Parkview students get transfer break

The Little Rock School District has relaxed its earlier plan to reassign to their attendance zone schools at midschool year Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School students who had failed magnet-program-related courses during the first semester.

Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key, who acts in place of the school board for the state-controlled Little Rock district, told the state Board of Education on Friday he had asked Superintendent Mike Poore to allow affected students who want to remain at Parkview for the second semester to do so.

Poore said 16 students were affected and at least one has opted to remain at Parkview.

Key said he was prompted to relax the reassignment requirement after concluding that there were no policies or even past practices that supported the plan this year to reassign students who failed magnet-related courses.

Key also said he has directed a department staff attorney to work with the district on the policies regarding magnet schools to ensure that they are clear and available to parents.

Policies for Little Rock’s special program magnet schools — which were created in the 1980s as a way to promote voluntary racial desegregation of schools — need to be reviewed and updated to reflect the fact that they are no longer required to enroll certain numbers of students from the neighboring Pulaski County Special and North Little Rock school districts.