District support on meetings’ agenda

The Arkansas Board of Education will bookend its regular monthly business meetings Thursday and Friday with a couple of informal work sessions, including one on developing support and exit criteria for districts in academic and fiscal trouble.

The Education Board’s regular business meeting will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. Friday. Thursday’s long agenda includes a hearing on the proposed renewal of the state charter for the Pine Bluff Lighthouse Academy and reports on the Little Rock School District’s special education programs and dyslexia programs.

The Thursday meeting will be preceded by a 9 a.m. board work session with staff from the Learning Services section of the Arkansas Department of Education. Topics will include alternative pathways to graduation.

The Education Board’s 9 a.m. Friday meeting has an agenda that consists primarily of reports from state Education Commissioner Johnny Key and Education Board members. The meeting will be followed with the work session on the support and exit criteria for districts classified as being in fiscal distress or Level 5 — in need of intensive support — for academic achievement problems.

School districts that operate under the direction of the state and that will be affected by Education Board decisions on exit criteria are Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Dollarway and Earle.

The meeting takes place in the Arch Ford Education Building at 4 Capitol Mall in Little Rock.