Education notebook
LRSD board to look at future of Ignite
The Little Rock School Board could decide as soon as this week whether to make the district’s Ignite Digital Academy — a virtual education program created in response to the covid-19 pandemic — a more permanent part of the district.
Ignite teachers are currently housed at Henderson Middle School and the West School of Innovation. They provide online instruction to students in kindergarten through 12th grades who are technically enrolled at either Terry Elementary or Dunbar Middle schools or at their home high schools. Student achievement data and other information is incorporated into the school in which they are enrolled — not Ignite.
Currently, the Ignite students have the right to return to slots reserved for them at their traditional schools within the district.
Superintendent Mike Poore said last week that 1,100 students sought enrollment in the digital academies for elementary and secondary school students this year, many of whom had families with concerns about the spread of the covid-19 virus.
Poore and his staff have proposed applying to the Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education for a local education agency, or LEA number, for Ignite, starting with the coming 2022-23 school year
As a state-recognized school in its own right Ignite Digital Academy would be accountable for student achievement and the provision of services to their students who have special needs. Ignite students would no longer have reserved seats at other schools.
Masks suit targets El Dorado district
El Dorado School District leaders are among other Arkansas school district officials to be sued in recent weeks over that district’s requirement that students wear masks — under certain conditions — on campuses to protect against the covid-19 virus.
Travis W. Story and Gregory F. Payne of Fayetteville filed the Nov. 8 lawsuit on behalf of a parent group. The suit includes a request for a temporary restraining order against the El Dorado district until a full hearing in the case can be held.
“The deprivation of Petitioners’ fundamental liberty interest in the parenting of their children by Respondents in the form of a mandatory health care measure in the form of a mask mandate issued without legal authority or due process is unconstitutional,” the attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote.
The El Dorado district’s Ready for Learning Plan for the current school year states: “All staff and students will be required to wear masks/ face coverings in common areas such as hallways and restrooms, during transitions between classes and on buses. All students grades K-12 will also be required to wear masks/ face covering when social distancing is not feasible in the classrooms.”
Story and Payne earlier filed lawsuits against the Bentonville and Cabot school districts. In the Bentonville case, the judge ruled in favor of the parents opposed to the mask requirement. In the Cabot case, the judge did not initially rule for the plaintiffs. The district has since relaxed the rules on masks.