ADE Briefs

Education Commissioner Dr. Tom Kimbrell and Deputy Commissioner Tony Wood continued their tour of educational cooperatives on Tuesday, June 14, 2011, when they stopped in Heber Springs to visit with members of the Northcentral Arkansas Education Service Cooperative. Kimbrell and Wood were briefing about 20 superintendents and cooperative officials on new education laws passed during [...]

At the CARTI Tour de Rock to benefit CARTI … From L to R …. ADE Deputy Commissioner Tony Wood, Finance and Administration Director Richard Weiss, Governor’s Chief Counsel Tim Gauger, Governor’s office agency liaison Jon Moran, and Governor’s Chief of Staff Morril Harriman

During public comment, Dr. Charles Hopson, superintendent of the PCSSD, thanked the State Board for placing his district in fiscal distress. He said he appreciated the work by ADE Assistant Commissioner for Finance, Bill Goff, and the supervisor of the fiscal distress unit, Hazel Burnett. He said his local board is working toward becoming a [...]

Dr. Williams asked why ARVA needs to triple. He said it seemed like an unusually high jump. ARVA officials said they would accept something less. Mr. Ledbetter moved to deny the request for enrollment increase. It passed 7 to 1.

Board member Sam Ledbetter also questions the financial efficiency. Says it’s not tailored to children with health problems — where there is a need — but made available to all children. Member Brenda Gullett said she’s unimpressed by ARVA’s test scores. ARVA officials say they believed they have earned the right to expand. They said [...]

Some opponents questioned why ARVA needs the same per student funding as regular public schools because ARVA has no facility or transportation costs. But ARVA countered that costs are high for technology, for delivery of equipment, for maintaining equipment, reclaiming equipment, among other things. Board member Vicki Saviers questioned the state’s vision for online education. [...]

Officials at the Virtual Academy charter school want to expand their enrollment from 500 to 1,500. Officials there said the expansion will help serve students who don’t have a viable public school nearby, such as in the sparsely-populated Deer-Mt. Judea district. There is a waiting list at Virtual Academy of 617. The Charleston district, Fort [...]

Dr. Kimbrell said he returned last week from a conference in Washington about the Common Core State Standards. “This is a very big endeavor that is going to take all of us. We are committed to making this work for the children of this state,” Dr. Kimbrell said. Arkansas will being he phase-in of Common [...]

Today is the last State Board meeting for Dr. Naccaman Williams and Sherry Burrow. Their terms on the board expire this month. Education Commissioner Dr. Tom Kimbrell read a letter from Gov. Mike Beebe thanking them for their service.