teachers. Financial .uncertainty makes it a difficult time to increase salary costs, board members said. But they did not rule out potential raises in the future as administrators settle que~tions about projected enrollment, building timelines and plans to trim the district's budget in other areas. "We want you to understand that we have not forgotten you," School Board Presi dent Dorothy Williams said. "You are still on our radar." Without the raise, most teachers will receive a pay increase next year as an additional year of experience brings them to a new "step" on the district's salary plan. The raise proposal from the committee of certified personnel would have added 3 percent to each of those "steps," costing' the district about $806,000, committee Chairman Majoice Thomas said. The cornrnittee proposed app,lying the raises retroactively for the 2011-201s2c hool year. If they had been approved, teachers would have received back pay. "All we ask is that, in all of your planning, you do not forget about the teachers,". Thomas said. She noted the board'~ decision to cut a !
>onus it previously provided for teachers who have perfect attendance during a given semester as another example of belt-tightening some teachers have faced. Board members said they would be willing to consider raises after the Arkansas Department of Education clarifies when it expects to contribute to the district's building plan and after enrollment proj.ections give leaders a better sense of the school system's financial fu-ture. North Little Rock schools have lost enrollment for the last two academic years, Superintendent Ken Kirspel said. LR districtu, nionf ail to reach' ~c~Qrd . ~- CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSASD EMOCRAT-GAZETfE . Representatives of the Little Rock School District and the Little Rock Education Association ended a full day of mediation Friday over employee pay raises for the current school year, with plans to resume talks at 1 p.rn. Wednesday. it up today but we didn't," said Deborah Desjardin, a middle school math teacher and chairinan of the association's negotiations team. The association is the ~nion and contract bargains ing agent for teachers as well as for most .support staff, except for administrators. "It's ongoing," said district "We were hoping to wrap Associate Superintendent Raises Continued from Page 1 B the bargaining teams' ground rules. The negotiations are not open to the public. . "As long as you are talking, you are doing all right," Peggy Nabors, a spokesman for the union team, said at the conclusion of the session, which started about 8:30 a.m. and ended after 5 p.m., with a break for lunch. I, Teachers in the 25,000~ student district, the state's largest, have a three-year contract that calls for annual negotiations on salaries and other financial benefits. In recent years, including this year, district leaders and teachers have waited until mid-school year to begin salary talks so that the district officials have more accurate information on any revenue that is available for across-the-board employee pay raises. The union team decla.red an impasse in the talks April 13, and the teams then brou.ght in mediators Mark Martin of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and Barry Strange from the Arkansas Department of Labor. The mediators will continue to work with the teams Wednesday, Desjardin said Friday. While there has been no agreement on an acrpssthe- board pay raise,, eligible employees did receive a step increase for their additional year of teaching experience, as, they do every year. 'However, the district's longest tenured employees - those at the top of their salary schedules - are ineligible for the step increases, which range between 2 percent and 3 percent. Friday's talks came on the heels of a Thursday night School Boarcj. meeting that started with tejlchers and other association members lining both sides of the ,800 block of Markham Street chanting an~ waving signs that called for employee raises. Cathy Koehler, president of the association, told the School Board that it is time to resolve their differences, "We have conducted ourselves for 10 or 11 months now as a peace-loving group of people who have not -disrupted school or not in any way disrupted student learning," Koehler said, "The time has come to get a resolution on a financial agreement." Thursday's board meeting agenda included no items directly related to the negotiations, The board members took no action on the matter other than to express appreciation for employees and urge that all parties work together and remain partners to benefit students despite any differences of opinion on how to operate the district. Dan Whitehorn, who is the spokesman for the district's negotiations team. _ "We listened to their proposals and tried to keep an open mind," Whitehorn said, "We look forward to meeting with them again Wednesday." The district and union teams are atte,mp'ting to reach a tentative agreement on a compensation package - includin~ .a possible pay raise or changes in the district contribution to employee health insurance - for the 2011-12s chool year that ends for students on May 30 and for teachers on May 31. Neither team would describe the offers and counteroffers, .citing restrictions in See RAISESP,a ge1 2B "We strive for consensus and to work together because we know that if we pull together , .. we do our best work," board member Greg Adams said. "We know there are going to be disagreements." In the 2010-11 schoolyear, teachers and support staff received a 1.5 percent across-the-board pay increase, an increase to the distriizt's contribution to health-insurance premiums and a $750 bonus., In the 2009-10 school year, the Little Rock School Board and the teachers union approved a 1.25 percent pay raise for teachers. In 2008-09, the pay raise was 0.5 percent
in 2007-08, it was 2 percent. In 2006-07, employees received a 3 percent raise. Step increases for experience were also paid in each of those years to eligible employees. Allowc ounty-districspt lit, aid phaseoutj~u dgeu rged CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSADSE MOCRAT-GAZETTE The Pulaski County Special School District on Monday proposed an eight-year phaseout of millions of dollars in state desegregation aid and the formation of a new, 10-school Jacksonville school system as a way to ~eet desegregation obliga-tions. , Attorneys for the 17,000- stude.n,t district made the proposal to U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. in response to a March 26 :request by the state to be Schools Continued from Page 1 A gation funding. The 1989 settlement serves as the basis for special state d~segregation funding to the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts. That funding _is now about $70 million a year and totals more than $1 billion since the agreeme?t. The money helps finance Little Rock's six original magnet schools and all three districts' majority-to-minority interdistrict student transfer programs, employee health and retirement costs, and general operating expenses. The magnet schools and majority-to-minority student transfer program in particular "':'ere designed to promote racial desegregation of schools and the districts. Sam Jones of Little Rock and Allen Roberts of Camden tl:e Pulaski County Special dis~ tnct attorneys, said that instead of accepting the state's motion, the judge should modify the 1989 settlement because released from financial and other desegregation obligations in a 1989 settlement agreement to the Pulaski County school desegregation case. The Pulaski County Special district attorneys said the state's motion to immediately end desegregation aid should be denied. Attorneys for the Little Rock and North Little Rock school districts also responded Monday to the state's motion, urging the court to deny the request to end desegre-ree SCHOOLPSa, ge 7~ the agreement nas not completely _fulfilledi ts purpose of producmg three unitary or desegregated districts in Pulaski County. . ~e Pulaski County Special distnct has yet to achieve unitary status in nine areas of its operation, including its faciliti~ s-The Little Rock and North Little Rock districts have been declared fully unitary by the courts. "The State essentially arg: ues for a complete obliterat10n of the 1989 Settlement Agreement," Jones and Roberts wrote. "However, while the agreement might warrant the substantial changes proposed by PCSSD, it has not yet reached the point where it should be jettisoned wholesale." They said that "much of 0e agreement should remain m place, or even enhanced" un~ the district becomes fully urutary. "The District proposes that the Court approve the creation of a separate Jacksonville area school district," Roberts and Jones wrote. ''Its creation would ~ot ~ave a segregative impact m either a new Jacksonville School District, or in PCSSD sans Jacksonville. Its creation would be popular among the patrons of Jacksonville and the residual PCSSD. Popular support remains a critical element in attaining unitary status." The attorneys said the new Jacksonville district would be eligible for a far greater share of state funding for new and renovated facilities than the Pulaski County Special district could receive on its own for the Jacksonville area schools. And the detachment of the Jacksonville area would reduce the number of facility projects that the remaining Pulaski County Special district would have to address to comply with the_ terms of its 2000 desegregation plan, they said. Some Jacksonville civic and government leaders have wor~ed for several years to establish a school district independ_ ent ~f 0e Pulaski County Special distnct, saying a Jacksonville district could be more competitive with nearby school systems such as Cabot. A move to form a Jacksonville district was thwarted in 2003 "".hen, at the urging of the Pulaski County Special district, a federal judge detennined that d~taching Jacksonville would hinder desegregation efforts in the remaining Pulaski County Special, Little Rock and North Little Rock districts. _Jerry Gues~. the state-appomted Pula_skCi ounty Special School D!Stnct superintendent, said in an interview Monday that a 4,500-stud_ent Jacksonville school system could be eligible to receive more t~an half of its building renovat10n funds from the state. The Pulaski County Special district, determined.to be a 'wealthy' district, is eligible to receive from the state less than 3 percent of its building and renova-tion costs. The remaining Pulaski County Special district would have about i2,500-students and 26 schools, Guess said. "We think it would greatly enhance the operational efficiencies for this district and that district," he said. A Jacksonville district would likely include both Jacksonville and North Pulaski high schools as well as Jacksonville Middle 'and seven elementary schools - Bayou Meto, Arnold Drive, Tolleson,' Adkins, Tay\or, Pinewood, and Dupree. Jones and Roberts t~ld the judge that they agree Wlth the state that it.is time to end the ,
protracted litigation" in.what will be a 30-year-old school desegregation lawsuit this )'.ear. In addition to formmg a separate Jacksonville district, they recommended that the judge modify the 1989 s~~lement agreement by requmng the district and state to comply with the district's desegrega~ tion plan within three y_e~rs, and fix the school fac1ht1es within a reasonable amount of time. A federal appeals court in December.affirmed a lower court's finding that the Pulaski County Special district h~d failed to meet its obligations m. regard to student as.sigriment to schools and classrdoi:ns, Advanced Placement and gifted education, discipline, ~c
hool facilities, scholarships, special educ,i.tion, staffing, student achievement ahd monitoring. : Jones and Roberts also pr_oposed a phaseout of the special state desegregation funding that amounts to about $20 million a year to the district. That phaseout. would be done -by providing the full amount of funding for the coming 2012-13 school year and then reducing the annual amount over the next eight years so that the final desegregation payment in 2019-20 would be 80 percent of the amount paid to the district this coming year. Additionally, Roberts and Jones proposed the three Pu. laski County school districts present the court with a pl'.111 for phasing out state and district financial support for the six original special-program magnet schools in Little Rock and the majority-to-minority interdistrict student transfer program over no more than seven years. The magnet schools - Booker, Carver, Gibbs and Williams elementaries, Horace Mann Middle and Parkview High - along with the interdistrict transfer program were designed to promote racial desegregation in the three school districts. The state pays one half tl,ie education costs for the magnet schools and incentive costs to participate in the interdistrict transfer program, as well as all student transportation costs. Adding an unusual twist to the case, the Pulaski County Special di.strict is currently classified by the state as fis- cally distressed and is operatingi under state contrcil, with a state-appointed superintendent and no elected school board. Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell serves as the school board for the district. However, because the state and the district have opposing interests in regard to the 1989 settlement and desegregation .agreement, the school district by court order doesn't confer with Kimbrell and the state Department of Education about its legal positions in the desegregation case. Guess said Kimbrell was not consulted or even told about the district's posttion in the court filing. "We have carefully avoided discussing these issues," Guess said. Chris Heller and Clay Fendley, attorneys for the Little Rock School District, which is the plaintiff in the case, said the state is asking to be released from its commitments under the '1989 settlement and related agreements on the magnet schools and majority-to-minority transfer program with~ut showing that it complied Wlth those agreements in good faith or that it has eliminated the vestiges of its constitutional violations to the extent practicable. "The state's request must be denied as a matter of law," Heller and Fendley told M
:u:shall. "There is no point in pro- ceeding to develop the factual record under the wrong legal standard_." they said. "The State's Motion for Release should be dismissed for failure to state a claim." Stephen Jones, an attorney for the North Little Rock School District, also said that the state !'has a burden of proving it has complied with the 1989 settlement agreement and the existence of any changed circumstances that justify the relief it seeks." He also urged that if the judge determines the state desegregation money-should be terminated
that it be phased out and not ended immediately. "The districts need a transition period to maintain fiscally sound schools," Stephen Jones wrote, adding that the districts need to uphold promises made to students who participated in the magnet and interdistrict transfer programs. Those students should be able to complete the grades in their current schools, he said. The Joshua intervenors, who represent black students in all three districts, asked for a deadline extension to turn in its response. $70,000in f oodatPulaskCi ountys chooles ~ires ' . . . . . CYNTHIA HOWELL en patties, fajita meat, pasta, Scott in that position. District ify for another job within the. walk. away. Without pointing :{\~SAS DE~OCRAT:GAZETIE tomatq.pa~te
corri, beans and officials refused to comm~nt district. He was director of .f mgers,'that's about all I can Some l,600 1cases of food blueberritf
-to a pe_rs6rm.el T.sday on Scott's employ'-'
the student nutrition depart- say." valued at more than $70,000 problem. . . . m_~~t ,statfis. in ,the district,'. ment f<?r the _past four years . _. . Goif sai~ the _district has and provided by the U.S. De, "This is a lot of free stuff," saymg that. it was an unre- . "I didn't have control of . been workmg smce he bepartment of Agriculture at nq Goff said,. calling the waste . solved personnel matter. the warehouse" where ,the gari. his job there last August cost to the Pulaski County "inexcusable." ''.And instead -Scott, contacted at his food was stored, Scott .said. on improving practices and Special Schoor District. be-' of using the free s'tuff, -0-e hqme, said Tuesday that he' "B\lt it ultimately fell OI). me," adding controls in t:p.es tudent came outdated arid now must- werebuying"fro~vendors to. was asked by district offi~ . he said about the resporisibil- nutrition department. be destroyed, district officials feed kids." c.ials to leave that job and he . ity But he alsosaid that "if the said Tuesday. Regena English became . intends to do so. He will not . "It was a very stressful controls that wer\! in place Bill Goff, the district's chief the istrict's interim director: challenge the dismissal by re-. yeai: going through the.fiscal - ~specially if the existing financial officer, :attributed of student nutrition>'effective questing a hearing. distress of the district. They policies and regulations had the expired food.:_ some' 6f Tuesday, Goff said. However, th.e 27-year dis- said they couldn't affo_rdt o. bee_nf ollowed ...!..iwt ould not, which included cheese, chick- Englis~ repl_aees I?ale tJ
i!::et mployee hopes to qual- 'lose .that money. I chose to See FOODP, age 4B. Food Continued from Page 1 B have happened. There is no excuse for it." The expired commodities were discovered last month in an Arkansas Department of Human Services monitoring visit to the School District's warehouse, Goff said. The state agency is responsible for overseeing the distribution of U.S. Department of Agriculture commodities. The warehouse review also uncovered a similar amount of food that was nearing expiration. However, the district has been able to incorporate that food into its menus for school meals or transfer it to other school districts that can use it promptly, Goff said. "We're not proud that it happened," Goff said about the aging inventory. "But we are glad it got discovered when it did." The district also had to destroy old food in 2010, Goff said. The Pulaski County Special district, the third largest in the state with about 17,000 students, typically receives up to $~00,000 a year in USDA commodities for its schoolmeal service, Goff said. Deal feached . . . in LR district sets 1 % raise Tentativep act now awaits board,u nion-memberO K CYNTHIA HOWELL a copy of the tentative agree- ARKANSASD EMOCRAT-GAZETTE ment in response to an Ai- Little Rock School Dis- kansas Freedom oflnformatrlct teachers and support tionAct request. staff will receive a 1 percent School district and emraise retroactive to the be- ployee association leadginning of the current school ers were finalizing plans year if a tentative agreement Wednesday evening for ratireached Wednesday is rati- fying the proposal at special fied by the School Board and meetings later in the week. union members. Late Wednesday evening, the Negotiating teams for Little Rock School Board anthe district and the Little nounced it would hold a speRock Education Associa- cial'meeting at 5 p.m. Friday. tion, which is the contract cathy Koehler, presibargaining agent for the dent of the association, said teachers and support staff in Wednesday. that she was the district, also tentatively pleased with the tentative agreed to a $16.92 increase in agreement and the tone it the district's contribution to sets for continued collabo, the monthly health insurance ration between the district ~remiums for participating and its employees. employees. "I can't help but smile a That would increase the whole lot about this one right district contribution from now," Koehler said, adding $301.44 a month to $318.36, that the tentative agreement retroactive to Jan. 1 of this was reached without any disyear. ruption to students or to the District officials released See RAISEP, age 2A Raise Continued from Page 1A community. Jody Carrejro, president of the Little Rock School Board, said he was happy to see the completion of the .talks. . "It was not my, first choice, but in negotiations things seldom are your first choice," Carreiro said about the agreement terms. "But I'm pleased, very happy, No. l, that it is done and, No. 2, I think it is a reasonable deal, for the district and for the teachers." A 1 percent increase to all eligible employees
would produce a beginning.salary-of $33,617.85fo r a teacher.with a bachelor's degree and no experience. The beginning salary is currently $33,285. Tlie district's top teacher salary'is. $64,841. A 1 percent increase would add $648.41 to that. ' Dani.el Whitehorn, -associate superintendent for secondary education and the district's chief negotiator, thanked Peggy Nabors, the chief negotiator for the Little Rock Education Association, and her team of teachers and support staff for working with the district team. ''We are all really about the same thing, w)J.ich is student achievement," Whitehorn said immediately after the two-hour negotiating session Wednesday. "We nee'd to work together and we need each other's support to make student achieveient happen. We didn't w
pit to be apart on salaries
'' " . Whitehorn:acknowledgeii that the tentative agreement took'some time .. i ~ The twotteams began talks in March ap.d ,the .teachers' team declared_ an impasse April 13. That prompted the call by the teamtos M arkMartin, a mediator with the Federal Mediatidn and Conciliation Ser-vice, -and 'Barry Strange, a mediatonwith the Arkansas Department of Labor. Bothmediato"rs worked with the teams last Friday and again Wednesday. , "We clearly ,had tp understand each other's.position," Whitehorn said. "I think it to.ok a while.:for that .to play out - for us to get all the facts ancf for them to get all the facts,- on what is really going on. The, mediators had "Wtfare ~~ really about the same thing, whichi s student achievementW. e need to work t~gether and we neyd each other's support to niake student achievement happen. We didn't want to.be apart on - salaries." , - DanielW hitehornt,h e district'cs hiefn egotiator ' to no across-the-board pay raises for the current 2011'12 school year after the district was taken over. by the_ state last summer. . St~te officials, in consultation with Pulaski County Special district lead.ers, are imposing salary cuts for the 2012-1_3sc hool year, in part through a two-day reduction in the teacher work year plus the phaseout of salary cred-its that employees receive for a key role in clarifying that ever, the district's longest-ten- district-taught short courses. for both $ides." ured eynployees -those at the Little Rock School Dis- Teachers in the 25,000- top or their salary schedules trict teachers have typically student !district with 3,800 - are ineligible for the step in- received annual across-theemploye~ s
have a~ee-year creases, which range between board raises. contract that calls for annual 2 percent and 3 percent. In the -2010-11_,schoyoel ar, negotiatio.ns on' salaries and The Little Rock district-is teachers and support staff other financial benefits. likely to be the only one of received a 1.5 percent across- In recent years, inolud- the three districts in Pulaski the-board pay increase, an ing this year, district leaders County to provide ac-ross- increase to the district's conand teachers have waited un- the-board raises to its teach- tribution to health-insurance til the middle of the school ers and other employees this premiums and a$750 bonus. year to begin salary talks so school year. In the 2009-10 school year, district officials, have more The North Little Rock. the Little Rock School Board accurate informalioh on any School Board last week re- -and the teachers union aprevenue that is,avai!able for jected a request from that proved a 1.25 percent pay across-the-board.employee district's Personnel Policies raise for teachers. pay raises. Comeflittee to provide a 3 In 2008-09, the pay raise While there has been no percent raise to the districts was 0.5 percent
_in 2007-08, across-the:board raise so far teachers, saying that financial it was 2 percent. In 2006-07, this year, eligible. Little Rock uncertainty made it a difficult employees received a 3 perdistrict employees did,receive time to increase salary costs. cent raise. Step increases for a step increase.for an cldition- Teachers and other. em- experience also were paid in al, year of teaching experience, ployees in the Pulaski County each of those years to eligible as th~y.~q,o\every ye~i.How- Special-School District agree.d employees. ., Gunfireleaves LR students uninjured Alabama space camp hit by shots DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF AND WlRE REPORTS A group of Little Rock fifth-graders attending space camp in Huntsville, Ala., were never in any danger when shots were fired at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center's Davidson facility Thursday morning, a school district spokesman said. Shortly before 10 a.m., three shots were fired into the building that houses the Saturn V rocket, with at least one bullet striking the rocket, a Huntsville television station reported. Investigators said the shots likely were fired from Interstate 565, which runs adjacent to the facility. Pam Smith, a spokesman for the Little Rock School District, said the 43 students from Carver Magnet Elementary School were in an exhibit in the interior of the facility when the shots were fired and were "never in harm's way." Smith said it was the students' last day at the center before returning to Little Rock today. The students left Little Rock on Wednesday with three teachers and eight chaperones for the space center, a trip students from the school have made regularly for 20 years, she said. Parents were notified in a letter and phone call Thursday afternoon, Smith said. No injuries were reported in the shooting. 2 unions in district plan rally at Capitol ARKANSASD EMOCRAT-GAZETTE The Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers and the Pulaski Associatioh of Suppo~ t Staff, .employee organizations that lost the right last month to represent Pulaski County Special School District employees in contract negotiations, are hosting a rally on the state Capitol steps Saturday. The rally, which is to start at 10 a.m., will feature speakers Marty Nix, president of the teacher organization, and Emry Chesterfield, president of the support staff. pne of the purposes of the rally is to enable members of the public to show support (or teachers and support staff 1~ the Pulaski County Special district and in all public schools, according to a news rel~ase issued by the organizations. Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell last month directed Superintendent Jerry Guess to sever the ties between the district and the two unions, and terminate the employees' contracts that were otherwise due to expire in June 2015. The district, which is in fiscal distress and under state control without an elected school board, also was directed to carry out nearly $11 million in budget cuts for the coming 2012-13 school year. Those cuts, including a twoday reduction in the teacher work year, will result in reductions in employee pay. Guess complied with the directives from the state. Union leaders have said they will fight the loss of the con~ ract and negotiating rights m court. Studentsu rgej udge to keepd istrictsa' id ARKANSAS DEMOC!t'.T-GAZEITE Attorneys-for black students in the three Pulaski County school districts on Friday urged a fede/al judge to deny the state's request to be released from financial and other commitments it made in a 1989 school agreement in the county's long-running desegregation case. The Arkansas attorney general's office, on behalf of the state Department of Education, filed a motion in March asking U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. to relieve the state of 23-yearold obligations, which have resulted in the payment of more than $1 billion in desegregation aid to the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special schc:ioi districts. ' In that time, the Little Rock and North Little Rock districts have been declared unitary and the Pulaski County Special district partially unitary by the federal courts. The.state has argued that the changed circumstances in the districts warrant the release h --\ ~ L More information on the Web Dislriclsta keovearn dd esegregation arkansa~online.com/documents/ of the state. J John Walker and Robert Pressman, attorneys for the black students who are known as the Joshua intervenors, argued Friday that that the Pulaski County Special district has fallen short of fully implementing its desegregation plan "due in large part to the historic, laissez faire approach of the State to simply pay money and do nothing else to help the district meet its obligations." The Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special distric
ts filed motions ii}. opposition to the state's motion earlier this week. Marshall has set a,.May 21 deadline for the attorney general's office to file its response. No hearing date.has been set for the issue. 2B SATURDAYM, AY 5, 2012 1 % school raise approvedin LR Board also OKs $16.92 more for contributionto insurance CYNTHIAH OWELL ARKANSADS EMOCRAT-GAZETTE The Little Rock School Board at a b~ief special meeting Friday approved a 1 percent across-the-board raise for nearly all employees and a $16.92 monthly increase in the district's contribution to employee health insurance costs for the current 2011-12 school year. The board voted 6-0 to finalize the compensation agreement that was negotiated between representatives of the district and the Little Rock Education Association, the contract-bargaining agent for teachers and for support staff such as custodians, bus drivers, security officers and secretaries. Union members approved the agreement at a meeting Thursday, Peggy Nabors, a spokesman for the association's team, told the School Board. While the association negotiated on behalf of teachers and the support staff, the raise ~d health-insurance increase will appLy to all employees, including principals and associate superintendents.' Only Superintendent Morris Holmes will not automatically receive the 1 percent increase. He negotiates his contract separately with the School Board. The raise, retroactive to the beginning of this school year, and the insurance increase ret- : reactive to Jan. 1, will be paid to employees in their June 15 paycheck, said Kelsey Bailey, the district's chief financial ')fficer. Individual teachers will see their salaries increase by 1 percent to as much<as 3.5 percent this year as a result of the raise coupled with an automatic step increase for experience that eligible teachers began receiving earlier this school year. . The district's most exp<
. nenced teachers - those at the top of the salary schedule - are ineligible for the experience step and will receive just the l percent increase. .The d'istrict's new starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree and no experience will be $33,617.8-5 up from the current $33,285T. he district's top teacher salary is $64,841. A 1 percent increase will add $648.41 to that. The $16.92 increase in the district's contribution to the monthly health insurance premiums for participating employees will indease the ~ontribution for participatmg employees from $301.44 a month to $31836. That is equal to the total cost for single cv ,'erage of an employee. The cost of the raise will be_ about $2.l million, Bailey said. The cost of the insurance benefit will be $350,000 for the second half of the 20ll- 12 school year, or $700,000 for ~e entire 2012 calendar year. Board member Dianne Curry thanl<ed the board and union teams for their work saying she knew it was a dif~ ficult decision., The two teams called in a fedei:al and state mediator to assi~t in reac~g a tentative agre~ment. ' . .' 'ffhes'e are to~gh times/' Cl\F~ _ad9ed." Yer y'few ~om~ parues
are giving any increases. We're happy because we know our employees work hard - our teachers and support stilff," she said. Teachers in the 25,000-student district with 3,800 employees, have a three-year contract t~at calls for annual negotiat10ns on salaries and other financial benefits. District leaders and teachers waited until the rn!ddle of the school year to begm salary talks so district officials would have more accurate information on available revenue for pay raises. The contract expires this summer, so representatives of the employees and the district a_ree xp~cted td begin negotiations Wlthin weeks on terms for a successor contract. Board member Greg Adams made the motion Friday to approve .the compensation package after Holmes recommended it. But Holmes also,told the board that work is under way on the 2012-13 district budget, and he expects to ask the board to hold a work session s~on on what he anticipates will be some complex issues . He sai? the budget plarming ~ takemto account the poss_ 1ble(o ss of state desegregatJon aid that now totals about $40 million a year, as well as so1
!e school building needs. We don't plan to leave a stone unturned to educate you and your education of us_,"H olmes _said."W e hope this.commuruty will look into the Jaws of this budget and into the guts. We want to show ev_erybody what we have. Lay this budget open. This is serious business for us. We are very concerned about some issues." Two school um onssue overax mg State can't end pactsf, ilingss ay CYNTHIA HOWELL ARKANSASDEMOCRAT-GAZE1TI Teacher and supportstaff unions in the Pulaski County Special School District on Friday legally chal- 1 enged state and district actions to end collective bargaining and terminate the employees' union-negotiated contracts. The Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers and the Pulaski Association of Support Staff filed similar but separate amended complaints in Pulaski County Cir_c4it Court against the Arkansas Department of Edui:ation, the school district a'nd members of two newly formed personnel policies committees in the district. i. The lawsuits accuse the Education Department of exceeding its authority in directing the district to withdraw union recognition and terminate the contracts. Friday's lawsuits amend the March 5 lawsuits filed by the unions over the es- 0See UNIONSP,a ge 3A, More recognition and that the per-information sonnel policies committees Unions -\.. dering withdrawal of union Contihued from Page 1 A on the Web be declared invalid and the tablishment of the personnel L policies they propose not be policies committees. Latest motion filings implemented. The expanded lawsuit~ fol- arkansasonline.com/documents/ Pulaski County Special low in the wake of the Edu- __ ..,_________ School District Superinten-cation Depart~ent's April. district but ensure fair and eq: dent Jerry Guess said Friday 20 directive to the Pulaski uitable treatment of employees that he and the district's atCounty Special district to and give them "a meaningful torneys had not seen the latend recognition of the two voi:ce" in contract negotlations est -lawsuits, but said district employee unions and to ter- and grievance hearings.. leaders had tried to worlc with minate the contracts - called Blackstock argued that the two associations. professional negotiations when state law authorizes the "We have said frol:n the agreeierits ~ as part of an EducationDepartmenttomake beginning that our)ntenoverall plan by.the state and binding recommendations to tion was to find a common districf\:o cut $11 million in. a superin,tendent regarding ground where we could.get the district's 2012-13 budget. staffing, it is not directing the the district ori-a solid fililin- 1]:i:ed istrict, 'c1assified by scrapping of the contract but cial course ari.d do iliat with the s~::i.tela st year as fis,cally deciding the number of work- the cooperation and particidistre'ssetl, is under statfcon- ei.-sa district needs. . pation of PACT and PASS," trol,. operatipg with :a -'state:- ' The lawsu1ts fuithe'r con- Guess said. -' ,, ', ' appointed sup,erintendent tend that the Pulaski County . He said district employees and no locally elected school Special district bi
eached the .ciio~e to form. thl/per~oruiel board. ' ' employee contracts-:- which policies com'inittees'eailler The Friday s
_
_itsa ccuse expire at the.end o(the2014-15 this spring ',',b'ec.ausei t bethe siate,'agencyidf applying school y.ear.:....b: Y,w ithdraw- came obvious to them that rules'i-egardiii.g ,fisc
ald istress ing union recognition, termi- PACT and P}\SSd id not seem in a way that will "injure" the riating the contracts and by to be interested in working to plaintiffs. ' . . failing to exercise all the steps a reasonable compromise." The suits,-filed by attorney in the contract to resolve dis- S_eth ~lomeley, a spokes- Clayton Bl~ckstock also 3.F-putes. Those steps include man for the state Education gue that the state exceeded its negotiations, mediation, fact- Department, on Friday relegal authority in dealing with finding and a hearing before ferred to April 20 documents a fiscally distressed district. a school board. issued by the agency stating "The [Arkansas Depart- The. suits also say the dis- the reasons and_legal basis for ment of Education] does not trict violated state law by al- the state's decisions. have the statutory authority lowing the formation of the In an April 20 statement, to order the wholesale scrap- personnel policies commit- Arkansas Education Comping of the [professional ne- tees to advise district lead- missioner Tom Kimbrell said gotiations agreements] under ers about employee benefits his goal "is to return control the guise of this statute and and working conditions at a of the PCSSD to whom it becorresponding Rules," Black- time when the unions were longs - the district's patrons stock wrote. recognized as the employee and a locally elected school He also said the contract bargaining agents. board. This will require "coBtains a plethora of em- Blackstock _asked that steady financial belt tightenployee policies, many of which the professional negotia- ing wherever possible and ophave been in effect for over tions agreements remain in erational efficiency. The focus two decades," that do not af- full force and effect, that the. must be on providing the best feet the fiscal practices of the state be stopped from or- educational opportunities for Besidest he two cases in Pulaski County Circuit Court, the union recognitiona nd terminated contract issues also are , pending in federal court before U.S. . District Judge D. -Price Marshall Jr. the students of PCSSD." The plaint
iffs in the lawsuit regarding the teachers union isimes are the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers, Pamela Fitzgiven and Loveida Ingram. Judy Stockrahm also is listed as a plaintiff but has asked to withdraw. The defendants named in the teacher un.iori lawsuit are Robin Dorey, Callie Matthews, Kristina Laughy, Diane Wagner, Ella Sergeant, Nick Witherspoon, Paul Brewer, Veronica Perkins, Jackie Smith, the school district and the Education Department. Brewer, the district's executive director of human resources, and Principals Perkins and Smith are all admin. istrat~rs appointed to the p~rsonnel policies committee. The other individual de- fendants are teachers elected by their colleagues earlier this year to serve on the personnel policies committee except for Sergeant, who was elected but chose not to serve. She has been replaced by Witherspoon. The teachers union lawsuit is assigned to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mary McGowan. Lonriie Coney, Belinda Pearl and the Pulaski Association of Support Staff are the plaintiffs in the suit challenging the end of recognition for the support staff. The defendants in that suit are Keith Cooper, Cheryl Howey, Regena English, Becky Del Rio, James Watson, John Sparks, Charles Blake, Derrick Brown, Bill Goff, the district and the Education Department. Goff is the district's chief financial officer, and Brown is the chief technology officer. The other individuals are support-staff employees elected to the personnel policies committee. The support-staff union lawsuit is assigned to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wen-dell Griffen. Besides the two cases in Pulaski County Circuit Court, the union recognition and terminated contract issues also _are pending in federal court before U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr, The Pulaski County Special district last month asked the judge, who is presiding in the district's desegregation case, to declare the state ana distdct actions legal. On Friday, the attorney general's office filed a response opposing the Pulaski County Special district's request, saying that the matter falls outside the parameters of the desegregation case and outside the federal judge's authority. TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2012 3B Shinnh onoreda s Educatoro f Year OtherL R schoolteachersr ecognizeda t annualC rystalA wardsb anquet ARKANSADSE MOCRAT-GAZETTE Bridget Sweetser Shinn, an English teacher at Horace Mann Magnet Middle School, received the 2012 Marian G. Lacey Educator of the Year Award at the Little Rock School District's annual Crystal Awards banquet Monday night at the Embassy Suites Hotel. Also honored at the banquet were: Sarah Jane Relano of Williams Magnet Elementary, who was named the Little Rock School District ElementarSy chooTl eachero f the Year. Natalie L. Holliman of Dunbar Magnet Middle School, who was named Middle School Teacher of the Year. Keith Richardson of Central High,w how asn amedH ighS chool Teacheor f theY ear. Teachers from every school in the district were recognized during the banquet and received commemorative trophies. The honored teachers at the high school level were: Central:F rankB aker,R ichardsona nd BettyeW illiams. J.A.F airA: llisonB elcherC, ynthia Dokoutchaaenf d MaryJ acobs. Hall: Chandle Carpenter, Connie Mccann and Sonja Williams. McClellanL: esa Booker,L inda Peoplesa nd MargaretR eed. Parkview: Brenda Bankston, Linda Neal and Debra Rogers. The honored teachers at the middle-school level were: CloverdaleL: akeithaA ustina nd BrendaT homas. Dunbar: Holliman and Kristi Ward. ForestH eightsT: royG reena nd HarriettaL indsey. Henderson:A ntoinetteJ arrett and MalindaM artin-Johnson. Mabelvale: Karen Kelley and Tamara Rowe. Horace Mann: Shinn and Wendy Welch. Pulaski Heights: Janet Buford and Lee Thompson. Accelerated Learning Center: Marty Burton. Felder Academy: Mindy Williams. HamiltonL earningC enter:P hyllis Tartt. MetropolitanC areerT echnical Center: Barbara Swihart. The honored teachers at the elementary-school level were: Bale:K athleenG regory. BaselineJ: amieT homas. BookerT: ammyH igdon. Brady:T ammieR hea. Carver: Jason Crader. Chicot: Nadine James. Dodd: Amanda Swift. Fair Park: Lori Kriz. ForestP ark:M ichelleG raves. FranklinM: itziN icks. FulbrightH: aleyA rmstrong. Geyer Springs: Neresa Williams. Gibbs:T racyB arbarotto. JeffersonA: mberM atthews. King: Candi Van Patter. MabelvaleK: elliH edrick. McDermottP: aigeP uckett. Meadowcliff: Angela Rodriguez. Otter Creek: Sharonda Hughes. Pulaski Heights: Juliet Ste-phens. Don Roberts: Holly Jenkins. RockefellerK: elli Fuller. RomineL: indseyW elch. StephensP: akitaS hutes. Terry: Dorothy Malone. WakefieldA: lison Evans. WashingtonM: eganH airston. Watson: Mildred Butler. Western Hills: Sharon Warren. Williams:R elano. Wilson: Christy Cecil. WoodruffJ: essicaW eaver. ArkansaDs emocrat.-.( !,a.zette LETTERS Ours ystemi s top-he1~vy Cynthia Howell's recent story on the Pulaski County Special School Dis-trict's financial woes really caught my attention as a very good story representative of many schools' woes. What caught my attention most was that we have a school district with 17,000 students supported by 3,000 employees. Small teacher-to-student ratios are a wonderful teaching and learning tool. We all know the first thing that happens when a school gets into fman- . cial distress is that the classrooms get more students per teacher. Let's factor in a very liberal amount of "nonteacher" support to keep the school going, say 20 percent of the 3,000 employees are staff (secretar-ies, janitorial, physical maintenance, bus drivers, etc.), giving 600 staff, and leaving 2,400 "teachers." I think this is a very high number, based on my education experience
17,000 students to 2,400 teachers is a wonderful 7 to 1 ratio. We know this is not the case, so we must ask the question: "How many administrators does it take to bankrupt a-school?" Quoting Marty Nix, "the teachers in this district cannot shoulder all of the cuts" is quite an understatement. The problem with Pulaski County is a good sampling of what is wrong with the education system in Arkansas. We have too many administrators in the entire system, from the Arkansas Department of Education all the way down to each school with individual superintendents. And we wonder why the system is broke. STEVEGANN Russellville DODTDeac hing Where Are They Now? Cole Hadden: Reader, Writer, Inventor Louise Carpenter, Reading Recovety Teacher, Little Rock, Arkansas In the fall of 2007, Cole entered m)' kindergarten classroom at Carver Magnet Elementary in the Lierle Rock School District as a happy boy who loved to swordplay. He was most interested in science and hisrory, and it was clear to his classmates char Cole knew a lot. I remember how excited he was when asked to share ahom komodo dragons as we read books about reptiles, because he knew more about chem rhan I did. Nor only was Cole a bright kindergarten student, he was also very kind and considerate of all students in the classroom. He was every child's friend. Cole was the kind of kindergarten student char all teachers would wane in rheir classroom. Cole enjoyed reading more than writing. As you can imagine, he had rremendous oral language. Nor only could he talk about komodo dragons, bm many ocher animals and species 34 Journal cf Reoding Recovery Spring 2012 as well as historical faces. Reading and writing slowed him down, but he cried very hard. Cole became frustrated when composing and writing stories because he had so much to say bur couldn't ger it down on paper. He made adequate progress in kindergarten, bur he struggled. When Cole went co first grade, he transferred co another school and it just so happens rhar I did, roo. I received the opportunity to train for Reading Recovery chat year and ended up in the same school as Cole, although neither one of us knew the other was making a change. We both transferred to Gibbs Magnet School in the Lierle Rock School District. Cole was my very first Reading Recovery scudenc during my training year and with great success discontinued in 20 weeks. The following year, Cole's second-grade reacher recommended char he anend COLE'S K'NEX CATAPULT I oui.cr wm n kindagnrtm t,acher whm .r/,cfirst met <.nle in her d.1wroom. my literacy group for extra support in writing, and Cole continued ro make progress. Cole is in the fourth grade now and just completed writing a biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt. His reacher, Staci Hula, said char Cole is a wonderful scudenc. Cole's science project, citied "Cole's K'Nex Catapult," won first place in the Fourth-Grade Science Fair, and he was awarded a Kindle. This was a huge honor! Cole is reading War Hom and Red Tads on his Kindle. Oh, and he still enjoys swordplay! f.011ire comin11etso track Cvle's progrm 1111IdI proud of hi, achievenwm, i11rludi11hgi. <ru m1 fir
t place win in r/,e G,bh, 11-frigneSrc /,nnl Fourth-Grade Scitn.-e! :1ir. Sandy Luehrs From: Sent: To: Cc: Subject: Importance: Donna, Joy Springer [jspringer@gabrielmail.com] Friday, May 11, 2012 3:51 PM donnacreer@magnetschool.com 'Sandy Luehrs' RE: MAGNET REVIEW COMMITTEE MEETING - AGENDA High I apologize for the delay in my responding to Dr. Drefus' report, but I have been swamped with other matters. I am trying to locate in her report where the Research Questions are specifically answered. Can you tell me? It seems to me if the enrollment of magnets is declining and they are becoming more black and/or African American, we need to respond to that question Why? As I understand the purpose of the magnets was to have racial balance and help to eliminate one race schools. I hope that the principals will be able to tell me that the achievement gap is narrowing and not just be able to say: "we met AYP" or "we almost met AYP." The data appears to me to show that the gap in achievement remains. I also have the following questions: 1) how does the magnet theme strengthen student learning to address AA student achievement? 2) can you direct my attention to the portion of the report that deals with what children are learning and its effect on their achievement? 3) are principals doing informal or formal evaluations of their programs to determine what programs work to address specific needs of students? I read the report that this is lacking?? Am I correct? Thank you. From: Sandy Luehrs [mailto:maqnet@maqnetschool.com] Sent: Friday, May 11, 2012 1:36 PM To: 'Mitchell, Sadie'
'Bobby Acklin'
'CLOWERS ROBERT L.'
oliver.dillinqham@arkansas.gov
'Danny Reed (ADE)'
jsprinqer@qabrielmail.com Cc: 'Margie Powell'
'BOWLES BRENDA'
marvin.burton@lrsd.org
daniel.Whitehorn@lrsd.org
'(arson, Cheryl'
'Barksdale, Mary'
'Hobbs, Felicia'
'Register, Sandra'
Patricia.Boykin@lrsd.org
'Booth, Dexter'
'Donna Creer' Subject: MAGNET REVIEW COMMITTEE MEETING - AGENDA Importance: High Oops!!! I forgot to attach the agenda forthe meeting. Here it is. Sandy No virus found in this message. Checked by A VG - W\,\ w.an!.com Version: 2012.0.2169 / Virus Database: 2425/4991 - Release Date: 05/11/12 Sandy Luehrs From: Sent: To: Cc: Subject: Sandy Luehrs [magnet@magnetschool.com] Thursday, April 19, 201211:42 AM 'cheryl.carson@lrsd.org'
'Barksdale, Mary'
'Felicia.Hobbs@lrsd.org'
'Sandra.Register@lrsd.org'
'Patricia.Boykin@lrsd.org'
'Booth, Dexter' 'Mitchell, Sadie'
'Donna Creer' Attachments: STIPULATION MAGNET SCHOOLS ANNUAL REPORT TO THE MRC - May 15, 2012 STIPULATION MAGNET PRINCIPALS REPORT- 2012 - MEMO.doc
STIPULATION MAGNET SCHOOLS - ANNUAL REPORT FORM.doc
Stipulation Magnet Principals PowerPoint - 2012.ppt Importance: High Good morning, Please see the following memorandum and attachments from Donna Creer regarding the annual report to the MRC. We have your reporting scheduled for Tuesday, May 15, 2012, with time slots as follows: 8:00 a.m. -8:30 a.m. 8:35 a.m. - 9:05 a.m. 9:10 a.m. - 9:40 a.m. 9:45 a.m. -10:15 a.m. 10:30 a.m. -11:00 a.m. 11:05 a.m. -11:35 a.m. 11:40 a.m. -12:10 p.m. 12:15 p.m. -1:00 p.m. attending. MRC Monthly Meeting (Anyone wishing to attend is more than welcome) Presenter #1 Presenter #2 Presenter #3 Presenter #4 Presenter #5 Presenter #6 LUNCH will be served -You are invited, so please let us know if you will be Please confirm that you have received this information, and provide your requested time slot for presenting ASAP. Remember, it is on a first-come/first-served basis. We will be looking forward to seeing all of you then. Sandy TO: FROM: THRU: SUBJ: DATE: Dr. Cheryl Carson, Principal - Booker Magnet Diane Barksdale, Principal - Carver Magnet Dr. Felicia Hobbs, Principal - Gibbs Magnet Sandra Register, Principal - Williams Magnet Patricia Boykin, Principal - Mann Magnet Dr. Dexter Booth, Principal - Parkview Magnet Donna Grady Creer, Executive Director Magnet Review Committee Dr. Sadie Mitchell, MRC Chairperson Associate Superintendent, LRSD Stipulation Magnet Schools Report to the MRC April 18, 2012 Thank you for clearing your calendar and preparing to attend the May 15th MRC meeting. As is customary, this is the meeting during which Stipulation magnet school principals report to the MRC. We look forward to your 20-minute (or less) report, with ten minutes allocated for Questions and Answers. Adhering to this timeline will allow all magnet schools to report during one meeting. For your information, we have attached a REPORT FORM delineating questions to be addressed. In the interest of clarity and brevity, the MRC members have requested that some report items be presented via PowerPoint and some be included as a part of your written report (see attached template for your PowerPoint format). Thanks again for compiling the information that gives us a glimpse of the current "STATE OF THE MAGNETS." The data in your report is used by our office, MRC members, and their parties, as a quick reference for magnet school information. We appreciate you and your hard work. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. DGC:sl Enclosures: 1) Stipulation Magnet Schools Annual Report Form 2) Template for PowerPoint SCHOOL: STIPULATION MAGNET SCHOOLS ANNUAL REPORT FORM 2012 PRINCIPAL'S NAME: e-mail: OTHER ADMINISTRATORS (Asterisk if new): NAME: e-mail: NAME: e-mail: SCHOOL SECRETARY: direct phone: phone: phone: phone: ........................................................................ , CURRENT ENROLLMENT: RACIAL COMPOSITION: LAST YEAR'S ENROLLMENT: __ % B % NB 1. PLEASE BE SPECIFIC AND LIST ANY REQUESTS FOR BUDGET INCREASES. Justify additional staff, reinstatement of staff, programmatic thrusts, etc. 2. SHARE WITH US WHAT YOU HA VE FOCUSED ON IN YOUR ACSIP. A. Please recap how the five-year and two-year improvement plans your school received from the MRC were used to improve your school. Include past, current or planned improvements. 3. PROVIDE STRUCTURAL CHANGES/IMPROVEMENTS (planned, inprogress or completed). 4. REPORT ON CURRICULUM/COURSE OFFERINGS (planned, proposed, or added). 5. DID YOUR SCHOOL MEET AYP? If not, please discuss subpopulations and interventions put in place to address student deficiencies. 6. LIST OUTSTANDING OR NEW RECRUITMENT ACTIVITIES. 7. SHARE A RECAP OF HONORS AND/OR A WARDS WON (staff, school, student). 8. RECAP PARTICIPATION ATNATIO AL, REGIONAL, OR LOCAL CONFERENCES OR INSERVICES. 9. PROVIDE INFORMATION AS TO NUMBER OF STUDENTS WHO HA VE WITHDRAWN OR EXITED YOUR SCHOOL'S PROGRAM AND THE REASONS FOR DOING SO. 10. SUPPLY ANY OTHER INFORMATION YOU WISH TO INCLUDE.
Stipulation Magnet Principals ANNUAL REPORT to the MAGNET REVIEW COMMITTEE 2011-2012 (LIST YOUR NAME HERE) (name of school) School website: Face book/twitter: Principal's Name: E-Mail: Direct Phone Line: Asst. Principal's Name: E-Mail: Direct Phone Line: (Area of responsibility, if applicable): School Secretary: Direct Phone: Counselor: Direct Phone: PTA President: E-Mail: Phone: SCHOOL COMPOSITION Race/ Native African Hispanic/ Multi-ethnicity American Asian American Latino White Ethnic Number and \.,omplete (complete (completP tsomplete (complete (complete Gender your your your our your your of numbers numbers numbers numbers numbers numbers children here) here) here) here) here) here) .,omplet .,omplete (complete (complete (complet .,omplete /OUr your your your 10Ur your Number numbers numbers numbers numbers umbers numbers of staff here) here) here) here) here) here) SCHOOL COMPOSITION cont. Grade Configuration: (List total number of students per grade level, by Glv ,eth V y d gender) REQUESTS FOR BUDGET INCREASES Faculty/Staff: Curriculum Related Materials: Equipment/Facility: Other (please list): (NOTE: List "none" in each category where you are not requesting an increase.) RECAP ONLY ON POWER INT Detailed information should be provided in written report. CURRENT ACSIP FOCUS (Please provide a copy of your current ACSIP report to each MRC member in your written report.) RECAP ONLY ON POWERPOINT SCHOOL STRUCTURAL CHANGES/IMPROVEMENTS (If any occurred during 2011-12 or are proposed for 2012-13. Do not include any prior to 2011-12.) RECAP ONLY ON POWERPOINT Detailed information should be provided in written report. CURRICULUM/COURSE OFFERINGS Changes in 2011-12 or Proposed Changes for 2012-13: (NOTE: ONLY changes this year or needed changes next year, not the entire curriculum offered.) RECAP ONLY ON WERPOINT Detailed information should be provided in written report ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS (AYP) Achieved/Not Achieved: Overall: Math/Literacy Areas Individually: Subpopulation info: Provide data for the past three years showing achievement gap in math and literacy, in particular, on African-American student achievement. (Provide by grade, race and gender.) LRSD's STRATEGIC PLANNING GOALS Achieved/Not Achieved: (Show evidence for Benchmark performance by grade, race and gender) INTERVENTION OR SUPPORT SERVICES Provided by your school (to students or teachers) to enhance academics, test taking skills or to raise test scores. RECAP ONLY ON POWERPOINT Detailed information should be provided in written report. RECRUITMENT Outstanding/New Recruitment Activities. RECAP ONLY ON POWERPOINT Detailed information should be provided in written report. SCHOOL HONORS/AWARDS School/Staff /Student Recognitions. Participation at National/Regional/Local Conferences. RECAP ONLY ON POWERPOINT Detailed information should be provided in written report. WITHDRAWALS Provide number of students who have withdrawn or exited your school's program and the reasons for doing so ( y grade, race and gender). DISCIPLINE REPORT Provide report which includes suspensions, expulsions and in-school discipline efforts (by grade, race and gender). MISCELLANEOUS Information you may wish to include but not covered in previous slides) Detailed information should be provided in written report.
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>