State lists properties for charter-school dibs

200-plus labeled vacant, underused

More than 200 buildings and pieces of property owned by 76 school districts — including the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special districts — have been identified by the state for the first time as vacant or underused and potentially available for charter school use.

The Arkansas Division for Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation posted the list of unused and underused properties on its website Wednesday in advance of today’s deadline to do so as required by Act 542 of 2017.

The nine-page act clarifies and expands charter schools’ rights of access and first refusal to purchase or lease unused or partially used facilities owned by traditional school districts.

The law and the list come at a time when Arkansas is peppered with vacant or underused school buildings resulting from several years of school and school district consolidations plus a school construction boom initiated by the state’s partnership program for assisting districts with their construction costs.

The law and list also come at a time when the Little Rock School District, which is the state’s largest and

home to a growing number of the state’s charter schools and charter school systems, owns two vacant buildings — Woodruff Early Childhood Education Center and W.D. Hamilton Learning Academy. Those two schools are on the list posted Wednesday.

Some of the other districts around the state that have multiple buildings and properties on the list include Batesville, Cave City, Dollarway, El Dorado, Malvern, Pine Bluff and South Pike County.

The list includes undeveloped land owned by the Armorel School District described as “500 acres of actively leased farm and solar land.” Blytheville School District also has actively leased farmland— about 800 acres.

Fort Smith School District property on the list includes “Nolon Springs Cemetery” along with a piece of land and a building that once “might have been a 4H building,” according to the building utilization notes on the list.

Melbourne School District property on the list includes a 1978-built storm cellar at the old Mount Pleasant Elementary that is listed as being used only in inclement weather.

Marvell-Elaine School District lists a 1926-built “superintendent’s dwelling” that once was part of the Elaine district before its merger with Marvell. Most of the old Elaine campus was sold or donated to the Elaine Alumni Association, according to notes on the list, but the superintendent’s home, the administration building, the agricultural education building and the bus barn belong to the Marvell-Elaine system.

Another Little Rock School District property on the list is the former Gilliam School that has been home to the Watershed Human Development Program. Also on the list are the North Little Rock district’s administration building and its adjoining property on which Fisher Armory sits, along with the former Poplar Street school building. The former Jacksonville Elementary School owned by the Pulaski County Special School District and leased to Jacksonville is on the list.

Charter school systems can have up to two years to claim access once a school building is designated by the state as unused or underused, according to the law.

The law also requires charter schools to purchase or lease any desired property at fair market value from the

district.

School districts that object to the state classification of their properties as vacant or underused have the right to appeal, said Brad Montgomery, director of the Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division.

“There is a process that if a facility appears on the division’s list, the district can petition the division for a waiver by providing a letter in which they say they don’t believe a charter would be interested in the facility,” Montgomery said.

“We then — the division — within five days produce a letter to the charter schools,” he continued, adding that the notice goes to all charter systems in the state as well as to a charter school advocacy organization such as the Arkansas Public School Resource Center.

“The charter schools have 30 days to file an objection. If a charter files an objection within 30 days stating that they intend to inform the district of their intent to lease the facility or purchase the facility,

then the division sends a letter back to the district saying the waiver request is denied,” he said. ” Otherwise the division sends a letter to the district saying that it can proceed with their plan to dispose of the facility.”

Montgomery called Act 542 “complex” and said some have interpreted its requirements differently than he and his staff members have.

Proposed rules and regulations detailing how the law must be carried out are pending. They have gone out for one public review and were subsequently modified. Those revisions have been sent to the governor’s office for review before they go out for another public hearing, after which they are presented for a vote to the Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Commission.

Mike Poore, superintendent of the Little Rock district, said Wednesday that his district has already sent a waiver request in regard to Woodruff, which was built in 1911. The district has been working for almost a year to sell the school building in the central part of the city. A potential sale to Moses Tucker Real Estate fell through. A $300,000 sale to a Florida lawyer and real estate developer who wants to convert the building to apartments

is pending.

Montgomery said the district did not execute the sale of Woodruff on or before the effective date of Act 542, which was last Aug. 1, resulting in the property being placed on the unused/underused list.

“I think the Woodruff facility is not going to meet the on or before effective date part of the law,” he said. “Had it happened before Aug. 1, I know they were working on it, but I don’t think they got it all ironed out until after Aug. 1.”

The district’s Hamilton Academy — the former Southwest Middle School — is on the list as well. That campus, however, is adjacent to Bale Elementary. The state commission can deny a charter school’s acquisition of a facility if it “would have a materially negative impact on the overall educational environment of an educational campus located within 500 feet,” the law says.

In North Little Rock, the district and the city are considering a land swap — the district administration building and armory property for the city’s Police Department and courts buildings. Those city buildings are on the same block as the high school. The city wants to build new municipal buildings on the land now home to the school district

administration building and the armory.

“The law speaks to public school facilities, not academic facilities per se,” Montgomery said. “Those properties are caught up in this law. Since this is happening after the effective date of the act, I believe they are subject to this law.”

Kelly Rodgers, superintendent of the district, has said the land swap and the issue of how the former Poplar Street school is to be used have been referred to the district’s attorney for study.

The district had planned to demolish Poplar Street School to use the land for athletic practice fields. In recent weeks, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff has approached the district about starting programs at the site for both high school and college students.

Montgomery was complimentary of the university’s plans but said the Poplar Street building is subject to the terms of Act 542. The district would have to seek a waiver. If no charter school objects, the district and university would be free to work toward a partnership.

“It would get sticky if a charter school says it does want the property,” Montgomery acknowledged.