New board studies path for LRSD’s exit from state control

A newly elected Little Rock School Board is turning its attention to extracting the 21,000-student district from the intensive support category of the state’s school accountability system.

The “Level 5 — Intensive Support” label is keeping the district from a complete release from state authority.

Until the district is removed from Level 5, the new School Board cannot file lawsuits, recognize a union as a bargaining agent for employees, alter the structure of the district’s personnel policies committees or change superintendents without approval from the Arkansas Board of Education.

Those were conditions set by the state Education Board in voting last year to return the Little Rock district to the governance of a local board after five years of state control because six of then-48 schools were categorized as academically distressed.

Little Rock Deputy Su

perintendent Jeremy Owoh recapped for the new School Board last week the terms of the exit plan in what he said was the first of regular monthly updates.

District leaders will ask the School Board at its Jan. 28 meeting — after it’s had time to examine the plan and ask questions — to ratify the exit plan, Owoh said. That will be to show “that you are in agreement and willing to move forward with the exit plan” and “that we are all on the same page.”

The exit plan was developed by the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education and its Office of Coordinated Support and Services in consultation with school district leaders. The district’s now former Community Advisory Board — which preceded the newly elected board — voted in support of the plan in 2019.

Owoh reported to the School Board that a recent midyear review by Deputy Education Commissioner Stacy Smith of the district’s progress in meeting the terms of the plan — including artifacts and evidence — was “favorable.” He is expecting the written documentation in the coming days. Both the midyear and end-of-year review reports will be be forwarded to the state Education Board, Owoh said.

Specifically, the district’s exit plan calls for the district to use the professional learning communities model and Robert Marzono’s High Reliability Schools framework for organizing the work of a school to accomplish greater student achievement.

The exit plan also calls for teacher and administrator evaluation systems that help educators improve instruction. Still another provision of the plan requires the district to carry out its adopted reading curriculum that relies on science of reading research and includes support for students who show characteristics of dyslexia.

The exit plan further requires the district to have a three-year budget plan that does not result in district operators dipping into reserve funds to meet routine operating expenses. And the plan requires the district to have an approved master facilities plan.

For each provision of the exit plan, there are artifacts and evidence. For example, regarding the teacher and principal evaluation systems, the artifacts include data acquired by evaluators “on focus walks” and “instructional rounds.” Evidence includes a showing that a building administrator does on average eight weekly informal observations of teachers.

The exit plan that is on the district’s website under the “Leadership” tab is a revised version of an earlier plan that called, in part, for specific schools to raise their state-issued F letter grades.

Owoh said the shift away from the school letter grades was a benefit to the district. The grades rely heavily on student results on the state-required ACT Aspire tests, which are typically given in grades 3 through 10 in math, reading and science. The tests were not given this past spring because of the covid-19 pandemic that closed schools to on-site classes.

The current exit plan calls for demonstrations of instructional practices and collaborative efforts in schools, he said.

“All schools are to demonstrate a high-quality program of instruction for all students,” he said. There must be districtwide continuous improvement shown through the evidence and artifacts — “not just in pockets of the district,” he said.

School Board member Greg Adams questioned Owoh about any areas of concern that state leaders have regarding the district’s efforts to achieve the plan’s goals.

Owoh said maintaining a balanced budget was the greatest concern. He said district leaders are already looking for ways to trim expenses without affecting instruction, and that plans to reduce the number of campuses will save money.

The district plans to make the former J.A. Fair High School into a kindergarten through eighth-grade school by closing Henderson Middle, Dodd Elementary and Romine Elementary as traditional schools. Romine is to become an early childhood education center.

School Board member Ali Noland said she wanted on the record that the state’s authority to continue exercising control over the district after five years is being legally contested. Still, she said she supports moving forward on the goals of the plan. She also had questions about the district’s ability to avoid deficit spending.

Mike Poore, superintendent of the district, told the board that the district does face financial challenges in that kindergarten through fifthgrade enrollment dropped by more than 750 students this year and prekindergarten enrollment fell by 800 students — at least in part because of the pandemic. There are also concerns about the impact of the pandemic on the ability of people and businesses to pay their taxes, which provide the revenue that supports public schools.

Board member Jeff Wood warned that the enrollment loss could cost the district as much as $5 million. Wood also asked about the provision in the exit plan requiring an approved master facilities plan. He said the district does not have the revenue to replace the former McClellan High campus as the district has told the state it would do.

Poore said he and his staff plan to talk with the new School Board in January or February about facility funding.

That is likely to center on asking voters again to approve the extended levy of property tax mills as a way to raise money. Such a request was defeated by voters in November.

“I have a bent to be aggressive on that,” Poore said about facility funding.