Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Six plans on tap for legislature

According to Gurdon School District Superintendent Bobby Smithson, there are six plans to re-organize Arkansas school districts, as to comply with Governor Mike Huckabee's new school agenda.

"There may be more, if the governor calls a special session on December 8, 2003," said Smithson.

Huckabee's idea is to consolidate districts with fewer than 425 students in high school, if they don't meet standards of efficiency, accreditation, teacher salaries and curriculum.

However, it was later reported the governor had dropped the number of students to 375.

Senators Jim Agnue and Dave Bisbee have said they would consolidate districts with fewer than 500 students from Kindergarten through 12th grade into districts with at least 700 students. The only exception would be charter schools.

Senator Paul Miller said districts failing to meet standards would be subject to consolidation by either 2007-2008 or 2008-2009. There would be no minimum enrollment.

According to the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, districts falling too far below the state average on an efficiency formula that includes academic and financial and poverty variables would be subject to consolidation by 2006-2007.

According to Larry Picus and Allan Odden, adequacy consultants, consolidation wasn't addressed, but that a district with about 700 students would be the smallest that could efficiently provide an adequate education.

Representative Calvin Johnson has said he is putting forth a plan for "education renewal zones" which would pair struggling districts or those lacking resources with area colleges to help produce improvement plans. Johnson, however, supports consolidation, but said the zones would be another tool to help the school district.

Smithson also said he had recently attended a Rural School Meeting and recorded some comments from members of the legislature.

Rep. Cleveland was heard saying, he was opposed to all hearing on Ominubus Bill that were being held in Little Rock. He said the state needs a Department of Accountability separate from the Department of Education and that some of the politics needed to be removed from State Board of Education.

Rep. Fite said he felt students must have a desire to perform in order to make a difference and thinks more can be done to enforce discipline. He also suggested motivating teachers, getting parents involved, make everyone accountable especially students.

Rep. Johnson said he felt children must come first, education will never be the same, legislators must compromise, and it is time to circle the wagons. He does not agree with the present system and wanted to know what kind of school people really want.

Rep. Sewell said it is time to start counting votes. He opposes forced consolidation and doesn't feel it is appropriate or necessary to drag our the time for a change. He believes high schools need stronger curriculums and all schools need better testing. He expressed that he felt there should be a pre-school program based on poverty levels.

Sen. Broadway said he felt the last two weeks have been productive ones, but they needed a new funding formula and to complete the facility studies. He also said he felt the plan needed to be phased in.

Sen. Jeffers said he new Sen. Agnue were supporting the 500 enrollment figure and that he has the vote to pass this number through the senate. However, Jeffers did not agree with the vote count and wants to know where funding would come from no matter what plan is passed.

Sen. Miller expressed concern with salary disparities and favors a loan forgiveness program for people who will agree to work in areas where teachers are difficult to find. He also stated he believed testing is important and that every student should take a national norm test each year and that teacher salaries should start at $26,000 and $28,000 for the second year.

Sen. Wilkins said he felt there were four areas that needed to be addressed, they were: Good teachers, up-to-date facilities, improving curriculum and revenue for the above three.

Attorney Bill Lewellen, one of the attorneys that filed the Lake View suit, said he thought the State Department of Education and the State Board of Education should both be disband. He said, "What are standards? They are constantly changing.

"The state needs to generate 300 million dollars and give it to the lowest 1/3 of schools, based on academic performance and give 300 million dollars to the next 1/3 the next year."

He also said, Lake View was not about race and that he would file a suit if a decision was made, if it doesn't meet their goals and if the legislature does not meet, they will file contempt of court for failing to meet the court's ruling.

In a press release is was stated the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators (AAEA) has released proposed legislation that would establish specific standards of accreditation, minimum teachers' salaries, and a standard of efficiency that all school districts must meet in order to avoid sanctions under rules established by the State Board of Education as provided in the Quality Education Act of 2003.

The Association's 19-member board of directors endorsed the legislation in a special meeting held in Little Rock on October 23. Also, the board of directors of the Arkansas Association of School Administrators (one of the AAEA's nine constituent associations which represents superintendents and assistant superintendents) endorsed the legislation on October 23.

All decisions are still up in the air as to what will happen to Arkansas small school's, as no real proposal has been made and everyone has their own opinion as to what should happen.