Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Emmet, Blevins forego consolidation, opt for annexation instead

There will be no consolidation between the Emmet and Blevins School Districts.

In a special meeting between the two boards Thursday, March 25, it was decided to forego the administrative consolidation route and go with an annexation instead. This was done to provide the boards more time to get the district borders redrawn for future election purposes.

It was pointed out Emmet has about 130 square miles in its district, while there are more than 300 square miles in the Blevins district.

Prior to the discussion of consolidation vs. annexation, the Blevins board had one item of business to take care of  accepting the resignation of Principal Joe Kell, who took a job with the Nashville School District.

Once this was done, Jon Saladin, acting as president for the Emmet board, said they needed to "jump into the consolidation and decide which way to go."

Dan Lauterbach, president of the Blevins board, said it's understood Blevins will get the incentive money, though the governing body of the district's wouldn't change with an annexation. In fact, under the annexation, the districts would have 14 months to redraw the zones and elect new school board members.

The zones need to be redrawn in time for candidates to file, said Blevins Superintendent Donnie Davis.

According to Davis, he and Emmet Superintendent Dr. Gene Ross talked to the same people, including Ron Hardin, who said Act 60 is a factor in drawing new zone lines. "If you look, Act 60 factors in a mountain of information to be done, and it would be difficult to draw [by the September 2004 school election].

He said the information on the two districts would have to be combined with census information and go from there. While there will be pockets of minorities, Davis added, that will be something for the Arkansas Secretary of State to deal with.

In fact, some of the information needed will have to come from the Secretary of State's office before work on redistricting can begin. Davis said the districts could do the work themselves, but it would be better to get someone with more expertise in the field.

Ross said Ken Humphries did rezoning work for the Emmet district in 1990 and suggested his services be retained to redraw the new boundaries. The boards agreed to use Humphries for the job.

While ultimately the new school board will have four representatives from Blevins and three from Emmet, until the annexation is completed, boundaries redrawn and an election is held, the existing boards will remain intact and work as the interim board. This will give Blevins seven members and Emmet four for now.

In 90, Ross said, Humphries drew the Emmet boundaries in a manner allowing four of the five members to live in town.

But, he said, the problem with annexation is where to begin. The two districts have different policies and different handbooks. Blevins, Ross continued, will be in charge of working this out as it is the lead district in the annexation.

Emmet's board voted unanimously to go with the annexation route, while the Blevins board voted to accept the Emmet district under annexation instead of administrative consolidation. The idea behind the change was to give the districts more time to redraw the zones for school elections.

Saladin said this only deals with administration, the students at Emmet will not be moved and the Emmet school will be kept where it is.

With this out of the way, the boards began discussing other changes needing to be made. One of those things was the possibility of Emmet reapplying for charter status.

The Arkansas Board of Education denied Emmet charter status at its March meeting, primarily because it would have been an district charter and not a school charter. Many in Emmet, though, including members of the Emmet board, laid the blame on the failure on a letter written to the Board by the attorney for the Nevada School District, which requested the charter be denied. (See related story.)

Under the new laws, Emmet can apply for charter status as a school within the Blevins district. The Blevins superintendent, though, would have to approve the application first.

Ross said Emmet has the groundwork laid and charter status would only apply to the high school. If approved, the charter would be at Emmet only, while students not wanting to be involved in the charter school could attend class at Blevins. Consequently, any Blevins student wanting to attend the charter school could.

Ross said the boards need to get the personnel policy handbook together before July 1, because teachers can't be offered contracts until the salary schedule and benefit package is approved. "Whatever is the policy when the contracts are signed," he said, "is binding for a year."

Tim Estes, a member of the Blevins board, said they need to have things in place so when the state approves the annexation contracts can be offered to the teachers.

Ross pointed out the two boards can meet independently until June 30, as July 1 is the start of the new state fiscal year. "I foresee a lot of meetings between now and July 1. We need to exchange information and see where we're different."

He suggested the two district's Personnel Policy Committees get together, work on the differences and help come up with new policies.

It was agreed the biggest obstacle could be the new salary schedule, as Emmet has 15 steps in teacher raises, while Blevins has 20.

If the state approves the annexation, Ross's position as superintendent will be the only job affected. Emmet's principals, Frank Henson and Floyd Pollock, would remain, as would the Emmet teachers, who have been rehired for next year.