DECATUR - The Arkansas Public School Choice Act of 2013 will have a limited effect on Decatur Schools, according to superintendent Larry Ben.
Ben discussed the new law with the school board at the April 15 meeting.
The new school choice law will allow parents to transfer students from their resident district to an outside district without racial restrictions.
The Arkansas School Choice Act of 1989 allowed students to transfer as long as the percentage of each race in the district stayed within an acceptable range for that county.
The number of Caucasian students in Decatur fell below the acceptable range two years ago, and Caucasian students have been unable to transfer out of the district ever since.
U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson declared the School Choice Act of 1989 unconstitutional last summer, ruling that the race-based provision violated the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
The Arkansas legislature passed the School Choice Act of 2013 earlier this month and Governor Mike Beebe signed it into law on April 16.
The new law caps the number of students that can transfer out of the district to three percent of the district’s enrollment. For Decatur it would be around 15 students.
The law would expire on July 1, 2015, allowing lawmakers to review it at that time.
Ben said he felt school choice was unlikely to affect Decatur because the community has a better impression of the district than it did in the past.
Decatur has an exemplary Alternative Learning Environment program, offers more online classes for high school students and a strong athletic program, Ben said. The district is also planning a summer learning program, he said.
“Online learning is going to flatten the playing field for small schools,” Ben said.
“I would like to publicly say I’m disappointed in the way this went. I don’t understand the reasoning,” school board president Ike Owens said of the recently passed school choice act.
Owens said he wrote several local legislators regarding his concerns with the school choice bill and didn’t receive a response.
“I feel like they ignored the people that put the min those positions,” he said.
“I think we can have a good school anyway,” Ben said.
Ben estimated this year’s three quarter average enrollment - the number used by the state to determine funding - will be 519. The district hasn’t seen such a high enrollment number since 2008. The uncertainty of fiscal distress, the temporary loss of the football team and open school choice caused the enrollment to drop for several years.
The school is currently operating on a budget for 494 students, he said, so next year the district should see an increase in its budget.
In other business, the school board passed a motion to add a consent agenda to the regular school board agenda.
The consent agenda would include routine items such as the school board minutes and financial reports and could be passed with one motion.
The consent agenda would allow board members to use their meeting time more efficiently, according to Ben.
School board members would be able to review items on the consent agenda when they received their school board packets and call Ben with any questions before the meeting, he explained.
Any school board member who wants to discuss an item could have it removed with a motion from the board at a meeting.
News, Pages 12 on 04/24/2013