Move advised for Governor's School
Arkansas Tech University in Russellville will be the new home to Arkansas Governor's School if the state Board of Education at its Sept. 13 meeting accepts the recent recommendation of a site selection committee.
The Governor's School is a state-funded, gifted education summer program for rising high school seniors that has been held at Hendrix College in Conway for 38 years.
The Arkansas Department of Education late last year solicited proposals from colleges and universities to host the summer program. Three institutions responded: Arkansas Tech, Hendrix College and the University of Central Arkansas.
Arkansas Commissioner Johnny Key appointed a 13-member site selection committee to visit the sites and otherwise evaluate the proposals.
In early May, at a meeting at Arkansas Tech in Russellville, committee members presented their scoring of the applicants, according to a report that has been submitted to the Education Board.
Education Department staff tabulated the total points. Committee members were told that Hendrix was the first choice for Governor's School. However, the scoring sheets were later reviewed by Education Department staff, at which time "a discrepancy was found between the total number of cumulative points awarded and the first choice ranking designation by a majority of the committee members."
Hendrix had the highest cumulative points but was not ranked as first choice by the majority of committee members. Arkansas Tech was ranked first by nine of the 13 committee members.
The committee reconvened May 14 to vote on a recommendation. Arkansas Tech is the site committee's choice based on that vote.
Judge set to tour 4 district schools
U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. has set Nov. 1 for a second day of touring schools in the Pulaski County Special School District.
The Nov. 1 tour of four schools -- including College Station and Harris elementaries -- follows the judge's Aug. 9 tour of Maumelle and Mills University Studies high schools and Joe T. Robinson Middle School.
Marshall is the presiding judge in a 35-year-old federal school desegregation lawsuit in which the Pulaski County Special district is a defendant. The school district is obligated by its desegregation plan and court orders to equalize its old schools with its newer schools. The old schools are in neighborhoods that serve high percentages of black students, and the district's newer schools serve predominantly white communities.
In the past year, the Joshua intervenors, who are black students in the district, have complained that the new Mills school in southeast Pulaski County is inferior to the new Robinson Middle School. The intervenors have also asked Marshall to order the replacement of the Harris School in McAlmont community and the College Station School in the southeast section of the district.
In addition to the Nov. 1 tour, Marshall also has scheduled a hearing in the ongoing case for 1:30 p.m., Sept. 24.
"The Court is working on some preliminary rulings about [the district's] current facilities projects," Marshall said in a scheduling order Thursday. "No additional filings are needed -- the papers on this issue so far, and the August 9th tours, have given the Court plenty to digest."
Ex-school official sues over cutback
Angela S. Munns has sued the Little Rock School District in Pulaski County Circuit Court over the district's decision to eliminate her job as an assistant principal, a position she has held since 1997, most recently at Mabelvale Middle School.
The suit contends that the district did not properly apply its reduction-in-force policies in eliminating Munns' position as part of cutting 31 assistant principal jobs earlier this year as a way to save money.
The policy provides that "if seniority of two or more employees in the area of employment selected for a reduction-in- force are the same, reduction will be accomplished by selecting for retention the employee with the most experience in the District."
Munns, who started work in the district in 1979, is asking that she be reinstated as assistant principal and for other compensation.
Metro on 09/02/2018