001Good evening, Little Rock School District. Welcome to our March 19th, 2026 board meeting. I'm very, very excited to call us to order this evening. Um, and I would love to give a round of applause to our newly, uh, newly sworn-in Board of Directors for the Little ROCK SCHOOL DISTRICT. I'M ANNA STRONG AND I AM THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD, UM, from the recent past board, um, and will be helping us get started this evening. And I just want to say I'm so glad to see some familiar faces and some new faces up here, and I think we are going to have a great, um, few years ahead of us. All right, our first, um, our first order of business is for our election of LRSD board officers for our newly reconfigured Board of Directors.
002So, um, I have a little bit of a script from Mr. Kaze, our attorney, and so I'm going to read a little bit from this, um, and I will get us started with, um, the president elections for the um which come up first. So, consistent with LRSD Board Policy 1.2, the board shall elect a president, vice president, secretary, and legislative liaison at the first regular meeting following the certification of the results of the annual school election. Additionally, the board shall also elect a member to be the primary board dispersing officer. So, the LRSD Board will be electing officers for the following positions one at a time in this order. President, vice president, secretary, legislative liaison, and board dispersing officer. Any director may be nominated to any office. The nomination does not require second. In the
003event of multiple nominees for any one office, there will be a voice vote election. The candidates will be voted upon in the order in which they were nominated. As soon as any nominee receives a majority vote, that nominee will be declared the winner and no votes will be taken on the remaining nominees. All right. So, nominations are now in order for the office of president. Are there any further Are there any nominations for the office of president? Well, I'd like to nominate um Norma Johnson. All right. Are there any other nominations for the office of president? I'd love to also nominate Greg Adams if that works. Let me do that. Are there any other nominees for the off for the office of president? Okay. If so, nominations are closed. So, we have two nominees for
004board president. The nominees are Director Strong. Oh, sorry. Not Director Strong. Not me. That's my name. Our Director Sorry. Director Not me, Beth. Definitely not me. Our Director Johnson, um who was the first nominee. If you are in the second nominee was Director Adams. As many as are in favor of Director Johnson for president say I. I. Those opposed say no. Can you raise your hands? Okay. As many as are in favor of Director Johnson for president say I. I. I. I. All right. That is the quorum. That is the quorum. Majority. So, um, the eyes have it and Director Johnson is elected president. >> Director All right. Director Johnson, would you like to take the helm? It is an honor and I have finally arrived and I would really appreciate all of your support.
005I am Let me just say a couple of things about um, Director Johnson. I am not a referee and if you're looking for a perfection, you're in the wrong place. So, with that being said, we all need to work together. It's all about the outcome of the students and I'm going to work really hard, really hard at it, okay? But this is the thing, for that we don't know, you must tell us so that we can help and thank you very much, board members. So excited for you. Would you like me to hand you this script so you >> No, what you're doing is so well. I'm going to let Are you sure? Okay. Yeah, go ahead and finish it. Yes. Director Johnson, you are now the chair. Okay. Yeah, I was like, I don't
006really think that I think yeah. Okay. This is very You good? Well done. Uh-oh. I need my chair. Right. Do you want me to scoot down there? I just figured we would wait until all the Oh, wait, hang on. You got to have this chair. I'll just move my No, let me have this chair. Don't eat my cake down there. I will not eat your cake. Don't you worry. Okay. Yes. Okay. All righty. So, now we are ready to move forward with nominations are now in order for the office of the vice president. I'd like to nominate Director Greg Adams. Are there any other nominees? No other nominees? Okay, are there any Okay. >> Congratulations. Well, thank you. Congratulations, Greg. Do you have anything you'd like to say? Thank you very much. I will I
007appreciate the opportunity to to serve in that way and to support Director Johnson and and we we look forward to a great year together. Okay, so now we are nominations are now in order for the office of secretary. I'd like to nominate Director Anna Strong. Are there any more nominees? Congratulations, Mr. Director Strong. Thank you. Nominations are now in order for the office of board dispersing officer. I'll nominate Mr. Nichols for that with his financial background. Mr. Are there any other nominations? Congratulations, Mr. New. Director Whitfield. I got you. Okay, so now we're down to the last nomination and that would be for ma'am. Legislatively, I found Yes, ma'am. We finna do that right now. Thank you so much. Um Do you have any nominees for the I don't have mine on this. Can you
008give me your page? Mine is not on this page. Are there any further nominations for the office of liaison, legislative liaison? Do we have any nominees? I'd like to nominate Director Kopinski. I'd like to nominate uh Osiris, Director Osiris Obaji. Are there any other nominees? Okay, Mr. Eugene. You know I have a problem pronouncing your last name. I'm going to get there though. You were the first. So, all those in favor of Mr. Eugene being You don't want to raise your hands? Okay. Of um Director Eugene becoming the liaison the legislative liaison, raise your hand. Sorry. That was just a practice. How many was that? Anna? I think it Is it three? >> No, that was just a practice. Okay. >> that was three. Was that a real one? Okay. >> Yeah. Raise your hand
009up high. Oh. Then that's the majority. That's the majority. Congratulations. Do you have anything you'd like to say? Any money you want to throw out? No, I'm good. Okay. So, we're going to move on. Drawing for board terms. Is that prepared? I have a question before we get started. How many twos and how many fours do you have in the basket? I was going to I I had a I don't know. Mr. Kazee, do you want to You can address that. I'm here at the board's pleasure, you know. So, how many twos and how many fours do you have in the basket? At this point, there are four fours and three twos. Unless there's some other direction from the board, I'm which I'm more than happy to do. Do the board have any other direction
010they'd like to take that? >> I really like that. I think it helps us have some continuity over the next 4 years with the majority of our board staying on for a 4-year term. Everybody is The state law gives us some leeway gives us the um ability to decide based on whether it It just has to be approximately even, which is three and four. So. Okay. Well, let the drawing begin. All right. And board members, without objection, I'll go by zone number. That's fine. Sure. You'll be reading now later. Please. Two. It doesn't sound right. >> We'll find out in a sec if these are accurate or not. Let's hope this is a four. It It is a four. Okay. I hope so. Four. Good for your terms. Two. No, I'll just keep it. Four.
011I can already tell. Four. Congratulations, board members. Thank you. If you want to, can you trade with one of the other board members? Will you trade numbers? That's not how the statute reads. >> Okay. I'm just asking. Thank you. Good question. The board language is after reorganization, the the board members will draw lots. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Oh. District celebrations. Dr. Wright. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. Okay. All right. This is a little better. All right. Let's jump right into our celebrations for the month of March. Um first one is big congratulations. Oh, no. I forgot. I'm so sorry. Let's welcome our VIPs. Uh stars up to the podium to start with our volunteers in public service. Yeah. Oh, thank you. We won't be long. My name is Tammy Blaylock, and I'm coordinator for
012volunteers in public schools and uh partners in education. This is my colleague, Jackie Merrill. And welcome new board members. It's so nice to have you. We are excited. Thank you. >> Uh we typically come before the board every month to present our newest partners in education. Uh due to the board meeting being moved from the fourth week to the third, our groups were not able to schedule for tonight, but we didn't want to miss the opportunity to come before you and say hello and just give you a few quick announcements. It's good to see all of our our our friends from before and hopefully our new friends to come. I've met some of you and hope to get to know you better. Um one thing that we'd like to do straight off the bat is
013continue celebrating with our next celebration will be April 21st. It's an evening for the stars and that is our annual recognition of our partners in education, volunteers, and um it's a wonderful evening where you get to hear a lot of the stories of what's going on behind the scenes, the community involvement and how they're helping our students and our schools. So um we have over 80 nominees right now as um award nominees, quite a quite a hefty group. We're really excited um and we we hope to see as many of you here there as we can. Mr. Adams, I know you that's your work night, so we we he gets a hall pass, but uh we just wanted you all to know that you are personally welcomed and I've put a invitation >> the district's
014most dedicated volunteers, so let us celebrate you as well. So as you all know, volunteering and financial giving complement one another, ensuring that our schools have access to people and monetary resources needed to help our students thrive. So at this time I will read we will read the donors and contributors for the last section. Um Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Cadell, $500 to Forest Heights STEM Robotics Club. Jean Fetting, $3,120 to Gibbs Magnet for student travel assistance. Michael Handsberry, $82 to Gibbs Magnet Elementary for team wet suits. Little Rock Reclamation Authority, $1,000 to JA Fair for the Next Generation program. Pleasant Valley Garden Club is $750 to McDermott for their Food Corps Garden Garden Club. And Arkansas Office of Outdoor Recreation did 24 bikes, helmets, and I believe racks for Roberts Elementary for the kindergarten learn-to-ride
015program. Klass Garden LLC donated $2,256 to Central High School Theater Department. Honorable Mr. Thomas Mrs. Thomas McCarty III $1,000 to Central High School in memory of Reverend Jesse Jackson. Freddy and Charlotte Wright $100 to Central High School for Amanda Sanchez Memorial Fund. Craig County $100 to Central High School for the Amanda Sanchez Memorial Fund. Contributors also making a $1,250 donation for the Central High School Alumni Class Benches are James Walls, Randy L. Rod, Sarah Carter Williams, Sharon Petris Doss, Dr. Harlan Hampton, Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, and Kristoff Keller. Thank you very much. Thank you. DR. WRIGHT, YOU ON? NOW, LET'S GET TO OUR celebrations for the month of March. Starting first with big congratulations to the Parkview Patriots and Coach Jason Harrison for winning the 5A boys state BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP. IT WAS DEFINITELY AN EXCITING
016WEEKEND FOR those of us who were able to travel down to Hot Springs and witness some exciting games. Uh Friday night was an exciting game between Hall and I was there and I can't even remember who they played. Mills, yes. So, congratulations to Hall High School. Um they left it all on the court. Also bringing home the 4A state basketball championship. Uh the photo Just to show you how much support there is for Hall in our community, the photo on the right um was made by a second grader who was inspired by the team's journey, proving that dedication and winning are contagious. So, congratulations to the Warriors and to Coach John Kocourek. We are meeting with the city to work out plans for a big celebration for all of the teams, and we will keep
017you posted for what we hope will be a citywide parade to celebrate all of our teams, including Central High School. We're equally proud of their heart-fought battle against Bryant. Um they just came up shy of winning the title. Uh so, they were the class 6A runners-up. Um it was exciting uh time to watch all three high schools in the finals. Way to go, students, and way to go, LRSD, for representing big during the state basketball championships. And as always, we are so proud of the transformation that has taken place and is taking place at our alternative school, Hamilton Learning Academy. They had an event this week um for the positive strides they are making in honoring the aspirations of all of their students. They had an event a panel discussion called the real big talk,
018showing how our students are not just learning, they are leading. So, we want to thank the outgoing and incoming board members who showed up to support these amazing students. There were a lot of you all there. Uh Mhm. That's wonderful. Whatever night Wednesday night, Tuesday night, Thursday what I don't know. It was Wednesday night. >> Yes. Yeah, that's it. The green suit. If If you notice on the end, that person in that suit I've I've As the clue. I've I've got to get one of those. We are also grateful to the city of Little Rock. Today, we had uh Mayor Frank Scott and UA Little Rock and all the folks behind the new mobile food market. We announced the kickoff today at Stephens, one of our community schools. The idea is to expand access to
019fresh and affordable foods, meeting residents where they are, and supporting food access. And I had a chance to actually walk through the mobile market, and it is it's beautiful. Um and the fresh foods and uh the items that were available, um it's just just nice to see. And I'm I'm hoping, I know it costs a bit more, but I'm hoping the city will be able to have more than one. You can clap. All right. And because we have so much going on in the Little Rock School District, um this is the time of the year where students who don't live in our zones are invited to join the LRC family. We have lots of room for you and lots of great things happening in our schools, and we are saving a seat just for you.
020So, more information can be found on the registration page on our district website. Also, we are uh excited about our community partners, and a special shout-out to Goodwill who made a generous donation of 36 boxes of books to our Reading in the Rock effort. We can't thank them enough, and we're proud that Reading in the Rock and associated partnerships continue to grow around the city. We also are grateful for the great turnout we had this year at the State of the District address. We want to thank all of our families, board members, students, and community partners who participated or attended. Again, we thank Cals uh for their huge support in allowing us to host the event in the beautiful library. It was an awesome space, and we are grateful for the continued partnership. If by
021chance you missed attending, I know Mr. Bali mentioned this last week, but the live stream of the event is available on our YouTube channel, um and has been shared in our socials. So, please check it out, especially the address from yours truly. We have a special um call to action that we are going to keep replaying and keep sending that message so that folks will do what we need to do to preserve the institution of public education not just in the city of Little Rock but across these United States. We rely on many partners to support our students and schools and this is something that we just started recently highlighting substitute teachers and you can see our substitute teacher superstars mentioned there their names. I can't see it on my sheet cuz it's so small
022and it's so far away I can't see it there but you can see the numbers and those are the number of times these substitutes have worked in our schools this past month and so we thank them for their service. We also just wrapped up a fabulous past four days with our annual Artistry in the Rock celebration. If you went to see the showcase this week you would see that the arts are alive and well in LRC from pre-K to 12th grade. Great turnout for the performance and the art gallery. Thank you to CALS again for allowing us to showcase our students and kudos to doctors Kimberly Collins and Marcus Johnson and all the staff who helped make this event possible. This is also theater in our schools month and I believe we have two schools
023that are here. No. Or two groups that are here or maybe one group. We have one or two reps from all theater programs. Oh, from all of the schools are represented. All right. So I'm going to turn it over to our fabulous students to do what they came to do. All All Hello, I am Brooklyn Lot representing Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School. Hello, I'm Cannon Carpenter representing Parkview Arts and Magnet Science High School. Hi, good evening. I'm Christopher Gleason. I'm a freshman theater one student representing Little Rock Central High School. Tiger. Hi, my name is Alexandra Burnett. I am the secretary of troop 6418 representing Little Rock Central High. Tiger. Hi, I'm Henry Castro representing Technical Theater Troop 6413 student representing Little Rock Southwest High School. Hello, I'm Johanner Marroquin Salas and I'm
024representing Horace Mann Middle School. All right. Hi, I'm Alana Murphy and I'm representing Pinnacle View Middle School. And I'm Annie Owens representing Pinnacle View Middle School. We're here because March is is the month for theater in our schools. As you can see on the slideshow, we represent the outstanding theater programs across Little Rock School District. Cuz theater isn't about just saying on the stage. It's about building skills we can take into our careers and lives. In theater we practice, polish, perform now so we're professional forever. All right. What do we practice? Discipline, time management, and teamwork. What do we polish? Oh, confidence communication. But what about performing? We perform now in front of a real audience under real pressure. Like we said, in theater we practice, polish, perform now so we're professional forever. At Parkview,
025this looks like two annual main stage productions, two two traveling shows to different schools, three or more smaller stage productions, as well as the largest Thespian troop in the state with around $300,000 awarded to our seniors at ThesFest this year. All right. At LRCH, this looks like two main stage productions, a fall musical and spring play that include student leadership roles, a student written directed and run show for Black History Month, and five smaller stage shows, two of which are touring children's shows and a one-act for one-act festival. At Thespian Festival, 23 of our students won awards and the troop as a whole won 23 24 awards, both excellence and superiors. At Southways, this looks like celebrating every national holiday with a performance and production, a collaboration of the arts. This means actually tying our
026roots, culture, and identity to action. This looks like having a newer state-of-the-art auditorium with top-notch technical equipment, getting pre-professional opportunities through community theater ties. Finally, providing a play to a school community that has probably never seen a play before. At Amand, this looks like an annual main stage production, an October murder mystery play where the students write the story themselves, make props with each other, and interact with the audience in an improvisation scene, a winter show where we collab with other fine art classes to perform, a steam night where actors get to show off their improvisation, and class activities that show off materials about theater. At PVMS, this looks like a fall play and a spring musical. It looks like 120 sixth graders in exploratory theater miming a fairy tale. 60 seventh and eighth graders
027reading classical works like the Greek tragedy Antigone. 12 technical theater students learning how to construct a set. 26 students competing each month in public speaking, theater, and debate. It looks like one-act festival and junior Thespian festival. It looks like volunteering at our local theaters. It looks like a fine art showcase a and a sixth-grade orientation fashion show, and an awards ceremony and showcase to close out a wonderful year. Like we said, practice, polish, perform, now so we're professional forever. And about that professional forever part, will you support theater in our schools? You support students that are ready for flexibility and quick thinking required to work on a team, ready for the problems that will need innovative and creative solutions, ready for the concepts that make us think outside the box and put the extra in
028ordinary. Ready for the opportunity to make our voices heard, to tell stories that are important and often go untold, to give voice to the voiceless, to speak up, to speak out, and not be silenced. Ready to pursue your education and artistic natures to show the important acting and other fine arts. These skills will prepare us not only for a successful path for life, it can as well show your true expression of not being ashamed of who you are as a person. Ready for social inclusion. Theater brings people together to form large communities and make sure every young person is safe and feel seen in their artistic element. Theater and drama bring people together to prepare us for creating safe environments for other people alike. Ready for connections, ready for family. Once you've entered into the
029outstanding artistic world of theater, there's no going back. There's There's something about theater that'll stick with you. Whether you pursue it professionally or go back into your roots once you're out of school. Ready for the real world and the challenges that come with it. Improv teaches us to be quick on our feet and ready for any challenge thrown at us. Memorizing lines and memorization teaches about time management and planning, and then working in large group productions teaches us with teaches us in different ways to improve our team working and partnership skills. So, all the skills that we learn in theater can be applied to life for a successful and a professional life. Ready for public speaking by building confidence, improving clear communication, and learning how to stay calm and expressive in front of an audience.
030Ready for community. Theater teaches us how to come together with one shared goal, to create and then share a performance. A skill that is unbelievably paramount in today's society. Because in a Little Rock School District theater programs, we don't just put on shows. We practice, we polish, we perform now so that we're PROFESSIONAL FOREVER. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. I absolutely love the fact that we had so many of our schools represented, which shows which is a visual representation of our our theme and our motto of one team, one dream, one LRSD. So thank you to the staff, the teachers who I see who are present. I mean I do encourage and invite everyone who is listening and who is here with us today. If you have never seen one of our high schools productions, I'm
031sure they all or most of them should be having something coming up this spring. It is a sight to see and I will tell you from what I have witnessed. Maybe I shouldn't say this, but I am always surprised at how No, let me rephrase that. They are amazing and they are amazing performances and you should definitely check them out. But our students are so talented and I'm also just reflecting on just my visit yesterday at the East competition in Hot Springs seeing so many of our students sharing projects and ideas that they are working on to solve problems, solve problems in their own communities. There's so many good things happening in our school district and we're going to work extra extra hard to make sure that we are always sharing and highlighting the amazing
032things that our students are doing every single day because that one negative thing that happens, everyone talks about. Um, but we can have 2 million great things happening every single day and no one talks about it. So, we are going to toot our own horn and make sure that we are always sharing the excellence um that is happening in our school district. So, thank you to all of our theater students and teachers and all of our teachers across the district for the great job that you do every single day. And last, but definitely not not least, um we have a customer service um initiative that we have launched that we've been talking about the past couple of months and last month we recognize uh the February customer service employee of the month and we have
033some other employees to recognize today. Um, we are proud to recognize this month's customer service ambassadors who go above and beyond the call of duty every single day. They came highly recommended by their colleagues um and I know they were probably lied to to get them here. So, as they are looking around the room, um I don't know what they told you to get you here, but we are here to recognize first Ms. Marisol Conshola from our federal programs office. You can come on up. And as she is coming up to the front, come on up, Marisol. Followed by Ms. Christie Crawford from MAYPEARL MIDDLE SCHOOL. MS. CRAWFORD, WHAT DID THEY TELL YOU TO GET YOU HERE? SHE said that the principals and their secretaries had to come to the school. And I was like,
034"Well, what did we do?" You did an amazing job every single day. That's why you're here. And also, um she is not here today, um but we all know the great customer service that Ms. Denise Smith, who works in our human resources uh department provides. Um, but she's not here, but we want to recognize these ladies who always deliver great customer service and they do it with a smile. So, congratulations to BOTH OF YOU. SO, WAIT. >> AND AGAIN, JUST TO REMIND EVERYONE WE are working hard to improve customer service across our district, not just for our external stakeholders, but also for our internal stakeholders as well. We actually kicked off a new internal employee recognition kind of like program that we're going to be piloting this last half of the year to kick off
035strong at the beginning of next school year uh called highlight. So, just remember that word. We'll be telling you more about what highlight is, but we again are looking for ways to make sure that we boost morale, that we always take the time to share um all the great things that our that our employees do every single day. And so, you'll be hearing more information about that in the future. So, that is all of our celebrations for the month of March. >> And so, let me just throw a little bit something out there. I think it's very important that in your building, if you have students, staff members, parents, or whomever that you feel like need to be celebrated, then you need to celebrate it. And I Pam Well, Pam Smith, if you have something
036you'd like to send in, send it to Pam Smith, your communication director, and I'm sure that she'll get it to Dr. Wright. So, it's very important that you celebrate the good things that people are doing. Okay, moving on. Yeah, I was about to actually say that we don't have committee reports on here, but that would come after public comment usually, right? It would be It would usually be number five right after public comment. Do you want me to We would do that, but we Do you want to do public comment first and then we can make a if there is anybody. Norma, do you want me to keep Do you want me to keep doing the timer thing or do you want Greg to take that one? Which one of you would like to do
037that? Raise your hand. I don't want to shirk my responsibilities. Greg, would you do that, please? >> I will do that. >> Thank you. Okay, public comment. I don't have a list. Do we have a list? Oh, there are no public comments. Okay, moving on to which I'd like I was going to say I'd like to Do we to make them to make a motion for us to amend our agenda to add reports from the classified certified principals round table and student advisory committee. I'll second that motion. Okay, it has been motioned and seconded that we add reports the classified, the certified and the the principals round table and the student advisory committee. I hope I got all those right. And to the whose? And the student advisory committee. >> Student advisory committee to the
038agenda? Yep, between number four and five. Oh, okay. All in favor? I. I. All opposed? Unanimous. Okay, student advisory committee, would you come forward, please? Hello. Hey. Good evening. Good evening, board members. Good evening. I see we have some new and returning faces here. Well, I'm excited for what the future holds and what we can accomplish together. Here's a little about myself. I'm Tony Hayart, a current 10th grader at 10th grader student at Little Rock Central High School. I'm speaking on behalf of the superintendent student advisory board. It is our commitment to meet together, discuss, and problem solve on issues within the district that affect our students. I'll now recite our mission statement. The mission of the superintendent student advisory board is to evaluate student voice and develop student leaders who partner with with the
039superintendent and district leaders to share insights, offer solutions, and help shape a district culture that represents the diverse perspectives of students across the district to advocate for equitable, inclusive, and supportive learning environments where where every student can thrive. We meet once a month and our doors are open to anyone who would like to meet with us. Provided that you contact Stephanie Vestal at [email protected] in advance. Our website is also https://lrc.org/page/student-advisory-board/ The student board's next meeting will be on Wednesday, April the 22nd. Also, some of you may not know that our board members aren't regular students. They are learners with high academic standards and levels of achievement. Here are some of our our celebrations. One of our members got first place at the regional National History Day in the website category. Another was part of Hall's
040winning 4A basketball championship team. Another was part of Horseman's championship winning football and basketball team. Another had great success in cyber security competitions, robotics tournaments, and was selected for the International Science and Internet Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona this year. Our main events planned for this month was the meeting that occurred today in our our student leadership institution institution institute session to occur at the capital on Tuesday, March 31st. Starting with our board meeting, the goal of these meetings is for the board to bring up problems on our agenda and then discuss real-time solutions to these problems so that members within the district can hear these solutions. We were first introduced to our new student board members from Horseman. We gave short introduc- Correction on that, J. Fair. We gave short introductions and were then
041presented with our first guest speaker. Our first guest speaker was L R C board member Eugene Krupitsky. Okay. He asked us to introduce ourselves and then discuss one positive and one negative thing that we see in our schools. Overall, he wanted us to see and pursue a greater understanding of issues within the district to see what he could what impact he could have on them. We then had a group split where high where the where we split high school speakers and middle school speakers into breakout rooms. One of our breakout rooms was with Mr. Dwayne Clayton. We then proceeded to discuss the code of conduct and how it has been revised due to our earlier suggestions in the fall. Mr. Clayton reported that he had made progress in shortening the code of conduct to where
042only has the necessary information and when more explanation is needed, it can be pulled from another document. Our next breakout session was with Kenja Peruit from Solution Seekers. I'm pretty sure Dr. Wright knows about that. Yes. Her goal was to provide information to us about the current state of the district declaring that we are not in a financial crisis. However, we wish to be proactive. We are happy to welcome board of board directors Osiris Bolding and Eugene Krupitsky. Mr. Krupitsky was sharing some insight as he has also reviewed the budget issue as he is a financial advisor himself. This concluded our meeting as we proceeded to lunch and then students were sent back to school. As I mentioned earlier, our next event is Leadership Institute on Tuesday, March 31st and our next board meeting will
043be on Wednesday, April 22nd. We are glad that all of you are present on the Little Rock School Board of Directors and we hope to see you walk into one of our meetings to see the standard that we set. We look forward to our partnership with you in executing district level success. Is there anything that you would like to share? If I can for just a second, I just wanted to thank Tony for being here, but also for those of you that have not attended one of these sessions, these kids are unbelievable. The insights that they had throughout this morning when I asked them questions were not just thoughtful, but they clearly cared genuinely about the school district and they have great ideas. So not only did they share those during Ms. Pruitt's presentation, but
044also with me. So I've got a bunch of notes of different ideas for us to implement and as I shared with them today, their voice is just as important as anybody else's and so I kept encouraging them to make sure those voices are heard. So thank you for being here and representing everyone, but if you'll tell everyone, I really appreciate all the comments they had today as well. >> I'll be sure to let the board know. Anyone else? Keep up the good work. Thank you. Oh, no, here it goes. Oh, okay, just a little bit. Thank you, guys. >> Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted to share an example of just how impactful and influential our student group is. And I don't know if I've shared this with the board. I know I shared
045part of it, but we have been looking for ways to increase mental health supports through our district and so we have presented various options to them since they were going to be the end users and they voted them all down. They were all AI technology based solutions that we we were looking looking to implement. And then I happened to walk into a meeting last week with all of our middle and high school principals, with Kelsey and some other folks and they were actually as a result of our students talking about ways to be creative to fund social workers in all of our schools because that's one of the things that the students wanted. We had We have a some schools who have social workers, some schools who have more than one and some who don't
046have any. And so as a as a result of their advocacy, Um, I didn't even know this was this was occurring, but our middle and high school principals were meeting with Kelsey in human resources to figure out ways in which uh to make sure all of our schools have social workers um in them. And that's a direct result of the advocacy and the work um of our student um leadership group. And so, I just appreciate I appreciate them 99.6% of the time. There is a 0.4% that they actually drive me a little crazy. Um, but I appreciate them and um um thank them for their work and and a lot of their suggestions and things that they're advocating for are actually happening. So, just wanted to share that. And you're absolutely right. I sat in
047on that meeting when they voted everything down and they were so I was hoping they wouldn't ask me no questions cuz boy, they go hard. I was like, "Oh Lord." But anyway, they did um say that social workers need to be in every school and they are very persistent and it sounds like uh their work is paying off. Thanks to the superintendent. He's making sure that they are being listened to and that we are considering their ideas. They are a very very great bunch of kids doing great things. Okay, are we ready to move on? Finished. All right, we're going to the consent agenda items. I need a motion or is there some corrections that need to be made or additions, subtractions? I move the LRSD Board of Education approve the consent agenda items as
048follows. One, uh 5.1 personnel changes, 5.2 March purchasing reports, 5.3 approval of board meeting minutes, 5.4 community service learning applications, 5.4 donation of property, and 5.6 round two staff recommendation for the 2026-2027 school year that included pre-K and elementary only. I'll second that. Okay, it has been moved and second that the LRSD Board of Education approve the consent agenda items as follows. 5.1 personnel changes, 5.2 March purchasing purchasing reports, 5.3 approval of board meeting minutes, 5.4 community service learning applications, 5.5 donation of property, 5.3 6 round two staff recommendations for 2020 26-27 school year pre-K and elementary only. All in favor? I. Any opposed? unanimous School and academics. Nothing. Nothing. Finance and operations. That would be Mr. Bailey. Please come forward. How you doing? >> I'm good. Good. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Good evening.
049Welcome to the board members and returning board members. We used to line up here about 6:15. Get plugged in real quick. So, on your board agenda, you you were going to have our financial report. I'll take a little extra time on this one to go through it. All right. We got a deal. So, this is really the this a summary report here. As you look at the following pages here, and this wraps up about 21 pages. So, get up closer. The first part of we was pretty loud. The summary of revenue status report there. So, it breaks down all our different revenue sources. Then you will have your expenditure status report. It summarizes those expenditures by object code, which are account codes. We do have reports that break it out by each individual function code,
050whether it's elementary, middle school, whether it's sped and all that. That would be a couple hundred pages. So, we condensed this down to what is called a board report that's out of e-finance. We also have our detailed statement of changes in fund balance. So, it's going to give you overview of where our fund balance is as of this snapshot here. So, jumping right in and we'll we'll look at the detail behind there. So, our property tax collection, we have two accounts, major accounts there. We have one period that goes from July 1st through December 31st. And the next one, which is property account 11 120, that goes from January 1st through June 30th of each year. Of course, the first part is over. So, we had budgeted a little over 111 million. We collected 111
051million. So, we a little bit short on that projection about 2.3 million. So, we collected about 98% as of this report, which is the end of February. We collected about 8.6 million dollars on that second portion of that. So, the major part of tax collection is typically coming in October, November before the fall. And we'll really see a lot of part of April, but most mostly in May when typically the escrow companies pay their tax tax roll tax bills. Delinquent, we have collected about 93% of what we've actually budgeted. And we'll look at the actual amount. So, about 12.5 million. Excess commissions have come in almost 100%. You have land redemptions, some smaller ones below. So, one that's over budget, we knew we were going to collect probably more was investments on interest on investments,
052which we are about 200% over. who it projected about 500 I think 40,000 or something like that but interest rates have stayed good in our favor and we had some deposits out there. So, most of that's based on our capital improvement funds that we have out there and those are going down as we finish our projects out. You can stop me at any time doing this as well. So, as far as salaries and benefit projections we were trending to come in still I have I left this in there from last time as well about 3 and 1/2 million dollars. We have reduced some of our vacant positions out there about 1.2 million that been pretty much vacant all year and some were vacant last year that we felt that we didn't need. So, that's part
053of our savings that we're calculating as well with Dr. Wright and I. Some of the areas of future budget adjustment you'll see a few of these down there in the full report. So, because when you start looking at the detail they're going to pop out on there for you. So, security about 1.7 million that was a one-time we had some billing issues with the city of Little Rock with our S- O program. So, they were about a year and a half almost 2 years behind before they got us invoices out there. So, it all kind of hit this year. So, we we paid it we had to pay it. So, we worked through those issues there. So, we're we don't have those billing issues anymore. We've worked that out with the city. Other professional and
054technical services we're about 662,000 that's primarily due to sped OT and PT and speech outsourcing of some services there. Some of that may be covered with some 6B funding but right now that's the part that wasn't budgeted at the beginning of the year and that's a special program funding. Rental equipment vehicles we have some vehicles typically safety and security and maintenance. So, we have vehicles we turn it in. So, that amount I think is going to be absorbed once we get our our credit for our vehicles we turn in. You'll see student transportation that's red. I'm giving you all the bad stuff. We have a lot of stuff in the black. So, don't don't take this for the news that but these are the things you're kind of looking at as you look out you'll
055see some negatives out there. If you see negative on the a revenue that means good. Negative on this means that we have some some work to do on it. So, student transportation we went in about $383,000 uh uh in the red, but mainly it's because encumbrances uh we won't actually expend that. We had 6 days that transportation wasn't provided based on the the snow day we had and snow days we had. So, that's going to be back in the black. Uh special supplies uh with supply center and special tracking. The parent object code of that is 66100. These are subcategories. So, we have plenty money in the 66100. These are just where they actually spent. They ordered more supplies from our either from our warehouse or special tracking. We had special tracking on 104 additional
056furniture we had for Mary G. Lacey School. So, we wanted to make sure we keep that separate. So, you'll see those out there, but those are really not negatives there. And gasoline and diesel and and this is based on what we have with common. We typically uh issue blanket what's called blanket POs, encumber all that money out of that budget for the given year. Not sure if we're going to recoup this or not with the price of diesel and gas going up. I'm sure all of you all have seen that. So, I would say this would be in the black at the end of the year, but I would probably say it's going to be right around where we are right now. So, hopefully diesel prices don't don't rise much more. Uh we did have
057a little scare a few weeks ago where we were waiting on the supply of diesel and they it was delayed. So, we ran a risk of not having diesel for our buses. So, we did get emergency drops out there and they're trying to get that uh done. So, that may be something we have to kind of address in the future if uh gas diesel shortages occur based on what's going on. Thank goodness for all those electric buses that for the electric buses though. Yeah, that's good. Yep. We have 25 and those are special need, but we have 148 drivers on our regular routes that depend on diesel. Plus, we have another uh about 15 to 20 that we have diesels for our spare, too. So, but EV buses were still rolling with no problem. Mr.
058Bailey, can I ask a quick question? >> Yes, sir. So, when I look at this expenditure update, so salary and benefits are going to come under budget by 3 and 1/2 million. These other expenditures look, when I tallied them up, it's about 3 and 1/2 million overage. So, it to me it appears that really it's a break even across those or you expect anything there? >> yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. But, do you anticipate some of that will adjust or is it I think so. The speed, the technical services, I don't foresee that adjusting down like the transportation. Other pieces when you're looking at and I'll jump I'm jumping back here real quick before I get there. So, when you're looking at these expenditures Uh let me I jumped too far. I did. So, you
059you'll see expenditures here like uh period expenditures mean for the month and then encumbrances outstanding. So, this is the money we've actually what's reserved it hadn't been spent yet. Uh but, you also see year-to-date plus encumbrances. A lot of the money if it's showing a negative over here, we most likely still have quite a bit of the money encumbered at that point. Not necessarily that we're going to spend it all at that time, but um based based on our our spend past spending history and what we're looking at as far as what's remaining, we can kind of make a a pretty good judgment on what's remaining, what we're going to actually spend for the rest of the year. The fuel when you go into That's why I was kind of telling, can you see those?
060I know that's small there. Let me make it I can barely see it up here. Can I borrow your glasses, Dr. Wright? And they're in the office. And and if I can follow up on the year-to-date budget line item, which is the last column there, um is are we running a fiscal like June 1st to June 1st or are we talking January through Just July. July 1st. July 1st through June 30th. So, of course, these reports are based on that that period. So, this period is through the end of February here. Okay. But, this is what I'm kind of talking about. So, if you see uh let me go through one. Like for instance, we'll look at professional Look at this line, professional architect here. Uh, we still have 398,000 in convert there based on
061POs. So, you will see a negative there, but most likely we won't use all that 398, but in certain situations. So, uh, when you're looking at across there and this is a security right there, you see the 1.7. That's going to be realized because those are actual expenditures there. So, Okay. I'm going to jump back up to the other part real quick. Any questions? Any additional questions? Good question. I typically don't highlight the things that we're doing well besides the salary and benefits because those may come in a little bit, you know, less. We're going to have some payouts at the end of year, uh, based on contract changes. So, if you had compensated absence, basically, uh, vacation time and you're going from a 12-month to 11 and a half or whatever, less than a
06212-month, we pay out that, uh, accrued vacation. So, going to fund balance update. And basically, a fund balance is just a snapshot, uh, taken with your current balance you had rolled over from the previous year, what you've collected in revenue versus what you've expended in that given period of time. So, this fund balance, if you you'll look at the chart later, it grows grows and uh, shrinks. Uh, right now we're on the shrinking side until we actually get our our next major, uh, influx of tax money in latter part of April, early May. Uh, so, operating fund balance is currently 37.9 million as of the end of, uh, February. Capital improvement fund balance is, uh, 42 million. Federal fund balance, you'll see that some months being negative. Uh, all federal funds are based on a
063reimbursable rate. So, depending on the timing of this, uh, a lot of times we're waiting on a reimbursable. I think the biggest part on here was, uh, the magnet school grant we were waiting from, uh, from the feds to get reimbursed on that. So, that's why it's important to have a fairly healthy fund balance. Uh, uh, you're going to have times of lean leanness with tax revenue. Plus, if you utilizing a lot of federal funds, you're going to have to be able to get through that that period of time waiting on that reimbursement, which is usually about 30 days, so. Childress. And are all of these funds individual funds, meaning we cannot utilize individual funds from one to the other? So, if one is negative, we're floating ourselves, I imagine, from cash elsewhere, or how
064are we floating ourselves when there's a deficiency? So, typically, the float is from operating. Okay. So, yeah, we don't float from another federal funding source. So, we spend that federal those federal dollars, whether it's Title I or 6B or whatever, it's maybe a special grant. We and it's actually pulled automatically in our system. I don't think it's the 30th or 31st of the month from App Scan. Some we actually have to go different federal websites and actually draw down a few of those specially, but yeah. Mr. Bailey. Yes, sir. Uh, real quick, I'm I'm guessing this would be okay to speak on. I was going to wait till board commence, but you mentioned I know you mentioned paying out the accrued vacation for the associate employees going from 12 months to 11 and 1/2. So,
065uh, had some concerns shared with me about that about the early childhood and the K-8 principals. We know that they went from 12 months to 11 and 1/2. Um, it was stated that it was going to be 10 days, and then they're also going to lose, like you talked about, the vacation 15 vacation days. Um, high school and other 12-month personnel lose 5 days. So, in the last 48 hours, I received some concerns speaking on uh, they received information saying it's going to be an additional 5 days. Can you speak to is that true? And then can we speak to the whether it's 25, 30 days that this group is sacrificing versus the 5 days this group is sacrificing? Again, I guess I can speak on. I'll make call Ms. Burgess up, but all 12
066months are a 5 days, so we're going to lose 3 days I think the week of Thanksgiving along with the day before and the day after the 4th of July, so that's five. So, we're going from 245 we worked 250 when we went through the big reduction. I think it was a 2014-15 when everybody got together we lost 5 days then all 12 months. So, 12 months is went from 250 to 245. Now, 12 months is going to be 240. Uh in order for uh them to be 11 months or 11 and 1/2 months they're going to lose that five plus another five. Is that right for 10 days? So, they're going to be 230 days. That's 11 months though, right? 11 Okay. >> Cuz remember the That is right. I'm I'm getting Yeah, I'm
067getting the quarter mixed up. So, it's going to be 230 days. That's why I needed Miss Burgess up here. So, so it is an additional five? Yes. Everybody's losing five. So, they're going to be going down 10 days below cuz they're going to 11 and 1/2. So, each 5 days is a quarter. Correct. month. So, so it's 15? Yes. Yes. Okay. Most of So, elementary went from being 11 month to 12 month what, 3 years ago or so? Two and 1/2 what? Two and 1/2. Almost 3 years two and 1/2 years ago, so they're they're being paired back down to 11 and 1/2. So, anybody less than 12 month won't accrue vacation. Thank you. Mr. Bailey, I have a question. Yes, ma'am. I was in an event on the 18th and the students took stage
068and they had some concerns and they voiced their opinions and one of the things that really troubled me was that they were saying that their food is always cold when it get to them. And it's like they don't even eat it. It's like, you know, why is our food cold? I want to ask you offline what school they're in, I guess. Um you want me to tell you I can tell you. I just wanted to bring it to attention. And so, I asked the principal if she wanted me to mention it. She said, "Sure, please do." But I think what happened was she found an option that will probably help prevent that. And I don't know if she wanted to stay where she was, but she was like, "Well, if I go to hall, I
069know my kids will eat hot meals." So, I'm trying to figure out why are the kids eating cold lunches? Now, let me ask you this. So, I think the cafeteria is closed. So, with that being said, if it's closed then can we not purchase maybe a warmer or bring in a cook part-time because I think she said she only had like 50 students. But I still can't She The girl What is How did she put it? She said the fruit is hot and the food is cold. So, it's not a normal school, not a regular school. This is But they're normal and regular kids. No, I'm saying the the site you're talking about. >> Yeah. Okay. Hamilton, ALE. >> We'll check on it. So, that is Will you please? And I was I was noticing
070child nutrition they got little money right there. Maybe they could buy a warmer or maybe we might have one in storage somewhere, but I just really don't think >> they're transporting food from another site site there. Typically they have it in warmers. We'll check on it and see. It was not from a regular school, but we'll definitely Yeah, I hadn't heard that. I talked talked to Ms. Rowell occasionally, but she hadn't mentioned it, but >> Okay. Another issue I wish you would check on is that when I was at East I was talking to a staff member that worked at Carver Washington and they were committed the the buses had were were supposed to come and pick up the students and transfer them to Hot Springs and the bus did not show up. And I
071can't figure out why. If you committed to taking these I don't care if it was just a kid and a half. If you committed to taking the kids to hot springs, why didn't you show up? So, they called and it was something to the effect that we got this to do and we got that to do. That that's not going to work. Will you please check on that? And I really think that they owe that principal and that staff member an apology because you committed to that. We're not going to do the kids like that. That's not good. So, I I I guess for all the board members, do y'all come across those situations? Have that principal or somebody Is somebody at the school that's over there can email us and get it and then
072we hear it all the time. So, I know you we're on the financial part here, but you all can send those requests to the superintendent, send it however you all want to send them, I guess. Uh typically protocol goes through superintendent, copy us or something on it. We can address it accordingly, so. I appreciate >> there's more to the story than you being told to once we investigate, but we're always checking them all out. All right, thank you. So, child nutrition balance, you see 1.8 million of that and that goes up and down a little bit, so they uh they missed 6 days of meal service, too. Uh so, they're going to be, you know, get a little hit a little bit, but this is one thing we really try to make sure we've always
073been in the black in child nutrition cuz most dishes around the state have to contribute to get their child nutrition programs out of the red, so. Uh Stephanie Walker and does a great job and her staff to make sure they regulate uh staffing and uh cost. So, and food cost is going to go up is going up quite a bit. Just like gas cost is going up, food cost is rising quite a bit, so uh whatever balance we have here probably be diminished a little bit in the upcoming years if uh everything stays like it's going now, so. As we go to the next page here, this is kind of a pictorial of our fund balance and you can see uh what's in the yellow part or golden color is our our fund three, which
074is our capital improvement fund, so. And it depicts over the last uh since July 1 of '23, so you can kind of see we've had quite a bit of money that we've spent on different projects, whether that was uh finishing out uh Lacy or uh maybe finishing out uh uh Southwest High Lacy. We have of course Parkview project. We have Little Rock uh West as well that's going up in completion that was scheduled for the next spring with opening in the fall. Uh a lot of projects we've done over this last few years with the hundreds of millions we've got uh from my debt restructuring long with the last 75 million as well. The part in the gray is our actual fund one and fund two of that side what we call our our general
075operating fund. You can kind of see Can you see my cursor there? That's the part we talk about. This is the scary part here. This is the part where we're talking about >> want to talk about that. Well, we talk here. We're going to talk about That's why we're talking about the 12 to 15 million dollars reduction uh because we have to be in a situation where this is stable here. You really can't when you get to this point right here and you can see it's below the line a little bit but we're waiting on some reimbursements. That point uh you're you're jeopardizing making payroll. So, we don't want to be in that situation where we have to hold never want to hold payroll but even hold invoices back from uh our vendors. So, But
076right now we're healthy. We'll get another We'll continue to spend that down over the next month or so until we get our next money in uh May. And hopefully we our projections are are good. So, we typically have been pretty conservative on the projection on our projections though. We come in pretty much where we project. I spent a little more time than I usually on this but this is all the detail I covered so you're going to have about different revenues as well. Uh we'll be diving deep I'm sure in a lot of this stuff a little bit in the upcoming months of course. And then you get to your actual expenditures after after this page as well. So, it details all the various expenditures we have. Mhm. And then the final section uh shows
077you our fund balances in different funds. So, when I'm talking about uh the operating fund, general operating fund, it's made up of all these funds in fund one along with fund two. You can see the different revenue sources. We have quite a few revenue sources out there. Mr. Bailey, can I ask one more question? So, like on that income revenue line, you know, I always look at what's the to date, right? And And if we're not at least 50% unless it's an expected piece, those are the ones that that jump to concern. So, when I look at like student organization events and activities sponsorship picture, is that typical for this time of year and and then it escalates in the springtime or are those one-offs that we're just not used to? >> or you on
078the fund balance? I'm on the revenue side right now or might be Hold on. Yeah, this is year-to-date revenue. Which account? >> So, it's page seven. So, it's the ones that are like 40, 20, 45s. And And I mean, you and I can talk about this offline as well, but you know, that those are the numbers that I always look at right away is that anything that's below 50, 60% collected year-to-date. And they These are fairly large budget line items. 180,000, 300,000, 600, 300. It's like student organization membership dues. All of those. Is that typical that that kind of stuff comes in in the spring? Is that why? >> A lot of it comes in the spring and is on a different funding sources. I'm like what's called an activity fund. Okay. So, they wouldn't
079spend it unless they have it. But, if you look at this line like these large amounts like this uh ESA which is enhanced student achievement which is 15.6 million dollars. You can see our collection here is 63%. That's something the state gives us every month. So, those are guaranteed. So, typically the things I'm putting on the summary are outside the guaranteed amount. Most of the state revenue here is guaranteed uh for a minimum and sometimes you make it a little bit more depending on the enrollment, so. Any other questions? We finished. I I am. There's I'm waiting on you if y'all have any >> minutes. Okay, I the chair will entertain a a The chair will entertain a motion. Y'all need to like to Y'all need to like to I always I always jump in
080cuz I got kids. Awkward in silences. Um obviously, I move that LRSD Board of Education approve and accept the February Is this March or No, this is February 2026 Board Financial Report as submitted. I second. It has been moved and seconded that the LRSD Board of Education approve and accept the February 2026 Board Financial Report as submitted. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Any opposed? Unanimous. Communication and communication engagement. I almost forgot that this was on here. Pam, if you can come up to um assist me with this, but I shared with the board um I think recently last week that our partnership um and for those new board members, we um issued an RFP maybe a year ago to do some work around marketing, branding, and recruitment, and HPSI um was awarded the the
081contract. They um have completed uh the research phase, all of the focus groups that I think some of you were involved in some of the focus groups. They gave us a very detailed um report and roadmap. Um we were getting ready to enter into phase two um of the work with them uh to execute a lot of the recommendations um from that particular report, and then we were made aware of a conflict of interest. Um I don't know what the exact conflict of interest is. I have some assumptions, but I'm not going to publicly state those assumptions, but they have fulfilled the part one of their agreement with us and are no longer going to be partnering with us. So what we have done, we have re revised the RFP and our hope and goal
082is and let me just say this too. We've only paid them thus far a very small amount less than $20,000 which is very insignificant compared to what they've done thus far. So we're not necessarily losing on the financial end. I am sad that we aren't going to be able to continue working with them, but we are going to reissue an RFP. I think it's going to go out tomorrow. It's going to go out tomorrow and we are looking for an agency to actually pick up where they left off to actually help us to execute the recommendations in the report that they shared with the board a couple weeks ago. I just wanted to make everyone aware of that. Um Well, I'll keep the rest of that to myself, but just want to make sure that
083um the board was aware that Pam, is there anything else that we need to share? Okay. Director, I jotted a question I had about that. Um will we have to like just start over with So no, we are we have completed the way the the original RFP, we've completed part one. So we've done the research, we've done the focus groups, we've gotten feedback, we've gotten a plan of action of what to do. So this RFP is going to solicit a company to pick up where we've left off to actually help us to execute the recommendations that MHPS I gave us, not to start all over again. And how long is that process typically since it was ready to roll and The the RFP Yeah, for the part two. So, it has to be posted how
084many days, Mr. Bailey? I think it's like 2 weeks, 2 or 3 weeks. Okay. Um two or two or three weeks to post it. We'll get the bids and then we're looking to make a decision soon. Our goal is So, there's a lot in the recommendations. Um commercial, some marketing stuff, some branding stuff. Um and we want to have that all those things in place by September, October as we get ready to do open enrollment for the 27 >> 26 27 school year. Cuz yeah, for the No, I don't This is 26 right now. Whatever Whatever school year is coming up. So, we're we're we're hoping we'll get someone uh identified quickly um that can help us uh execute some of those recommendations. Okay, I have been uh just paying attention and I didn't want
085us lose that traction, so I'm glad we're moving quick. Okay. And it actually is going to coincide with this some of the boundary conversations that we've got to do, some of the viability stuff uh process that we're working with uh solution seekers. A lot of this stuff is going to be happening simultaneously. Um because several recommendations will be coming to you from the marketing RFP, from the viability process. We've got some things we're thinking about um putting in place to help with branding, recruitment, and some some other decisions, big decisions we have to make. So, it's going to be a busy fall semester. Okay, great. So, how do we prevent on the second phase what we ran into the first phase? How do we prevent having another conflict of interest? Is it something that we
086learn from the first phase? So, this was not uh on us. From what I remember in our conversations, they did do due diligence prior to um uh submitting the bid. And from what I remember, their exact words were they overlooked or Well, they said that they were not made aware that there was really a conflict until uh the information was published in the newspaper that we were in partnership with them and the other party indicated that it was a conflict of interest, so Okay. that is how that developed. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Smith. Mhm. We're going to keep rocking and rolling. Um it was a very detailed, thorough um they did a lot of good research and gave us a lot of good information, so we have a very clear road map of what to
087do. It's just that some of the um some of the recommendations our staff can't do by themselves, and so we need um an agency to help execute certain parts of that. Okay. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. All right, moving right along. Policy, personnel, and legal. Oh. Uh Ray Hart, are you there? All right. While she is queuing him up, um I don't even remember how long ago this was, but at some point in 2024 uh we uh heard a report from Ray Hart, who is executive director of the Council of Great City Schools, of which we are um a member district, um provided a uh proposal for the board to consider in terms of professional development, um having a governance model. We we the board approved moving forward, and the first step of that was to
088have a 2-day retreat. Um we never got to having the 2-day retreat, and so since now we have a new board, we invited Ray Hart to come back to um refamiliarize returning board members and to inform new board members of what that proposal was um for the board later to decide if this is um something that this board wants to pursue. So, at this time I will turn it over to uh Ray Hart, who again is the executive director of the Council of Great City Schools. Uh good evening. Can you hear me? A little. Is that Yeah, I can't tell if you can hear me or not. Can you hear me okay? A little. We're trying to get the volume turned up a uh Uh I can talk a little louder. Can you hear me
089now? That's a little better. Yeah. That's a little better? Okay. I'll talk a little louder. Um so, first of all, President Johnson, uh Superintendent Wright, thank you for having me members of the board of directors. Thank you all uh for having me um as well. First, I want to say uh congratulations to the new um board of directors members and uh congratulations as well to the returning board of directors members. Uh I am Ray Hart. I'm the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools. And we work with uh for those of you who don't know about the council, we work with 82 of the nation's largest urban school districts around the country, of which Little Rock is one, and we provide support for our member districts around the country. And um Excuse
090me. I haven't talked to them in a few minutes, so I apologize for the cough. Um We uh what I'd like to share with you, and I'll uh share my screen if I can. Uh right now I don't have uh the ability to share, but if you There we go. Now I do. Um so, I'll share my screen with you and quickly go through um a quick presentation uh to share with you just an overview of the services that we provide around board support. And I'll give you three um options uh for board support um that uh are uh built into your contract. Uh so, you'll uh, see what the board approved previously. But the first of which is, um, the first option is a 4 to 5 hour workshop by, uh, one of our
091what we call subject matter experts. Uh, that individual is Dr. Barbara Jenkins. She is, uh, former superintendent of Orange County Public Schools but provides supports to some of our boards as a kind of quick introduction to, um, board governance, what board governance looks like, etc. Um, and uh, as I shared, she does, uh, typically about a 4 to 5 hour, uh, workshop. The second, uh, which you'll see and I'll go through in a moment, uh, is we also provide, um, two-day workshops, um, and we can just do a single two-day workshop and step away, um, and let the board, um, uh, provide, you know, develop its own governance processes from there. Um, we call that, um, process a student outcomes focused governance two-day workshop. You'll see that on your screen. Uh, that is a part
092of your contract and we can do that two-day workshop only. Uh, the third option is what we call coaching for boards and board supports. And that is a two-year, um, option where we come in and we provide coaching support for your board. That includes, uh, the two-day workshop that I just spoke of a moment ago, uh, as well as two years worth of coaching and board support, uh, to really build the structures, the infrastructure, and I'll show you what that infrastructure looks like in a moment, uh, around board governance, um, and what it means for the board uh, to provide governance and all sides of the school district. Uh, so I'll go through those right now. So I just want to be clear, uh, there are three options. One is to bring in a subject
093matter expert uh, to do, um, 4 to 5 hour workshop with the board. Two to, uh, do a two day workshop with the board and then the third option is that two day workshop plus two years worth of coaching. Um what it looks like is this. We often say and you'll hear us say this over and over, student outcomes don't change until adult behaviors change. And one of the things that we'll look at closely is how the board in particular focuses its time and attention on student outcomes and the actual performance of students in the district. And one of the things we'll have you go through for example is your agendas, your board agendas, what do they look like, how much time are you actually spending discussing student achievement, student outcomes as a function of
094your current structure of your board agenda? One of the things that we'll know quickly is the difference between those school boards and this was a study that was done in the state of Texas, but the difference between those school boards that had just regular no board support at all and that's on the left student achievement scores, accountability scores on the left. The center is those who partic- participated in the initial training meaning a four or five hour workshop or a two day workshop. And the one on the right are the boards represents the student achievement changes for boards that actually engage with a coach for an extended period of time. And so you'll see that you'll see nearly double the student achievement improvement when you engage with a coach and really build structures to push
095the district in terms of improving student outcomes. Um you've expressed interest in improving your govern- governance practices and so we believe in continuous improvement process and working with our boards to better align what they do as a board to improve outcomes for kids. We do so in a process that really involves the entire governance team. That is the board and the superintendent together going through a process that usually takes about 24 months um to improve uh their partnership and improve outcomes for kids. Uh that process includes three different uh elements. I'll go through those quickly. Discovery, development, and deployment. And I will go through those uh quickly on the next set of slides. Uh discovery is really um understanding where your board is, where you are as individual board members. There are interviews associated with
096that. I mentioned a two-day workshop earlier. Uh that two-day workshop involves um the school board as a whole with the superintendent uh going through a workshop designed to really uh enlighten you about where you are, what does governance look like overall. And then from that workshop, we actually develop a timeline with the board um that uh if you choose to do the two-year engagement, we'll develop a timeline with the board that really identifies uh what the pieces and parts that you want to put in place as a board to better govern uh the district. That will include a board self-evaluation, uh determine where you are. It'll also include a board time use evaluation. One of the things that we will strive for is the board increasing, as I shared earlier, the amount of time that
097you spend uh monitoring student outcomes and understanding how the district is improving achievement for kids. Uh the development is the second part. That development involves uh developing goals and guardrails um which um for the district which actually outline um the needs of the district and where you expect the district uh to grow and improve. Uh we do that through both a comprehensive um needs assessment or root cause analysis that is uh developed and supported by the superintendent. And then um a community engagement outreach session um that identifies the vision and values of the district to begin to incorporate those into the goals and the guardrails. I will note that this part of the process is the board's work. Um and that board work is supported by the superintendent, so we say um with the superintendent,
098but it's actually the board's work and the board's job to develop that. Uh then we'll work through developing interim goals, interim guardrails, which should be developed by the superintendent. Uh and then finally uh developing iterative process uh for the board to um evaluate those goals and guardrails over time. Uh those involve uh board quarterly self-evaluation. This is the third uh step, which is development. The board developing a self-evaluation, the time use evaluation I talked about a few minutes ago. Uh I talked also about the meeting agenda and what that looks like, uh how it can be designed to make sure you're focused on students. Um a monitoring calendar, uh which will actually um span the life of your goals and guardrails and then understanding what progress monitoring is, meaning uh if you develop goals, simply
099putting them on the shelf uh and forgetting that you have developed goals will not move the district forward. It's understanding how do we monitor uh the district's progress toward achieving those goals over time and we'll build that in for you. Uh there's some other things that we go through with you in terms of understanding your district policies, helping you work through uh what those policies are and best to align those, uh as well as understanding your committees, um as well as um under helping your community understand kind of here's where we're going, here's why and here's um what it means for the community and what it means for understanding where our kids are. Uh so last talked a moment ago about uh deployment, so you've seen all these. I won't go through them uh in
100detail, uh but one of the things you'll also add, which you'll see at the bottom, uh is uh quarterly implementation updates for your community. So, your community understands where the board is and its progress. Um it is important to note that um this change is not a straight line. Um and so, it's a continuous improvement process whereby uh your board has the opportunity to uh really improve the governance, uh meaning the relationship between both the board, the superintendent, and the community as a whole. Um some steps are smaller, some steps are larger, but we work with you through that process and through that journey. Um it is worth taking on behalf of your students. And so, we look forward to being able to um support you through that process, should you choose to. Uh it
101is a board decision, and so we look forward uh to hearing what you might decide based on uh the previous boards' um opportunity to work with us. I will tell you that we currently work uh with about 25 school boards around the country among our 82 school districts. Uh they have a number of coaches that work with them uh on a regular basis. So, uh looking forward to answering any questions that you might have um about uh our overall process. That's just a quick highlight of uh the work that we do and how we support boards, uh but happy to answer any questions that you all may have. So. Can I start? Yes. Uh so, Mr. Hart, this is Eugene Krupitsky. So, I you know, I here we are talking about budget constraints, um and
102I'm all for spending money when it is beneficial to the district. Um I look at your slide that talks about the improvement in outcomes engaged in a coach, and it it it looks amazing. Because at the end of the day, we're here for student outcomes. Can you give us kind of some specific examples of how this work over a two-year period lends to student outcomes being improved? Right? Cuz I hear the governance stuff, but if we could get specific examples, I think that would be helpful to then justify that investment. Are you wanting specific examples from school districts or specific examples of how How this process >> actually, the process actually helps you to >> process would actually get us to improve student outcomes, right? Because what I'm hearing is >> do that. Yes. >>
103Uh I think the first thing you want to ask yourself is as a board, um how much time do we spend actually looking at and monitoring the progress of the district? You often uh quite often get um data reports, etc. But the most important thing that you want to do as a board, there are a couple of things that are critical. The first of which is understanding what goals have we set uh for actually improving outcomes for students. And then at second, understanding how you're monitoring progress toward those goals. Uh those two help and the best example I can give you, when I was in a district, uh one of the things that because our board was really focused on improving outcomes for students, um we as a staff spent far more time focused on
104asking ourselves, how do we improve outcomes for students? Uh how do we make changes uh in our strategies uh for improving outcomes for students? And in doing so, what you as a board want to do is incentivize staff to focus their time. And one of the things we'll share with you as a board is spending at least half of your time monitoring those student outcomes. What you're actually doing is incentivizing staff to spend their time monitoring student outcomes. But when you as a board spend time on other issues, um I know you know, budget, finance, those are the things are critical. Um transportation is critical. There are a number of other things that um you've uh discussed even this evening uh relative to um the school district. The most important thing you can do discuss
105how are our students improving and when you do that you drive the staff to do so as well. I can give you examples of districts around the country who have done the same. They've embraced the work and their district has improved. I'll give you Charlotte-Mecklenburg as an example who started this work a few years ago. They just set a state record for the greatest improvement in a single year in the history of the state. This past school year. So there are a number of districts who have embraced the work but in by embracing the work asking you as a board to focus encourages and actually incentivizes your district to focus as well. So is it fair to assume that it's a consultative process but also engages best practices as you guys see across these 82
106districts that you work with? Is that part of this or is it is that where some of the guidance is provided as well? Yes, one of the things that you'll note if there's a link in your materials to our website that says student outcomes focused governance and at the bottom you'll see a tab or a link that says resources. Those resources are the literature upon which we've based this process. So it's not a process that we made up. We created a process but we created the process from the research literature about what sound boards do and what successful boards do. And so that is the basis for the process and you'll see those in the materials. I hope that does that answer your question? Yes, it does. Thank you. I'm Director Salandria Jackson and I
107did visit your website and look at the resources but I think my question well my concern um Eugene you can it up about the expenses of the program, but, um, of the training. Has the What's Did the previous board have opportunity to Can you I can't hear you. >> engagement with it out and I kind of wanted to know I think he said that, but I wanted to know what was the feedback from you guys. Mhm. I mean, I can I guess what I was going to make a bit of a comment and ask a question, too. Um So, we looked at this. So, a group of us, I want to say four five of us and I'm Ms. Johnson, Mr. Adams, and I and then a couple other people I think went to a
108Council of Great City Schools training at Harvard, um, and a couple of years ago, perhaps, um, and it was I thought it was phenomenal and had a great time there over the course of three or four days, um, working together and it kind of gave me a bit of a taste of what I thought our board could do on on this, as well. And I do know this is expensive. Um I will very much acknowledge that and I know our board has historically engaged in kind of um everybody kind of does their own thing with training and one of the things I really like about this is that in lieu of doing those kind of separate other trainings, we spend time together doing this work and building our our cohesion as a board. When we
109voted whether or not to do this previously, we had one board member vote against it, which increased the cost by $20,000. So, one of the questions I had for this is if we do want to do this again, would we have the opportunity to vote again because a unanimous vote would decrease the cost, but and I don't know if the I can't remember if the $40,000 was the decreased cost or if that was if it would be $20,000 off of that, but, um, but I do think that, um one of the things I think could be really valuable out of this is that we all spend that time together and kind of have a bit of a shared or some of us are new, you know, and we have a bit of a shared foundation
110upon which to build a really strong future for the Little Little Rock School District. And I um would I would be willing to give up any other board travel and other board, you know, other than our local required travel here in Arkansas or local required training through the School Boards Association. I'd be willing to give that up in order to do this for the next couple years. I think that's probably less than what we've been spending as a board over the last few years collectively. Mr. Adams. Thank Thank you, Mr. Johnson. You're welcome. Yeah, I I want to build on that um um you know, I think if I remember correctly and for the our newer board members, you know, historically we have had a individual budget of around $5,000 per person to spend for
111out-of-state travel and training. Seven of us has $35,000. That has not We've not been limited on in-state trainings, you know, that we could we could go to as many of those as in the board in the district would support us. And because we have to have so many hours of training per year, but those can be met by in-state trainings. Um the thing that really attracts me to this and I don't want to I'll risk being looked at as an old-timer, but I was I was on the board in 2010 to 15 and then 2020 to now. And we have tried a lot of different things. We have you know, each of us have had done individual trainings. Nobody has done any more than Ms. Johnson. Ms. Johnson has been a champion at being trained.
112>> Just everything. And then doing things. We have done individual trainings. We have done We brought on in consultants for a weekend training, for a half-day training. And we brought in somebody to for repeated a couple times, you know, for for trainings for us. And frankly, to me, we have never come close, I don't think the to maximizing our potential as a board. We've we've continued to have the same kind of um challenges of working together, pulling together with a common vision, and and keeping the focus primarily on the students and not on other things. And uh and this model is something we've never tried, which is a continuous coaching model. We've never done it before. We've done a lot of other things before, but this really intrigues me, and I think it's worth a
113try. Um because particularly if if we were together on it and going into it, and I think we have a particular opportunity right now because we we're a new group. Yep. You know, we have three brand new people. Mr. Bali joined us not too long ago. And and so we are a fairly really new group where we could have a chance to develop a cohesive team. And that doesn't of course mean that we always agree on everything. We shouldn't because we should be able to take advantage of the differences of opinion and perspectives that we have. But that doesn't mean that we don't pull together and we we don't work well together. But but we have never you know, we've asked teachers, we've asked principals, we've asked administration and other people to be coached and
114to push themselves and to do more than they'd ever done in the past. We've really not asked ourselves to do that as board members. And I think this gives us the chance to do that, and I'm I'd be really excited if we could do that. I think it's this is really a a unique opportunity with with a a new seven that we would have that we've that uh that really puts a lot of potential out there for us. Does anybody else have anything? Um I just like to know if the 20,000, I'm like Anna, is the 20,000 still available? Uh so uh and I'll answer that question. I think that's a question for me. Uh two things, the first of which is um we're a non-profit organization. Um our interest is actually your best interest.
115It's it's your success is our success. That's all we care about. Um it actually costs me more money um to if you say yes, we want board training, I actually have to go out and fundraise for the additional portion of what it costs the council to provide the coaching services to you. Uh so I'm willing to work with the district on uh on costs. So I know that your previous vote um had one board member um uh I can't think vote against the proposal, but we'll work with the district on that. It's not It's not in our best This doesn't make money for us. Um this is just an opportunity for us to provide support to you, but what we recognize is that in order for you to take take it seriously as well, it's
116got to be uh it's got to be meaningful for you. So um I will uh be happy to fundraise the difference. Can I ask maybe this is for Dr. Wright instead? Uh this to me appears to be more of governance and long-term where we're heading. Um and I don't know if the rest of the board would be open to this, but being seven brand new people, um I wonder also if this board would be open to a Saturday for a few hours of us just having a new board retreat to just talk about what everyone's priorities are, uh what's important to them. I know Director Jackson and I I've had some conversations before on on some things that are really important to her as well that I think would be helpful with this board coming
117new and then moving forward with this process as well because this seems very guided and is not really more open dialogue based. It's really there is a process here. So again, I don't know if the rest of the board would be open to that, but but I think that may be a good way to start and then move into this. Uh this makes sense to me, especially if we um are saying, "Hey, this is going to become our continuing education instead." To me, per Director Adams' comments, it's almost a no-brainer. Yeah. I I I would I would just Thank you. I'm sorry, Ms. Johnson. I I I just respond that to me that makes a lot of sense. I would be I think they have some type of a a team-building type of experience along
118with something like this would would would make a lot of a sense to me. I think both suggestions are great, but with Council of Great City Schools, you know, when you run an election, you get these great ideas. I can do this, I can do that. People tell you you can do this and you can do that, but they don't actually tell you that you actually do have a lane that you're supposed to stay in. And so, I think with the coaching, the um whatever they have to offer, I think we should jump on it because let me tell you, it has made me the board member. I don't want to say I'm the best board member, but it has made me the D board member. It teaches me how to when to speak, when
119not to speak. What you have to say, you say it. You stay in your lane. The superintendent works for you, nobody else does. And so, it's just amazing of the insight you would get because none of you've ever been a board member before because I remember when I ran my election, they said, "Girl, you can do this and girl, you can do that and you can make them do this and you can make them do that." And then I became a board member, so I'm sitting here like, you know, I had to figure it out. And so, finally I actually started going to a lot of I do a lot of conferences. I'm working on my presidential award, but I learned so much as a board member. I really, really learned so much. And sometimes
120when you actually go to a conference, and not necessarily that one, you actually bond with individuals. You actually Sometimes you think you have the worst problems in the world and you can run to a school district of 400 kids and their problems are bigger than yours. And so, you run into things like that and you talk to people and they share what they're doing, what's working and what's not working. And I just think anything like this and what you just mentioned, Mr. Eugene, would be very very good for the board cuz we want to stay cohesive and I know we all individuals and we all have different interests and that's okay, too. I don't have no problems with that. Your idea is a great idea. Your idea is a great idea. You know, we can
121work on that and we can work on this. So, I think it would be helpful to do both things. Can I ask a question? Excuse me. So, can I ask a question? You have to speak up. I can't hear you without a mic. Uh this question is for you, Ray. Can you clarify with the two-day the two-day retreat? Um I vaguely vaguely vaguely remember the the person that we were working with before talk about Let me just ask directly. How much leeway do we have? I'm thinking about um Director Krup Krup Excuse me. I always want to put the N in there, Krupinski, but I know it's not. Um Director Eugene I I I can't hear you too you're trailing off. You can't hear me? Uh you said how much leeway and then Yeah, in
122the the two-day retreat, how much is there a time for the board to do what um Eugene just suggested or is it all scripted based upon the council's process? Uh most of the two-day retreat is scripted based on the council's process, but you will the process actually does take you through some some group thinking together and talking together, so the whole process encourages that conversation um that was just discussed. Uh but yes, it is all scripted, but there is up There are opportunities to talk to each other during that scripted process. So, Dr. White, a follow-up question for you. When I look at this agenda, it says there's no cost for the evaluation report generated from the evaluation. Has that report Has that already been done, or has that not been done yet? That was
123done with the previous board. Okay. >> So, that that report was produced. >> Got you. But, is that a report that needs to be done anew with a new board? I would think so because it first involves individual conversations with each of you, and if Yeah. And that predates, from my understanding, the engagement and starting the two-day piece. Yes, that's the The two From what I understand, the two-day retreat, part of that is built off of the information that is produced from the from the first part, from the interviews. >> I know that there's no asked for recommendation here on the agenda, but I would be open if everyone else cuz I I'm just worried about time at this point, right? We're about to be in spring break. People are off for the summer. If
124this is something that we all are collectively, the seven of us, in agreement on moving forward, I would actually prefer that we move forward and and start that process as quickly as possible, and I'd be open to a motion for that if if everybody else on the board is collectively in agreement that that we're moving forward in this direction. I just had one question. Um Mr. Baley, Director Baley, were you involved in the first time, or I know they said you Uh I might have had a conversation with the greater with the Council of Greater City Schools, but I was not around when they went to the training in in Harvard. I I I joined in December 2024, so I'm just a little bit over a year on the board. Okay, thank you. If I
125may, on the previous question, um if I may on the previous question, we can actually we can actually do the interviews and incorporate those into the actual training without having to wait to do a formal report so that it's if you've scheduled the two-day training we can do the interviews ahead of that and then incorporate the feedback of board members as part of the process. I hope that makes sense. If that makes sense. So so a question Mr. Hart, if if we were to vote to proceed with this even whether it's tonight or at our next meeting but if we did tonight and if if it was what would be the difference if we have a unanimous vote or if we don't have a unanimous vote? What would that what would be the practical implications
126for that for us? So we've actually changed our contracting process and the contract that you voted on previously we don't currently offer but I'm willing to honor that and so I'll honor the previous agreement that we had in place and we can move forward from there. So does that mean does it mean that that does it make a difference for us going forward as far as cost whether we have a unanimous vote now or not? It would and that's why I'm saying I'll honor the previous vote. What we currently do is only offer the 40,000 contract the total contract so we don't we actually don't offer the previous contract that you voted on any longer with boards. But I will I am willing to honor that for you. So so board members for me if
127if if it if it makes it sounds like it would make a difference so if somebody has a concern about going forward tonight then I would I guess I would hope that we would we could speak up and and know if if somebody felt like they couldn't support it today because if if not then let's give it some more time to think about it and talk about it. And but if we're for all in agreement, I just don't want to penalize this, you know, if somebody's not ready to make that decision tonight. I'm not ready to make that decision tonight. Uh The $40,000 to do this training if it's going to involve traveling and planning ahead to do all of that. Since I've been on the board, we haven't even been able to meet here
128in Little Rock together and not spend that type of money and get an agreement on a Saturday afternoon or a Friday afternoon. And so I would think that we would at least need to do something here in the city that doesn't cost as much, use one of our Little Rock School District's buildings that won't cost any money to meet other than somebody being able to open it up and lock it up later. I mean uh This one is here. Okay, but I'm saying without spending that money. That's what I'm saying. So Director Bolly, if I can if I can clarify for you, this coaching process is actually our coming to Little Rock on every occasion. So there is no travel for board members unless you decide that you want to do a retreat. Some of
129our boards decide for example that they may want to do a retreat, you know, outside the city in some place else in the state. But the this particular coaching support is our providing. We actually provide two coaches to you and those coaches will come to you. We come to you either virtually or in person as often as you request or as often as needed. So it's that's why over the two-year process and that's what you're essentially the expense. What you're paying for is ongoing coaching support throughout the year for 2 years. And we come to you. Thank you. Thank you. And I I still feel the way that I was saying it earlier like before we make a decision to spend some money on some training, let's see if we even got some buy-in for
130free first and then make a decision on a vote because we don't have to vote tonight. If we can't come together as a board to work together without somebody coaching us to do it, I don't see how I I don't see how we even showing our commitment. Does that make sense? It makes sense. Um in my opinion I like um what Eugene said which kind of goes along with what you said as far as us doing something here locally and maybe sooner rather than later to stick to the agenda. We received the information but um we don't have a motion on it but if we could get together in a setting then we can decide collectively unanimously if we want to do this or not. One one other One other thing I I think we
131could think about and and I don't want to press something if we're not going to have the readiness have cuz we could do some more talking but I do think on the cost perspective, at least I would be open to the thought if we followed our current practice of $5,000 a piece which would be a total of $35,000 per year. We One option we could have would be to say for the next 2 years, we're not going to travel outside of the state. We're going to be here. So, instead of paying potentially $70,000, we're going to pay $40,000. So, this could actually be a cost savings for the district to to go this plan if we chose to do it in that way. Yeah, I I understand the marathon that too, but I I haven't
132traveled in the last year, so I didn't spend any of the 5,000. All I did was do uh ASBA trainings. So, you know, that didn't I didn't I knew I've never spent anything when it comes to reimbursement on mileage or traveling or booking a hotel. I did all of my trainings. I did trainings on my own that I booked. I mean well, registered for, so. Yes. Is there an expiration on this uh offer? No. No expiration. As what I I'm sharing with you, my interest is in supporting the board and supporting the school district. There's no So, that's why I'm honoring even though we don't offer the contract that you voted on anymore, I'm willing to honor it. Thank you. Can I ask a question? Yes, go ahead. Uh already, can you hear me? Yes,
133I can. Option one that you mentioned before with Barbara Jenkins doing the 4-5 hour um board governance training, is there a cost just with that? There is a cost for that. Um and she um it's a cost that's only it only costs us what she charges. That cost is usually about $6,000. Okay. Um for the board. Um Okay, is it okay if I jump in with one other question? Um I think one of our biggest challenges that we had previously in getting a date on the calendar was scheduling outside of a board meeting time, and I would just encourage us to and I I will be honest, sometimes those were were me. I have a lot of weekend work with my job, um my day job, and I know some others in this room do
134too, and I have kids and sports and all the things. I mean, it's it's hard to find a weekend when seven or eight or 12 grown-ups can uh all get together for 2 days. Um and I know we all have child care needs and families and all the things. Um so, I would just encourage us to use our board time for these conversations. Um, everything is foilable anyway. Like we will have media, I'm sure if we go to um, if we go to a weekend retreat. So I would just encourage us if we want to have a board discussion about what we want to do for something like this. I would encourage us to use our board meetings for that and then maybe book out and try to find a date that we could all
135um, that we could all make this work and and maybe we could go ahead and do like a doodle poll for the next six or six months or so and see if there is a time when we all align and um, and then we can come back and maybe Mr. Boley that could help alleviate some of the concerns about whether or not we can all get together. Um, and if we can go ahead and find a time that would help us feel confident that we were ready to to to all dedicate the time to to do something like this and help us support our vote. So. Since I'm new here. >> Just uh, just so you know, we um, we do ask the board to do the two-day retreat um, kind of together in consecutive
136days. All board members of together in consecutive days. After that point, most of the the coaching can occur um, during board meetings or um, in smaller smaller chunks of time. Since I'm new here, um, I just like to ask like his suggestion on a Saturday and you making some valid points. Could we all agree on like on a Thursday that's not a board meeting to Yep. have two or three hours like you were saying or a Saturday like from 9:00 to 12:00 we could be here from 5:00 to 8:00 uh, because that's happened before. It doesn't have to be on a board meeting Thursday and it doesn't have to be on a Saturday. It could actually be on a Thursday just at a different time frame and that's I know we're not deciding tonight. I
137just want to know is that okay? I mean I'm I'm good with it. I mean as long as we have notice and you know, all the things. Um, >> Okay. Yeah. So is that something we considered doing? Are we going to bring in the Council of Grace City School, maybe virtual? Are we going to bring in a person from ASBA or who would we bring in to host that meeting? Who do you think? Or is it just something we want to get together and do which we have some So, my initial suggestion would be that, you know, it would be the eight of us including Dr. Wright. Um and and really just a big old piece of paper like one of those big note pads and start with what's important to us. Why are we
138here, right? Why why why are we doing what we're doing? And what are the ideas that people have to improve the district? Um just to to kind of get a cohesive vision of where this board wants to go, right? Because this is a different group of seven and I think having some common goals and objectives would be helpful and that actually might steer us in the direction of of going towards this governance piece that Mr. Hart is talking about as well. I I I have some really strong feelings on the value of facilitators. Um I don't know, maybe it's because I studied that in grad school, it's cuz what it's what I did at the Clinton School, but I feel really strongly that when you get a group of individuals together, strong facilitation can make
139the diff world of difference in whether or not you achieve the outcomes and goals that you're set up you're setting out to achieve. Um I have seen badly facilitated conversations break groups apart. Um so, I just want us to be thoughtful about where we want to go and about throwing us into a room with a blank sheet of paper. Maybe that could work, but I I also just want us to be thoughtful about it because I think I really do strongly believe that when you have a set of shared goals and a set of shared and I'm looking at Steph back here. I'm like, where's our Clinton School like facilitation and all these things? But I really do believe that it can make a world of difference in your intentional growth and development and collaboration
140versus a bunch of people coming into a room with their own ideas and kind of it being almost a battle instead of a let's get all of our you know, buggies lined up and move in the same direction. We don't all have to go the same speed. We don't all have to do the same thing, but let's at least try to keep our our our Caravan moving in the same general direction, which is positive outcomes for kids. That's all. There's my There's my spiel on facilitation. Dr. Wright. I know I'm not a member of the board. Um, I'm a part of the the board and superintendent team. Um, but I do want to offer um, a personal suggestion. I think before we get to talking about where we want to go as a board and
141superintendent team and ideas and suggestions, I do think we need a common understanding, everybody up here needs a common understanding of what the role of a board member is, what the role of the superintendent is. I think we need to spend some time orientating everybody on this board in terms of some of the goals and things we already have previously set. Um, and I don't I'm just going to be honest. I don't know that that can be self-facilitated with this group. I really think somebody else needs to help get us all to a common understanding of what our roles are and how we need to work together before we start those type of conversations in terms of throwing out ideas and other things. I I just That's just my So, personal >> Can I just
142suggest that Director Johnson and Dr. Wright work in tandem to figure out what is that best process. I think as the as the board chair, I'm open to whatever, right? And I think that makes complete sense to understand where we are, right? To then figure out where we want to go. And and I'm sure Dr. Wright has some great resources for facilitators that could get there. But I think we can leave that to the two of them, perhaps. Okay, thank you. Yeah, yeah, I trust your leadership and I trust that you can work with Dr. Wright. My only suggestion would be maybe it would be opportunity also to get some understanding or some some assistance with from the culture and climate department as well, too. Definitely. You know, I see they had a lot of
143involvement in that black male educator summit. And so I think that that would also be great. And honestly, yes, we do need to know our role as board members because we need to explain it to the community because sometimes they ask us stuff that has nothing to do with us being board members. So I think we need to do a better job explaining it to the community what our role is as a board member so that we can do our jobs better and they know what we should what they should have expectations of for us. I agree. All right. I think Dr. Wright will work on that. I guess we're good, too. Yes, you do. Any more questions? I got it. Thank you, Mr. Hart, for your presentation. We appreciate it. >> Thank you all
144very much. Thank you for having us and we look forward to the possibility of supporting you in any way that you might need. Okay, thank you very much. Can I put in a selfish plug? I know we've got months and months before the Council of Great City Schools fall conference, but I would love Very bad. And I know it's it's hard with people's schedules, but I can tell you I've gone to a lot of different conferences. I've never The Council of Great City Schools Fall Conference is the only one of the only conferences that I ever go to that you get a chance to actually walk away. Um you learn a lot. It's it's member districts presenting. There's tracks for you know, all the different roles in the in the school district, especially board members.
145And I don't think since I have been here, we've never gone anywhere as a team. Um and I I know people's schedules are busy, but I just want to put a plug out if if there's any way that we all could could could go. That I think that would make a a big difference. And you get a chance to see some of the things that the council has to to offer as well. And last year we actually did some presentations. Little Rock School District, I think we did five presentations. So let me say this to the board members. You have that five, I thought it was 6,000, but maybe it's 5,000. Don't feel guilty about spending your $5,000. That's what it's there for. If you want to go to the conference, you spend what you
146have been budgeted to spend. So don't don't let it make you feel some kind of way. All you're doing is traveling and spending money. But that is your $5,000. If you want to donate it to somebody else, if they run out, you can do that, too. So don't feel terrible about spending your money going to a conference. And I would strongly recommend the Council of Great City Schools. Okay. Do we have dates on that? When's the next Do you have a date? Oh, sorry. Go ahead. When is the next um conference? October. October? What state? Uh we are in October in Boston this year. So this year will be in Boston, Massachusetts. Next year will be right down the street from you in Birmingham, Alabama. Okay. Boston. >> Both in October. And we'd be we'd
147be honored to have you. And uh other thing that I wanted to share as well uh is I would encourage you all to uh kind of continue to visit. You mentioned um the National School Boards Association and others. Uh I think the more exposure uh that you can get, the more support you can get, the better always. Thank you, Mr. Hart. Does anybody have any more questions for Mr. Hart? So, it's in October, so we all have plenty of time to try. At least try. October the what? Uh Mr. Hart. Uh I am not looking at it. I will tell you >> Stephanie, 21st through the 25th. 21st through Oh, okay. Thank you. 21st through the 25th. I just added Ms. Johnson, that if if we decide to go in that direction as for one
148of the things we do that that I have found out to be really invaluable to travel with fellow board members and have that common experience. Ms. Johnson and I have been a number of cities together in the past. Ms. Strong um we've talked about all three of us. We're we're at Harvard. We've been at different places, but that is really been helpful um both in the learning and in um making connections as as board members. It's hard to make connections just up here. Are they still doing that Harvard conference? We are not doing Harvard this year. We're doing we moved Harvard to next year. Um and so we'll do it next summer, not this summer. And Harvard is Harvard is slightly different. Um it's a it's similar to it's a 3-day 4-day um training, but
149it's not not quite the same as ongoing coaching. So, that's why you saw in that student achievement chart um there is a difference with ongoing coaching. But again, I would encourage you all um continue to work and I think it was just shared. Continue to connect with, work with, visit with other board members around your community, around the state, and around the country because that their growth will will help you grow as well. Okay. And I look forward to as I shared earlier, I look forward to supporting you in any way that we can. Okay, thank you. Okay. Moving on. We'll probably be home by 8:15 today. Review of parliamentary procedures. Board members, I know this is the moment of the meeting that you've all been waiting for. Everybody is super jazzed about this. Nobody
150more than me because nothing gets the blood pumping like Robert's Rules of Order. Um Is that scoffing in the back of the room? I think that that was a cough, not a scoff, for the record of those at home. Board members, there are a couple of things that I'd like to like to begin with. Uh the And as we think about how you conduct a meeting, uh one is your role as board members, and I know you've just had a very lengthy discussion discussing what that role is. Uh and as President Johnson has mentioned, the School Boards Association here in Arkansas has a lots of materials on what that role is, what that function is. For our purposes, for your meetings, uh I'm not going to drill down on all of that. Uh but what
151I am going to comment on is that as a school board member, your authority exists right here. Nowhere else. You are in your role as a school board member, in your authority as a school board member, to exercise your statutory power as a group not an individual. Um in the broad strokes, the board and superintendent relationship is pivotal. Dr. Wright carries out the day-to-day management of the school district. The board sets the policy, manages the finances, and works with superintendent set priorities for the district. So, how does that transfer into our meetings, right? Now, here's the exciting part. Bring it. This is This is Robert's Rules of Order. And I always like to say that, you know, when when I guess it was Henry Robert that dreamed up the Rob- the Rules of Order to
152start with, started with I I can't remember exactly, but like 12 or 15 pages to help his church group have meetings that didn't dissolve into nobody getting anything done. And here in the 12th edition, we're at like 700 pages. So, for us and for you as board, uh there is such a thing as special rules. Um and special rules will trump uh regular Robert's. So, there are things that you will do as board that you'll be like, "Well, that's not in Robert's." That's absolutely correct. It's in policy 1.6, which is attached to the agenda. And I wanted to talk through a couple of things because you all have a particular mashup under Robert's of how the board operates. Robert's will be used for meetings of 5,000 people or 15 people. Um and in this case,
153seven people. Now, policy 1.6 or the the special rules that the Larock School District Board of Education has bound itself by. One, it sets a quorum. So, without four people here, you can't conduct any business. If you have four people here, you can. Um that's the first thing. Uh no action gets taken without the quorum. You need to be physically present at the meeting or under that virtual allowance to count for that, and there's a different policy on virtual meetings. But, the the majority of the quorum voting affirmatively is is necessary for the passage of the motion. What that means is if only four folks show up, that you need three votes to pass your motion. You don't need a majority of the board. Uh it's the people present at the time, and that's by
154policy 1.6. Um second, and this is where it's going to get a little technical. All right? Um because there's big Roberts, when you have these meeting halls of a thousand people, and then there's little Roberts when you have a board room of people. And big Roberts does things like you only get to speak one time uh during any particular issue for debate. Uh you're capped at 10 minutes under Roberts. You can't talk about it anymore. Um there's no cross talk. Uh there's no dialogue. Because in a meeting of a thousand people, you got to keep on track, and so it's much more formal. In little Roberts, with boards, you can talk multiple times on any given question, uh which you all are doing this evening. Um in big Roberts, you don't talk about anything until
155you have a motion on the floor. The motion doesn't mean that I think this is a great idea, and we should do it. It just means I think we should talk about it. Um so you can make the motion and be like I think this is stupid, but let's have the conversation. Um now under small board little Robert's rules you can do just I move and you don't need a second. But under rule 1.6 you guys mashed together big Roberts and little Roberts, every motion has to have a second. Uh and that's by your local rule which Roberts allows. And then as policy 1.6 says all board members including the president shall vote on each motion following a second discussion of the motion. Uh in big Roberts the chairperson does not vote customarily. In little
156Roberts small board meetings the chairperson is a member just like anybody else and has a vote just like anybody else and can discuss just like anybody else. The president's role President Johnson enjoy it. The president's role is to make sure that the agenda is carried out in an orderly way and that everybody has their opportunity to be heard. And that the everybody understands what's voted upon. So as a housekeeping matter one of the things that you may want to do and probably ought to do because anybody that puts their name on a ballot is a leader of some sort. You all are not shy, retiring, delicate people who don't say anything. You have opinions and you share them and by gosh you were elected to share them. So uh to make it easier for President
157Johnson it might be good to be recognized to speak just so that she can keep everybody in order because some of you all are bigger personalities than others and if if we aren't careful sometimes in little Roberts somebody can kind of suck up all the oxygen in the air in the room, right? Ms. Johnson is going to be very dedicated to everybody having their say. Um but if you can route through her to be recognized, she's going to make sure that nobody's overlooked. And that way that keeps the meeting kind of moving in an orderly way. Now, here's the tricky part about voting and failure to vote under your local rules. Failure of any board member to vote while physically present in the meeting room shall be counted as a no. That means that if
158as a board we have the the discussion, we talk about the motion, there's motion and second, and it comes time for the vote, when Ms. Johnson calls for that vote, failing to vote is a no. There is no abstention in that in that setting. There is a process for abstention, and we're going to get to that. But under your rules, it is not okay to participate in the in the entire discussion and debate and everything else, and then at the moment of voting be like, "Uh I abstain." That's Ms. Hudson's going to count that as a no. Um and then only the votes that you take in open session are legally binding. No votes or motions in executive session are legally binding, though a non-binding, unofficial, non-recorded vote may be taken in executive session to
159establish consensus. So, that's part of the Open Meetings Act. Executive sessions, you don't you don't take votes back there, you don't take any action back there, you go discuss back there, you may reach consensus back there, but you come out here for your motions and your votes. Everything is in the open, consistent with the open meetings act. Now, the abstentions part. And this is wonky, but it's particular. In order for a board member to abstain from voting, they must declare a conflict and remove themselves from the meeting room during the vote. What's a conflict? Well, y'all remember we took the oath and the oath was kind of weird because it makes specific reference to that code section in Arkansas law. That's the ethical rules governing school board members. And generally, but not always, a conflict
160arises when you might have a direct financial interest in what's being considered by the board. So, for instance, if your spouse is bidding on a lawn mowing contract with the district, at that point you can say, "Look, my spouse is bidding for this. Uh theoretically, my spouse will share the money with me if they get this thing. So, I'm going to step out. You guys consider the bids." That's the the easiest and most clear one. Uh sometimes it can extend to an employer, but that's not always a direct conflict. So, it sort of depends on your level of of appetite for risk. If you want to be very risk averse, then declare the conflict, say, "This is my This is my job. I'm going to step out. You guys consider it. I'll come back in
161after you're done." Without that declaring of the conflict and removing yourself from the room, you are still part of the deliberations, and so there is no abstention if you go all the way to the end and then go, "Uh I think I'm going to abstain. Um a board member who remove removes himself herself from a meeting during the vote due to conflict of interest shall not be considered present at the meeting for the purpose of establishing a quorum until the member returns to the meeting after the vote. What that means is if you've got seven people here and one of you says, I've got a conflict, I'm going out, your new quorum is now six. So that means that you're I mean by the math your prevailing vote is still four. But if one person's
162absence, one person declares it, you've got five, then your winning vote is three. You're treating that other person as if they're absent. So those are your special rules. Um let's see. It's 7:46. Let's talk about Let's talk about small boards for just a second, okay? And I'm looking at um I'm looking at section 49.21 in Robert's if you guys want to check my work. Uh procedure in small boards. Um you can raise your hand instead of standing when seeking to obtain the floor. Uh again, we're less formal because there's only seven of us. Uh the chair can see you. So it's not that kind of thing where you got to walk out to the aisle and find a microphone and stand at it. Uh but get the chair's attention, the chair will recognize you. Um
163their procedure is motions need not not be seconded. We disregard that because policy 1.6 governs it and says every one of your motions needs a second. So that's an example of where that knocks out strict Robert's and we go with the local rule which Roberts allows. There is no limit to the number of times a member can speak to a debatable question. So, if somebody brings something up and you're like, "That's a really good idea. Um that generates a thought in me that I want to mention in the group." You can do so. Uh informal discussion of a subject is permitted while no motion is pending. You guys just lived that during the discussion on the Council for Grace City Schools. There's no motion, there's no action being taken. And occasionally, you'll see that. Uh
164particularly when the teaching and learning folks have come in. They're going to give you reports and information from time to time, but they won't ask you to be taking any action. They just want to keep you apprised of what they're doing. And you can ask questions and have discussion, and that's completely permissible. Uh when a proposal is perfectly clear to all present, a vote can be taken without the motions having been introduced. Now, that's practically that's big Roberts kind of procedure uh because they have a If you got a I'm going to tell you this real quick. I was in a group once where there was a It was like a 858 uh member body that was doing it. And so, in order to even make the agenda uh they had all this pre-work to
165even be there because they had the greatest idea ever. They rented a space, and they were like, "We got to be done by 7:00 because that's when our rental agreement runs out. So, we either finish the business by 7:00 or the rental agreement's going to finish it for us. We have a fixed time to adjourn." And so, they had to marshal up everything that was going to be considered ahead of time. We don't exactly do that because you all have an agenda meeting generally 2 weeks before a regular board meeting where you construct your agenda and the things that you want to put on it. So, it's just an example of it's a little less formal. But, in LRSD practice, because you have an agenda meeting, it makes it more like Big Roberts. And then
166the chairman the chair may need not rise when putting questions to a vote. So, President Johnson can stay seated for these because you can all see President Johnson and she's not she's not hard to see or to make herself heard. The chairman can, without leaving the chair, speak in informal discussions and debate and vote on all questions. It just means that because President Johnson is serving as board president, that she does not forfeit any of her rights or responsibilities as her regular board member. Um knowing a little bit about President Johnson, she's not going to she wants to hear from everybody. She wants a free exchange of ideas. So, you'll be recognized. Um so, those are sort of the the processes for small board Roberts. Um as it relates to how I will help you,
167generally, it's when you guys get creative, um that I start having to flip through the pages in the book. And when you get really creative, I'll ask you to take a recess so that I can make sure that what I'm telling you is right. Uh that doesn't happen very often, but it does happen from time to time. Now, the normal process that you all have is there'll be a motion and a second, discussion, whatever that discussion is. Now, it's a process. It's very much like what you all did earlier. The motion is made and it's made with some detail. The chairperson will repeat the motion because it's important for everybody to understand, all right, what exactly are we voting on? And most of the time that's pretty straightforward. However, occasionally, when you get into amendments
168and such, like, for instance, if you say, "Hey, I want to change the mascot of West High School to the Riders." Um and somebody says, "Well, that's not That's not awesome enough. So, I want to move to amend that we change the mascot to the Rowdy Ruff Riders." Well, then at that point, you're only voting on the addition of Rowdy. That's it. That's the vote. And President Johnson will walk you through that and be like, "All right, everybody who wants to put Rowdy in the motion." And then we'll take the vote. And then if it fails, great, we're back to the original motion of we're just changing the mascot to the Ruff Riders. Uh if it succeeds, then we integrate Rowdy into the Ruff Riders and then we'll vote that main motion. And that's generally
169how those things are going to work. Now, this page up here is really for the more unique kinds of things. Um the kinds of things of "Let's move to adjourn." Um now, on the far side of that, you all will see that every vote that you all take is a majority vote. There's no 2/3, there's no No any of that that Robert's Rules allow for times. Everything is a straight majority vote. And that's per your policy. And then there'll be times where you'll be Hopefully, this will not happen, but there'll be times where you'll be at 7:53 and you'll be like, "We've been sitting here for a while. I need a little air." Uh then you can move for a recess. Is that amendable? Yes. Is it debatable? No. And so that's just kind of
170a little handy chart. If somebody's like, "I'm tired of talking about this." then you can move the previous question. Requires a second because your rules say it requires a second. Um And is it debatable? No. Is it amendable? No. You're just going to vote. We're tired of talking about it or not. Maybe a majority of you is like, "No, we're having so much fun. Let's talk about it some more." Um you can do some other things like limit or extend debate. Um I would love to advise on this, but I never have. Um if if you guys came in and said, "I move that we have no discussion of more than 5 minutes on any agenda item in this meeting." That would be awesome to talk about. But I don't know that it would be
171likely to talk about. And maybe it's not a good way to conduct business. That's You all are policy makers. You decide how much you want to discuss these issues. But those things exist. Uh you can always request information. You can always And our simple request for uh for information might be, particularly after a longer discussion, and Ms. Johnson's really good at this anyway, but everybody's going to want to understand, "All right, what are we actually voting?" So the chair will always repeat that motion before the vote so that everybody understands exactly what's being voted on. And if there's any confusion, then you can interrupt and ask the chair, "Hey, is this What What are we What are we actually considering? Could you repeat the motion? You know, is it is it an amendment or is
172it the motion itself?" And then the one thing that's really kind of counterintuitive about uh about the procedure and the process is that once you make the main motion, you know, we want to change the mascot to the Reffers, that becomes really unimportant because everything else will come in in priority over that. You have to knock out all these other motions before you get back to the main motion. So, you can't If somebody wants to move to amend and says, "We want No, we want the Rowdy Reffers," then All right, well, you've got to deal with that amendment before you get down to the main motion again. Uh so, those things will kind of come in order and some of those things will interrupt. But, and it's kind of counterintuitive, but the idea being that
173everybody has their opportunity to be heard, that everybody understands what we're talking about and what the business is, so that the meeting goes through kind of in an orderly way. Um I know this is riveting for everyone. I'm happy to talk about Robert's more than you're interested in listening to it. But, that's the kind of thing that'll kind of get us going. I think just as a housekeeping matter, the easiest things to remember are um and this is really just kind of a a favor to the chairperson, um is to to be recognized by the chair. Um and that's more of a courtesy to to the chair and to the other board members, so that everybody's heard and everybody's heard from. And if you guys are like me, it's the kind of thing that all
174right, well, if I put my hand up and the debate goes on too long, I might forget what I might have I was going to ask, right? Um, but ask to be recognized by the chair. Please don't cross talk because then that gets super confusing. Um, and I can't follow it. And then, um, the chair is always going to state the motion, call for any discussion or questions or any other conversation, restate the motion prior to the vote, and then take the vote. Uh, if you're in the room, you have a binary choice of yes or no. Uh, failing to vote is a no. And then there's that special process for abstentions. So, Madam Chair, if there's anything you all would I just have a question. I remember when I, um, was elected in 2012
175to 2014. And when we were getting ready to do a discussion, they would always just start with the director on the end. Uh, Director Bailey, do you have anything you want to say? He would pass, and then, uh, Director it would go that way, all the way to the end, and then if we had another discussion, then they would start on this end and go all the way down to the other end. Is that legal? You can do that. >> From a housekeeping standpoint, there's nothing wrong with that. Okay. Thank you. I'd love it if at some point, not tonight, but if you would kind of go over executive session for us as well, and how that works, just to kind of make sure cuz that like you can't join executive session virtually and things
176like that. Uh, I think that'd be helpful, but maybe not tonight. Okay. Any questions? It >> Do we have any announcements? Thank you. The other thing that is agreed and not for this evening, but to me that was a really steep learning curve and continues to be a challenge, I think at times. And we haven't had one in I think over a year is employee hearings. I think I think that is a different animal in in and expectation for what our role is than some other things what's appropriate, what's not appropriate, what's appropriate for us to say, not appropriate for us to ask, you know, those kind of things. I think that that kind of information for us to have a common understanding on would be really helpful. In in very general terms um this
177this kind of spills over into board role and function. Um the board exists as a policy-making body, but you also have sort of a quasi-judicial role at times, particularly in in these employee hearing settings. So the the simplest best advice before we drill down on it uh would just be that your role is to be objective and to um and to come to the facts with with no prior assumptions. Uh so administration should not lobby you on on any pending hearing and employees should not lobby you on any pending hearing. Uh you're you're supposed to be impartial and to take in what you hear at the hearing. Uh so those are And I think there's a there's a policy that that treats that. I can't remember exactly which number it is in section one. But
178there's a revision to section one that you guys are going to see in the next few weeks, so we we can certainly talk about that more then or talk about how to conduct those at the board's pleasure. I have another question. Also, can you make board members aware that if there's a problem in the community in the school, etc., if you have an extensive conversation about the matter or the event that if it does come to the board, then you will have to excuse yourself. Is that correct? The more the more you get involved in it, the more that that it's going to impact your impartiality. Ms. Johnson, just just thank you. Just one other comment cuz Mr. Kase and I have talked about this and I've been delinquent in following up, but we have
179talked about our previous board talked about this in past in the past. Um the looking at developing some guidelines, a policy and put some guidelines about conflict of interest for board hearings. You know, for instance, if if my niece who has a child in the district, if she brought a complaint against a teacher and that teacher ended up being in front of us, then that's one of those situations I think I should recuse myself because my niece was involved in that and and it just even the appearance of of you know, a bias and we want to avoid. But I don't but we've had some some real situations like that in the past couple years and so I hope to come bring something to you in the coming months that we could think about and
180look at that would at least give us more guidance than we have now. And also, when you're being emailed, do like I do, send it straight to the superintendent and let the superintendent handle it. That is that is outstanding excellent advice. You will never go wrong by directing your questions, comments, or concerns to the superintendent and superintendent will then figure out who needs to address it and he can delegate that to however he thinks best. That's That is excellent advice, gold standard advice. Does anybody have any questions? Thank you, board members. Thank you. Wow, we're on number 10. Board resolutions. Are there none? Executive session. Will not be one. Board comments. Director Bolly. Yes, thank you. Uh You're welcome. Just um a few things that I wanted just bring to the attention of the board.
181Um since I've been on the board, we have not really I don't I can't remember, at least, had a conversation about uh the importance of our community schools and the things that they provide for the neighborhoods and the in the community in general. And so, I think as it would be good as at some point to hear presentation about our community schools. And and and like I requested after we got to hear from the climate and culture department, I would actually like to hear from some of those site coordinators about some of the successes and some of the challenges so we can do a better job as a board and as a city supporting our community schools because they provide a lot for our students, parents, and our neighborhoods. So, I would like them have
182that on the agenda at some point sometime soon, whenever that could be arranged. Uh the second thing I want to bring up um after visiting with the student advisory uh advisory board today, they reminded me that I did make a commitment to try to help them set up student voter registration days at their schools for the graduating seniors or students that will be turning 18 soon. And so, after speaking with them again about it today, uh I will be reaching out to the city of Little Rock and some of the people that are on their staff to see how we can get those set up some point before the graduating seniors last day of school in each school so we could do voter registration with support from the county clerk, city, and whatever organizations want
183to be involved uh so that we can ensure that our students graduate only not only with a diploma, but they can walk across the stage with a voter registration card as well, too. And so, any type of support that we can do to set that up, I'm thinking late April uh or early May. I think their last day is mid-May uh from what they told me. And so, um yeah, just appreciate any support and any contacts that people may have to help speed up their process. And the last thing I'll say is um there's a upcoming event a family-friendly event on May the 23rd supporting our students, and it uh it just reminded me when we had the uh the theater students come in today how talented our students are in our district as well
184as the announcement doing the celebration. It's an opportunity for a community talent show that's free I'll be helping organize that, but it's also opportunity for our students to get involved so that they can perform at the Juneteenth event as well. Uh by the uh put on by the Mosaic Templars, and they can win some cash prizes. So, it'd be good to just not only support their talent, but put some money in their pockets. And that's May 23rd, and then I'll make sure that I send that to Ms. Pamela Smith so that uh we can get that word out to the Little Rock School District students who are interested in that. That's all I have. Anybody else? No? Ask. Ask. Okay, Mr. Bali, I'm going to pass your information on to the League of Women Voters,
185and that's all they do. Yeah, somebody did reach out to me already from the Oh, they did? Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay. Okay, what do you do? >> I'm going to reach back out to her. Please do. Yeah. Oh. Oh. Superintendent Wright. Go ahead. So, also, um and Stephanie can help with this as well. The the city, I forgot what their titles are, but the interventionists they work for the city, but they're they work in all of our high schools. I know they routinely do um voter registration as well. So, we can easily and they're they're right there in the schools. We can easily coordinate with them to to make that happen, too. Thank you. Mr. Johnson, if I could make a comment. Yes, we hear it. I can't see Mr. Director Adams. Thank you. Thank you,
186Ms. Johnson. The just a just a couple of brief comments. One is I know a lot many of us received a lot of emails um just in the past few days from the Jefferson community. And just uh wanted to thank those people who are very concerned about their school and and um for reaching out with their concerns and and um and to know that that we're going to we are working to clarify communication and and clarify the process so that everybody will understand where we're at. And we did not make any decision on those things tonight. The the other um I just on a personal note, I was so impressed with I really with all the experience at the state of the district event. So, all the planning that went into that and the students
187who were there and the and the entertainment and Dr. Wright, I thought your address was excellent. And but I was the most moving part about the whole evening to me, the most was the last song that the the choir did. The the last song uh for anybody who wasn't there, you know, um there were three songs done by this honor choir of elementary students. And the last song was introduced as a song that came from the African-American culture and civil rights history. Um, we shall not be moved like a tree that's planted by the water, we shall not be moved. And it was sung in Spanish. Uh, and then the introduction said it included people in the Hispanic community. And it was sung in sung in Spanish with a student sing a solo in Spanish
188and then it was sung in English and Spanish again and and particularly with the stress that many of our communities are experiencing right now. Um, around our city and and beyond, it was incredibly moving for to hear them do that. So, kudos to the students, kudos to the leaders who chose that and and thank you for that because it was extraordinarily meaningful. Dr. Strawn. Um, I was going to say something about Jefferson, but I just will also just say what Greg said and echo the thanks to the community um, from Jefferson both educators and staff and um, parents who reached out um, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens there and having a new principal there in a few months. Um, as well as at Mann and at Stephens, I believe are the other
189ones that we're working on. So, um, and thanks to the district staff today who helped kind of troubleshoot some of those things too. I know it kind of probably took some uh, a lot some people off their tasks today. So, thank you all. Um, I did also just want to say I'm really excited to work with you guys. I think we're going to have a really great time together and um, we may be here past dinner time a few times, but I look forward to seeing y'all in a couple weeks and um, I always roll in about 5 5:15 or so and try to cram down a dinner, but it's really nice for the those who get here a little earlier than that. Uh, to to I think sit and chat and I think that'll
190be really nice to get to know you guys a little bit over dinner. Um, and through our board meetings in the next few months, so. I did want to say thank you all for welcoming us, uh, the district. I I just want to say this, uh, Dr. Wright, your team has been amazing on welcoming us at all of the events, and I think I speak on behalf of both of all three of us, it has been truly amazing. Little Rock School District, your district, your team is amazing, and they have welcomed us with open arms, as well as our board. So, I just want to say thank you, and we uh, we really appreciate it. You're welcome. Um, is there anything else that caught your attention? If not, I do say the meeting is adjourned.
191All right. Is it? You made it through your first one. I did. Good bye.