Coalition seeking say in Little Rock schools’ future

One LRSD, a coalition of parents, teachers and community members in the Little Rock School District, said Sunday it wants to join a committee of state, district and city officials who have met about the school system’s future.

About 150 people met at Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church in Little Rock on Sunday night for what was billed as a dialogue with Education Secretary Johnny Key; Little Rock School District Superintendent Mike Poore; Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr.; Gov. Asa Hutchinson; state Board of Education Chairwoman Diane Zook; and Reginald Ballard, the newly selected liaison from the state Division of Elementary and Secondary Education to the school district.

Of the six officials invited to the meeting, only Scott replied to the invitation, said community leader Anika Whitfield. The mayor sent his chief of staff, Charles Blake, to the meeting.

Whitfield led the 90-minute question-and-answer session, which got heated at times as people’s frustration with the state’s handling of the Little Rock School District during the state’s takeover nearly five years ago came to a head.

“There were six schools that absolutely needed help and support from the state,” Whitfield said. “The state absolutely knew they could not provide the support we needed.”

The 23,000-student Little Rock district, currently classified by the state as a district in “Level 5 — in need of intensive support,” has been under state control and without an elected school board since

January 2015. That’s because six of its then-48 schools had chronically low achievement on state tests.

At Sunday night’s community meeting, Blake fielded a number of questions regarding how the city intends to move forward and the mayor’s position on returning the district to local control.

“As an elected official, I was advocating for a return to local control,” said Blake, a former state legislator. “Now, in my capacity in the mayor’s office, nothing has changed. We are still advocating for a strong, united school district. …We are for a locally elected school board.”

On Oct. 7, the mayor had called for a memorandum of understanding between the city and the Arkansas Department of Education. Under his plan, struggling site would become known as “community schools” that would offer “wraparound” services to address poverty in those areas.

On Oct. 10, the Education Board agreed to return the governance of the district to a nine-member school board that would be elected in November 2020. According to the motion by the Education Board’s newest member, Chad Pekron of Bryant, there would be “a detailed memorandum of understanding that sets forth the state’s rights and obligations.”

The next day, Key announced on the second day of the state Education Board meeting that he had asked Ballard — who had been working as the head of the state’s charter school unit — to temporarily work as a state education agency representative in efforts to build support for academically struggling Little Rock schools.