Education notebook

LR schools, union

hit tentative deal

Negotiating teams for the Little Rock School District and the Little Rock Education Association reached a tentative agreement last week on the noncost provisions of a new contract for teachers in the 25,000-student district, the state’s largest.

The proposed language, including changes to the grievance procedures, has been sent to attorneys to review and will go to a ratification vote of union members and then to the School Board, probably during the week of Dec. 17.

The Little Rock Education Association, formerly the Little Rock Classroom Teachers Association, is the union that represents the district’s teachers and support staff.

Dan Whitehorn, the district’s chief negotiator, and Cathy Koehler, president of the association, in separate interviews raved about the collegiality that resulted from their use this year of “interest-based” negotiations.

The system calls for the negotiating teams to mutually identify concerns and develop solutions as opposed to the more traditional and oftentimes more confrontational approach of trading proposals until a compromise is reached.

“This interest-based bargaining is the most wonderful thing I’ve ever been through,” Whitehorn said. “You sitdown together and work through it together. We got everything out on the table.

We got to see each other’s perspective.”

“I teared up,” Koehler said about the conclusion of the talks. “So much of what we did in the past was based on distrust.

Because we took the time and built up the trust, the administration believed we weren’t in it just to get everything for the teachers and [teachers] believed that the administration was honestly, genuinely concerned about teacher welfare.”

Two schools see benchmark strides

The Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville last week highlighted south Mississippi County School District’s Luxora Elementary School and Pine Bluff School District’s Southeast Middle School for achievement gains on the Arkansas Benchmark Exam over five years.

In that time, the Mississippi County school had a 50 percent increase in pupils who scoredproficient or better on the math and literacy portions of the test. Scoring proficient on the state test is indicative of achieving at grade level.

Southeast Middle School increased its percentage of students scoring proficient or better on the math test by 36 percent.

Both schools have a very high percentages of children from low-income families.

The database showing all schools and their percentages of growth or decline over five years is available on an Office for Education Policy website: officeforedpolicy.com/ author/officeforedpolicy.

LR history teacher

wins state honor Sonja Williams, an American-history teacher at Little Rock’s Hall High School, is the 2012 Arkansas History Teacher of the Year named by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and Preserve America.

The honor was announced last week by Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell, who called Williams a gifted educator who is able to bring history to life for her students.

Williams, who holds national certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, will receive a $1,000 honorarium and have the opportunity to further her studies at a summer teaching institute.

In her honor, a collection of history books and educational materials will

be presented to Hall’s

library.

The Gilder Lehrman

Institute of American

History, founded in 1994 by

Richard Gilder and Lewis

Lehrman, is a nonprofit

organization devoted

to the improvement

of history education.

Preserve America, a federal

partnership program

started in 2003, is led by

the Advisory Council on

Historic Preservation and

encourages community

efforts to preserve the

cultural heritage of the

United States, as well

as associated natural

resources.

Possible funds cut

inspires resolution An 8.2 percent cut

in federal funding as

envisioned by the federal

Budget Control Act of 2011

would cost the Little Rock

School District as much

as $1.6 million, the loss of

which could result in cuts

in services such as summer

school and after-school

programs, district leaders

said last week.

The Little Rock School

Board passed a resolution

telling Congress and the

president that a “world

class public education”

system is “essential for

the future success of our

nation.” The board further asked

lawmakers to amend the

Budget Control Act by the

end of this calendar year

“to mitigate the drastic cuts

to education” and “protect

education as an investment

critical to economic

stability and American

competitiveness.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/10/2012

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