State board approves waivers for Arkansas school districts moving to alternate calendars

KUAR | By Antoinette Grajeda / Arkansas Advocate

From the Arkansas Advocate:

Arkansas education officials on Wednesday voted to allow half the state’s public school districts to add time to each school day for the rest of the year to make up for January’s snow days.

The shift from a traditional days-based calendar to an alternate hourly calendar comes as January’s severe winter weather highlighted the LEARNS Act’s practical elimination of alternative methods of instruction (AMI) days, which districts used in recent years to offer virtual instruction when schools were closed for weather, disease outbreaks or utility outages.

While the LEARNS Act did not repeal the law that created AMI days, it does require at least 178 days or 1,078 hours of “on-site, in-person instruction” to receive state funding that supports increasing the state’s minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000.

State board approves waivers for Arkansas school districts moving to alternate calendars

Former Republican lawmaker appointed to Arkansas Board of Education

KUAR | By Daniel Breen

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has appointed a former Republican state lawmaker to the Arkansas Board of Education.

Sanders announced Thursday that Ken Bragg will serve on the nine-member board, replacing outgoing board chair Ouida Newton. Speaking at the state Capitol, Sanders said Bragg would seek to implement her signature education legislation known as Arkansas LEARNS.

“He helped us get LEARNS across the finish line, and now he’s back to help implement it across the state. Ken’s resume makes him more than qualified to take on this role,” Sanders said.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2023-07-14/former-republican-lawmaker-appointed-to-arkansas-board-of-education

Daniel Breen/KUAR News

Former Republican state Rep. Ken Bragg speaks alongside Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the Arkansas State Capitol on Thursday

Arkansas board of education to consider state’s first ‘transformation contract’

KUAR | By Antoinette Grajeda / Arkansas Advocate

The Arkansas Board of Education has called a special meeting for Friday to consider allowing the Marvell-Elaine School District to enter into a “transformation contract” with the Friendship Education Foundation.

If approved, the contract between the public school district and the charter management company would be the first of its kind under Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ signature  LEARNS Act.

The new law makes several changes to the state’s education system, including creating a process through which public school districts with a “D” or “F”-rating or in need of Level 5 – Intensive Support can partner with an open-enrollment public charter school or another state board-approved entity in good standing to create “a public school district transformation campus.”

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2023-05-05/arkansas-board-of-education-to-consider-states-first-transformation-contract

John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate

The Arkansas State Board of Education held a public meeting in the Marvell-Elaine High School gym to discuss the future of the Marvell-Elaine School District on April 13, 2023.

Another Arkansas school year disrupted by COVID

KUAR | By Steve Brawner / Talk Business & Politics

Published January 19, 2022 at 4:19 PM CST

Arkansas’ public schools are now in their third school year that’s been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but educators at least now have plenty of practice, and they have federal dollars to help them deal with the learning loss that’s occurred.

Arkansas schools sent all their students home at the end of the spring 2020 semester when Gov. Asa Hutchinson declared a state of emergency, but the state chose to open all its schools to in-person learning in 2020-21. In the fall semester of 2021, 64% of students were learning onsite, while 22.3% were studying remotely and another 13.5% were engaged in a hybrid model.

This year, only 4% of the state’s public school students are attending school using digital learning plans, and only 165 of the state’s school districts submitted plans that were approved through the State Board of Education.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2022-01-19/another-arkansas-school-year-disrupted-by-covid

KARK News

In-class instruction was again disrupted as cases of COVID-19 again surged in Arkansas this month.