Incumbent faces newcomer in NLR

Treat keys on buildings; Myrick zeroes in on programs

The only contested North Little Rock School Board race will pit Zone 4 incumbent Ron Treat, on the board since 2007, against challenger Vincent Paul Myrick.

Zone 4 is in the northwest corner of the nearly 9,000-student district.

In Zone 1, in its southeast corner, Dorothy “Dot” Williams faces no opponent in her re-election bid.

Early voting starts Tuesday and runs through Sept. 16. Election day is Sept. 17.

The seven- member School Board has focused much of its attention lately on a $265 million voter-approved capital improvement plan that will lead to the renovation, replacement or consolidation of nearly every building in the district.

Treat, 64, a store manager

for Summerwood Partners, said overseeing the construction plan is one of the board’s most important responsibilities.

“That is why I am so adamant about wanting to stay on the board at least another term,” he said. “It takes awhile to get your sleeves rolled up and really understand everything.”

Treat said his background in corporate credit has blended well with the expertise of other board members as the group works to review interrelated project budgets and construction timelines, subject to constant tweaking. For example, the board recently approved adjustments to materials and plans for elementary school buildings when cost estimates were over budget.

Myrick, 50, a retired pawnshop owner, said he is more focused on district programs than facilities.

“I think it’s gone very well,” he said of the plan. “I think we have a lot of people who are educated in that field overseeing that stuff. We need to leave that to the experts.”

Myrick said friends and neighbors in the Amboy neighborhood encouraged him to run for the School Board. He said his focus as a board member would be responsiveness to residents of his zone and school-culture programs that address bullying, truancy and high school dropouts.

He suggested a career education program targeting high school students who may not plan to attend college. By working with businesses in the community, those students could return to school and say, “Look what I did,” Myrick said.

Treat — who, like Myrick, attended North Little Rock High School — said he supports a continued focus on increasing the district’s high school graduation rate through a variety of approaches, including cooperation with day-care providers, area colleges and universities and initiatives that boost parental involvement in education.

The most recent information available from the Arkansas Department of Education shows that 252 students withdrew from North Little Rock schools in the 2011-12 academic year for reasons other than incarceration, death or transferred enrollment. Of the students who withdrew, 40 enrolled in General Educational Development programs.

Treat said he also wants to find a way to provide pay increases to the district’s more than 700 teachers. The board has denied some previous pay-increase proposals as it seeks to squeeze savings out of the district’s annual budget to help fund facilities projects.

In the 2012-13 academic year, a starting teacher with a bachelor’s degree and no experience made $33,500 in the North Little Rock School District. That compares with starting salaries that top $40,000 in some larger Northwest Arkansas districts, which typically have the highest pay in the state.

Unopposed for re-election to her Zone 1 seat, Williams, 69, is a former North Little Rock teacher and assistant high school principal who was president of the board when voters approved a school property-tax increase necessary to fund the capital improvement plan.