March 20, 2003
The
Board of Directors of the Little Rock School District held its regularly
scheduled meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 20, 2003, in the Boardroom of
the Administration Building, 810 West Markham Street, Little Rock,
Arkansas. President Judy Magness
presided.
MEMBERS
PRESENT:
Judy Magness
Tony Rose
Larry Berkley
Micheal Daugherty
Baker Kurrus
Katherine Mitchell
Sue Strickland
MEMBERS
ABSENT:
None
ALSO
PRESENT:
T.
Kenneth James, Superintendent of Schools
Beverly Griffin, Recorder of Minutes
I. CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL
Ms. Magness called the meeting to order
at 5:30 p.m. All members of the Board
were present at roll call. Mary Ann
Washington, teacher ex officio representative from McDermott Elementary School
was also present. The student
representative from McClellan High School did not attend.
II. PROCEDURAL
MATTERS / WELCOMING COMMENTS
Ms. Magness greeted the audience and introduced
the Hall High School madrigals, directed by Kelly Rush. The choir performed two selections, Blow,
Blow the Winter Wind, and a patriotic medley.
III. REPORTS/RECOGNITIONS/PUBLIC
COMMENTS
Dr. James introduced Anne Ye, a seventh grade student from Dunbar Magnet Middle School. Anne won the Arkansas spelling bee at a competition last weekend at UALR. Anne will represent Arkansas at the National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. in May.
The J. A. Fair High School basketball team and Coach Charlie Johnson were recognized for winning the state 4-A men’s basketball tournament last weekend in Pine Bluff. Several team members were present and certificates were presented in recognition of their achievement. The senior team members were: Melvin Fisher, Vincent Hunter, Earnest Maxwell, and Quen Spencer; juniors on the team included: Lonnie Henry, Shaun Reynolds, Larry Porter, and Dwight Watkins; sophomore team members were: Quincy Googe, Charles Hayes and Parris Pattillo. In addition to Coach Johnson, assistant coaches Tom Poole and Erik Jackson were in attendance.
Five Central High School students
were selected as semi-finalists in the Siemens Westinghouse competition for
Math, Science & Technology. The
students were Daniel Liu, Satish Mahalingam, Mark Mazumder, Ananth
Ranganathan, and Xiazhog Wang.
In addition, Mark Mazumder was a regional finalist in the Siemens competition and went to the southwest regionals at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition, Mark was named a national semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search, one of only three from the state of Arkansas this year.
The Board and Superintendent offered congratulations to all of these students for their scientific achievements.
Ann Blaylock was congratulated and presented with a citation in recognition of her election to the Southern Region National Middle School Association Board of Trustees. She will serve until November 2005.
MetLife and the National Association of Secondary School Principals recently named Linda Brown, principal of Parkview Magnet High School, as their 2003 Principal of the Year. This is the first time a principal from the LRSD has received this prestigious award, and the Board and Superintendent offered their congratulations.
Principal John Bacon and representatives from the Dunbar Magnet School PTA were present. The Dunbar PTA was recognized for receiving the National PTA Certificate of Excellence Award and the Arkansas PTA Outstanding Local Unit. They will receive awards at the state PTA convention in Fort Smith in April and will represent the state of Arkansas at the National convention in Charlotte, North Caroline in June.
Retiring LRSD employees were recognized for their years of service. Those who were recognized, but not present included: Eva Alexander, Sheila Armstrong, Gwyn Fortson, Dorothy Underwood, and Dr. Gary Smith.
Dr. Bonnie Lesley was present to receive a plaque in recognition of her service to the District. She briefly addressed the Board and expressed appreciation of their support and hard work on behalf of the students in the LRSD.
The final citation was presented to the ex-officio Board representative for the month of March, Mary Ann Washington, teacher at McDermott Elementary School.
B. Remarks from Citizens
None.
Frank Martin reported that negotiations were scheduled to begin on March
31st for the 2003-04 school year.
He stated that he is optimistic that an agreement can be reached before
teachers leave for summer break, and he is hopeful that negotiations can be
“creative” even in light of the bleak financial outlook.
D. Joshua
Intervenors
No report.
F. Update
on Implementation of Teacher Advancement Program
Dr. James
provided a brief written summary on the implementation of year-one of the
Teacher Advancement Program at Stephens and Rockefeller Elementary
Schools. This initiative, funded by the
Milken Family Foundation and the Walton Foundation, provides professional
development opportunities and additional opportunities for career growth and
salary increases for teachers.
Anne Mangan
and Sharon Brooks, principals of Rockefeller and Stephens, provided an overview
of the first year of implementation at their schools and gave specific
instances of student-based achievement based on the goals of TAP. In addition, several teachers provided
personal comments on their experiences with TAP, and stressed the importance of
improving teacher performance in order to achieve improved student
performance.
Dr. Mitchell left the meeting at
approximately 6:20 p.m.
IV. REPORTS
AND COMMUNICATIONS
Mr. Rose thanked Dr. Lesley for her
service to the District, and expressed great admiration for her skills and
abilities to follow through with the difficult tasks assigned to her. He then read a statement of personal beliefs
regarding the war in Iraq.
Mr. Kurrus noted that he is closely
monitoring the proposed TIF district in Southwest Little Rock and the Midtown
Redevelopment project to make sure that the best interests of the LRSD are
maintained as these developments occur.
He also thanked the staff and parents of Fulbright Elementary and the
Fulbright PTA for the recent “Swamp Stomp” Cajun festival. The funds raised will be used to provide
software for the computer laboratory.
In addition, Mr. Kurrus recognized the
LRSD student athletes for their remarkable year. The J. A. Fair basketball team was the No. 1 team in the state,
the Parkview Magnet school team was the runner-up, and Central made the
play-offs.
Individually, Mr. Berkley, Ms.
Strickland, Dr. Daugherty and Ms. Magness thanked Bonnie Lesley for her
contributions to the recent successes of the LRSD. She was applauded for putting others at ease with the breadth of
her knowledge, for her patience and honesty in dealing with the Board and with
patrons, for her hard work and diligence, and for her sincere concern for the
children in our District. Ms. Magness
read excerpts of Dr. Lesley’s letter of resignation where she gave credit to
the employees of the Division of Instruction, to the District’s principals, and
to the parents and volunteers.
The Board took
a brief break at 7:15 p.m. and reconvened at 7:30 p.m.
Mr. Babbs reported that the registration and assignment process for the
2003-04 school year was progressing as usual.
Letters had been mailed and requests for student transfers were being
processed. School assignment letters
for the four-year-old seats are due to be mailed on April 11.
Dr. Stewart reported that he had been concentrating on preliminary figures from revenue sources indicating that we will not be able to do business as usual next school year. It is fairly certain that deep cuts will have to be made and the Board will be asked to approve and establish priorities for funding. Staff is working through the list of things that can be removed from the budget and the proposals will be based on recommended items that can be eliminated without affecting student instruction.
Mr. Goodman’s report was printed in the Board’s
agenda. Mr. Eaton was present to review
the summary information and to respond to questions.
Mr. Becker was not present at the meeting, but his report was printed in
the Board’s agenda.
Ms. Neal was present and reviewed the
summary report printed in the Board’s agenda.
A.
Minutes
Minutes from the regular meeting of the
Board of Directors held on February 27, and from a special meeting held on
March 13, 2003 , were presented for review and approval. Mr. Rose made a motion to approve the minutes
as presented; Mr. Berkley seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.
B.
Personnel Changes
Personnel changes were printed in the
agenda. One correction was made to the
report: the resignation date was
changed to June 30, 2003 for Central High School business teacher Eleanor
Holeman. Ms. Strickland moved to
approve the personnel changes as presented, with the noted correction. Mr. Berkley seconded the motion and it carried
unanimously.
C.
Adoption of Arkansas School Boards Standards
The Arkansas School Boards Association
developed recommended standards for operation of local school boards. Those standards were presented for the
Board’s review and discussion at a recent retreat and were presented for
adoption by the LRSD Board. Mr. Rose
made a motion to approve the standards for adoption. Mr. Berkley seconded the motion and it carried 6-0. A copy is attached to these minutes.
Dennis Glasgow, Vanessa Cleaver and Marcelline Carr presented a brief overview of sample test items from the Arkansas Benchmark exams. Students in grades 4, 6, and 8 will take these exams the second week of April. Stanford 9 achievement testing in grades 5, 7 and 10 will take place the following week, beginning April 14. The PowerPoint presentation of test items was multiple choice and remote devices were used by audience members to test their knowledge on several sample test questions.
The revised LRSD technology plan was developed by the District’s
technology committee and presented for review and approval by Lucy Neal. Ms. Neal provided a brief review of the
changes and indicated the report was ready for submission to the Arkansas
Department of Education by April 15.
Mr. Berkley, who served as the Board’s representative on the Technology
Committee, made a motion to approve the plan for submission to the ADE. Dr. Daugherty seconded the motion, and it carried
unanimously.
No items for
action or review.
A.
Donations of Property
The Board was asked to approve acceptance of
recent donations to the District. Mr. Berkley read the listed donations, and
made a motion to accept the donated items; Dr. Daugherty seconded the motion,
and it carried unanimously. The donations are listed in the following
chart:
DONATIONS
|
SCHOOL/DEPARTMENT |
ITEM |
DONOR |
|
Brady
Elementary School |
$800.00
cash to be used to defray the cost of art teacher |
Bank
of the Ozarks |
|
Central
High School |
Golf
cart, valued at approximately $1,000 to be used by security personnel to
assist in the surveillance of the campus Refrigerator,
valued at approximately $400 for the teacher’s lounge |
David
& Dawn Terry Mr.
& Mrs. Mark Ramm and Dr.
& Mrs. Randall Hundley |
|
McClellan
Magnet High School |
$250.00
cash to be used in the McClellan baseball program |
Ms.
Melissa Kumpe |
IX.
SCHOOL SERVICES DIVISION
No items for
action or review.
X.
CLOSING REMARKS
Dr. James thanked the Little Rock Public Education Foundation for their generous awarding of $100,000 in grants to LRSD teachers. The grant committee made their selection of winners, and on April 2 the “Prize Patrol” will go to the schools to distribute the awards. Board members were invited to meet at the administration building at 8:45 a.m. and ride along with the members of the foundation committee to distribute the awards.
Dr. James also announced that the SREB had concluded a workshop on
data-driven decision making for LRSD employees who are involved in this 3-year
initiative. These workshops are
critical to the development of building action plans and developing operational
standards of quality leadership.
He announced that all twelve LRSD schools received Arkansas Reading
First grant awards. He noted that Linda
Austin is scheduled to meet with ADE staff to work through implementation of
these grants.
He announced that he and several board members would be attending the
National School Boards Association meeting in San Francisco the first week of
April.
XI.
EMPLOYEE HEARINGS
None.
XII.
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the Board,
Ms. Strickland moved to adjourn at 8:25 p.m.
Dr. Daugherty seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.
APPROVED:
_ 04-24-03 __ Originals Signed by:
Tony Rose, Vice President
Larry Berkley, Secretary