Questions about public engagement, open-ended consultant contracts and lines of authority within the Pine Bluff School District prompted an Arkansas Board of Education committee Friday to put the district on the full board's November agenda for a status report.
The Education Board's Special Committee on Academic Distress, led by board member Vicki Saviers of Little Rock, met with Pine Bluff district leaders and Arkansas Department of Education staff for about an hour late Friday afternoon for a report on the district, in which three schools are labeled by the state as academically distressed.
Fewer than half of the students in Pine Bluff High, Jack Robey Junior High and Belair Elementary School in the district scored at proficient levels on the state math and literacy exams over the past three years. The academic distress label put those schools or even the entire Pine Bluff School District in jeopardy of a state Board of Education vote to take them over.
A state takeover could result in the dismissal of Pine Bluff's locally elected School Board and/or the replacement of the superintendent, much like what happened earlier this year with the state takeover of the Little Rock School District. The state board voted to take over the Little Rock district because six of that district's 48 schools are categorized as academically distressed.
Education Board member Diane Zook of Melbourne made the motion to require the Pine Bluff district to come back to Little Rock in November to make a "thorough" progress report to the Education Board.
"We want Pine Bluff to be successful and you to be the ones that make it happen," Zook told Superintendent T.C. Wallace and his top staff, along with School Board President Harold Jackson.
Zook added that it is even more important to help the Pine Bluff students.
The district is being required to hold at least one community meeting in the city before that November session as a way to make its operations more open and transparent to members of the public, some of whom have raised questions or complained about the superintendent and the district in emails and letters to the state Education Board.
This was the second time this summer that Pine Bluff district leaders made a presentation to the Education Board committee about efforts to raise achievement in the city's academically distressed schools.
In June, state Education Department officials reported that there were improvements underway at the campuses in the district but voiced concerns about the lack of stability in the leadership, whether the superintendent and the School Board were working cooperatively and whether district administrators were communicating with school principals about improvement efforts.
"What has happened since the last meeting is that the School Board and the superintendent are on the same page," Wallace told the Education Board committee Friday.
He also said he will remain with the district throughout the coming 2015-16 school year. He was appointed to be interim superintendent of the district last spring.
Wallace reported to the committee that steps were taken to "right size" the district that has had a shrinking enrollment and school closings without reducing staff. The district has now eliminated 68 school-based positions and three or four central office positions at a savings in excess of $3.2 million, he said.
Jackson, president of the Pine Bluff School Board, said that the board -- which has undergone one training session in recent weeks and is scheduled to participate in another in September -- feels the district is moving in the right direction to have its schools removed from academic distress. He said the board has begun meeting twice a month -- a work session early in the month and the regular business meeting later.
Richard Wilde, school improvement unit manager for the Arkansas Education Department, told the state Education Board committee that he has observed more planning taking place this summer than in the previous year and that the district has fleshed out a "pretty good academic plan" and has clearer lines of authority.
He said he believes the principals of the schools are more involved and engaged in that planning than in past years based on his private interviews with them.
"This is early," Wilde said and questioned whether the improvements can be sustained. "It's easy to go back to the old ways," he said and suggested that monitoring of the situation continue through the school year.
"They have the basis of systems beginning but they don't have systems in place," he said.
Wilde raised concerns about a lack of transparency in School Board actions. He said he has attended School Board meetings in the city and come away without understanding what had transpired. He said that a member of the general public at such a meeting would have greater difficulty.
Elbert Harvey, Education Department coordinator of school improvement and standards assurance, recommended that the Pine Bluff district report back to the Education Board members after the first nine weeks of school.
"We've heard the talk. Let's see them walk the walk," he told the committee.
Zook said the Education Board does not meddle in school district affairs but letters and emails to the board do raise questions.
Wallace said the budget cuts have resulted in "heavy conversations," and likely resulted in email and letters of complaint to the state Education Board.
Zook questioned whether district staff members must go through the superintendent's temporary secretary to be able to talk to Wallace as it appears on the district's organization chart. Wallace said no.
Zook also questioned Wallace about his legal residence, how many days a week he lives in Pine Bluff and whether he has an Arkansas teaching certificate. He said he votes in Nashville, Tenn., but is in Pine Bluff five to seven days a week. He is a retired superintendent from of out state and has a provisional certificate in Arkansas that will expire in March 2016, according to the Education Department.
Education Board members questioned Pine Bluff district leaders about the cost of the district's contract with From the Heart, a consulting firm with which Wallace was previously affiliated as a consultant. Wallace said the contract sets the cap on the number of days the firm will work in the district but that the district may not actually use that maximum number of days and so he couldn't be specific about the costs.
The Education Board's special committee on academic distress heard the reports from the Pine Bluff district and Education Department staff members after a seven-hour Education Board meeting Friday.
Much of the Education Board meeting -- more than four hours -- was devoted to hearing from the principals of some 20 academically distressed schools across the state on the steps they are taking this new school year that they believe will help raise achievement among students.
The principals included those from the academically distressed schools in Pine Bluff, Little Rock and the Pulaski County Special School District, as well as from Forrest City, Dermott, Mayflower, Lee County, Earle, Helena-West Helena and Osceola.
The efforts included employment of school improvement specialists and bilingual staff, institution of longer school days, and the addition of supplemental programs such as Read 180 and Math 180 to build student skills.
Metro on 08/15/2015