Review of district’s operations finished

The Urban School Human Capital Academy, at the request of Arkansas Education Secretary Johnny Key, has completed a review of operations in the Little Rock School District’s central office and human resources office.

The lengthy report recently presented to the district’s Community Advisory Board highlights strengths and suggests improvements.

Included among the identified strengths are the commitment of central office leaders to children, the positive working relationship between the district and its employee union and the district’s recent entry into state-supported eFinance and other systems. Also cited was the district’s position control system as well as in-house efforts to develop school and district leaders.

Recommendations call for establishing stability in the position of superintendent and other high level district jobs, making the growth and development of educators the highest priority after student achievement, and streamlining processes, eliminating barriers and generally making sure that everyone is working together.

Other recommendations call for doing early, aggressive planning to attract high-quality employees, improving the quality of the applicant pool, streamlining the application process and and employing equitable distribution practices to ensure that high-need schools are staff ed effective teachers and support staff.

“To contribute to workforce quality, the district’s human resources leaders must focus on the ‘right work,’ which means that priorities must be strategically aligned to the mission and vision of the district,” the report states.

The mission of every district is to provide the best possible education to each and every student,” the study observed.