Deadline looms on LR district control

Arkansas Board of Education members are considering June as a time period for deciding the fate of the state-controlled Little Rock School District.

Education Board Chairman Jay Barth of Little Rock has asked Education Department staff about the timing for a possible school board election in the district that has been without a locally elected board since January 2015.

Jan. 28, 2015, was when the state Education Board voted to take over the district’s management because of chronically low math and literacy test scores in six schools. The district’s school board was disbanded and the superintendent was put under the direction of the state education commissioner.

The law allows the state to control a district for five years before either returning the district to local control — through the appointment or election of school board members — or reconstituting the district through consolidation or annexation to other districts.

“We have a ticking clock,” Barth said about the January 2020 date.

Courtney Salas-Ford, an attorney for the Education Department, said school board elections are held annually in either May or November to coincide with either the preferential primaries or general election in even-numbered years. In odd-numbered years, the school board elections are to be held on the dates that the primary or general election would be held if there were such elections in odd numbered years.

“In terms of Little Rock, we would be looking at a November 2019 election or a May 2020 election,” SalasFord said about a possible school board election. “Bottom line, some sort of decision would need to be made around June 2019.”