State backs closing of Sparkman High School

FILE — This 2015 file photo shows public school buses. (AP Photo/File)
FILE — This 2015 file photo shows public school buses. (AP Photo/File)


The state Board of Education voted Thursday to support the Harmony Grove School District's decision to close Sparkman High School due to declining enrollment.

Seventh through 12th grade Sparkman students will attend Harmony Grove High School, about 25 miles away. The Sparkman campus, which includes an elementary school and a high school, is part of the Harmony Grove School District in Ouachita County, the result of a 2005 voluntary annexation. Sparkman residents have fought efforts by the Harmony Grove School Board to transfer Sparkman students to Harmony Grove at least twice since 2020.

The board members first voted on a motion to deny Harmony Grove's petition to close Sparkman High School. The motion failed with a 2-3 vote. Board chairperson Ouida Newton voted to break the tie. Then, the board passed a resolution to grant the school district's request. The vote was 3-1, with board member Steve Sutton opposing.

The board had already tried once to pass the first motion, but Newton asked if she could have more time for discussion. The room was silent as she finally delivered her vote. After the decision, she told the Sparkman community members who were present that the board made the decision with the best interest of families in mind.

"Please, parents and community members, know that this was not an easy decision," Newton said. "We want the best for your children."

Newton said this was the most difficult day of any term she had served. She said the board realizes how difficult it is for the communities to go through a school closure, and she realizes a school is "the heart and soul of a community." However, she said the board also believes in making decisions based on providing public school children with equal opportunities for an adequate education.

Before the vote, Sutton raised a similar point. As someone raised in a small school district, he said he feels the pain of the Sparkman community. He said he fully supports the small districts in Arkansas, but this decision is about numbers.

"If there's 14 students [at Sparkman], those 14 parents will be here telling the same story," he said. "The reality is, at some point, it's not going to work."

He said he was torn about the decision he had to make and sees the issue on both sides.

During the hearing, Harmony Grove School District argued in favor of closing the high school. Superintendent Albert Snow and Harmony Grove High School Principal Jeff Mock said Sparkman's enrollment has declined in recent years.

Only 40 students attended Sparkman High School in the 2021-2022 academic year.

In the district's opening remarks, Snow said that when he learned there were no kindergartners enrolled at Sparkman for the upcoming school year, he immediately understood this would be a large problem not just for this year, but for the next 13 years.

He said that at the end of the school year, Sparkman's campus had 97 students enrolled in grades kindergarten through 12th. Since then, some of the 40 students in seventh through 12th grades have already volunteered to transfer to Harmony Grove High School and other districts, he said.

Snow argued closing Sparkman High School will help the district financially and academically.

The cost of operating the Sparkman campus is $1,127,426.52 annually, Snow and Harmony Grove School Board President Matthew Nutt wrote in the district's petition to close the school. The cost of operations per pupil at Sparkman is $11,622.95, a number "well over" the state's per pupil allotment, the petition said.

Snow also said that no one will lose a job due to Sparkman High School's closure.

Sparkman High had also received a D grade for three years before the coronavirus pandemic. The petition to close the school described Sparkman as "failing." According to Snow, up to 15 Sparkman High School students come to the Harmony Grove campus every day, and many of the classes at Sparkman had transitioned to a virtual setting.

District leaders said the Harmony Grove campus has sufficient space to also accommodate the other students who previously attended Sparkman.

The Harmony Grove school board voted 5-2 for school closure on April 26.

Despite this, Sparkman residents filed in opposition to the school district's petition and begged the state Board of Education to allow Sparkman High School to remain open.

"Every rural school district in Arkansas faces challenges," the opposition statement said. "Other districts implement creative solutions to provide a quality education to their students instead of focusing their efforts on shutting the school down."

At the hearing, attorney Jess Askew III said that Harmony Grove wishes to close the Sparkman School campus entirely, and closing the high school would be a first step on this path.

The Harmony Grove School District on May 25 sent a letter to surrounding districts stating that it plans to close Sparkman School in approximately one year.

"This is not closing seven to 12," Askew said. "This is closing Sparkman School."

The Sparkman community also raised concerns about their students traveling on a school bus for up to four hours every day to attend Harmony Grove campus schools.

But during the hearing, Principal Mock led a presentation on the planned bus routes to serve the Sparkman students. He said no student should be on a school bus for longer than one hour before and after school.

In the petition, the district said it aims to minimize the inconvenience of the 25-minute drive between the campuses and allow former Sparkman students the opportunity to fully participate in all academic and extracurricular activities at the Harmony Grove campus.

During the board's deliberation, Newton said she was one of the board members who voted to keep Sparkman open in 2020.

In March 2020, the state board voted against closing Sparkman, a decision which the school community saw as giving Harmony Grove School District and Sparkman a chance to bring creative solutions to the issues facing an isolated school.

Newton said that while the board hoped Harmony Grove would implement the creative solutions Sparkman needed, she was disappointed to learn the district hadn't provided the campus with as many resources as possible.

"Those kids deserve a quality education, and those teachers deserve support," Newton said. "As administrators and people in charge, we have to make sure that things are done for the benefit of every child."


  photo  A map showing the location of Sparkman.
 
 


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