LITTLE ROCK -- Little Rock School District's superintendent plans to vacate all jobs at Baseline Elementary School and convert Rockefeller Elementary into a stand-alone early childhood education center.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports interim Superintendent Dexter Suggs' preliminary plans for the schools were sent to the state education commissioner last week. Suggs said ideally 50 percent of the vacated positions at Baseline, including the principal's job, will be filled by bilingual staff members.
Attendance zones and enrollment requirements will not be changed as the school will be transformed into a "early reading and language academy."
"The reason Baseline is so attractive is because it's the foundation of the feeder pattern for so many of the academically distressed schools," Suggs said. "You leave Baseline Elementary, you go to Cloverdale Middle and from Cloverdale to McClellan High. We have to start at the very beginning if we want to make a difference."
Many of Baseline's students are Hispanic and do not speak English as their first language.
As part of Rockefeller's conversion, faculty, except for those who hold credentials to teach early childhood education, will be reassigned to other schools. Suggs says the older students at Rockefeller would be sent to nearby schools.
Cathy Koehler, president of the Little Rock Education Association that is the union for certified and support staff employees in the district, said Monday that neither she nor the employees at the two schools were informed of the superintendent's plans.
Koehler said she received an email Sunday inviting her to attend staff meetings at the schools this week, but was not informed about the purpose of the meetings.
"It makes me want to cry," she said. "Obviously, communication with the employees of this district is not a consideration in planning.
The largest district in Arkansas was taken over by the state after six of its schools were labeled as academically distressed because fewer than half of the students at the schools scored at proficient levels on state math and literacy exams over a three-year period.
The Little Rock School District has about 24,000 students.
State Desk on 04/15/2015