2 school districts to shed state reins
Greenland, Decatur return to fiscal health after takeovers
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Roland Smith (center), the superintendent of the Greenland School District, and LeRoy Ortman, the superintendent of the Decatur School District, thank Hazel Burnett after the state Board of Education voted to remove both districts from state control. Burnett is the Arkansas Department of Education’s coordinator of fiscal-distress services.
Photo by Stephen B. Thornton
The Greenland and Decatur school districts will be free of state control beginning in October, giving their local communities the power to run those school systems again.
The state Board of Education’s unanimous vote Tuesday also takes the Northwest Arkansas school districts off the state’s fiscal-distress list. The state Department of Education will hire new superintendents by July 1, and the towns will hold school board elections in September.
Barring another state takeover, no other Arkansas school districts will be under state control then because of financial problems.
Scott Alaniz, a Greenland parent, said that regaining lo-cal control of the district was important to the town.
“So we are just very, very thankful to the state,” he said ...
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Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/20/2010
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