Arkansas Blog

At the same time, the possibility of annexing Greenland students into more than one district will be examined.<<

Unfortunately that is what this entire takeover is about. Fayetteville School District, Farmington and Prairie Grove have held up their stop signs. None of them want the financial burden of absorbing a failing
district. So this move gives the state a year to sell the idea. At present Fay. School District hasn't hired a Super to replace the departing BobbyNu, see blue name. BobbyNu is busy trying to fulfill developers dreams of building a new , deceptively under-priced high school in the swampland, decentralized area on Deane Street at the far western edge of the city. That's an unsettled mess. If Fayetteville School Board allows this to happen there will be some turnover on the Board and doubtful taxpayers will approve the millage increase necessary for an $85 million complex.

The "possibility" of placing Greenland students into more than one district--what a joke! Unless the State has a pipeline to free fuel, placing students in the district they're closest to is an absolute imperative. Take a look at the map of Greenland's gerrymandered mess. There's no way out of this one, folks, 'cause the train doesn't stop in Greenland(or Brentwood or Winslow) any more.

The ONLY way out of this mess is to divide up the Greenland school district. When I taught there 25+ years ago, they would take the teachers on a bus ride to see the district. The district--for all sorts of political reasons from the 1950s--stretched from kingdom to come. I had students who lived within sight of the Winslow school buildings who boarded a bus at 6:00am to ride to Greenland Elementary school. Greenland was one of the first all day Kindergarten schools, because it would have been logistically impossible to bus them at half day or have the parents pick them up. Back then, it had the most unpaved roads--some 100 miles--of bus route in the state. When the Winslow district was taken in by Greenland, it just got worse. Every student from West Fork south needs to go to West Fork. The students in the far east part of Greenland school district need to go to Elkins. If I remember correctly, there's even some parts back in the woods that would be closer to St. Joe! The elementary school at Greenland is big enough that it really needs to stay put--the true concern is the junior and senior high students. But I agree with Fayetteville--no one district needs to take in this geographically huge district. If it did, Fayetteville public school lines would run almost down to Crawford County. And, although Greenland is the only one in this mess right now, there are several instances in the state where the 1950 lines are no longer viable because of growth and fuel costs for busing. Local boards cannot change the school boundary lines, even if the lines make no sense. The state has to do it, and they'll only look at it if something comes up--like fiscal distress.

You're right on inthetrenches.

A Wash.County judge used to tell us the Greenland district is a ticking time bomb. And that was back in the 70s! He was referring to the cost of keeping County roads passable for school buses. It's grown since then and so have the number of unpaved roads. To the east Greenland School district touches on the edge of Elkins. There needs to be some real study done, draw up new districts and have a once in a lifetime burden placed upon disrupted children/parents so this doesn't continue.

I will repeat my old refrain: Each county should have one public school chief and one board who oversees the entire county. School district costs could be contained. Washington County is paying EIGHT school districts superintendents' salaries. Likely totaling well over a million dollars.

eLwood,
I agree about one district per county. Millions of dollars could be saved with the elimination of duplicate jobs not just the superintendents. There might even be enough saved to give the teachers a raise.