Ex-superintendent
sues over job loss
Mark Gotcher, who was fired earlier this year as superintendent of the Russellville School District, has filed a lawsuit in Pope County Circuit Court accusing his former employers of breach of contract.
Gotcher was Arkansas' deputy education commissioner when he left that post in 2017 to head the Russellville system. He was ultimately dismissed from the district in a 5-2 School Board vote in April.
The defendants in the lawsuit are the Russellville School District, the Russellville School Board and four of its members: Jason Golden, Jeff Carter, Morgan Barrett and Jeremy Keaster.
In the lawsuit, Gotcher said he was fired for violating district policies by giving a district patron unlimited access to a school district arena and by inappropriately revealing confidential personnel performance information.
Gotcher denied that he showed favoritism to one employee and said approximately 308 people had badges to access the Cyclone Arena on an unlimited basis -- and 100 of those are not employees of the district, including three board members. Gotcher also denied revealing confidential personnel performance information to a district patron.
Gotcher seeks the pay that he says is to due him under the terms of his contract plus compensation for additional damages.
3-day hearing set
on state mask law
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox has scheduled a three-day court hearing in November on the lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of Act 1002 of 2021.
The hearing on the state law that prohibits most state and local government agencies -- including school districts -- from mandating the wearing of masks as a defense against the transmission of covid-19 is set for 9 a.m. Nov. 22, 23 and 24.
Fox on Aug. 6 stopped enforcement of the law until a full hearing could be held and a decision issued in the dispute that was taken to court by parents Veronica McClane and Ashley Simmons, as well as the Little Rock and Marion school districts and Pulaski County's County Judge Barry Hyde and Sheriff Eric Higgins.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said last week that 118 of the state's school systems -- enrolling the majority of the state's public school students -- have mask requirements. A total of 87 of the state's 262 traditional districts and charter systems have chosen not to require masks, and 57 have taken no action.
Hutchinson is a defendant in the lawsuit but says he agrees with Fox's Aug. 6 ruling and that he regrets signing the bill into law last spring.
ACT Aspire tests'
options weighed
The state-required ACT Aspire tests given since 2017 to Arkansas students in grades three through 10 in math, literacy and science aren't going to be given in perpetuity.
The Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education recently distributed a survey to state educators to get feedback on "an ideal assessment."
"Arkansas is in the final years of its contract with ACT to administer the ACT Aspire Assessment, and ACT is no longer going to offer Aspire as a summative option after 2023," stated a memorandum to educators prepared by Hope Worsham of the division.
"For this reason, the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education is considering options for what the state assessment system will be in the coming years and wants feedback from stakeholders," she wrote.