Charter appeals up to state board The Arkansas State Board of Education will decide next month whether to hear appeals of recent decisions on the establishment of publicly funded, open-enrollment charter schools for the 2014-15 school year.
The decision to delve into the applications and decisions made on four schools - two were approved and two were not - is left to the discretion of the Education Board, which meets Dec. 9.
The new Charter Authorizing Panel, which is made up of top-level staff members in the Arkansas Department of Education, recently approved two new charter schools in Little Rock. Exalt Academy of Southwest Little Rock would serve grades kindergarten through eight on 83rd Street, just off Geyer Springs Road. Quest Middle School would be located on Rahling Road in west Little Rock and serve grades six through 12.
The Little Rock School Board voted to oppose both applications in October. The district’s attorney sent emails asking the Education Board to review the approvals.
Gary Newton, chief executive officer of the Arkansas Learns advocacy organization for parental school choice and a leader of the effort to establish the Quest School, asked Little Rock School Board members last week to withdraw the Quest appeal.
“As we continue to support your work to become ‘the best choice,’ please end this fight against our efforts to become an ‘immediate choice,’” Newton wrote to the Little Rock board.
The Charter Authorizing Panel denied charter school applications for locations in North Little Rock, Springdale, Redfield, Osceola and Marion. Planners for the Ozark College & Career Academy, a kindergarten through 12th grade school in Springdale, are appealing the denial.
Planners for the Redfield Tri-County Charter School are also appealing their denial.
NLR schools name
2 interim leaders
The North Little Rock School District has announced administrative changes that include naming retired North Little Rock Superintendent Ken Kirspel interim principal of North Little Rock High School, West Campus, for the remainder of the 2013-14 school year.
Kirspel, who retired this past summer as the district’s chief executive, is replacing Brian Brown.
Brown will be the new director of purchasing. He is replacing Jeff Martello, who has taken a job at one of the state’s education cooperative service centers.
Before he was superintendent, Kirspel was principal at North Little Rock High School, East Campus, which served grades nine and 10.
Veteran administrator Bill Bowers is retiring at the semester break from the principal’s job at Ridgeroad Middle School. Rickey Jones has been named interim principal of Ridgeroad Middle School for the remainder for the 2013-2014 school year.
Bonuses approved for county district
Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell said Friday he has approved a plan to pay $1,250 bonuses to employees in the Pulaski County Special School District.
District leaders and personnel policies committees had agreed to the one-time bonuses for all teachers and support service employees to help them offset premium increases in employee health insurance, which will go into effect statewide in January.
Because the district has been categorized by the state as being in fiscal distress and has been operated by the state since June 2011, the proposal to spend about $4 million on bonuses required Kimbrell’s approval.
“Our employees deserve this after experiencing a considerable financial loss of income over the past two years,” Pam Fitzgiven, chairman of the Certified Personnel Policies Committee and president of the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers, said in a news release. “It is a small gesture, but coming at this time of year with the holidays approaching, it will help, particularly with the health insurance premium increases ahead.”
Superintendent Jerry Guess has said the bonuses will be distributed in early December.
Arkansas, Pages 17 on 11/24/2013