Report Card
Not in my school
How do you protect schools from crazed killers without sacrificing other responsibilities such as educating students and being an open and accessible part of the community? That’s the challenge facing school officials like Clarksville Superintendent David Hopkins. Hopkins was appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson to the Arkansas School Safety Commission, which is preparing recommendations for policymakers.
Summer: School’s in session - for us
One school year has ended and another will begin very soon. As board members, we’ve spent the past few weeks celebrating our students and their families at banquets, concerts, recitals, plays, graduations and more. It is an honor to see our students excel, and we look forward to their continued growth. A very special thanks to our administrators, staff, teachers, parents, families and the community as a whole for guiding our students towards responsible adulthood.
Summer is here and it’s a great time for us, as board members, to build our knowledge of schools and leadership. Former President John F. Kennedy said, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” I believe this is so true. We are stewards of our public schools. In order to better serve our districts and communities, we must stay
by Debbie Ugbade ASBA President
up-to-date on important issues and policies so we can better fulfill our duties as board members. We should model the importance of training for the rest of our districts. Yes, we are required to have a certain number of training hours each year; however, this should never be the only reason we attend training. School
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• School board legal liability insurance
• Employment practices liability insurance
• Outside of Arkansas General Liability coverage
• Unique policies for each district
• Distinctive and identifiable coverage grants
• Modified “defense outside of the limits” provision
• Separate crisis management fund
• Employment law resources through Enquiron
• Online resource website
• Panel defense counsel
• Dedicated claim representative
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board members make decisions that have significant and long-term consequences for their students, schools and communities. Let’s make sure we have the necessary knowledge to make the best decisions.
ASBA staff are available to help us stay current on educational issues/policies. Training available this summer includes the New Board Member Institute and the Workshop for Administrative Professionals, both of which were to occur June 21 at the Hotel Hot Springs. In addition, the Southern Region Leadership Conference will be in Biloxi, Mississippi, July 22-24.
Let’s take advantage of opportunities to help ourselves, our boards and our districts be the best. For more information on training opportunities available, visit arsba.org.
Have a safe and wonderful summer!
SCHOOLS FOR OVER
18
David Hopkins, Clarksville superintendent, stands behind a glass door installed in one of his school buildings to prevent visitors from entering the building until they have checked in with the office. Hopkins is a member of the Arkansas School Safety Commission appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson to make recommendations for improving school security.
and Features
Five students win ASBA scholarships
Five children of Arkansas school board members were awarded $650 scholarships by the Arkansas School Boards Association Educational Foundation for the 2018-19 school year. This is the 25th consecutive year for the awards.
State
funds are flat after inflation
Arkansas legislators provided more money for schools during this year’s fiscal session, but not really. And with more tax cuts coming, school advocates wonder where the money will come from.
From involvement to engagement
How do school districts move stakeholders past involvement to engagement? In part, by telling their own story. That was one of the messages of a presentation at the annual ASBA-AAEA Joint Leadership Conference.
Attorneys: Lake View still ‘good law’
The Lake View school funding case probably is still “good law” despite a recent court ruling that the state can’t be sued under the Arkansas Constitution. But the ability of citizens to seek redress for school funding and other issues will have to be clarified by future court cases.
Cover / Not in my school
As a School Safety Commission appointed by Gov. Hutchinson considers what changes need to be made to state policies and laws, school districts are taking steps to ensure they aren’t the next victim of an act of violence.
by Dr. Tony Prothro
Letter from the Executive Director Engagement with community fosters confidence and trust
The Arkansas School Boards Association often receives inquiries from board members who want to know how to best engage their constituents. We are always quick to ascertain whether or not the issue involves the discipline of students or in some way relates to the evaluation or discipline of an employee. In those instances, we advise all communications with the board to only take place in called meetings to properly deal with the issue. We also advise board members to direct public inquiries to the proper school official.
But what about other community relations outside of these taboo areas? Community engagement often takes place at the local coffee shop or at a community function. When this happens, board members are encouraged to answer proper questions, give accurate information and be transparent in their dialogue. One of the most important aspects of individual communication is to be a good listener since at times a constituent may bring enlightenment or at the least a new viewpoint to the equation. Community engagement is most viable if it is goal driven, focused and highly inclusive of all community demographics. This information if used properly can be a valuable resource for school strategic planning.
A key aspect of community engagement is held in conjunction with the
district strategic plan. Having the plan visible and serving as an avenue for dialogue assures the district’s vision and mission are in alignment with community views and expectations. This type of engagement also fosters confidence and trust between a board and its community. Again, it is important to be highly focused and inclusive of all demographics. ASBA has a cadre of facilitators who can assist districts with strategic planning if assistance is needed.
Oh, and a note from the attorneys to board members on community input: Please don’t come to a board meeting and look to the audience for a head count on how to vote. Board members at times have access to more information than patrons due to the amount of time committed to the position, information contained in meeting packets, multiple meetings on various topics, and constant exposure to district needs and resources. Board members are elected by patrons to serve as student-focused leaders, and to gather information and cast votes while taking into account what is best for the children and the district.
Board members are elected by their local patrons and are subsequently a representative and liaison to the community. It is an important aspect of board responsibilities that deserves proper due diligence.
The Journal of The arkansas school Boards associaTion
P.O. Box 165460 / Little Rock, AR 72216
Telephone: 501-372-1415 / 800-482-1212
Fax: 501-375-2454
E-mail: arsba@arsba.org / www.arsba.org
Board of Directors
President: Debbie Ugbade, Hot Springs
President-elect: Neal Pendergrass, Mtn. Home
Vice President: Randy Goodnight, Greenbrier
Sec.-Treasurer: Rosa Bowman, Ashdown
Past President: Sandra Porter, Bryant
Region 1: Jerry Coyle, Prairie Grove
Region 2: Randy Rogers, Lead Hill
Region 3: Dr. Tad Margolis, Valley View
Region 4: Kyle Cannon, Mena
Region 5: Allan George, Russellville
Region 6: Keith Baker, Riverview
Region 7: D’James Rogers, West Memphis
Region 8: André Acklin, Conway
Region 9: Joey Astin, Forrest City
Region 10: Deborah Smith, Malvern
Region 11:Jeff Lisenbey, Sheridan
Region 12: Willie Buck, Hope
Region 13: Mike Waters, Magnolia
Region 14: Katie Daniel, McGehee
Staff
Executive Director: Dr. Tony Prothro
Communications Director: Jennifer George
Member Services Director: Abby Cress
Administrative Assistant: Angela Ellis
Board Development Director: Dr. Anne Butcher
Advocacy Director: Boyce Watkins
Staff Attorney: Kristen Garner
Policy Director: Lucas Harder
TIPS-TAPS Project Manager: Mickey McFatridge
Finance Director: Deborah Newell
Administrative Assistant: Tina Cates
Bookkeeper: Kathy Ivy
Risk Management Program & Workers’ Comp. Program:
Shannon Moore, Director
Krista Glover
Amanda Blair
Dwayne McAnally
Ashley Samuels
Jennifer Shook
Misty Thompson
Melody Tipton
Tiffany Malone
LaVerne Witherspoon
General Counsel: Jay Bequette
TO CONTACT THE MAGAZINE
Please contact Steve Brawner, Editor
501.794.2012 brawnersteve@mac.com
Report Card is published quarterly by the Arkansas School Boards Association. Copyright 2018 by the Arkansas School Boards Association and Steve Brawner Communications. All rights reserved. Vol. 11, Number 2 June 2018
ASBA News and notes
Proposals sought for Conference breakout sessions
ASBA is seeking presentation proposals from school district personnel, school board members and other organizations for breakout sessions at the 65th Annual Conference Dec. 5-7.
ASBA’s goal is for all conference participants to leave this event empowered with new ideas, information, and skills that will improve outcomes for students. This year’s conference theme is Student-Focused Leadership.
Proposals should target board members as the primary audience; enhance their skills with an emphasis on improving student outcomes; share promising strategies and practices that can be replicated by other districts of all sizes; and provide solid, practical, how-to informa-
tion and tips that board members can take back and apply at the board table. Presentations should include a school board member as a participant, but it is not required.
ASBA is seeking presentations related to the following categories:
• Student Achievement. Presentations will center around the implementation of unique practices that have a positive impact on student achievement. This track offers an opportunity for districts to celebrate their successes with a “we did it and so can you” approach.
• Governance and Leadership. This category includes facets of board leadership and governance principles including topics such as advocating earnestly, leading responsibly, governing effectively, planning thoughtfully, evaluating continuously, communicating clearly, and acting ethically.
• Advocacy. This category focuses on how advocacy makes a difference both
in your community and in the legislative process. Attendees will learn skills to become more effective advocates
Continued on next page
for public education as well as how to organize at the grassroots and legislative levels.
• Technology. This category demonstrates how a district can best utilize technology for learning and leadership.
• Finance. Sessions in this category will show how districts allocate resources to support their mission and goals. This track can include solutions for better budgeting, financial issues affecting school districts, and practical advice on surviving difficult economic times.
• Legal Issues Presentations here will focus on legal issues including laws and regulations, best practices, ethical issues, court decisions, and hot topics.
• Stakeholder Involvement. Presentations will focus on processes and activities used to increase involvement and collaboration with parents, families, educators and communities to enhance school and student success.
Visit the ASBA session proposal form webpage at asba’s website, arsba.org, to submit a proposal. All session proposals must be submitted by Friday, Oct. 12.
Southern Region Conference set for July
22-24
This year’s Southern Region Leadership Conference will be July 22-24 at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Miss.
The annual event brings together school board members and administrators from Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, with locations rotating between the three states.
The keynote speaker is Marshall Ramsey, whose editorial cartoons are syndicated nationally by Creators Syndicate.
Concurrent sessions will be the following: Literacy: The Key to Educational Success; School Boards and Student Outcomes; Culturally Proficient Leadership; Soft Skills for Hard Numbers; and Common Sense Approach to Armed School Security.
That last session will be led by Lake Hamilton Superintendent Steve Anderson, who will discuss his district’s policy of training staff members to use weapons to confront school shooters.
Attendees from Arkansas and Mississippi can attend an early bird session July 22, The Millennials are Here! Unifying the Generations in the Boardroom and Workplace. Louisiana early birds will attend a legislative update session.
The cost to attend is $350 for school board members and other school leaders. The cost for spouses and guests is $65. The early bird session costs $105.
Special rates for the resort are $159 per night, plus other fees. Register online for the conference at www.msbaonline.org. For more information, call 888.367.6722.
Training
The Administrative Directives and Hard Conversations workshops will use real-life scenarios to teach building administrators and classified supervisors how to properly document those issues. The workshop at the same time will explain to school board members what goes on behind the scenes (and why they can and should have no participation in this process). Year after year, participants say this in-depth and hands-on training is the most valuable and useful training they have had.
All available spots have been reserved for the five sessions July 9, 10, 19, 24 and 26. Contact Kathy Ivy at kivy@arsba.org to see if spots become available as the summer progresses.
ASBA Family and Medical Leave Act training set for July
ASBA staff attorney Kristen Garner again will team up with Missy Duke, attorney with Cross Gunter Witherspoon and Galchus, for a two-day workshop on the Family and Medical Leave Act for school district superintendents and other central office staff.
The workshops are at the ASBA training room in Little Rock.
On day one, attendees receive a comprehensive overview of the law, cover the duties and responsibilities of employers, and learn about the rights of employees under FMLA. A strong emphasis will be on the interplay with sick or other leave, leave taken for childbirth and child bonding, and the employee’s right to job restoration. The second day takes up where day one left off and goes in-depth with form completion, timelines, health insurance during FMLA, administrative responses, and real-world practice scenarios.
ASBA staff attorney Kristen Garner again is leading summer training sessions about employee misconduct and performance problems.
The workshops were scheduled for June 7-8 and 19-20 and again for July 16-17. To register for the July workshop, go to asba’s website, arsba.org.
Garner
Dates, districts set for ASBA fall regional meetings
Dates and district locations have been set for Oct. 4 - Nov. 6 for ASBA’s fall regional meetings
Check-in begins at 5:30 p.m. each evening, dinner will be served at 6 p.m., and the meetings will end at 8:30 p.m.
Board members who cannot attend the meeting scheduled in their region may attend any of the others.
Board members earn three hours of training credit for attending. Those who have earned at least 25 hours of boardsmanship training credit are recognized for achieving Outstanding Board Member status. ASBA Board of Directors elections are conducted.
Dates and locations are as follows.
Region 1: Oct. 4, Prairie Grove School District
Region 2: Oct. 18, Lead Hill School Dist.
Region 3: Oct. 16, Pocahontas School Dist.
Region 4: Nov. 1, Mena School Dist.
Region 5: Oct. 9, South Conway County School Dist.
Region 6: Oct. 23, Bald Knob School Dist.
Region 7: Oct. 15, Truman School Dist.
Region 8: Oct. 30, North Little Rock School Dist.
Region 9: Nov. 1, Helena/West Helena School Dist.
Region 10: Nov. 6, Hot SpringsLakeside School Dist.
Region 11: Oct. 29, Watson Chapel School Dist.
Region 12: Nov. 5, DeQueen School Dist.
Region 13: Oct. 29, Bearden School Dist.
Region 14: Oct. 30, Crossett School Dist.
Detailed meeting information and registration links will be posted at asba’s website, arsba.org, in August.
Five students win ASBA scholarships
Foundation’s awards, now in their 25th year, go to children of school board members
Five children of Arkansas school board members were awarded $650 scholarships by the Arkansas School Boards Association Educational Foundation for the 2018-19 school year. This is the 25th consecutive year for the awards.
Four of the scholarships, one for each of the state’s congressional districts, are awarded to graduating high school seniors who are children of Arkansas school board members and will attend Arkansas institutions of higher learning in the fall. The awards are based on a student’s academic record and leadership potential. One award was given in each of the four congressional districts.
A fifth award, the J.K. Williams Memorial Scholarship, is awarded to the child of a school board member who is planning to pursue an advanced degree in education at an Arkansas college or university. Williams served as ASBA’s executive director from 1978 until 1992 and before that was a teacher, coach, central office administrator and superintendent. The award was renamed in his honor upon his death in 2012.
The winner of that award is Gavin Cantwell of Harrison, the son of Alpena School Board member Trisha Cantwell. He is completing his first year at North Arkansas College, where he is seeking a degree in agriculture education with a minor in agriculture business. He graduated third in his class at Alpena in 2017 with a 3.5 grade point average. He was president of the school’s FFA chapter and was a member of its livestock judging team. He was co-captain of the basketball team his senior year and
Arkansas Federal Surplus Property
8700 Remount Rd. North Little Rock, AR 72118
Phone: (501) 835-3111 Fax: (501) 992-1008 www.adem.arkansas.gov
today coaches basketball for students in grades 3-6. He also led devotionals with the Fellowship of Christian Students and was a small group leader at Bear Creek Springs Baptist Church.
The winner of the 1st District award was Scout Weatherford of Marmaduke, the daughter of Marmaduke School Board member Jason Weatherford. She plans to major in biology and chemistry at Arkansas State University and become an orthopedic surgeon. She graduated fourth in her class at Marmaduke with a 4.3 grade point average, scored a 33 on her ACT exam, and completed five college courses. She was a member of the Student Council, whose focus was raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She also participated in the Beta Club, Future Business Leaders of America, FFA, the Interact club, and JUST (Jesus Uniting Students Together). She also was a member of the basketball team, where she was all-conference, alldistrict, and all-region.
The winner of the 2nd District award was Brayden Williams of DeValls Bluff, the daughter of Hazen School Board member Davy Williams. Williams plans to attend Arkansas State University-Beebe and currently has an undeclared major. She graduated from Hazen High School first in her class of 42 with a 4.0 grade point average and earned almost 15 college hours. She was class president, Student Council treasurer, a member of the National Honor Society,
Weatherford Williams Cantwell
Cannon a basketball team captain, cheerleading captain, played softball, volunteered as a Pee Wee basketball referee and in other activities, and was a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Williams also was an Arkansas Girls State delegate.
The winner of the 3rd District award was Kayla Young of Van Buren, the daughter of Van Buren School Board member Carman Young. She plans to major in nursing at the University of Central Arkansas and hopes to become a pediatric oncology nurse at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. She graduated 18th in her class of 402 with a 4.05 grade point average and has taken five Advanced Placement courses and four concurrent classes. She was co-captain of the dance team, was vice president of Delta Beta Sigma, and was a member of the National Honor Society; Mu Alpha Theta; Beta Club; Family, Career and Community Leaders of America; and Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
She also was an Arkansas Girls State delegate.
The winner of the 4th District award was Carson Cannon of Hatfield, the son of Mena School Board member Kyle Cannon. Cannon plans to study biology at Arkansas State University and become an anesthesiologist. He graduated second in his class from Mena High with a 4.13 grade point average, scored a 32 on his ACT, and obtained 30 college hours while in high school. He was quarterback of the football team and allconference, and he was all-conference in soccer and a member of the state championship finalist team. He also played basketball. He was a member of the Student Council; National Honor Society; Future Business Leaders of America; Family, Career and Community Leaders of America; and Fellowship of Christian Students. He also has helped implement the Mena Youth Football TEAMATES program and volunteered with the Bearcat Foundation.
Young
ASBA-AAEA Joint Leadership Conference
School are funds flat after inflation
And with more tax cuts coming, school advocates wonder where the money will come from
Arkansas legislators provided more money for schools during this year’s fiscal session, but not really.
Lawmakers increased foundation funding by 1 percent to $6,781. That amount isn’t enough to keep up with inflation, said ASBA Executive Director Dr. Tony Prothro. Meanwhile, funding was left completely flat for alternative learning environments, for English language learners, and in the National School Lunch Act category. An additional $4 million was provided for professional learning communities.
Those amounts had been approved as part of the budget during the regular session in 2017, but lawmakers appropriate the money annually during the regular and fiscal sessions.
Prothro provided an update of the fiscal session along with Dr. Richard Abernathy, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, at the two organizations’ annual Joint Leadership Conference May 10.
The lack of additional funding for education comes as a task force is considering revamping the tax code. After taxes were cut for lower- and middleincome Arkansans the past two sessions, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he wants to lower the top rate from 6.9 percent to 6 percent. Some lawmakers have their own proposals for tax cuts.
Lawmakers did approve an increase of $2 million for the Arkansas Better Chance preschool program, to $116 million annually. However, a draft amendment that would have added $17 million for pre-kindergarten classes along with another $33 million to a fund for education never made it out of committee.
Prothro said the combination of flat funding and reduced taxes is concerning.
“How are you going to keep cutting the taxes and keep up with inflationary costs of schools?” he said. “Where is the money going to have to come from? Because we’ve been tightening the belts for the last few years, and it gets tighter and tighter just like with many agencies.”
Public school advocates are fighting a constant battle to ensure public dollars aren’t used for private schools. At the governor’s request this year, the Legislature provided an additional $242,677 for the Succeed Scholarship Program, bringing the total appropriation to $1,542,677. That program is difficult to oppose politically because it provides funding for severely disabled students to attend private schools.
Other ideas are easier to oppose. Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, attempted to pass an amendment that would have allowed parents to use their 529 college savings accounts for public and private schools, including tuition. The program traditionally has allowed taxpayers to save money tax-free for higher education costs, but a change in federal law in 2017 allows it to be used for K-12 expenses at public and private schools. Rapert’s amendment would have made it legal to do so in Arkansas, reducing state revenues by up to $5.2 million per year. But it failed to move past the full House on two occasions.
The fiscal session is meant to focus on budgetary issues, with more substantive policy debates meant to occur during the general sessions in odd-numbered years. Preparations for that session
are already beginning. Members of the House and Senate Education Committees are meeting to write the adequacy report that determines funding.
The push to use public dollars for private schools through vouchers, tax deductions, tax credits and scholarships will continue. If it succeeds, less money will be available for public schools. To stop it, school advocates at the Capitol will need help from school board members.
“We can talk until we’re blue in the face, but when we send that alert … and when you respond to your local legislators and say, ‘This is how it’s going to affect our school district,’ that’s the power,” Prothro said.
Abernathy encouraged attendees not to wait until lawmakers are in session to start trying to influence them. Instead, he said, have a dialogue about the district’s needs, and invite them into the schools.
He said legislators deserve praise for the increased flexibility they’ve provided school districts in recent years.
Other changes are on the horizon with respect to school funding. The governor has said the state cannot continue to fund the state’s partnership building program at the same rate as in the past. Also, potential changes in transportation funding could result in increases for some districts but reductions in others.
Coming teacher shortage?
Another challenge facing school districts is recruiting teachers. Prothro and Abernathy told attendees that higher salaries are needed to draw more people into the profession. Moreover, large disparities exist in what some districts can pay their teachers compared to others.
At the same time, the number of education degree seekers in Arkansas has declined significantly in recent years. Prothro said he’s heard that parents are advising their children to get vocational training because they can earn their degree in two years and make more money. And that’s a problem.
“If you’re not getting quality teaching personnel, a kid could lose a lifetime of learning,” he said.
CAPITOL CLIMATE. ASBA Executive Director Dr. Tony Prothro discusses the Legislature at the Joint Leadership Conference.
From involvement to engagement
Speakers offer insight for reaching stakeholders. One element: Tell your story
How do school districts move stakeholders past involvement to engagement? In part, by telling their own story.
That was one of the messages of a presentation at the annual Joint Leadership Conference bringing together ASBA and the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators May 10.
Among the speakers was Kim Wright, Arkansas Department of Education director for stakeholder communication and family and community engagement, and Meghan Ables, ADE public information officer. Ables was the 2016 Arkansas Teacher of the Year.
Wright told attendees, “What we used to call involvement, we’ve escalated to engagement.” And part of engaging stakeholders is informing them about what the district is doing regarding academics, student support, fiscal governance and other areas.
“The more they know, the more they can get involved and support you and help you,” she said.
Ables encouraged attendees to make use of social media tools, particularly Twitter, to communicate the district’s vision and mission. She asked participants if their social media focused too much
on sports and not enough on academics. And she described some of the ways districts have shared their stories. At Sheridan, students were raising money for autism awareness. Central Elementary in Cabot was preparing for a family field day. Lake Hamilton features an employee of the month.
Wright encouraged attendees to know their communities and know who can
share their message. If districts don’t communicate their message, someone else will. Ables echoed that warning, saying, “For every 10 positive stories we share, it takes at least that many to get rid of that one negative that was talked about down at the barber shop.”
Attendees shared some of their stories and the ways they are telling
Please see “Engagement,” page 15
GETTING STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGED. Kim Wright, Arkansas Department of Education director of stakeholder communication and family and community engagement, speaks at the Joint Leadership Conference. Meghan Ables, ADE public information manager and 2016 Arkansas Teacher of the Year, looks on.
Attorneys: Lake View still ‘good law’
But questions still need answers after Supreme Court limits lawsuits against state
The Lake View school funding case probably is still “good law” despite a recent court ruling that the state can’t be sued under the Arkansas Constitution. But the ability of citizens to seek redress for school funding and other issues will have to be clarified by future court cases.
That’s according to testimony April 23 to the House and Senate Education Committees by the Bureau of Legislative Research’s Matthew Miller, assistant director for legal services, and Isaac Linam, staff attorney.
At issue is how much the Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee school funding case is affected by The Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas v. Matthew Andrews. In that case, the court ruled the state enjoys so-called “sovereign immunity” that can’t be waived by legislation.
Miller said the two cases aren’t directly comparable. The Andrews case involves a statutory issue, while Lake View involved a constitutional school funding issue where the Supreme Court has offered a clear mandate.
“We don’t have direct precedent, but we have to stretch Andrews a long way to reach Lake View and strike it down at this point,” he said.
Linam agreed, saying, “I think we should probably presume that Lake View is still good law.”
Miller said more court precedents are needed to know what would happen if the state changes the school funding formula. And more precedents are coming in the near future because so many ongoing cases are affected by Andrews.
In 1992, the Lake View School District sued the state claiming the school funding system violated the state and federal Constitutions because it was inadequate and inequitable.
The Arkansas Constitution requires the state to “ever maintain a general, suitable and efficient” education system.
The case was not ended until 2007. In the meantime, Arkansas increased education funding and created a formula meant to spread the wealth and keep the state out of court.
Then on Jan. 18, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled 4-2 in Andrews that the state has sovereign immunity and can’t be sued. It interpreted precisely Article 5, Section 20 of the Arkansas Constitution, which says, “The State of Arkansas shall never be made defendant in any of her courts.”
Miller said the court had held a similar view before reading the section less literally starting in 1996.
“So basically we revert to the line of thought we were following pre-1996,” he said.
Won’t know for sure until another lawsuit
Among the questions to be answered is the extent to which Arkansans can sue in the future by saying the state is not meeting its school funding adequacy responsibilities. Miller agreed with Majority Leader Jim Hendren, R-Gravette, who said, “Basically, we won’t know until somebody files a lawsuit and the Supreme Court decides.”
Miller said Arkansas is one of three states – the others are Alabama and West Virginia – with similar sovereign immunity sections in their Constitution. Twenty-three state constitutions explicitly say their legislatures can pass sovereign immunity statutes. Twenty-four don’t address the issue.
In recent months, the court has answered some basic questions about the issue. In Walther v. Flis Enterprises, the court ruled the state must present an affirmative defense of sovereign immunity rather than assume the suit is automatically improper. Other court rulings have made it clear that the state’s minimum wage and whistleblower laws are unconstitutional where they allow suits against the state.
Miller said it’s safe to assume that Andrews applies to other legislative waivers of sovereign immunity, including the state’s Administrative Procedures Act and possibly the Freedom of Information Act.
The majority opinion in the Andrews case did not say the decision is limited to monetary damages. In the minimum wage case, the court could have made a distinction between sections of the law allowing actions for both equitable and monetary disputes. Instead, the court struck down the law in its entirety. It did the same in the whistleblower case.
Still to be determined is whether plaintiffs can sue over the awarding of medical marijuana licenses. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen ruled that sovereign immunity did not apply if a state agency is acting illegally.
“If that was appealed and affirmed, then that’s some interesting precedent that we’d have going forward that would impact future cases like Lake View,” Miller said.
Hendren
Engagement
them. Conway School Board member Bill Clements said that of his district’s 630 graduates, 240 have a grade point average of 3.5 or higher. Bentonville School Board member Joe Quinn said the district honored its 18 National Merit Semifinalists by buying them rings and recognizing them at halftimes of football and basketball games. The message: Academic excellence is as important as quarterbacking excellence. Armorel Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree said the district realized parents weren’t going to the district’s website but instead were active on social media, so it offered a $1,000 stipend to a tech-savvy teacher to become social media coordinator.
“It’s that ‘Do whatever it takes mentality,’” she said.
Deborah Coffman, ADE public school manager, echoed that viewpoint in her presentation, “Putting ‘public’ in public education.” When she was an elementary teacher at Hoxie, the school district had an expectation of 100 percent participation in parent-teacher conferences. If parents didn’t show up, she went to find them – at factories, during their lunch hours and breaks, or whenever.
schedules and handbooks tell the community a lot.
Wright said districts need to hear from “just parents” – those with children in school but who aren’t advocates. She said the department is creating a framework for family and community engagement with help from a coalition of stakeholders across the state along with focus groups.
Wright pointed out that the Armorel district didn’t ask its parents to change their online habits. Instead, it adapted and met them where they already were.
Coffman challenged attendees to consider what message they are sending to parents and other stakeholders. Is a trip to a pizza restaurant on a field trip just a fun meal? Or will students learn about negotiating and paying for items? She asked attendees how many members of the public will actually attend the annual report to the public. She asked if their district’s website is easy to find and read and if school board minutes are clear. She said a district’s policies, salary
Engaging stakeholders is being made easier thanks to the Every Student Succeeds Act, the successor to No Child Left Behind passed by Congress. ESSA gives states and school districts more flexibility than the top-down-driven NCLB. Ables encouraged districts to take advantage of that change.
“Here is your moment,” she said. “ESSA is changing the conversation, right? So don’t be the district that keeps doing things the same old way. Let ESSA give you permission to jump out of the box and do something different for kids.” Continued from page 13
A BEACON OF HOPE IN FREE MARKETS EDUCATION
By Warren A. Stephens
In many ways Arkansas is poised to be a leader in financial education. Unlike many states, Arkansas requires high school students to take classes in both economics and personal finance. The University of Arkansas business school has an 88% placement rate for graduating students, who are recruited by highly competitive companies from all over the country.
Still, data from Economics Arkansas ranks our state No. 4 in the country in financial illiteracy. Improving that ranking is a goal shared by many in both the public and private sectors. Arkansas is not alone in needing to boost the quality of financial education we are giving our students. An assessment of student financial literacy from the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) showed that 22% of American students failed to meet the baseline of financial literacy. Only one in ten U.S. students earned a top ranking for financial literacy.
These statistics reveal much about the education system in this country. Just 22 states require that high school students take an economics course prior to graduation while 17 states require that high school students take a personal finance class. Clearly, there is more that can –and must – be done, both here in our state and in the rest of the country.
Ongoing, contextual education is essential for developing a workforce that will allow our students to succeed and our businesses to remain competitive. The benefits
of education in economics and personal finance range from a better understanding of the national and global economy to having less personal debt and being more inclined to save for retirement and emergencies.
With education, people are empowered to make informed decisions and choices.
But gaps in education persist. Even when economics and personal finance courses are required, schools, both public and private, are challenged by limited resources. Teachers are often not equipped with the right tools and
may themselves have had limited exposure to the tenets of our free enterprise system. These are contributing factors in our country’s overall failure to educate students in these critical subjects.
Economics Arkansas has been diligent in building the much needed infrastructure to teach young people basic economic theory and financial literacy through a solution-oriented approach that provides educators with invaluable tools and training. This is why we at Stephens have partnered with Economics Arkansas to create a statewide educational program on free enterprise, for pre-K through grade 12. “This is Capitalism,” an informational multimedia series that we launched in 2017, will serve as a key component of our partnership with Economics Arkansas.
I ask that fellow leaders in the business community play their part as well, whether in providing direct financial support, offering educational programs, or partnering with key stakeholders. The financial literacy of the next generation is – or should be – a concern to all businesses, not just those in financial services. People knowledgeable about the basic principles of capitalism and armed with an understanding of how to access capital and harness it will be better positioned to participate in the free market system.
Finally, we must recognize that education is essential because young people need to understand the direct connection between capitalism and personal freedom.
Only in a free market democracy are individuals allowed to make their own decisions and choices. With education, people are empowered to make informed decisions and choices. Schools can’t teach personal responsibility, but they can help students understand the implications of having the opportunity to shape their own futures while contributing to the greater good.
Seizing opportunity, applying new thinking, and working until the market confirms your solution are essential elements of capitalism. I hope that Arkansas, by showing the power of education and the effectiveness of public and private partnership, can serve as a replicable example for solving a problem that plagues our entire country.
Warren A. Stephens Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Not in our school
Mass shootings, though rare, are traumatizing for schools, communities and the nation. State officials and school professionals are looking for answers about how to prevent them – and respond when they happen.
By Steve Brawner Editor
When a student walks into a high school and kills 10 people, that should be surprising. Paige Curry wasn’t surprised.
“It’s been happening everywhere. I’ve always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here, too,” the 17-year-old told KPRC-TV after the shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas May 18.
The nightmare suffered by Curry’s community could happen in Arkansas – and, in fact, did happen in 1998 at the Westside Middle School near Jonesboro, when two students killed four of their classmates and a teacher. The shootings at Santa Fe and Westside were just two of a growing list now familiar to Americans in one- and two-word phrases: Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland.
The mass murder of 17 people by a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14 was not statistically the worst school shooting. However, the outraged reaction by students and subsequent protests sparked a national conversation – more so even than the killing of 26 people, including 20 first-graders, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Conway Superintendent Dr. Greg Murry said more parents have asked him about school safety in response to the Parkland shooting than have asked him about any of the others in the past 11 years.
“People are accustomed to hearing us talk about it, but you hear students talk about it, and then I think it brings it
home to folks. … It’s just the emotions that it’s brought forward from parents and teachers as well, I think it’s strikingly different,” he said.
State officials are feeling a new sense of urgency, too. On March 1, in the wake of the Parkland shooting, Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed an execu-
SECURITY MEASURE. Clarksville Superintendent David Hopkins stands behind a door installed next to a school office. If you want to get into the school, the office has to open that door.
tive order creating an Arkansas School Safety Commission to consider a broad range of issues, including mental health, school counselors, architectural designs, prevention and response capability, and coordination with law enforcement. Calling it an “urgent matter,” he said the 18-member commission will issue its final report by Nov. 30, with a preliminary report due July 1 before the start of the school year. Hutchinson asked commission members to study what’s happening nationally, identify best practices and make recommendations.
The commission is chaired by Dr. Cheryl May, director of the University of Arkansas System’s Criminal Justice Institute. It administers the Arkansas Center for School Safety, a partnership between the Institute and the Arkansas Department of Education. In 2017, Education Commissioner Johnny Key and May signed a memorandum of understanding making the program the designated Arkansas center for school safety. Now all the state’s programs are under its umbrella. It offers a catalog of free training courses for law enforcement and school personnel. Since 2009, the Institute has conducted almost 500 school safety classes, and it’s trained almost 15,000 law enforcement officers and educators and the majority of the state’s school resource officers. More than 4,700 school personnel have undergone its CRASE program, or Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events. The CRASE class originally was designed for businesses, not schools, but its has been adapted for education. Ten schools are scheduled to undergo the training this summer. Among the other courses is CPTED - Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, which May said can help schools as they consider new building projects. The course can offer important information on details like lighting, windows and plants.
The commission’s vice chair is Bill Temple, a retired FBI special agent. Other members include various Department of Education and law enforcement officials along with Clarksville Superintendent David Hopkins, Hot Springs High School counselor Dawn Anderson, and Vilonia High School teacher John Allison.
The commission has been meeting every two weeks while breaking off into subcommittees to study more specific issues such as physical security and mental health. Commission members have been meeting with the public and visiting schools, including Westside. May said that trip was made out of respect for that school’s experience and appreciation for its perspective.
It is a major undertaking. Asked in an interview if the commission’s work has become a significant part-time job, May replied by saying, “Part-time?” However, she said, the members of the group are driven by their passion for protecting young people.
The commission isn’t the only state government entity considering school security issues. A Safe Schools Committee in existence for about two decades develops policies and procedures for the State Board of Education and legislators. Among its achievements has been a law passed in 2017 exempting school safety plans from the state’s Freedom of Information Act. Its members are, among others, two classroom teachers appointed by the Arkansas Education Association, two school administrators appointed by the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, and two school board members appointed by
ASBA. Meanwhile, the Legislature’s Joint Performance Review Committee is discussing the issue as it prepares for the 2019 legislative session. Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, and Rep. Mark Lowery, R-Maumelle are co-chairs.
What are the needs?
Part of the commission’s job is determining deficiencies in the state’s current efforts. Prior to its presentation before Hutchinson’s Arkansas School Safety Commission, the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators surveyed superintendents and principals. Dr. Richard Abernathy, AAEA executive director, told the ASBA-AAEA Joint Leadership Conference May 10 that within 72 hours, the survey had received 372 responses regarding requests for additional security staff, security facilities, cameras, and mental health services, which aren’t funded by the state’s matrix. The AAEA told the commission that schools need a matching grant available for school security, additional overall funding, and a restricted categorical fund. May told the ASBA-AAEA Joint Leadership Conference in May that a training needs assessment generated almost 250 responses from administrators and another 75 from school resource
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Cover / School safety
CONTROLLED ACCESS. You can’t just walk into this building in the Conway School District anymore. Superintendent Dr. Greg Murry says schools can’t become prisons, but parents must have confidence their children will be safe.
officers. Even though the groups were surveyed independently, the responses were remarkably consistent. In fact, the top six answers were identical. Tops on both lists was internet safety, social media and other technologies. It was followed by response to an active shooter, bullying and cyber-bullying, identifying and addressing mental health needs, juvenile law and legal issues, and cybersecurity for schools.
Making schools safer
While policymakers consider what can be done at the state level, schools are trying to make their own campuses safer in places like Conway, Clarksville and Greenbrier. After the Parkland shooting, Murry said Conway reassessed its security situation. As one example, maintenance staff were asked to make sure that door closers were functioning properly.
But long before Parkland, school districts have been rethinking their layouts and physical security. At Conway, outside doors lock, cameras are installed, and anyone who wants to enter a building must speak into a camera and be buzzed in by the front desk. Meanwhile, classroom doors lock from the inside and are closed shut, the idea being that a shooter will be making quick decisions and will move on to the next door if the first one is locked. It’s not a perfect solution; those doors have windows that could be breached by an intruder with a gun. The district investigated installing bulletproof glass, but that would have required rehanging the doors and would have made them so heavy that it’s not certain a kindergarten student could even open them. Instead, the district is investigating an affordable, bullet-resistant film strip that can easily be installed over the windows. It won’t save the door, but it will stop the bullet.
Other districts are making their own physical changes. Clarksville received a grant from the National Rifle Association that it used to replace old doors, install better locks, and install buzz-
in systems. Greenbrier School Board member Randy Goodnight, an ASBA appointee on the Safe Schools Committee, estimates his district has spent $1.5 million on security systems since he was elected, including for cameras whose videos can be accessed from police cars if an active shooter is in the building, while Superintendent Scott Spainhour can see camera footage on his mobile phone. The buildings have been redesigned so that all have controlled access and nearly all have single points of entry. All classrooms have been retrofitted with locks that lock from the inside. Springhill Elementary’s windows are located near the floor level so students and teachers could escape if necessary. Regardless, even the best physical security designs will have holes. A school is a part of a community, requiring some degree of open access and the free flow of movement. Eighteen-foot walls topped by barbed concertina wire might make it harder for intruders to enter, but then the school begins looking a lot like a prison. Clarksville’s Hopkins said that even with all of the district’s security and protocols, if a student asks
in the door, another student probably will let them in. As Murry said, “Frankly, I’m not sure how much hardening of a campus you can do to protect against, say, a truly crazed person, but we need to prevent it as much as possible.”
But vigilance can make a difference. In comments at the Joint Leadership Conference, May recounted a visit to the Bentonville School District when she wandered away from the group without a badge, and a teacher soon approached asking if she could help her – exactly what that teacher should have done.
Local law enforcement
Ultimately, if an intruder gets in the building, someone will have to stop him, and that effort will involve local law enforcement officers. Courtney SalasFord, deputy general counsel with the Arkansas Department of Education, said at the Joint Leadership Conference that school districts should have a memorandum of understanding with their police department. May, director of the Criminal Justice Institute, said schools must not develop their drills “in a vacuum” and must coordinate with local law en-
forcement, who need to know the layout of the school. “If there is a response, it’s going to end up being local,” she said during an interview. In that spirit, about three years ago Conway had a major drill on its campus that was orchestrated by the FBI and included the local sheriff’s, police and fire departments. The drill was so involved that it was done on a non-student day, and the district has made its buildings available for police and other agencies on other non-student days. Greenbrier has had at least two active shooter drills where local law enforcement and Arkansas State Police SWAT teams have participated. It has also made it easier for law enforcement to react if a shooting occurs.
“We went around to every outside window of our buildings and put the room number on it so if an administrator calls and says we’ve got a shooter that’s locked in room 105, then they can walk around the outside and they’ll know which room to stop at,” Goodnight said. “Not, ‘Well, I think this is 105, or is this 106 or 108? So that’s a really big issue. Little stuff like that, a lot of people don’t think of. And with the shooters that we’ve had lately, you’ve got to think of it now.”
Security ... and armed staff?
No matter how prepared local law enforcement officers are, they still probably won’t be on campus if the shooting starts. For that reason, schools
are hiring more school resource officers. According to May, when Sandy Hook happened in 2012, the number of school resource officers in Arkansas was in the low 200s. The day of Hutchinson’s announcement, Arkansas schools employed 316 such officers, up from 299 the previous year. However, a census found only 60 percent had school resource officer training. The Institute’s basic class will be offered this summer, and 60 participants are signed up. May said school resource officers who are appropriately trained can play a big role in school safety – not just by stopping shooters but by developing relationships and building trust with students.
Still, school resource officers can’t be everywhere, either. While 60 percent of districts have one in at least one school, only one-third of the state’s individual schools have one. And so some Arkansas districts have taken the next step by arming staff members. Under the state’s commissioned school security officer program, armed staff members are required to have 60 training hours with 24 hours required annually.
Clarksville is one of them. It employs one school resource officer, it’s in a city environment with easy access by the police department, and its schools are within about a mile of each other. But Superintendent David Hopkins said it could still take that school resource officer and the police several minutes to get to the site of the shooting. In
2013 in response to Sandy Hook, the district decided to create an Emergency Response Team. Administration members considered which staff members would have the most aptitude, told them what was planned, and asked them to think about it and talk to their family. There would be no compensation. They would be paid an $1,100 stipend to buy their equipment, firearm and holsters. They’d be given 50 rounds of ammunition a month, targets, and a $100 annual reimbursement if needed, and the district would pay for their concealed carry permit. A couple said no, but most said yes.
At the time, the commissioned school security officer program had not yet been created, but the ERT underwent 50 hours of training. Hopkins’ two sons were among those who participated in mock school shootings. The program worked with local law enforcement.
Hopkins said hiring additional fulltime school resource officers to cover all the buildings isn’t feasible. The cost to arm and train a staff member is $3,119.51, with an annual cost of $880 per person afterwards. Preparing 10 people once for the unlikely event of a school shooting costs less than the annual cost of hiring one school resource officer.
“You can go back to different events that have occurred, and teachers are responding,” Hopkins said. “They are getting shot. They are getting killed
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because they are responding, but they’re responding without training and without equipment. And that’s what I think has to change is that those people that may possibly be responding, if they’re willing to be trained and armed, why not? Why are we not doing that?”
Hopkins said protocols have been established to minimize the risk of an accident. For example, firearms can be removed only when students are not present and are stored in safes that have been installed in various locations, including in bathrooms. Hopkins emphasized that ERT members aren’t security guards or police officers.
“The only time that a CSSO person on our campus steps into that role is if someone comes into our building that has a weapon and is intending to use it to harm our people,” he said.
At Clarksville, signs clearly communicate that the district is protected by armed security – in fact, a big one near the door to the administration building informs visitors of that fact. Hopkins said one purpose of the sign is to deter potential shooters, who plan their attacks so as to achieve the maximum possible effect.
Most other Arkansas districts have not made the same decision as Clarksville. In Conway, the administration and the board considered the option and decided against it, deciding that the risks didn’t outweigh the benefits. According to Murry, it just was “a hard step for me to take.”
According to May, comprehensive school safety programs contain five elements: prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery. While the focus is often on the shooter, all of these must also be covered.
Drills and preparation
The possibility of an attack has led to a heightened focus on drills and preparation. During summer times, Clarksville’s teachers undergo active shooter training, the goal being to get them thinking about what they would do if it actually happened. One teacher hung up a display that included a baseball bat. The display is appropriate for the classroom and subject matter, but that bat also could be used as a weapon. In a real
school shooting, the plan is to inform staff members exactly what is happening using plain speech rather than code. At that point, teachers have to make decisions about whether to lock down or try to escape. The focus isn’t on telling teachers what to do, but instead on giving them options.
“We’ve tried to empower our teachers to make the decision themselves rather than wait on the administration to tell them where to go or what to do,” Hopkins said. “That’s the biggest change in the way we train our people now.”
Conway started having active shooter drills several years ago and now drills roughly once a month – just as it has with fire drills for many years. And while Clarksville doesn’t explicitly refer to it as an active shooter drill, Conway does.
“It is something that is not a distant happening any more for kids. I think they understand that there could be somebody in the building,” Murry said.
Before Columbine, law enforcement waited until the team was assembled before entering the school. Now officers are expected to engage as soon as possible, alone if necessary, to neutralize the threat. And that’s not the only change. No longer does the training emphasize an orderly exit; experience has shown that the most effective way to save the most lives is for students and staff members to run from the shooter to safety, and then everyone can organize later. Conway has decided that if an intruder is in one part of the building, then the students in the other part will escape the building and scatter as fast as they can. What’s not going to happen is that the students will line up in single file and march out of the building. In Clarksville, the toughest adjustment has been for older teachers, who have been trained during a fire drill to march out a particular door. But as Hopkins asked, what if the fire is behind that door?
“I had much rather go out into those woods by the school and round those kids up after something like that happens rather than open the door of a bathroom in the back of a classroom, and they’re all lined up neatly with bullet holes in the back of their heads,” he said.
Mental Health First Aid
Most of the school shootings have been done by students. Because of that, preventing the shootings is as important as reacting to them. The Arkansas Department of Education encourages districts to provide at least one therapist for every 500 students. Betsy Kindall, ADE’s school-based mental health specialist, said Arkansas is fairly unique in that nearly every district provides a mental health professional and/or programs. Of the state’s 479,000 students, about 30,000 receive mental health services, most at the school and, in 90 percent of the districts, using outside mental health providers under contract. The ADE has sample contracts to ensure high-quality services and best practices. Also, Arkansas is one of the few states that employs a mental health specialist to work with school districts to ensure they do best practices. Conway, one of the state’s largest districts, is hiring a social worker next year for the first time who will be able to work with students and parents and make sure resources are available to them. But Murry said more is needed.
“The number of resources, people that can help students with psychological problems in relationship to the proportion of numbers is just staggeringly small,” he said.
One tool is Mental Health First Aid, an eight-hour training program that teaches school employees and others to identify and respond to mental illnesses and substance abuse. Arkansas has 51 trainers and 3,680 certified providers, far less than many other states. The Arkansas Center for School Safety will offer Mental Health First Aid training and hopes to increase the number of trainers by 30 by the end of the summer.
Kindall said educators need to learn about trauma-focused care and being a trauma-sensitive school. The most important thing an educator can do is build relationships with students and recognize when they are at risk.
Because so many of the school shootings have been perpetrated by students, and because there is only so much good that mental health services can accomplish, schools must react when a student makes a threat. And, consider-
ing so many lives are at stake, it’s better to overreact rather than underreact.
Clarksville’s Hopkins laments that his only tool in certain cases is expulsion, and then where does that student go? However, he will expel that student if necessary. In Conway, a student made a threat on social media and was expelled. He said he was joking and may have been, and Murry said the district doesn’t want to insert students into the system unnecessarily. However, the potential consequences of inaction are just too great.
“My hope and trust is that he was not serious about it and that he was not going to carry through with it, but I don’t have the luxury of trying to guess whether he’s going to do it or not,” he said.
Protesting productively
Part of the communication process involves listening – and that includes listening to students. The Parkland students organized a day of protests where across the country some students walked out of class at 10 a.m. March 14 for 17 minutes. School districts handled the protests in various ways so as not to stifle free speech but at the same time maintain order. If students could walk out of class for this cause, then why not any other? In Conway, some students left class and stood quietly in the courtyard, and as a result were given Saturday school for the first offense, the same
consequence given any other student who walked out of class.
Prior to that demonstration, Conway High Principal Jason Lawrence had talked to some students about productive ways of expressing their concerns. As a result of that discussion, during that same day at lunch about 100 students came to the lecture hall and wrote letters to elected officials, which a student traveling to Washington, D.C., personally delivered to the state’s congressional delegation.
“This is not about their right to protest, as you certainly know,” Murry said. “This is not about free speech. This is about when is it appropriate, and how can we do this in an appropriate way.”
Communication with the community is also important. Earlier this school year, a Facebook post spread throughout Clarksville featuring a male on a bed with what appeared to be an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle with writing threatening “CHS.” Many interpreted that as “Clarksville High School.” As concern spread, the school resource officer talked with the police, who tracked the post to Clovis, New Mexico. Hopkins sent an all-call message to the district explaining what happened, and the panic subsided.
Mass school shootings where a gunman enters a school and shoots multiple victims, while traumatic, are still exceedingly rare. For most students most of the time, schools are a safe
place. According to James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University, there are 55 million schoolchildren, and over the past 25 years an average of about 10 per year have been killed by gunfire at school. That’s less than drown in pools or die in bicycle accidents. The article describing the research on the university’s website was written before the recent shooting of 10 people in Santa Fe, Texas, which would change the numbers a little, but not much.
A balance must be achieved – one that devotes an appropriate level of resources to address a risk that, while small, carries enormous consequences. If a district spends millions on security but not enough on math classes, the consequences are severe – even lifethreatening because there’s no better predictor of longevity than poverty, and there’s no better way out of poverty than a good education.
At the same time, parents need assurances that when their most precious possession walks into the school building in the morning, that they’ll walk out that afternoon.
“At the end of the day, they want their babies to get a good education, they want them to be able to be involved in great academics and great activities that we have here in Conway, but more than anything else they want their babies safe at home at the end of the day,” Murry said.
EXECUTIVE SESSION with Randy Goodnight
By Steve Brawner Editor
Greenbrier’s Randy Goodnight was elected 11 years ago. At the time, he owned a Tires For Less dealership. Before that, he had been a straw boss for a welding operation that built pipelines across the country. In that capacity, he worked for a foreman and helped oversee 38 welders. He’s now semiretired.
It has been an eventful 11 years. Shortly after his election, he helped hire the district’s current superintendent, Scott Spainhour. The district had already pioneered the E.A.S.T. lab science and technical skills program. Several years ago, it partnered with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock so that all qualified students can graduate with an associate’s degree by taking concurrent and Advanced Placement classes at a cost of only $50 per class. By May, about 50 students will have graduated with an associate’s degree. Meanwhile, Goodnight is one of two school board members appointed by ASBA to serve on the Safe Schools Committee, which works with the Department of Education to form school safety policies and legislation. He testified before another group, the governor’s Arkansas School Safety Commission, the day before Report Card’s interview with him.
Goodnight is ASBA’s vice president and will be president in two years. Report Card sat down with him April 18 to discuss his district’s academic successes and school security issues common to all districts.
What made you decide to run for the school board?
“Just to help the district. I didn’t have any kind of agenda. No axes to grind. I felt like the district might have been going in a little different direction than I wanted it to. I’m a graduate from here. My wife taught here 30 years. This is her last year to teach, so I just wanted to help and get us on the right academic direction.”
How did your two-year associate’s degree program come about?
“We as a board always support anything that helps our students and our parents of this district. Susan Jackson, our curriculum director, we talked about it with her, and she took the ball and ran with it. So it was actually easy on our part to get it done because she did all the work. We had Dr. (Lisa) Todd, (deputy superintendent) at the time, and Scott
and Susan, and they all worked hard and built this relationship with UALR where they could do this. I’d say the first two years we accidentally had 11 graduate because they didn’t have time to make their schedules. The first full year that they actually had time to schedule in to go for the AA (associate of arts) degree, we had 20 to graduate. I felt like we had our students going the right direction before we implemented the AA degree anyway because of the ones that accidentally got the degree.”
Whose idea was this?
“You know, it’s been so long ago, I don’t know that any one person could take credit for it. Miss Jackson was probably the biggest instrument in doing it. Of course, we all supported her, the whole board did, not just me. But we had been pushing students to take concurrent credit classes so much before that and take these tests and rewarding students for doing so. Therefore, it was an easy step for us to make to go on to the AA degree.”
Do you think the students are held to too low a standard sometimes?
“I think in some instances they are. I don’t think we hold them there. I think we hold them to a way higher standard than most public school districts do.”
Why is that?
“We expect more out of them, and if you expect more, you get more.”
What led you at Greenbrier to expect more?
“I would say just, in my personal opinion, the state of Arkansas always being 50th on the list, us or Mississippi was always behind, and I just got tired of hearing it more than anything. We can teach. We’ve had national programs that’s come out of this school. The E.A.S.T. program was started at this school 20-25 years ago. That’s a national program now. The AA degree, I know it’s going to take some other schools a while to catch us. We’ll be the first forever, but there will be some more do it. I think it’s just a matter of wanting to push the kids and get them an education.”
Do you think starting the E.A.S.T. program created a culture in this district of trying to do special things?
“I think even back then, some of that helped. It was a program that was started for GT kids to push them and give them somewhere else to go, and I think maybe the kids that were a little bit behind thought, ‘Hey, that looks like fun. I want to get involved in that.’ It just had a trickle-down effect. And I’ll give credit to Miss Jackson again for this, and Dr. Todd. They said, ‘We made learning cool.’ Smart kids are cool at Greenbrier. It’s not the nerds or the geeks anymore.”
Do you think schools could do a better job of making vocational education and academics the same thing?
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“I think you have to. Where we went with the college courses first, we’re pushing now on the vocational. What’s helped Greenbrier district is we’ve always had a really good ag program, so they’ve already been pushing the vo-tech type stuff.
“But our ag teachers also want those kids to be smart. I mean, figuring angles on pipe doesn’t sound complicated, but if you don’t know some algebra and you don’t know a whole lot of math and you can’t read a set of blueprints, then guess what? You can’t fabricate a pipeline. You can go out there and do the basics and just help a welder, but you can’t go in there and take a set of prints and build a gas station. I don’t claim to be that smart, and I am blue collar, but on the business end of things, if you don’t know math, and you don’t know at least a good background in school, owning your own business isn’t going to work. You have to have so much knowledge no matter what you go into, so I don’t think we’re going to back off even on our vocational students. We’re not going to back off on the learning in school just to say, ‘Oh, well, you’re not going to need this because you’re going into this.’ They’re still going to need to know a lot of it.”
And the result of all this was all A’s on your state report card, and big financial awards from the state.
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Executive Session
One board member’s opinion is worth nothing. You’ve got to have a group of board members that can work together, put their personal differences aside. If we don’t agree on something as a person, we can hash it out and decide what’s best for the district, and we can put our feelings aside, I guess, and get together and unite. Even if I don’t get my way, that doesn’t mean that my way was right. It’s what’s best for the kids. “ ”
“Seven campuses, $453,000, which for our size school is a bunch of money. … Seven million dollars statewide, and we got $450,000. You can do the math on the amount of districts, and we got our part.”
Your district started in the past few years the Greenbrier Athletic Association and the Greenbrier FFA Association, both of them to raise money.
“For two different activities. Obviously, the athletic association is anything to do with athletics. What started that was we built a turf field. We as board members didn’t feel like tax dollars should be spent there when we need buildings and books and computers and stuff. So we started that. Most, I would say 95 percent of that turf field was paid for by donations from boosters. The school had to back it to get financing, of course, but … they make the payments. The school is on the hook for it if something happened, but that’s not been an issue.
“The FFA Foundation is completely separate. We started it. We’ve got a good program, obviously. The first year, our auction made right at $30,000 even. The second year it made $31,000. That goes right back into the program, scholarships for ag students that we give away. I think we gave away six or seven last year from $1,500 down to $500 scholarships. If we have a student that wants to, say, show a lamb and their parents can’t afford it, we’ll use that foundation money, FFA Foundation, we’ll buy their animal and the feed for it, let them show it and sell it. It’s teaching responsibility. It’s teaching so many more things than
just, ‘Hey, I’m going to go show a sheep or a cow or a chicken or whatever it is.’ So we try to make it where socioeconomics has nothing to do with being able to succeed in our ag programs or any other program in this district. … If we’ve got a student that can’t afford a trumpet, we’re going to find out a way to get them the trumpet.”
You serve on the Safe Schools Committee. How did you get on that?
“What that committee’s got is it’s got educators, administrators, school board members, school resource officers, some people from the Department of Ed. They kind of wanted a cross-section on it so we could go in, and we’ve done several good things. Some schools use their own security. We’ve got it in law that they have to have 60 hours of training now. … If you’ve got a safety plan, anything at Greenbrier Schools, you can pull up according to the FOI laws except for student discipline and a few little items. Well, if we make a safety plan, and if we do it at a board meeting, then it’s FOI. We don’t want an active shooter to know where we’re
going to leave when you pull the fire alarm because obviously that’s where they’re going to be. So we wanted that to be protected, and we got that done (through the Legislature). So that was one big, big issue we had with school safety.”
What did you tell the governor’s commission yesterday?
“The four topics of interest, which is mental health, safety on facilities, locking down, that type stuff, the training for anybody, resource officer, whatever. We would like to actually get it put in law that if you’ve got – and funded of course – if you’ve got a thousand students, you get one resource officer. If you have 2,000 students, you get two. … Since (the school shooting in) Parkland, (Fla.), the city has agreed to let us have another officer. We’ve got a good working relationship with our police chief here in town, and they supply all the equipment and the officer, and while school’s in session, we pay them monthly for our officer to be here and then they take care of him in the summertime when we don’t need them. And it’s a real good partnership for us.”
In the past few years, what all have you done for school security?
“We’ve got single points of entrance on nearly every building. … We require all of our teachers to lock their classrooms. We redesigned buildings. The Springhill Elementary has got windows down low that the teachers and the kids can actually escape from if they need to.
“Of course, our key system is a really big deal because you don’t have teachers fumbling around with keys. You can also track who’s coming and who’s going. You know who the last one was that left the building. … It’s a big push to get it where teachers can barricade themselves in the room. That all sounds like a really good idea. What if you get a crazy person that takes a kid into the room and uses the barricade against you? How do you get in there to free a kid, or two kids or five kids? … Since all the school shootings, there’s never been a student shot that a locked door was breached. So it’s not like they’re going in there and kicking doors down.
So I think my personal opinion is just a regular lock in a classroom door (is needed) as long as the teacher can lock it from the inside. … So we’ve retrofitted all of our buildings where they lock with a key from the inside. You know, the teachers lock it. They can open the door in case of fire without the key from the inside the way the locks are set up, so they can open the door and get the kids out, but if somebody comes up there to get in that door, it’s still locked. …
“Security systems, we’ve spent probably in my tenure here, we’ve spent a million-and-a-half on security, I would guess. Cameras, video, they can be accessed from the police cars –not every police car, but the people that need access to them. They can pull that up that we’ve got an active shooter in the building. They can get on the camera and see him from the outside. We went around to every outside window of our buildings and put the room number on it so if an administrator calls and says we’ve got a shooter that’s locked in room 105, then they can walk around the outside and they’ll know which room to stop at. Not, ‘Well, I think this is 105, or is this 106 or 108?’ So that’s a really big issue. Little stuff like that, a lot of people don’t think of. And with the shooters that we’ve had lately, you’ve got to think of it now. We’ve had at least two active shooter drills here at Greenbrier, and we include all the local law enforcement, Faulkner County, the city of Greenbrier, State Police, SWAT teams. Anybody that wants to participate, we want them involved because that’s going to be our first responders.”
Have you changed any of your policies as far as trying to reach those kids who might become a school shooter?
“Yes. We’re working on the mental health issue ... and we’ve trained some of our counselors. …
“Greenbrier schools actually bought a drug dog. That’s an issue any time in school is the drug issue. Since I’ve been on the board, we’ve started a zero tolerance for drugs in Greenbrier schools. If they’re caught with drugs, we expel them. It’s not been an issue. It’s a hard thing to do when have a hearing to expel a kid, but we can’t leave one here that’s a possibility of having drugs on them when we’ve got all the rest of these kids to protect. We’ve had arguments both ways on that, and I’ve heard it from other school districts, and they say, ‘Oh, no, that’s not the thing to do is kick a kid out of school.’ Well, it’s been working for us.”
Do you ever wonder if it’s too much? I mean, a million and a half dollars on security is a lot.
“No. I can’t put a price tag on just one student if we save them. The drug dog issue … if that keeps one student from overdosing and dying, it was worth the money. And that’s the way I have to look at the big dollar issues. The security system, that’s helped us in our policing on drugs, so not only for the active shooters and all the other kind of stuff, we can go back and look. If somebody’s brought drugs to school, we can track them from the parking lot everywhere but bathrooms and dressing rooms. So there’s a few little small holes that we can’t because of invasion of privacy, but we can pretty well run down anything that happens in our buildings.”
So that million and a half wasn’t just for the …
“No, that’s on a lot of different stuff, but we had old camera systems, and you could pull them up, and you could barely see, or you couldn’t tell even who it was, and now we’ve got some really good camera systems. Scott can pull it up on his computer there on that TV over there. You can take an iPhone if you know the code and you can pull it up on it. “
So what is the school board member’s role?
“Supporting good decisions. Hire the right people at the top to see your goal. One board member’s opinion is worth nothing. You’ve got to have a group of board members that can work together, put their personal differences aside. If we don’t agree on something as a person, we can hash it out and decide what’s best for the district, and we can put our feelings aside, I guess, and get together and unite. Even if I don’t get my way, that doesn’t mean that my way was right. It’s what’s best for the kids. So you’ve got to have that camaraderie, and you’ve got to hire the right people. And you’ve got to have the right vision and mission, and it’s written all over our buildings, our missions and visions. And that’s basically what the school board does – set policy, set a vision and a mission and a goal for your district, and then you back up and let the people you’ve hired do that.”
Note: Executive Session is edited for length and clarity.
Stephens and Economics Ark. to teach
about free enterprise
Stephens Inc., an independent financial services firm, and Economics Arkansas, a non-profit educational organization, have partnered to create a preK-12 educational program focused on free enterprise education for schools and students across the state. Stephens’ multimedia educational series, “This is Capitalism,” which explores the free enterprise system, will serve as the key component of the program.
The free-enterprise education program will be broken into grade-specific, branded curriculum and comprise 39 workshops and resources for teachers. The program is designed to serve more than 31,000 students and teachers during the 2018-19 school year.
If you have questions about this program, please contact Melissa Walsh of Stephens Public Finance at 800.643.9691.
The
The $5.4 million project includes the conversion of more than 6,200 light fixtures to LED, HVAC and water fixture upgrades, and a 600 kilowatt solar array at the high school campus. The school district is expected to save $7 million over the life of the project.
To learn more, contact Entegrity at 800.700.1414 or visit www.entegritypartners.com.
modus studio is ‘Emerging Voice’ in architecture
The Architectural League of New York chose modus studio for its annual Emerging Voices Award. This award spotlights North American firms with the potential to influence the discipline of architecture.
This year, the two-stage jury process reviewed work from approximately 50 firms, selecting eight winners from a group of finalists. Modus principal architect Chris Baribeau delivered a lecture on March 1 at the SVA Theatre in Manhattan, part of the Emerging Voices Lecture Series.
For more information about modus studio, visit www.modusstudio.com. or call 479.455.5577.
due to fire, smoke and water damage to residential and commercial properties,” said Brett Overman, president. “We have staff available 24 hours a day, and we’ve worked on projects large and small, including 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the Vilonia tornado in 2014.”
All-Clean USA serves customers across the nation and has offices in Conway, Jonesboro, Hot Springs, and Memphis. It employs more than 100 Arkansans.
For more information, visit www.allcleanusa.com. The company’s toll-free hotline, 866.360.3473, is open 24/7.
Homeland Safety consultants work with schools
Educators are always looking for ways to maintain a safe environment for students and staff. Homeland Safety Systems, Inc. has certified safety consultants working with multiple Arkansas schools to rate the safety of their facilities. Risk assessments provide administrators with detailed breakdowns of the potential risks in and around their schools. Providing these assessments helps school administrators determine high risk areas and find efficient ways of tackling any threats to the safety of their students.
For more information, visit www. homelandsafetysystems.com or call 888.909.2261.
Entegrity is partnering with the Batesville School District to help it save energy and money through energy savings performance contracting.
Arkansas-based disaster restoration company All-Clean USA celebrates 25 years of service in 2018. Founded in 1993, it has completed more than 40,000 disaster restoration projects.
“We specialize in 24-hour disaster recovery cleanup and reconstruction
Julie Luther Kelso, AICP, ASLA; Caroline Gardner, E.I.; and Leanne Parker, P.S., of Crafton Tull attended the
WARREN STEPHENS is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Stephens Inc.
CRAFTON TULL’S Caroline Gardner, E.I.;Julie Luther Kelso, AICP, ASLA; and Leanne Parker, P.S., attended the Girls of Promise Conference.
2018 Women’s Foundation of Arkansas’ Girls of Promise conference at the Arkansas 4-H Center in Ferndale. The conference encourages eighth grade girls to pursue higher-level Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) courses with an eye towards careers in the STEM fields. In addition to fielding questions from their booth in the exhibit hall, Kelso, Gardner and Parker interacted with the girls over lunch. Crafton Tull was also a proud sponsor of the conference.
For more information about Crafton Tull, go to craftontull.com or call 479.636.4838.
Crow Construction plans safe room at Two Rivers district
Crow Construction will break ground on a new elementary safe room at Two Rivers Elementary School in Yell County this summer. The new facility is designed by Bild Architects of Fayetteville and will also serve as a physical education space for elementary students. Two Rivers School District Superintendent Michael Dean said the safety of their students is the number one priority, and they are excited to move forward with this project.
For more information, contact Crow Construction at 501.354.6511 or visit www.crowconst.com.
TIPS adds two vendors to list of contractors
TIPS has added Colonial Life and Accident Insurance Company to its preferred list of vendors. Colonial Life offers cost-saving programs for public sector entities regarding health care, recruiting and employee retention, dependent verification, and tax savings.
Also, the state of Arkansas has approved Johnson Controls as the authorized contractor for state agencies through their TIPS contract: Comprehensive HVAC Solutions and Services.
Beau Rivage Resort & Casino Biloxi
For more information about how TIPS can help Arkansas schools save money, visit www.tips-usa.com or contact Mickey McFatridge, Arkansas program manager, at 870.926.9250, or Gene Hawk, TIPS representative, at 479.234.7639.
Chartwells mobile kitchen teaches kids about cooking
Chartwells, a team of chefs, dietitians and operators who cook and serve meals in schools across the country, is using a mobile kitchen to teach students how to prepare healthy and delicious recipes.
shall Ramsey is a
Beau Rivage Resort & Casino Biloxi
FEATURING Nationally Syndicated Cartoonist, Marshall Ramsey, as Keynote Speaker
Elly the Mobile Teaching Kitchen is a custom-designed container built into a fully functioning kitchen that has travelled more than 7,000 miles. A certified chef and registered dietitian lead hands-on lessons, teaching students about culinary skills and food education to inspire healthy behavior changes.
(2002 and 2006). His
�onally by Creators Syndicate and have appeared in The
by: �o make hotel reserva�ons at the Beau Rivage, the conference hotel, call 888.383.7037 or 228-3867111. If you register before June 27, the rates are: �1���night � �12 resort fee and 12� ta�. Men�on that you are a�ending the Southern Region Leadership Conference to get the conference rate
For more information about how Chartwells can help schools with their food service program, contact Joan Thorne at joan.thorne@compass-usa. com or 214.471.0206, or visit ChartwellsK12.com. For more information about Elly, visit ellythemtk.com.
cartoons
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MS) Clarion-Ledger. He is the author of several successful books including two cartoon collec�ons — the short story collec�on, Fried Chicken and Wine, and the deligh�ul children’s book, Banjo’s Dream. He’s also the host of the weekly statewide radio program, Now You’re Talking with Marshall Ramsey on Mississippi Public Broadcas�ng.
Nationally Syndicated Cartoonist, Marshall Ramsey, as Keynote Speaker Hosted by:
nown for his award-winning cartoons, entertaining radio program shall Ramsey is a two-�me Pulitzer Finalist (2002 and 2006). His �onally by Creators Syndicate and have appeared in The New York MS) Clarion-Ledger. He is the author of several successful books including short story collec�on, Fried Chicken and Wine, and the deligh�ul children’s the host of the weekly statewide radio program, Now You’re Talking with Public Broadcas�ng.
�o make hotel conference hotel, 7111. If you register �1���night � �12 that you are a� ship Conference
Commercial Affiliates
Premier Partners Contact
AETN
BXS Insurance
Educational Benefits, Inc.
First Security Beardsley Public Finance
Fleming Electric
Homeland Safety Systems, Inc.
Lifetouch National School Studios, Inc.
McPherson & Jacobson, LLC
Pro Benefits Group, Inc.
Stephens Inc.
Harold Frazier
Bill Birch
Derek Owens
Scott Beardsley
Chad Thornton
Mike Elliott
Patrick Hand
Website
501.682.5074 hfrazier@aetn.org ideas.aetn.org
501.614.1170 bill.birch@bxsi.com www.bxsi.com
501.212.8926 derek@jtsfs.com ebiteam.com
501.978.6392 scott@fsbeardsley.com www.fsbeardsley.com
501.551.6322 cthornton@fleminc.com www.fleminc.com
318.221.8062 mike@hssems.com homelandsafetysystems.com
501.664.5550 phand@lifetouch.com www.lifetouch.com
Thomas Jacobson 888.375.4814 mail@macnjake.com www.macnjake.com
Gary Kandlbinder
501.321.0457 pbfsi@sbcglobal.net pbfsi.com
Jason Holsclaw 501.377.2474 jason.holsclaw@stephens.com www.stephens.com
The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS) Mickey McFatridge 870.926.9250 mickey.mcfatridge@tips-usa.com www.tips-usa.com
Exhibiting Partners Contact Phone Email Website
ACE Sign Company
ACT, Inc.
ADE - Computer Science Initiative
A.D.E.M. - Federal Surplus Property
A.D.E.M. - Smart 911
All American Workwear
All-Clean USA
ASBA Workers’ Compensation
ASVAB Career Exploration Program
Baldwin & Shell Construction Company
Mark Bridges
Brad Patterson
501.909.9173 Mark.Bridges@acesigncompany.com www.acesigncompany.com
501.554.6157 brad.patterson@act.org www.act.org
Anthony Owen 501.682.3386 anthony.owen@arkansas.gov www.arkansased.gov
Brian Jones 501.835.3111 brian.jones@adem.arkansas.gov www.adem.arkansas.gov
Stacy Hunt 501.683.6700 stacy.hunt@adem.arkansas.gov www.adem.arkansas.gov
Tracy Dudek 855.909.6201 tracy@allamericanworkwear.co www.allamericanworkwear.co
Lisa Graham 870.972.1922 Lgraham@allcleanusa.com www.allcleanusa.com
Shannon Moore 501.492.4805 shannon@arsba.org arsba.org
Megan McMillin 501.666.6377 megan.o.mcmillin.civ@mail.mil www.asvabprogram.com
Scott Copas 501.374.8677 jsc@baldwinshell.com www.baldwinshell.com
C.R. Crawford Construction, LLC Phil Jones 479.251.1161 Pjones@crcrawford.com www.crcrawford.com
Capital Business Machines, Inc. Ben Higgs 501.375.1111 bhiggs@capbiz.com www.capbiz.com
Central States Bus Sales, Inc.
Chartwells
Crafton Tull
Cromwell Architects Engineers, Inc.
Mike Wingerter 501.955.2577 mikew@centralstatesbus.com www.centralstatesbus.com
Joan Thorne 214.471.0206 joanthorne@compass-usa.com www.chartwellsk12.com
Clare Dunn 501.748.8265 clare.dunn@craftontull.com www.craftontull.com
Chris East, AIA 501.372.2900 ceast@cromwell.com www.cromwell.com
Crow Construction and Paving Morgan Zimmerman 479.264.4332 mzimmerman@crowconst.com www.crowconst.com
David H. Frieze and Associates, Inc. Paul Frieze 501.922.9704 paulfrieze7@gmail.com
Entegrity Energy Partners
Fisher Tracks, Inc.
Jackson Brown Palculict Architects
Johnson Controls, Inc.
Kinco Constructors
KLC Video Security
LinkIt!
McLemore Building Maintenance
Mid-America Sports Construction
Midwest Bus Sales, Inc.
modus studio, PLLC
Musco Sports Lighting, LLC
Nabholz Construction Company
Performance Surfaces, LLC
Pop Pop Shoppe
Powers of Arkansas
Rob Guthrie 501.414.0058 rob.guthrie@entegritypartners.com www.entegritypartners.com
Victor Quiroga 515.432.3191 vquiroga@fishertracks.com www.fishertracks.com
Misty Snell 204.664.8700 misty@jbparchitects.com www.jbparchitects.com
Alex Ray 501.351.0926 Alexander.Ray@jci.com www.johnsoncontrols.com
Clay Gordon 501.225.7606 cgordon@kinco.net www.kincoconstructors.com
Bill King 903.792.7262 billking.klc@gmail.com www.klcvideosecurity.net
Matthew Wilson 201.739.3740 matt@linkit.com www.linkit.com
David Prewitt 832.201.6027 dprewitt@mbminc.com www.mbminc.com
Brock Wilson 816.524.0010 bwilson@mid-americagolf.com www.mid-americasportsconstruction.com
Tim Toolen 479.474.2433 ttoolen@midwestbussales.com midwestbussales.com
Josh Siebert 479.455.5577 josh@modusstudio.com www.modusstudio.com
Jeremy Lemons 641.673.0411 jeremy.lemons@musco.com www.musco.com
Jake Nabholz 877.622.4653 jake.nabholz@nabholz.com www.nabholz.com
Ryan McCaslin 405.463.0505 rmccaslin@performancesurfaces.com www.performancesurfaces.com
Cassidy Lavender 903.793.0209 cassidy@poppopshoppe.com www.poppopshoppe.com
Ron McCarty 501.350.4520 rmccarty@powersar.com www.powersar.com
Southern Bleacher Company David Norman 940.549.0733 info@southernbleacher.com www.southernbleacher.com
SubteachUSA, an ESS Company Hayley Zoranski 856.482.0300 HZoranski@source4teachers.com ESS.com
The PlayWell Group, Inc.
Trammell Piazza Law Firm, PLLC
Tri-State Floors
Bruce Larison 800.726.1816 bruce@playwellgroup.com www.playwellgroup.com
Chad Trammell 501.371.9903 chad@trammellpiazza.com trammellpiazza.com
Chad Bunnell 918.343.2553 chad@tri-statefloors.com tri-statefloors.com
Van Horn Construction, Inc. Leslie Foster 479.968.2514 lfoster@vanhornconstruction.com www.vanhornconstruction.com
Virco, Inc.
Bruce Joyner 501.908.9461 BruceJoyner@virco.com virco.com
Witsell Evans Rasco Architects/Planners Kate Dimitrova 501.374.5300 info@werarch.com werarch.com
Wittenberg, Delony & Davidson Architects Glen Woodruff 501.376.6681 gwoodruff@wddarchitects.com www.wddarchitects.com
Cobb & Suskie, Ltd.
Freedom Roofing Solutions, Inc.
Michael Cobb 501.225.2133 mcobb@cobbandsuskie.com www.cobbandsuskie.com
Brian Kirk 501.796.2061 brian@freedomroofingsolutions.com www.freedomroofingsolutions.com
Hight Jackson Associates, PA Liz Cox 479.464.4965 lcox@hjarch.com www.hjarch.com
NE-ARK Adjustment Company Mike Brigance 870.838.0097 mbrig@swbell.net www.nearkadjustment.com
Raymond James David Fortenberry 501.988.5474 david.fortenberry@raymondjames.com www.raymondjames.com
Vanguard Modular Building Systems, LLC
Mark Meyers 504.201.4006 mmeyers@vanguardmodular.com www.VanguardModular.com
Searching student cell phones
When can school officials access students’ cell phones without violating their Fourth Amendment rights prohibiting unreasonable searches? Court cases are conflicting and the law is unclear, but outside of emergencies, they should be very cautious about doing so without consent.
In 2014, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court said police officers may not search a cell phone seized from someone who has been arrested without a search warrant authorized by a judge. Searches conducted by school officials within the school environment are subject to the more relaxed standard of whether the search was justified by the circumstances and reasonable in the search’s scope, but this does not automatically mean a student’s phone can be searched.
Relevant cases provide conflicting guidance. A federal court in Pennsylvania held in 2006 that a school adminis-
by Jay Bequette ASBA General Counsel
trator violated the Fourth Amendment by viewing text messages on a student’s phone because the student was suspected of selling drugs at school. The court said there was no basis to search the phone for evidence of drug activity. In 2010, a federal court in Mississippi rejected a claim that school officials violated the Fourth Amendment after a student’s phone was searched following him being observed using it in viola-
tion of district policy. The court said the search was reasonable because officials suspected he was using it to cheat on a test. In 2013, a federal court of appeals ruled in a Kentucky case that a school official had violated the student’s rights by viewing text messages. In 2014, a federal court in Virginia said a school official’s search of a phone seized from a student was illegal even though a “pat down” of the student and a search of his backpack to find narcotics was justified. The court explained that drugs could not have been hidden in the phone.
Since the law is still developing, school officials should cautiously approach the decision to search a student’s phone. Except in rare emergencies, which would provide a stronger basis, school officials should not search the contents of a student’s phone without the consent of the parents, or the student is over the age of 18 and gives consent.
The Devil Dog Arena for South Conway County School District is at the heart of its community. That’s because it’s more than just a gym— it’s a safe room to use during storms and where kids will graduate. And on game night, everyone will be there to cheer on the home team. At Nabholz, the places that matter to you matter to us.
