Little Rock Superintendent Mike Poore said Thursday that he and his staff will spend the coming days reviewing the comments collected at recent forums to refine previously announced options for cutting more than $10 million in costs next school year.
"In January, we will share an update," Poore said about the budget proposals, particularly the proposals for closing up to five campuses as a way to save $5.6 million in operating costs.
"I can't forecast anything right now on what that will look like," Poore told the district's community advisory board about any revisions. "I've got to look at the comments. If there are sites that are still impacted in terms of being closed or re-purposed, we will have the obligation to go into that community to hold a meeting to allow those folks to ask questions and give their feedback."
Ultimately, Poore will make recommendations on budget cuts to Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key, who acts as the school board for the state-controlled Little Rock School District and will make the final decisions. Decisions on closing campuses would have to be made in January to facilitate planning for the coming school year, Poore said.
The Arkansas Board of Education voted in January 2015 to take over the district and remove the elected School Board because six of 48 schools had been labeled by the state as being in academic distress. More than half of the students in those schools failed to score at proficient levels on state math and literacy exams over three years' time. The distress label has since been removed from one of the six schools, Baseline Elementary. The five that retain the designation are J.A. Fair, Hall and McClellan high schools and Henderson and Cloverdale middle schools.
In addition to efforts to raise achievement levels at the schools, the district is facing the scheduled end to an annual $37.3 million in state desegregation aid. The special funding will end after the 2017-18 school year, making it necessary to make more than $10 million in cuts in addition to cuts made in the current school year and earlier.
The proposals now on the table include a $1 million cut in central office costs, and a $3 million cut in middle and high school expenses to be accomplished by more efficient staffing and assigning students to classes in numbers closer to the maximums allowed by the state. Additionally, Poore has proposed closing and re-purposing Carver Elementary School, Franklin Elementary, Wilson Elementary, Woodruff Early Childhood Center and Hamilton Learning Academy.
Carver employees and parents of Carver students attended each of the seven community forums on the budget cuts to defend the school and offer alternatives to its closing -- a point that Poore and members of the advisory board noted Thursday night.
Jason Crader, the science specialist at Carver, was one of the four Carver supporters that addressed the advisory board Thursday night to argue against converting the high-performing prekindergarten-through-fifth- grade campus into a preschool center. He noted that the school was one of only six to earn an A grade from the state in 2014.
"Our students may not have families that are well-off, but they are competing with those who do and beating them academically in many instances," Crader said. He noted new business development in downtown Little Rock and plans by eSTEM Public Charter Schools to open both an elementary and middle school a few blocks away from Carver's location.
"Instead of changing us into a pre-K, build upon the strong foundation we already have to be a viable competitor to eSTEM," he said. "We can come out victorious."
Poore won praise from advisory board members, including Chairman Jeff Wood, for success in attracting large numbers of the people to the forums and being open and fair about the budget-cutting plans.
Poore told the group that regardless of the budget cuts and the current uncertainty, "we are going to be a better district next year, no matter what."
The community advisory board is currently operating with five of seven possible members. Chauncey Holloman Pettis, appointed from the district's Zone 1, recently submitted a letter of resignation, citing her time constraints. Freddie Scott, appointed from the district's Zone 7, resigned earlier this fall.
Poore said Thursday that Key has selected Kandi Hughes, one of more than 30 people who initially applied in June for the advisory board, to replace Scott. At the time she first applied, Hughes was associate general counsel and compliance officer for the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
Metro on 12/09/2016