Teach For Americato open new office
Teach For America-Arkansas is establishing an office in Helena-West Helena, beginning at the end of August.
The Arkansas organization is an affiliate of the national organization that recruits and trains new college graduates who commit to teach for two years at schools in low-income communities in rural and urban areas.
The new Arkansas office at 104 Missouri St., in the city's Cherry Street Historic District, will serve as a meeting place and resource center for Teach For America teachers and staff as well as for other local educators in the area's schools, said Jared Henderson, executive director of Teach For America-Arkansas.
Teach For America purchased the building and is remodeling it.
Each year, Teach For America supports more than 30 teachers for classrooms in Helena-West Helena. The city also is home to about two dozen Teach For America alumni.
The new office is in addition to an existing office in Little Rock that is used to support the organization's teachers in 20 communities in eastern and southern Arkansas. Last year, some 190 Teach For America corps members worked in Arkansas.
Guess asks courtto take union dues
Jerry Guess, superintendent of the Pulaski County Special School District, is asking for some help from the federal courts.
Guess is a defendant in a lawsuit filed by five district support staff employees who want to end their membership in the Pulaski Association of Support Staff and terminate the withdrawal of dues from their district paychecks. The employees are limited to withdrawing their membership to a one-time, 15-day period each year.
The district is required by law to collect the membership dues and remit the payments to the association, which is a union of noncertified employees in the district.
The union is also a defendant in the lawsuit and is expected to argue that Guess cannot unilaterally suspend the collection of the dues and payment to the association.
Guess, represented by attorney Sam Jones, argued that the lawsuit puts Guess in an untenable position of liability or allegations of liability from the plaintiff employees and from the co-defendant association.
Guess asked the judge to issue an order authorizing him to direct the district's business office to submit the dues payments to the federal court registry rather than to the association.
Paying the money to the court will protect all parties should the court decide the association is entitled to continue to receive the dues or that the plaintiffs' money should be returned to them.
U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright is the presiding judge in the case that is scheduled for trial June 8. Cynfranesia Jackson, Sandra Allen, Rosalyn Austin, Joseph Howard and Chenikia Smith are the plaintiffs.
$1 million grantaids early learning
The Arkansas Department of Human Services Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education will use a newly announced $1 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to strengthen early learning and school readiness standards for young children and find ways to engage parents.
"Arkansas has a robust early childhood education system, but we are always looking for opportunities to expand and improve upon what we do," said Tonya Williams, director of the Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education.
Leaders in the state division applied for the grant to obtain resources for redesigning birth-to-age-5 early learning standards, identifying a new kindergarten entry assessment tool and creating a framework to support family engagement in early learning settings.
Metro on 07/13/2014