School district annexation requested

PRAIRIE GROVE — Five people spoke earlier this month in favor of asking the Arkansas Board of Education to annex about 280 acres in the Kelly Mountain Road area from the Lincoln Consolidated School District into the Prairie Grove School District.

The Prairie Grove School Board voted in November to petition the state board to adjust the boundary lines at the request of residents who live on Kelly Mountain Road.

Brenda Long made the request to the board last year, noting children on that road have transferred from Lincoln to Prairie Grove for years because of the proximity to Prairie Grove schools. Long brought a petition signed by 29 people who live in the area asking for the boundary lines to be adjusted.

Prairie Grove school officials submitted this information to the Arkansas Department of Education and were later advised to hold a public comment meeting, then have the board vote on the request again with those comments in hand.

The School Board will consider petitioning the state board to adjust boundary lines at its April 16 meeting.

The Lincoln School Board has not voted on the proposal.

Families can transfer to Prairie Grove through school choice law or board-to-board transfers and should use those procedures, Spears said.

State law says the state board will consider a petition from a local school board seeking an adjustment in boundary lines.

If the school boards for both affected districts can’t agree on the proposed change in boundary lines, the law says the state board will “adjust and change the boundary lines in accordance with its best judgment.”