LR board approves four appointments

The Little Rock School Board late last week approved recommendations from Superintendent Jermall Wright for filling four new leadership positions in the district.

Shana Spriggs Loring, Amy B. Cooper and Karen Bradshaw will be assistant superintendents for school performance. Hal Harris will be the executive director for leadership development.

The appointments are the latest development in Wright’s draft plan to organize school campuses into three tiers of academic support based on each school’s state-applied A-to-F letter grade.

The proposal calls for “priority,” “on-watch” and “autonomous” schools.

The three-tiered system of support for the district schools comes at a time when the 21,000-student capital city school system has 25 schools with state grades of Ds or Fs, six schools with As and Bs, and six schools with Cs.

Loring is currently the district’s executive director of teaching and learning and director of secondary education. She will will oversee Network #1 schools — which are secondary schools.

Bradshaw, formerly part of the Conway School District, will oversee the Network #2 schools, which are elementary schools that are categorized as “autonomous” or “on-watch” based on student achievement.

Cooper, principal at Forest Heights K-8 STEM Academy and Hall STEAM Magnet High, will oversee the Network #3 schools, which will consist of the district’s high need, “priority” elementary schools.

Harris has recently been managing director of schools for the Scholar Made Achievement Place, an open enrollment charter school in Little Rock. Previously, he was senior director, program implementation and adjunct trainer corps for New Leaders Org.