Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Nevada School Joins Other District In Lawsuit

Nevada's school district joined in a lawsuit against Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee concerning the state's school funding formula.

The Nevada School Board passed a resolution at its regular monthly meeting Thursday, June 15, to be represented by attorneys for the Arkansas School Administrators Association, instead of lawyers for the Lake View School District.

According to Superintendent Rick McAfee, the Lake View district sued the governor six years ago because of the former funding formula and won. However, the three Lake View attorneys are claiming legal fees in the amount of $19 million.

McAfee told the board the lawyers for the ASAA consider this to be too much for legal fees, and think $3 million is more appropriate. He said the Lake View attorneys worked a total of 18 weeks in the six years the case took, yet billed $19 million for their services.

Additionally, he said, the Lake View attorneys are claiming to represent all 305 school districts in the state.

McAfee told the board by going with the ASAA lawyer the district could save about $50,000. The ASAA attorney has invited any other interested district to join in the suit. This must be done by July 1, 2000.

The suit about the funding formula has been completed, with the formula having been changed. This suit is strictly concerning the fees due Lake View's attorneys. They will have to accept whatever the supreme court judge grants, McAfee said.

He told the board the old funding formula for districts wasn't fair and the new one is better, but not perfect.

In fact, the new funding formula calls for a 14:1 student-teacher ratio, and this could wind up costing the district some $50,000 a year more in teacher salaries.

Gov. Huckabee has said teachers in Arkansas would be given a $3,000 a year raise. Under the 14:1 requirements, those districts not meeting this ratio would only receive $2,000 per teacher, and would have to fund the rest out of their operating fund.

Huckabee, McAfee said, went out on a limb by promising this raise. The state's portion of this would be $120 million, but the state's budget for this will only be $90 million next year.

Huckabee and the legislature are scrambling to find ways to fund the promised raises.

The fun really began when the panel began discussing changes in the student handbooks.

Point by point the changes were questioned and explained. The end result was the changes for Nevada Elementary were approved, while the high school handbook changes were tabled until the July meeting to give the board more time to review them.

Some of the changes at NES include report cards being given to parents at conferences; defining consistent progress in math and reading; removing summer school as it is no longer required by the state; notifying area radio stations in the event of power outages to let parents know they need to come and get their children; and saying yo-yo's are no longer allowed on campus.

There was also discussion about using the blue playground equipment. Under the rule changes, children are not allowed to play on it except under direct supervision. Another playground rule was to let students know they can't have anything with them when playing on the slide.

Elementary students can now be placed in In School Suspension up to 20 days under the new changes.

The district also outlawed any student having laser pointers on campus. In fact, it's against the law for a minor to have a laser pointer.

Students also can't have violent drawings or magazines depicting violent scenes in school.

These changes were approved by the board.

The problem came on the high school level.

NHS Principal Blake Epperson began by talking about a proposed dress code.

Girls must wear tops with straps. Their clothing can have no open backs or show their stomachs.

All NHS students must follow the rule on holes, splits and tears in pants being no more than three inches above the knees.

Students will no longer be allowed to wear anything on their heads at all. This includes bandanas, headbands, hats, caps, toboggans and ski caps.Spandex and tight fitting shorts are also out of the picture as are muscle shirts.

Students will be given three chances under the dress code rules. On the first offense they will have to change and their parents will be notified.

The second time it occurs, they will be required to change and have to attend Saturday school.

With the third offense comes a three-day suspension.

The board had no problems with changes to the dress code.

Nor did it have many questions about the change in policy with after school detention, which will begin at 3 p.m. instead of 3:15. No tardies will be admitted after 3 o'clock.

Epperson said, on the topic of corporal punishment. Under the new policy, students can take licks once per semester instead of going to after school detention.

The headache came with a proposed probation policy. Epperson said a couple of teachers wanted a policy where students could be expelled after being sent to the office five times in a semester and lose the credit they had earned up until their expulsion.

However, the proposition was vague and basically all inclusive on the offenses warranting expulsion.

Epperson said, as it would be the principal's discretion, he wouldn't expel a student for being sent to the office five times for talking in class, but would if major offenses were committed, such as fighting or assaulting a teacher.

There were more arguments concerning the sending deficiency slips home. Again there were a couple of teachers wanting it written so the students would be required to return the slips signed by their parents.

However, Epperson said, the majority of teachers don't want this requirement, and the proposed changes didn't include any way of keeping track of who had such slips sent home.

Epperson told the board he would like to see more contact between parents and teachers on the high school level. This, he said, will be one of his key points when school resumes in the fall.

Because of the problems with the probation and deficiency slip changes, the board agreed to table approving the high school handbook until the July meeting.

This will give Epperson time to redo the policies in question, as well as cleaning up the grammar and language.

McAfee said with the board agreeing to the changes in spirit, the district is not violating the law. All proposed policy changes must be approved by July 1, under state law.

He also suggested the district not requiring school uniforms for the 2000-2001 school year, so the uniform committee can continue doing research into the issue. The board agreed in a 2-1 vote with Don Callicott the lone dissenter.

The board also accepted the resignation of Susan West, the library and media specialist person. West accepted a similar position in a different district.

Jennifer Lampkin was hired as the Special Education coordinator.

The board approved the transfer of a student to Spring Hill because of family health problems.

Under state law school districts must pass budgets two years in advance to announce their intent on seeking millage hikes.

The Nevada board approved a budget for the 2001-02 academic year, though it will not seek any millage increase.

There was also a lengthy discussion on what could be done to keep the lunchroom budget from going into the red and having to be bailed out.

Callicott suggested closing the snack bar ran by the FBLA students as their fundraiser. His reasoning was if students couldn't buy candy and soft drinks at school they'd have to eat in the cafeteria.

McAfee pointed out the students would simply bring their lunches with the candy and other items, which wouldn't help the situation at all.

The problem, he said, is students who are eligible for the free and reduced lunch program aren't doing the paperwork necessary to get the free meals.

This, McAfee told the board, affects the federal funds the district receives on the free and reduced lunch program.

The meeting concluded with the board agreeing to change its meeting date in July from the 20th to the 27th.