2 advisers needed on district’s board

The Little Rock School District’s seven-member Community Advisory Board is down two members and seeking replacements to represent the east and southwest sections of the district.

The advisory board serves as a liaison between the public and Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key, who acts in place of an elected school board in the state-controlled Little Rock school system. The advisory board hears reports and votes on recommendations regarding policies, programs, staffing and operations of the district. Those recommendations are submitted to Key for final decisions.

The advisory board’s Zone 1 seat representing east Little Rock has been vacant for months following the resignation of Chauncey Holloman Pettis. The Zone 7 position representing southwest Little Rock was recently vacated by Kandi Hughes, who has moved out of the zone.

Other members of the advisory board — which generally meets on the fourth Thursday of the month — are Maria Chavarria-Garcia from the district’s Zone 2, Melanie Fox from Zone 3, Jeff Wood from Zone 4, Larry Clark from Zone 5 and Anthony Hampton from Zone 6. Wood is the chairman.

Today marks the third anniversary of the state Board of Education’s 2015 5-4 vote to take control of the Little Rock district, removing the district’s elected school board and putting the superintendent under the direction of the state commissioner. That was done because six of the district’s 48 schools at the time were labeled by the state as academically distressed because of chronically low scores on state math and literacy exams.