Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s appointees to the Arkansas Board of Education now make up a majority of the board.
On Friday, Hutchinson named two more, bringing his total appointments to five to the nine-member board that oversees the state’s public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools. The new appointees are Ouida Newton, 58, of Leola and Fitz Hill, 52, of Little Rock.
Newton is replacing Toyce Newton, the Education Board’s chairman from Crossett, while Hill is replacing Vicki Saviers of Little Rock. Last week, Saviers was appointed to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s board of visitors.
“Mrs. Newton and Dr. Hill bring a great deal of experience to the board with their extensive background in education,” Hutchinson said. “I am confident they will be great additions to the board. They both care deeply about our public education system and providing the greatest opportunities for our children.”
Hutchinson made his first three appointments to the board last year, naming Susan Chambers of Bella Vista, Charisse Dean of Little Rock and Brett Williamson of El Dorado.
His latest appointees will begin July 1.
Newton has spent 38 years teaching math in Arkansas schools, mostly in the Poyen School District in southwest Arkansas. When she was named the 2015 Arkansas Teacher of the Year, she was teaching math for grades seven through 12.
As an awarded teacher, Newton took a paid administrative leave from teaching for professional development and to advise the board in a nonvoting capacity. That term is set to expire at the end of this month.
“I just felt that because of my background and my knowledge of education and serving on the board for this year, I knew a lot about education issues and could be a positive voice for teachers and contribute,” she said Friday. “I knew a lot of the people in the department and what they do.”
The honor was just the latest in her belt — in 2014, Newton was named the Arkansas Rural Education Teacher of the Year and Arkansas Middle Level Math Teacher of the Year. She was also awarded the 2015 Teaching Excellence Award from SMART Technologies of Canada.
Newton has also taught science and worked as a library media specialist and curriculum coordinator. In the coordinating position, she oversaw curriculum for kindergarten through 12th grades to ensure the district was teaching to the standards. She had testified before the state in favor of the Common Core standards and later worked on revisions to those standards.
Newton is a graduate of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, where she earned her bachelor’s degree with a double major in math and science. She went on to earn a master’s degree in library and information science from UALR.
She said she couldn’t work at a public school and be on the Education Board, a task she’s completely ready for.
“I’m ready to go and just to be able to be a positive representative for teachers and students,” she said. “I realize it’s a great responsibility and I’m going to treat it as that and do my very best to be a good representative for teachers, students, and school districts.”
Hill has most recently worked as the leader of Arkansas Baptist College, a private historically black college in Little Rock. He announced earlier this year he was stepping down from the post to lead the college’s foundation, a job he will continue, said chief of staff LaCresha Newton.
He was out of town recruiting Friday and couldn’t be reached, she said. A call to his cellphone also went unreturned Friday.
Hill is a graduate of Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia and later earned his master’s degree in student personnel services from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La. He received a doctoral degree in higher education leadership from the University of Arkansas in 1997.
He was once the head football coach of the San Jose State Spartans and also worked as an assistant head football coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks under head Coach Houston Nutt from 1998 to 2000.
Hill joined Arkansas Baptist at a time when the school was facing dwindling enrollment and revenue. In his decadelong tenure there, the school’s annual budget increased from $2 million to nearly $21 million, and enrollment has gone from just under 200 students to more than 1,000, the governor’s office said in a news release.
His tenure at the college has also been marked by financial problems and the college’s risk of losing its accreditation.
The financial problems had mounted to a time when the college faced several lawsuits from creditors demanding money and complaints about receiving financial aid checks from the college. Staff members had also reported the college for missed or delayed paychecks.
Hill has called the financial woes “cash flow problems,” but he had gotten the college a reprieve from the U.S. Department of Education in the form of a $30 million federal loan. The college used the loan to pay off its debts, but the federal Education Department had still listed the college on “Heightened Cash Monitoring 2” status as of March 1.
The school has also been under close watch from its accrediting agency, the Chicago-based Higher Learning Commission, which has issued a “show-cause” order. The order lets the school keep its accreditation, but Arkansas Baptist must prove to the commission why it should remain accredited.