LR district working on 2 unique schools
Focus would be on academic stars
Little Rock School District leaders are crafting plans to restructure Forest Heights Middle and Geyer Springs Elementary schools into one-of-a-kind campuses that could open as soon as the 2014-15 school year to eligible pupils districtwide.
Dexter Suggs, the district’s new superintendent, and his staff are taking the first steps to convert the sixth-throug-heighth-grade Forest Heights Middle School into a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade campus that would feature a nationally recognized science, technology, engineering and math — or STEM — curriculum.
And Geyer Springs Elementary — now a traditional kindergarten-through-fifth-grade campus — would become a “high-ability academy” initially targeting high-achieving children in grades three through five but eventually expanding to accommodate academically gifted sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.
“We have to provide opportunities for our students,”
Tuesday is school board election day in Arkansas’ 238 districts, including in the Little Rock and North Little Rock districts, where nine people running for the five open seats have raised campaign funds ranging from zero to nearly $5,000.
In the Pulaski County school districts, Monday is the final day for early voting, which can be done during business hours at the Pulaski County Regional Building at 501 W. Markham St. in Little Rock.
This year’s school board election cycle is marked by a rare, and possibly the first, statewide get-out-the-vote campaign for the annual elections.
Arkansas Learns, which describes itself as a private-sector alliance for excellence in education, is running television advertisements in Little Rock, Jonesboro and Northwest Arkansas, as well as newspaper and radio advertising statewide to draw attention to the school board elections.
Social-media messages and robo-calls featuring chamber of commerce leaders and the Arkansas Learns president are other elements of the week-long “We Vote, Students Win”
campaign.
The campaign was born out of frustration with historically low voter turnout and a failed effort in the Arkansas Legislature to make the school board elections coincide with the general elections in November, Gary Newton, Arkansas Learns president and chief executive officer, said last week.
“We so firmly believe that people should participate in the democracy of the governance of the public schools that, rather than licking our wounds, we decided to do a get-out-the-vote campaign,” Newton said.
According to Newton’s calculations, about 36,400 people voted in the 2012 school board elections, a 2.25 percent turnout of registered voters. That was an average of 485 voters per county and 152 voters per school district who chose the people to oversee districts and district budgets, which dwarf city and county government budgets, he said.
Last year, two months after the school board elections, there were more than 1 million voters who participated in the November general election, Newton said. That was 66.65 percent of the eligible voters.
In Pulaski County, there are elections only in the Little Rock and North Little Rock school districts this year as the Pulaski County Special School District is operating under state control and without a school board.
Residents in all three districts can vote on their existing tax millage rates, but in Pulaski County Special and in election zones in Little Rock and North Little Rock that are without contested school board elections, all ballots must be cast in early voting before Election Day.
Polling places will not be open Tuesday in the Pulaski County Special School District nor in school board election zones in Little Rock and North Little Rock that do not have contested school board member elections.
In the Little Rock district zones featuring contested races, Kenneth Davis and Charlie “C.E.” McAdoo are vying for the central Little Rock Zone 2 seat that is now held by Michael Nellums.
McAdoo, a retired minister, has raised $4,910 for his school board race, according to pre-election campaign contribution and expenditure reports filed last week in the Pulaski County clerk’s office. Those include contributions from himself; his family members; Little Rock civil-rights attorney and state Rep. John Walker, a Democrat; Walker’s legal assistant Joy Springer; and several retired district teachers and principals.
Davis filed a pre-election report showing no contributions.
The Little Rock Education Association, the teacher and support staff union in the district, endorsed both Davis and McAdoo for the board seat.
In Little Rock’s Zone 6, Florene Armstrong and Tara Shephard are challenging incumbent Tommy Branch Jr. for the seat representing south-central Little Rock. Branch received the endorsement of the Little Rock Education Association.
Armstrong has raised $2,099, including contributions from Walker, from Little Rock School Board President Dianne Curry, and from retired educators.
Shephard has raised $1,180 for her race for the Zone 6 seat.
Branch had received contributions of $2,100 and spent $2,407. His contributors included state Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock; and The Design Group, the agency that is conducting a $66,000 public-relations campaign for the district.
Branch has been a Little Rock School Board member since November 2012. He was appointed by the other board members to fill the vacancy created by the death of board member Michael Peterson. As an appointee, Branch can serve only until the next regular school election, at which time he has to seek election and win to fulfill the remaining two years of the three-year term.
At the time of his appointment, Branch listed his residence as 3719 Ludwig St. in Zone 6, but he acknowledged that he did not live in the house and was renting a room from a friend across the street.
Branch continues to list the Ludwig address as his residence, but he said this month that he is living on Timberland Drive in Zone 6 while renovations are done on the Ludwig house. He provided a street address but asked that it not be published because he said he doesn’t want people driving by his house and he is concerned about the safety of his family. He emailed a reporter a photograph of an Entergy bill with his name and that street address.
As of Wednesday, Branch and his father, Tommy Branch Sr., owed 2011 delinquent taxes totaling $735.96 on the Ludwig site. The Arkansas Times online blog publicized the delinquent tax bill last week. Branch said Thursday that a bill for $736.15 was paid earlier that day. He produced the receipt for that payment.
“We didn’t receive a bill,” he said about the reason for the delinquent taxes. “They sent a bill by email, and we went right down and paid them. I want people to know I am paying my taxes. I am not trying to avoid paying taxes. That would be stupid.”
The bulk of real-estate taxes in Arkansas go to support local public school systems.
Greg Adams is running unopposed for a second three-year term to the Little Rock board’s Zone 4 seat representing northwest Little Rock.
In North Little Rock, Dorothy Williams is running unopposed for re-election in Zone 1.
Vincent Paul Myrick is challenging incumbent Ron Treat for the Zone 4 seat in the district.
As of Friday, no campaign contribution report was posted for Treat on the Pulaski County clerk’s website. Myrick has raised $950 for his campaign.
Myrick is a retired pawnshop employee who has a General Educational Development certificate.
Some North Little Rock residents have complained that he has misrepresented his educational and employment record. A previous story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said Myrick had owned a pawnshop and graduated from North Little Rock High School, facts he repeatedly confirmed to a reporter. After residents raised complaints, Myrick told a reporter that he attended North Little Rock High School “for a brief time” before later obtaining a GED on his own.
Myrick also said, after the original story ran, that he didn’t actually own Bob’s Pawn Shop in North Little Rock. Rather, he ran the pawnshop “as if it was my own” and his name was listed on its 2011 business license, a copy of which he provided to the newspaper.