Six laid off at Northwest education co-op

FARMINGTON — The Arkansas Department of Education laid off six staff members at the Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative, co-op Director Bryan Law said Thursday.

Law learned about the state’s decision at a meeting in Little Rock on Tuesday afternoon and informed the employees the first thing Wednesday morning, he said.

“That is a sad thing to have to tell people,” Law said of breaking the news.

In some cases, the staffers had worked for close to 30 years and “committed their life to improving instruction for students and teachers in Northwest Arkansas,” Law said.

As far as an explanation for the layoffs, the state said it wasn’t the most effective use of funds, Law said.

“That’s certainly not the way I feel,” Law said.

The positions were funded by grants from the state Department of Education, and the state elected not to pick them up, he said.

The cooperative provides professional development opportunities for its 17 member districts with the goal of expanding knowledge, skills and techniques to help improve student achievement, according to its website.

The cooperative is losing three of its four instructional facilitators in literacy, one of its two math facilitators, one of its two science facilitators and the gifted and talented coordinator, Law said.

They’ll work through the end of the school year, with the last day June 30.

The literacy facilitators were offered the possibility of reapplying and possibly working for the state Department of Education, Law said.

Two of those laid off had been at the cooperative for one year and left good jobs to come there after being recruited by the cooperative, he said.

“You feel bad for those people,” Law said. “Then you feel bad for the people that have 27, 28 years in that are getting close to retirement. And all of a sudden, the rug is pulled out from under them.”

The layoffs cut the instructional staff from nine to three. The cooperative currently employs a total of about 87 people, according to Law.

Law will retire June 30. He started as cooperative director in July 2020 after serving seven years as superintendent of the Farmington School District. Jody Wiggins, superintendent of the Siloam Springs School District, will succeed Law on July 1.

There are 16 education service cooperatives in Arkansas. The Northwest Arkansas cooperative’s board members are the superintendents of each school district in Benton and Washington counties, as well as Huntsville.