There were two big stories at Thursday’s Little Rock school board meeting. The first was a very somber conversation about the budget. We’ve been losing students, thanks to the Republican Party of Arkansas’s ongoing war on public schools. Charter schools are taking kids out of traditional schools, hurting communities. Long-term projections show fewer students and therefore less money for the Little Rock School District.
The short-term picture looks much better. Superintendent Jermall Wright said he is confident the district will not go into fiscal distress. Thanks to a large reserve fund balance, the district can absorb the loss in revenue for now.
Kelsey Bailey, the district’s chief financial officer, is keeping a very close eye on expenditures, Wright said. Still, some hard decisions will have to be made in the coming months on spending.
The other big story Thursday was passage of an energy conservation measure the board has been working on for two years. Students from Little Rock Central High School and board member Ali Noland worked very hard to see this measure pass, and the other members of the board also worked hard to understand the issue and make an educated decision.
In late 2021, a group of students approached the school board with a proposal that the district hire a company to study whether transitioning to solar energy would save the district money. Some board members were hesitant, and others were excited.
The discussions culminated in an April 28, 2022 meeting when the new board president at the time, Mike Mason, violated policy on public comments before the board. He allowed Ventrell Thompson, the vice president of customer service for Entergy, to address the board. This was a classic David vs. Goliath moment. Entergy, a massive, for-profit power company, was concerned that its profit would be hurt if the district installed solar panels. They began to tell lies and make threats, and some board members fell for it.
There was a public groundswell in support of doing the solar study. Over 700 citizens signed a petition in favor of the study, and there were hundreds of public comments and emails sent to board members. The board delayed a vote at that time, but in September 2022, the majority of the board approved the study.
The Entergy fat cats argued that if the district bought less power from them, the company would have to shift costs to other customers — including low-income households — to retain their profit margin. This represents a classic example of modern corporate America willing to put profit over people.
But here is the sad fact: This threat of “cost shifting” was a lie, and the Entergy spokesman knew it. Numerous studies have shown that cost shifting does not occur. Entergy has had three opportunities to show that cost shifting is a reality in Arkansas, and each time, they have not produced one piece of data to show that cost shifting is real. Their profit margin was more important than allowing Little Rock to save a few dollars to put back into the general fund that could then be used to improve our buildings or help kids. You can read more about their dishonest tactics in this op-ed by Central High students last September.
Meanwhile, Entergy was able to work with Republican allies in the state legislature and pass a bill to reduce the savings seen by solar energy users. Before the change in state law, switching to solar energy would have saved the Little Rock School District tens of millions of dollars; now the savings will be substantially lower, though still significant. Entergy’s greed has no limits, it seems.
Nonetheless, the study was done, and this month, the company hired to do the study reported to the board that establishing a solar array is expected to reduce our electric bill by 26.4%. This will save the Little Rock School District hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and over 25 years should save the district between $4.7 million and $5.7 million. The savings will go back into the general fund and will be used to operate all our schools. All we will owe upfront is $40,000.
Spending a small amount now to save a massive amount over decades to come is good governance and common sense. It is sad that Entergy’s greed has already cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Ali Noland made a motion to adopt a proposed contract with Entegrity Energy Partners of Little Rock to operate and maintain a solar panel array to be built in Phillips County. The motion carried.
The board also unanimously passed its consent agenda, which was once again packed with items that had been discussed previously, including personnel changes. It has been one week since all three kindergarten teachers quit at Williams Elementary, and there has been no public explanation from the administration. Whatever the cause, we have to admit this is highly irregular and suggests serious management issues.
The board heard a report that the district was ready to accept a bid for new windows at Dunbar Middle School. Dunbar is one of our district’s great, old schools, but to be honest, its maintenance has been ignored for generations. Under the reworking of our millage debt that the citizens of Little Rock approved in November 2021, the board committed itself to a new roof for Dunbar and new windows, so it is exciting to see this bid come in.
The lowest bid was from Wagner General Contractors, Inc., a firm with offices in Memphis and Searcy. The windows will cost $1,870,000 and will be a much needed improvement at Dunbar. The board approved the contract unanimously.
Superintendent Wright and the board also discussed recruitment and retention. It is no secret that the Little Rock School District has had an image problem for generations, and our schools have been losing students for years now. Wright and his team are committed to turning this around.
The district has hired a Memphis-based company called Cassia that works with traditional public school districts to bring students back to the district and retain those already enrolled. The goals for this initiative, which was piloted over the course of six weeks this July and August, were to ensure students return to the district, determine any barriers to student retention, and produce a survey with the district on specific concerns of parents.
In general, 2,227 families were contacted in an effort to keep students, increase the district budget, and improve district operations. There were five participating schools with 1,408 responses to a survey, 8,922 live calls to parents, and 20,043 follow-up texts to parents. The five schools were Carver, Stephens, and Booker elementaries and Dunbar and Mann middle schools.
In these five schools, Cassia found that 97% of families planned on returning this year, which is 10% higher than the national average, according to the firm. The top reasons parents gave for not returning to our district were moving out of the district, unhappiness with the school’s communication (specifically, not returning calls or delivering accurate information), and deciding to home school or pursue other local options.