Little Rock School District Superintendent Michael Poore said Thursday he will propose up to $18 million in spending cuts in October, as district officials brace for a sharp funding decline while trying to lift schools out of an academic designation that led the state to take control of its largest district.
The cost-cutting proposal may include possible school closures, a topic that has hung over the district as it prepares to lose $37.3 million, or more than 10 percent of its budget, as part of the 2013 settlement of a decades-old desegregation lawsuit.
“I assume it [closures] will probably be on the list as one of the potential things,” Poore said after a nearly three-hour meeting of the district’s new Community Advisory Board. “I’m not going to go into the specifics. I’m going to present that in October, so I’m trying to make sure it’s packaged in a way that it happens at one time and we present a menu of things that are possible.”
Poore said the October proposals would not be finalized until months later, after the public has time to weigh in and help select priorities. Ultimately, the $18 million options will be whittled down to about $10 million in actual cuts, he said.
The Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts, along with the state of Arkansas and attorneys representing black students, settled the nearly 34-year-old desegregation lawsuit in 2013. It began when the mostly black Little Rock district sued the state and other two districts to create a countywide district with the goal of ending racial segregation.
Under the agreement, the Little Rock district will receive its last desegregation settlement funding in the 2017-18 budget. That year the money can be spent only on school construction projects, according to the agreement, meaning that the current budget will be the final time the funding can cover day-to-day operations.
The $37.3 million Little Rock will receive in each of the next two years equates to 10.9 percent of its 2015-16 revenue of $340.2 million. All told, Arkansas is paying the three districts a combined $42.4 million annually through June 2018.
Little Rock has reduced spending by roughly $20.9 million over the past two budget cycles by cutting positions and transportation, health care and general operations costs, Chief Financial Officer Kelsey Bailey said.
Bailey projected the district will cut $8.8 million in the 2016-17 budget and $9.2 million in 2017-18.
“We’re looking at what’s best for the district, which positions can be combined,” Bailey said. “Everybody’s going to have to probably do a little bit more.”
Poore took the helm of the state’s largest school district July 1 at the direction of the state Education Commissioner Johnny Key, who has acted as Little Rock’s school board since the elected directors were ousted when the state took over the roughly 25,000-student district in January 2015.
At the time, six of the district’s 48 schools were considered academically distressed, meaning less than half of those schools’ students scored proficient in math and literacy exams over a three-year period. One school, Baseline Elementary, has since been crossed from the list.
In July, Key named seven people to the Community Advisory Board, which can make recommendations but not conduct official business such as changing policy or authorizing contracts. Thursday’s meeting was mainly informational: The only action the board took was to select its officers.
Arkansas Code 6-15-430 requires that advisory boards meet monthly and submit reports quarterly to Key about the progress academically distressed schools are making, among other duties. Members are not paid.
Advisory boards can be formed in state-controlled districts after one year, if the district has made some progress but not enough to regain local control.
One member represents each of the Little Rock’s seven election zones. Of them, just Melanie Fox, a former two-term board member, had previous board experience.
“They like to use acronyms around here,” Fox told fellow board members while explaining that FTE stands for full-time equivalent, a unit to measure personnel hours, during a detailed discussion about school finance.
Members asked several questions throughout the meeting about their role and when they can learn more about the progress of the five remaining academically distressed schools: J.A. Fair, Hall and Mc-Clellan high schools and Cloverdale and Henderson middle schools.
They heard presentations on district finances, state audits, the disappearing desegregation settlement money and on what Poore has done since taking office.
Jeff Wood, an attorney who was selected from the region encompassing northwest Little Rock, was chosen as the board’s president.
Chauncey Holloman, a small-business development coordinator for the city, was selected vice president. Holloman was selected from the zone that includes downtown and the eastern part of Little Rock.
Larry Clark, of west Little Rock, was absent.