Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Rotary updated on education situation

Seems like everywhere anyone looks these days, someone is talking about the Education Reform issue in Arkansas.

It is one of the most important issues to many communities at this time, due to the concern, there may not be a school there the next year.

Gurdon School District Superintendent, Bobby Smithson has stayed involved throughout the entire process and has continually updated the school board and the community of any new information he had.

Smithson spoke at the Gurdon Rotary Club meeting on Thursday, January 15, to update the group on the latest information and decisions made.

"This is the longest special session on record in the state's Legislative history," said Smithson.

"I remember when the Lake View case came about. I was told to keep up with it, just for information sake. I didn't think it would get this bad, but has become a big issue."

Smithson said Gov. Mike Huckabee put forth a plan to reform the schools and possibly consolidate.

In the beginning the proposal said schools must have close to 1,000 students in them to remain. Since that time, the number has dropped to 500 students, which was passed by the Senate, but was defeated in the House.

Smithson said, "Rep. Tommy Roebuck called me earlier and said they were to vote on dropping the number to 350 students. I think it will pass in some aspects, I just don't know how far it will go."

This particular proposal is House Bill 1109 which would affect 59 of the state's 308 school districts.

If the number was still remaining at 500 students, it would affect about 99 districts in the state.

Some representatives are dropping their opposition to setting any minimum enrollment requirements.

"At this time, Gurdon has about 870 students enrolled," said Smithson.

Three of the most important issues being addressed is school accountability, which Smithson says has been taken care of.

"I believe this is covered in House Bill 33. This will require more testing, more tracking and schools will be rated. We must meet standards," Smithson said.

Funding is another big issue. It has been said, teachers who have worked in the schools for more than 20 years could receive up to $10,000 more to their salaries.

"I think this is well deserved. Our teachers have worked for many years on inadequate pay, therefore I think this would be great," Smithson said.

One of the other problems is offering more credit hours.

"We will not have any problems meeting this requirement. We are already doing so. We are busing five students already to Arkadelphia each day for them to take Hydraulics and Mechanics.

However, our students in grades 9-12 will have to take a college preparation class and test. The only way a student can get out of the requirement is to sign a waiver saying they plan to attend a vocational institution," Smithson said.

He also said, he felt everyone would know more in about two weeks and things could start coming together.

"Hey I don't know what to expect from this thing. It changes daily and we can only hope for the best."

However, it was later reported, Thursday was one of the most eventful days of the Special Session.

Progress was made on a student-centered funding formula and an accountability plan was signed into law.

Meanwhile, consolidation was on the agenda in the House, where a plan for administrative consolidation (the cutoff: districts with 350 students or less) was passed. Gov. Huckabee said the plan does not go far enough and warns some of the biggest decisions may be left to voters.