GREENLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT : Fate lies in hands of officials from bigger districts
Posted on Sunday, July 6, 2008
Editor’s note: This is the final story in a three-part series on issues related to the possible annexation of the Greenland School District on July 14. Greenland was placed on the state’s fiscal distress list for financially troubled schools in April by the Arkansas Department of Education. The district passed a 2. 6-mill tax increase and bond debt restructuring by eight votes on June 10 as part of its financial improvement plan, but on June 13 Education Commissioner Ken James announced he would be recommending the district be annexed due to financial problems.
Two-thirds of the current nine members of the Arkansas Department of Education who will make the decision July 14 on whether to annex the Greenland School District reside in communities with 6 A or 7 A high schools, the largest school athletic division under the Arkansas Activities Association.
Greenland competes in the 3 A division.
For the three board members whose hometown high schools are in AAA divisions below 6 A, they live in communities that are the major population centers and county seats for their rural counties. Greenland is a small town along U. S. 71 near Drake Field that borders the southern edge of Fayetteville.
The current chairman and vice chairman of the board come from Northwest Arkansas and live in two of the region’s four largest cities. Information about the board members’ hometowns was available on the department’s Web site, arkansased. org.
Chairman Randy Lawson lives in Bentonville and is scheduled to serve on the board until 2009. His district is still known as one of the fastest-growing in the state, and his hometown high school houses 3, 000-plus students in grades 9-12.
Vice Chairman Naccaman Williams lives in Springdale. His hometown school district has more than 16, 000 students and two 7 A high schools.
The board does include one member whose current hometown school might be impacted directly by a decision to annex Greenland.
Member Brenda Gullett, who was appointed by Gov. Mike Beebe in August 2007, lives in Fayetteville, a district named as one of Greenland’s potential annexation partners. She said she won’t actually be at the meeting to vote on the matter, though, because of a prior commitment.
Most of the state-mandated annexations in recent years have affected small districts below the 6 A classification, but Gullett dismissed the notion that where the board members live influences how they vote with regard to annexations and consolidations.
“ That has nothing to do with anything. We don’t even discuss among ourselves prior to the meeting, ” she said. “ What we look at is we have an obligation. That is the only thing we look at. People who are appointed are there because they care about education, not because they have some sort of ax to grind. ”
Likewise, Williams said school size does not play a role in how he votes on matters facing the board.
“ Let me speak for myself. No, it does not, ” he said. “ I’m a Gurdon High School graduate, 16 miles southwest of Arkadelphia.... I thought I got a great education there. That doesn’t play a role at all. ”
Gullett acknowledged she would personally look at a small school more favorably if it is producing National Merit Scholars and making other academic accomplishments rather than just getting by with meeting the minimum state standards.
She said she knew of one district that was consolidated in recent years, for example, where only high school student signed up for the physics class in the newly formed district.
“ I’ve got nothing in the world against large schools, ” Greenland Board of Education President Bill Groom said, “ but not all kids belong in those 6 A or 7 A schools.... There’s a place for small schools. ”
State board members are appointed for seven-year terms by the governor. The current members were all appointed by Beebe or his predecessor, Mike Huckabee, who was an advocate for consolidation during his last term.
The board is made up of two members from each of the state’s congressional districts, and a ninth member is selected at large.
Gullett is the at-large representative and a recent resident of Fayetteville. She and her husband lived in Pine Bluff, which has a 6 A high school, for 30 years before relocating to Northwest Arkansas in 2006. While in Pine Bluff, she served as a state senator for that area.
Member Sherry Burrow lives in Jonesboro, according to the Web site, and member Diane Tatum resides in Pine Bluff. Jonesboro High School also competes in the 6 A division.
Pine Bluff has an enrollment of 1, 107 students in grades 10-12 and Jonesboro High School has an enrollment of about 1, 014 students in those grades.
Two board members that did not have official profiles on the Web site were Mary Jane Rebick and Tim Knight. Rebick lives in Little Rock and Knight lives in Arkadelphia, according to other information on the site.
Little Rock is the largest city in the state. Most of its high schools compete in either the 7 A or 6 A division.
Arkadelphia High School competes in 4 A, which is down from 5 A in 2006-2007.
The two other board members who live in towns with high schools below 6 A are Jim Cooper of Melbourne and Ben Mays of Clinton.
Arkadelphia is the county seat of Clark County, Clinton is the county seat of Van Buren County and Melbourn is the county seat of Izard County.
Melbourn High School competes in the 2 A division and Clinton competes in 4 A, according to the AAA Web site.
Like Greenland, Melbourne and Clinton are also the only districts where state board members live that took over smaller schools due to the Act 60 consolidation law in 2004. The law mandated districts with less than 350 students dissolve through annexation or consolidation.
Greenland took over the Winslow School District in south Washington County. Melbourne took over Mt. Pleasant and Clinton took over the Alread and Scotland districts.
Of note, Mays’ hometown school has been on fiscal distress since June 2007 and voters in Clinton actually rejected a millage increase proposal in September 2007 to build a new school and improve district finances.
Clinton was placed on the distress list for spending reserves to meet financial obligations, according to a Jan. 30 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article.
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