Enough Already! Run for School Board

Three-sevenths of the Little Rock School Board - Zones 3, 6 and 7 - are up for election on September 18th. Considering that all Zones had to be redrawn based on the 2010 census, all seats should be up, but that's what you get for allowing your legislature to let incumbent school board members determine how you will be represented.

While Zone 3's incumbent, Melanie Fox, will not seek re-election, a highly promising candidate, Leslie Fisken, is running for the position.

Zone 6's incumbent Charles Armstrong is running for state representative. Because school elections are nonpartisan, and therefore aren't affected by Tuesday's primary, Mr. Armstrong has not said whether or not he will also seek re-election to the school board.

Zone 7's incumbent Dianne Curry has not said if she will seek re-election. Considering how she and board members Armstrong, Nellums and Johnson so blatantly attempted to disenfranchise our Hispanic citizens by dividing their neighborhoods among three zones, don't be surprised if one or more students-first Hispanic and/or Hispanic-friendly candidates emerge to challenge the gerrymanderers' artificial majority with purity of purpose and voter turnout.

The important thing to keep in mind is that no incumbent or announced candidate has any more right to the offices than anyone else. Board positions belong to the people. Candidates should run for the position, not against anyone.

With a $340 million annual budget, the Little Rock School District is the largest local government entity in Arkansas, almost doubling the City of Little Rock. And yet, its elections are unconscionably held on a date with no other elections (again, thanks Legislature) and decided by tens at the least and hundreds at the most.

I have yet to meet one person who is satisfied with the Little Rock School District. But still, incumbents regularly breeze to re-election without credible opposition - a challenger or challengers who force a legitimate debate on how to best educate our 25,000 students.

So every year, the people are given a chance to elect two or three leaders who will put students first. Nothing is more important to the future of our community than the delivery of excellent public education.

Please - if you truly will put students first ahead of self-interested adult agendas - Run People Run! Here's how (thanks to the Arkansas School Board Association):

• Visit the county clerk's office to get a packet of material about running for office.

• June 10th is the first day candidates may circulate a petition (available from the Secretary of State's Office). Candidates need 20 signatures of qualified registered voters from his/her district on petition.

• July 3rd is the first day a candidate may file a petition of candidacy (available from the Secretary of State's Office), the political practice pledge, and the affidavit of eligibility with the county clerk.

• July 10th at noon is the deadline for a candidate to file a petition of candidacy, the political practice pledge, and the affidavit of eligibility with the county clerk.

• The election is Tuesday, September 18th.

• If needed, runoff will be held three weeks later.

To run for school board, candidates must:

• be a qualified elector of the school district served whose name has been filed and certified by the county clerk of the county in which the school district is domiciled for administrative purposes;
• be a U.S. citizen;
• be an Arkansas resident;
• be a resident of the district and respective electoral zone if elected from zones;
• not be an employee of the district served;
• not claim the right to vote in another county or state;
• not presently be adjudged mentally incompetent by a court of competent jurisdiction;
• never have been convicted of embezzlement of public money, bribery, forgery, or other infamous crime.

So stop being a critic, and get in the arena. Lives, families, and the present and future of your City desperately hunger for your students-first leadership.


Resources
www.arsba.org
www.sos.arkansas.gov/elections
www.votepulaski.net

Gerrymander Rigged

Last night, the Little Rock School Board got busy with one 4 - 3 vote, which:

1. gerrymandered to ensure majority African-American zones even though the district is only 44% black;
2. divided neighborhoods among three zones (1, 6 and 7) to deny Hispanics the opportunity for meaningful representation so zealously guarded by African-Americans; and
3. abandoned its responsibility to balance by population by creating zones as far apart as 2,252 citizens, a difference of 8.5%.

After months of border battles and with just 20 days until deadline, the board voted for the seventh version of a map, originally drawn by the nonpartisan regional planning authority - Metroplan, but bastardized by self-interested board members and their lawyers.

If the races were reversed, and minority whites were preserving majority zones, this would clearly constitute a voting rights issue. Let me rephrase: The issue is exists; but its advocates are frozen in silence.

In another outstanding report by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Cynthia Howell, Zone 7 Board Member Dianne Curry, whose term expires this year, claimed to have talked to Hispanic residents about the boundary-line revisions.

"They understand it was not based on looking at [ethnicity] at all, but strictly by the census numbers, and we didn't even know who was in a particular area."

Disingenuous or disengaged? Either way, disturbing.

According to Ms. Howell's article, Metroplan was asked late last year to draft election-zone plans using specific parameters:

1. equalizing the populations (fair);
2. minimizing changes from the current School Board election zones (self-serving);
3. minimizing the splitting of neighborhoods and voting precincts (fair);
4. using landmarks and census blocks to define zone boundaries (fair); and
5. if possible, avoiding the placement of two incumbent board members in the same election zone to avoid making any board member ineligible to run for re-election (self-serving)

No. 5 clearly took priority.

Charles Armstrong (Zone 6), whose term also expires this year, is also running for State Representative. But with the September school election coming after May's primary, he has not ruled out running for both. According to Ms. Howell, Mr. Armstrong said "Alternative 6 and 7 plans enabled him to keep within his zone some of the neighborhoods with which he is familiar." No. 2? Check.

"The only community that has asked the whole board, 'do not separate us, please,' is the one that we are separating," said Zone 4 Board Member Greg Adams, referring to the division of Hispanic neighborhoods. "What is the compelling reason that trumps that request?"

There is none. The irony is that it took a white man giving voice to Hispanics to challenge the unacceptable hold one race has on the board and district. What he didn't say was the black community knew they didn't have to ask, while the white community gave up its voice in the district years ago, either through apathy, fear of being called racist, or overcompensation for past wrongs.

Lest you think three of our seven board members to be altruistic champions of fairness, the vote was 7 - 0 to deny thousands of citizens the basic right to vote for their representative. Even though Arkansas Code Annotated 6-13-631 calls for the election of all board seats after zone boundaries are redrawn, Attorney Chris Heller advised board members that the district "shall be exempt" because it meets the requirements of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Somebody help me understand. To comply with the Voting Rights Act, zoned districts are required for all districts with minority populations ten percent and above. All districts' zones are required to be redrawn following the decennial census. The law states that all seats should be open for election after zone boundaries are redrawn. According to Mr. Heller's theory, are zoned districts which comply with the law and hold all new elections actually in violation of the law if the district meets the requirements of the federal Voting Rights Act?

What ever happened to doing what's right instead of hiding behind what's potentially exempt. I guess it depends on what the meaning of "shall" shall be.

Once again, the agendas of seven board members and their enabling attorney took priority over the rights of 178,391 citizens (as of 2010).

School Boards should govern public school districts as representatives of the people. They should not, however, tell the people how they will be represented. At the legislature, the people, not incumbent school boards, should should finally be empowered to determine zones and when their representatives "shall" stand for election.

And while we're at it, we have a Mayor, County Judge, Governor and President. It's time we had a directly elected School Board President to represent and be accountable to all the people in the governance of their public school districts.

Meanwhile, a promising candidate, Leslie Fisken, has emerged to replace Melanie Fox (Zone 3). Charles Armstrong (Zone 6) hasn't said if he's running for one office or two. And Dianne Curry (Zone 7) just read in the Democrat-Gazette that she has Hispanics in her district.

May electable candidates emerge, incumbent or not, who will finally put the needs of students above their own.

Perhaps one or more were among the Tiger Tailgate gathering tonight at War Memorial Stadium. With the leadership of Muskie Harris and Leotis Harris, Jr., Little Rock Central High football alumni are organizing to return the Tigers, and by extension the entire school and neighborhood, to its tradition rich place among the state and nation's elite. Go Tigers!

Little Rock School District Demographics: The Majority Myth

Total Population - 178,391

White Population - 84,513 (47%)

Black Population - 78,724 (44%)

Hispanic Population - 12,551 (7%)

Other Population - 2,603 (1.5%)

U.S. News & World Report Names KIPP's 96% Minority High School Arkansas' Second Best

Good news, bad news.

Out of 22,000 high schools evaluated in 49 states, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Helena's KIPP Delta Collegiate High School, an open enrollment public charter, Arkansas' second best.

According to the report, KIPP "students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement coursework and exams. The AP participation rate at KIPP Delta Collegiate High School is 91 percent. The student body makeup is 41 percent male and 59 percent female, and the total minority enrollment is 96 percent."

Arkansas's best high school - Farmington's Haas Hall Academy, also a charter - is America's 353rd best (top 1.6% in country). KIPP was 404th (top 1.8%).

Bentonville High School was third in Arkansas and 731st in America (top 3.3%).

For perspective, the 23rd best high school in Arkansas (the last ranked by U.S. News) - West Fork High School - came in at No. 2,003 in the nation (top 9.1%).

No Little Rock, North Little Rock or Pulaski County Special School District high schools or Pulaski County public charters were ranked or recognized.

What's not written is that a large percentage of KIPP's 16 teachers (10:1 student ratio) are from Teach for America.

They, their fellow teachers, students, parents, guardians, the community, Executive Director Scott Shirey, and the KIPP leadership are to be congratulated...and emulated.

By federal definition, Pulaski County is in the Delta. KIPP anyone? At the very least, we should be throwing open our school doors to Teach for America.