LR superintendent receives additional year on contract

Mike Poore, superintendent of the state-controlled Little Rock School District since last July 1, has received a one-year extension of what started as his two-year contract with the Arkansas Department of Education.

The extension changes the contract expiration date from June 30, 2018, to June 30, 2019, which means Poore will continue to have a two-year contract at the conclusion of his first year of work in the state’s largest school district.

No other changes were made in the newly revised employment agreement for Poore, Education Department spokesman Kimberly Friedman said Friday.

Poore’s annual salary will continue to be $225,000, and he will continue to receive $850 a month for use of his personal vehicle for local travel. He also has access to a district cellphone, laptop computer and tablet for his official use.

The contract states that by March 1 of each school year, the state’s education commissioner, who is Johnny Key, will evaluate the superintendent to determine whether there has been satisfactory progress toward removing the district from state control and whether the superintendent should continue to operate the district.

“If the Commissioner determines the Superintendent should continue to operate the school district, this agreement shall be extended by at least one year,” the contract signed by Key and Poore says.

The Arkansas Board of Education voted in January 2015 to take over the 24,000-student district, eliminating the school board and putting its superintendent, who was then Dexter Suggs, under the direction of the commissioner. That was because six of the district’s 48 schools were labeled as being in academic distress — the result of chronically low student achievement on state math and literacy tests.

The number of academically distressed schools has since been reduced to three based on test results in the spring of 2015 and spring of 2016. Test results from exams given this spring will be the first since Poore’s employment in the district.

State law allows a superintendent to have a three-year contract. School boards routinely add a year to a leader’s contract for each year that is expended. A board’s failure to extend a contract can be a sign of dissatisfaction with a superintendent but is short of buying out a contract or replacing the superintendent.