Little Rock notebook
Free event to offer e-waste recycling
A free recycling event will be held Tuesday at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
From 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., people can take electronics to discard or documents they would like shredded to the parking lot at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Maryland Avenue, across from Martin Luther King Elementary School.
Computers, monitors, printers, phones, microwaves, televisions, DVD players, satellite boxes and dishes, stereos and most electrical devices that plug in or operate from a battery will be accepted.
Washing machines, refrigerators, air conditioners and any device that contains Freon or other liquids won’t be accepted.
Documents can be shredded and disposed of at the Shred-it truck that will be present.
The event is sponsored by the hospital, eSCO Processing and Recycling LLC, and Shred-it.
Clinton School has busy lecture week
Events about chemical weapons, motherhood and George Washington are planned at the Clinton School of Public Service this week.
On Tuesday, author Betsy Singleton Snyder will talk
about her book, Stepping on Cheerios: Finding God in the Chaos and Clutter of Life, which is about becoming a mother for the first time at age 44. At age 47, she found she was pregnant with triplets.
Snyder, who worked as a pastor and missionary before becoming a mother, is married to former U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder, a Democrat from Arkansas. She will talk at noon at Sturgis Hall, 1200 President Clinton Ave., and will sign books afterward.
On Wednesday, a science policy adviser with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will speak at noon at Sturgis Hall. The group’s mission is to achieve a world that is free of chemical weapons.
The organization was awarded the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.
Jonathan Forman has a doctorate in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. He developed molecular diagnostic and bioanalytical assay technologies at biotechnology companies before joining the chemical-weapons organization.
He will give a talk titled “The Intersection of Science and Chemical Disarmament.”
On Thursday, The Daily Beast’s editor-in-chief and managing director, John Avlon, will give a lecture at 7 p.m. about his book, Washington’s Farewell: The Founding Father’s Warning to Future Generations.
Avlon also is a political analyst for CNN. The book focuses on George Washington’s letter about the forces he feared would destroy U.S. democracy: hyper-partisanship, excessive debt and foreign wars.
All events will be streamed live on the school’s website. Those who wish to attend may reserve seats by emailing publicprograms@ clintonschool.uasys.edu or calling (501) 683-5239.
Letter denies study of school closings
Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key and Little Rock School District Superintendent Michael Poore sent letters declining the city Board of Directors’ recent request for them to conduct an impact study before closing three schools.
Key announced at the beginning of the year that he had approved Poore’s plans to close three schools and re purpose another in response to budget shortfalls. Before that, community activists had been asking for an impact study on how the closures would affect neighborhoods before a final decision was made.
Key and Poore already had denied the request, but at the end of March, the Board of Directors signed on to the request with a resolution it approved in a 7-2 vote.
In an April 14 letter, Key restated his stance that the decision had been made. He said an impact study would provide “important, but incomplete, information.”
“A more comprehensive study that includes an evaluation of city population trends, redevelopment efforts around the city, the availability of other state and city services, the presence or absence of other anchor businesses and institutions, and the involvement of community and faith-based institutions and organizations, combined with how those and other factors can work together over the next five, ten and twenty years to meet the P-12, post-secondary and career and technical education needs of the residents throughout the city, would be most helpful to future school district, city and community leaders,” Key wrote.
He suggested that option be considered in the future if all partners were willing to participate and a “trusted partner” such as the Clinton School of Public Service conducted the study.
Poore responded to the city board in an April 7 letter saying the district’s focus is now on transitioning students, staff members and programs, adding that “it is never easy to reduce a budget.”