Breakfast, lunch free within district
The Pulaski County Special School District will offer breakfast and lunch at no charge to all students enrolled at 12 of its schools in the 2020-21 school year.
The free meals for all students are made possible by a U.S. Department of Agriculture's Community Eligibility Provision that enables schools in which at least 40% of students qualify for free and reduced-price meals based on family income, Pulaski County Special district leaders said last week.
The schools are Crystal Hill, College Station, Harris, Clinton, Lawson, Landmark, Bates, Cato, and Oak Grove elementaries; Mills High; Mills Middle; and Robinson Middle.
The North Little Rock, Jacksonville/North Pulaski and Little Rock school districts in Pulaski County offer free meals at some or all of their schools.
Hearing starting on desegregation
A federal court hearing to determine whether the Pulaski County Special School District has met its school desegregation obligations is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and go through much of the month of July.
The start time Tuesday is a change from what was previously announced.
The school district will argue to U.S. District Chief Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. that it has met the mandates of its desegregation plan, Plan 2000, in regard to equitable student achievement, student discipline practices, and the condition of its facilities. The McClendon intervenors who represent Black students in the district, are challenging the district's compliance.
New windows set for Central High
Little Rock School District's historic Central High School is getting new windows, the district announced last week.
The work on the the much photographed building is set to begin in August.
Federal grants from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, totaling $998,800, are being used for the window restoration project.
The restoration architect John Greer of Witsell, Evans, Rasco is working with Baldwin & Shell Co. to ensure all work will be done in accordance with the secretary of interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, the district announcement said.
Central High School, built in 1927 at a cost of $1.5 million, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in August 1977. It is the only fully functioning high school established as a national historic site.