GARY NEWTON SPECIAL TO THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
December 29, 2013, 3:10 AM
(Posted with Permission)
For three years, parents in West Little Rock, like waves before them, begged the Board of the Little Rock School District to provide public secondary education where none exists. It didn’t.
In the fourth year, parents stopped begging and got busy, initiating an application for an open enrollment public charter middle school, which would expand to a high school. Because Quest Middle School of West Little Rock would be open to all, regardless of resident school district, parents chose a location as close or closer to five of the six traditional public elementary schools west of I-430 than those schools’ zoned middle schools. The sixth, Joe T. Robinson, is on the same campus as its middle school.
Because the LRSD and the state-appointed superintendent of the state-controlled Pulaski County Special School District exempted their districts from the Public School Choice Act of 2013, hundreds of parents are denied the opportunity to send their children to the public middle and high schools closest to their homes.
The District which refused to act, and the District which denies entry are now fighting parents trying to provide public education for their children. They expect them to leave the fifth highest performing elementary school in Arkansas, and bus crosstown, out-of-zone to a middle school which performs among the bottom 2.5% of schools in Arkansas in math, and bottom 3% in literacy.
It doesn’t get any better for high school, as the zoned school has been designated by the Arkansas Department of Education as a Needs Improvement Priority School, among the lowest performing 42 schools in all of Arkansas. In fact, three of five LRSD high schools and two of seven middle schools have remained Needs Improvement Priority since 2011. The District has no plans for a high school in West Little Rock.
Within the three weeks before Quest’s application came before the Charter Authorizing Panel, the LRSD Board finally closed on land in West Little Rock to build a middle school, and the PCSSD superintendent proposed refurbishing Robinson as all middle school. The two “new” traditional schools would be just 3.3 miles apart. However, both Districts’ leaders said that any construction would be contingent upon successful millage increase campaigns.
The LRSD already has the fourth highest millage in the State of Arkansas. Of the 21 Zip Codes in Pulaski County, three in West Little Rock (72211, 72212, 72223) account for 23% of all public school property tax revenue for the entire county. And yet, the area has 100% fewer public schools than every other zone in the District.
Further, Pulaski Technical College has announced its first-ever, county-wide millage campaign.
With three proposed millage increase campaigns on the table, no one can guarantee success for any of them.
On November 14th, the Arkansas Department of Education Charter Authorizing Panel, chaired by Commissioner Dr. Tom Kimbrell, and consisting of six members of his senior staff, thoroughly and thoughtfully reviewed, then unanimously approved the application of Quest Middle School of Little Rock.
On November 16th, in regard to the Proposed Desegregation Agreement, the Attorney General told the Legislative Council that he agreed to allow the attorney for the Joshua Intervenors and the Little Rock School District to negotiate on the side. The attorney had wanted a ban on construction of a West Little Rock middle school as a condition of Settlement.
On November 19th, before voting to join the Settlement, the LRSD Board passed a resolution prioritizing future Settlement facilities funds for Southwest Little Rock and “Basic and Below Basic students.” In other words, not West Little Rock. The Board president said at the special meeting that the resolution was an inducement to get the Joshua attorney to join the Settlement, which he did.
On December 16th, in a 5-2 vote, the Arkansas State Board of Education agreed with LRSD and PCSSD attorneys to review the unanimous decision of the Authorizing Panel.
On January 9th, if the LRSD Board votes to convert parents’ currently zoned middle school to a STEM Academy, West Little Rock parents’ new zoned middle school will be an even lower performing Needs Improvement Priority School.
On January 10th, members of the State Board of Education will decide between the wishes of 224 parent initiators and two school districts’ attorneys willing to sacrifice students in defense of their failed delivery systems.
The districts have had decades. Parents will open Quest in seven months.
May the best interests of students guide the Board’s decision.
Gary Newton is the father of students in their eighth year of public education, seven years in three Little Rock School District schools and now five months in eStem Public Charter Middle School.