The Little Rock school board held a vigorous discussion Thursday night about possible changes coming to the Little Rock School District in light of the need to cut $15-$16 million from the budget in fiscal year 2025.
Our district isn’t in financial distress, but declining student enrollment and increased costs are hitting the budget hard. That means our entire community is going to have to make hard choices about how to live within the LRSD’s new budget constraints. On Thursday, district administrators presented a variety of proposals to the board. Board members asked strong and pointed questions and made good progress on addressing the dilemmas the district now faces.
Before Thursday’s meeting began, the district and the board celebrated the amazing work done by outgoing board member Ali Noland. Ali was, in my opinion, one of the most passionate and effective board members I’ve ever seen. Also, new board member Anna Strong was sworn in, and Vicki Hatter was sworn in for her second term.
In recent weeks, the district has put out a call to the public for ideas to address the budget crunch. It’s received a total of 92 proposals and held a number of public meetings to discuss ideas. On Thursday, our board discussed three ideas for further study and reviewed eight recommendations that came out of those public discussions. The board plans to vote on many of these recommendations at its Dec. 14 meeting.
Superintendent Jermall Wright and his administration hope to create three research task forces that would look into expanding early childhood centers, developing a capital improvement plan for all LRSD schools, and making recommendations about the future of magnet schools and otherwise reducing redundant programs. Wright said he expected the task forces would bring recommendations to the board at the end of the school year.
Next, the board discussed the eight draft recommendations.
Draft recommendation 1: Hall High Campus. Last month, the board decided to combine Hall and another small high school, the West School of Innovation, into one school. There will be ample space in the Hall High building even after combining the two smaller schools, and the LRSD administration wants to use the space for a “parent welcome center” that would house services such as student registration in one central location. That means the district could sell the property at 501 Sherman St. that currently houses the student registration office. The district is also considering moving departments such as Special Education, Early Childhood, Parent Engagement, Hearing Office and Student Support Services to Hall. This is a smart move that will make things easier for families.
Draft Recommendation 2: Henderson building. The administration wants to use this former middle school building to centralize other district operations that are not as clearly parent-related, such as adult education. The building could still be used to host district events and programming.
Draft Recommendation 3: Parkview Arts and Science Magnet. During the proposal phase, some members of the staff at Parkview had suggested the high school be moved to the new “West” high school campus when it is completed. This idea was hated by almost everyone involved, though, and is no longer being considered.
Two other options for Parkview were presented to the board Thursday. The first was to expand and renovate the current campus but use the Henderson campus — which is less than two miles away — for a sports facility and other needs. The other option was to expand and renovate the current campus alone. The question is: Where will the money to expand and renovate Parkview come from if we use the majority of the money raised by a 2021 millage on the planned new high school for West Little Rock?
Draft Recommendation 4: Western Hills Elementary. When the agenda for the board meeting was published last week, the district was recommending moving all K-5 students at Western Hills to other “nearby” schools and repurposing the Western Hills building for an early childhood program, an early childhood special education pre-K, and the Day Treatment Program. This was a decidedly bad idea. But on Thursday morning, staff came up with a new proposal: establishing a PreK-5 autism center at Western Hills to be educated in the same building with the remaining regular education K-5 population in 2024-25. This would provide a service to many students in our district and keep the school open for that neighborhood. This is a great idea.
Draft Recommendation 5: Pulaski Heights. The administration recommends creating a K-8 school by merging the operations of Pulaski Heights Elementary and Pulaski Heights Middle School into one school. This would make the Pulaski Heights school like our other schools in the district and eliminate some administrative and support positions, saving almost $380,000 per year. Wright stressed that this change would spread the burden of the district’s potential financial deficit across all neighborhoods in the district.
Some folks in Hillcrest and the Heights are raising hell about the proposal. This is white privilege at work: Many residents in these neighborhoods want to present themselves as good, caring liberals but refuse to sacrifice anything for our district and our city. Black folks are being asked, once again, to shoulder all the weight of these budget cuts, while the district’s few majority white schools are coddled.
Draft Recommendation 6: The “West” high school. The district is still grappling with how to handle the enormous increase in price for a new West Little Rock high school that it committed to build when voters approved a millage in 2021. The original price was $85 million, but the actual projected cost came back at $153 million. Chief Financial Officer Kelsey Bailey said the construction company has only been able to cut $8.6 million from the plans so far. Board member Greg Adams said he wanted to make sure these cuts did not hurt the quality of the school.
Any objective reading of the changes in city census data from 2010 to 2020 shows that Little Rock’s population is moving west from downtown. That includes African American and Hispanic families with school-age students. That suggests we need a high school in the northwestern part of our city and a high school in the center part of our city.
I believe that our board will approve the building of the West Little Rock high school. And if they do, they must be honest: If the new building does not fill up with students, the board will have to move 1000 students who live in West Little Rock and currently go to Central High to the new “West” school. This is a huge financial gamble.
Recommendation 7: King Elementary. The administration proposed that for the 2024-25 school year, MLK JR Academy for Language and Leadership will maintain its current attendance boundary, but the district will engage with MLK parents to discuss whether it should become a magnet with no attendance boundary. The district also wants to start two early childhood classrooms at MLK in the 2024-25 school year and will work to recruit staff families from Arkansas Children’s Hospital. (King is adjacent to the Children’s Hospital campus.)
Recommendation 8: Baseline Elementary and Cloverdale Middle School buildings. Baseline is being transformed into a Pre-K center, and Cloverdale is being closed as part of a court settlement and students are moving to the new K-8 Lacy Academy. The board is being asked to sign off on moving the LRSD’s alternative school to the Cloverdale building, even though Cloverdale has long been considered unsafe — a disturbing recommendation.
Board members wanted to know how the building had been magically improved. After a lengthy discussion, Wright decided that his team would re-evaluate the recommendation. Wright is concerned that this building could be taken over by a charter school.
In other news, the board also discussed a proposal for a guaranteed maximum price for the sports facility at Lacy, which is being built at the old McClellan High School site and is slated to open next year. This will cost another $7,429,222. The board will vote on this on Dec. 14 as well.
Wright also recommended partnering with Caissa Public Strategies, a communication firm that focuses on K-12 recruitment and retention — our top problem in the district.
It was a very long meeting, but very productive. If you feel passionately about any of these ideas, please contact board members and let your voice be heard.
