The Local Beat
The Local Beat - March 2023
What’s going on with the school board?
In January, the Mountain Home School Board of Education usually extends the superintendent’s contract, in February the board extends contracts for the principals and in March they extend contracts to licensed personnel — the teachers. (Superintendent Dr. Long has announced his resignation.)
Just a few weeks ago, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law her top piece of legislation — an educational reform known as The LEARNS Act.
So far there has been much speculation surrounding the bill — a 145-page omnibus law that the Governor herself says addresses school vouchers, incoming teachers’ pay, and increasing literacy standards for elementary students — in what she’s called “a comprehensive approach to all education, from cradle to career.”
The major component of the legislation that is leaving the majority of school districts across the state scrambling and scratching their heads is that the act raises the state’s minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000. Districts have been assured that the state will provide additional funding for two years to meet these new salary standards, but beyond that, many districts are uncertain how to continue that funding.
For that reason, Mountain Home Public School Superintendent Dr. Jake Long asked the board to suspend action on the salary schedule for the 2023-24 school year. He said he has spoken to members of the district’s personnel policy committee, telling them without knowing the requirements from LEARNS, the district has to wait for guidance from the Arkansas Department of Education (DOE) and its new secretary, Jacob Oliva.
“We can’t adjust the schedules until we know how,” he said simply.
Long estimates the new salary requirements will cost the district approximately $1.5 million a school year. Item 3.5 in the district’s personnel policy states that “All contracts for licensed personnel will be issued no later than March 31 unless unforeseen circumstances occur.” Long said LEARNS has indeed created “unforeseen circumstances.”
Long said the DOE will need to let districts across the state know if there will be an increase in the per-student funding from the state and federal government to help fund the new salary minimum. As it stands, in year three, he said the district may be able to cover the salaries of certified or classified personnel, but not both without additional funding sources.
He also said there is uncertainty as to what the step increases would look like, the rungs on the pay scale that teachers climb the more time they have in teaching. Outgoing board member Neal Pendergrass said that if the step increases do not keep pace with the overall salary adjustments, teachers could lose the incentive to stay in Mountain Home.
For those teachers currently making more than the new minimum, they would receive a $2,000 raise. LEARNS also creates the Merit Teacher Incentive Fund, which will provide annual bonuses of up to $10,000 for eligible teachers.
Both Cotter Public Schools and Norfork Public Schools will find themselves in similar straits in year three, once state funding ends for the new salary requirements. During their regular March school board meetings, Superintendent Jayme Jones of Cotter and Superintendent Chip Layne of Norfork said they will have enough revenue to pay certified staff, but not enough for classifieds also.
Before adjourning to go into executive session during their March meeting, Long recognized the three candidates running for the vacant school board position six on the Mountain Home School Board of Education. He asked each man to introduce themselves to the audience and described all three as qualified, quality candidates. They include Stewart Rogers, Scott Booth and Scott R. Bryant.
What’s going on with the quorum court?
Despite the quorum court attempting to stop the opening of a new landfill via a new ordinance, the landfill company said, we are opening anyway. The Baxter County Quorum Court took a major step in passing the ordinance prohibiting new landfills and the reopening of closed or expansion of existing landfills in Baxter County. Hopefully, this will prevent the reopening of the NABORS landfill,” said Vice President and Board Member of Friends Steve Blumreich.
In January, both the city of Mountain Home and Baxter County passed non-binding, symbolic resolutions opposing the sale of NABORS to any company that would reopen the landfill. Mountain Home Mayor Hillrey Adams has previously stated that the city and Baxter County were “adamantly opposed” to selling to LRS, which has been described as the fifth-largest waste hauler in the country.
From the Friends of The Rivers organization: The sale arrangement struck by OMSWD and LRS includes a plan to charge residents of the solid waste district an additional $I tipping fee ($I per ton of waste going into the landfill) that will go to the bondholders of the original failed NABORS landfill. This could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. This arrangement has been proposed despite a circuit court decision overturning (in 2022) the attempt to collect the money by taxing property owners in the bankrupt solid waste district $18 annually. This was an attempt to pay bondholders whose risky investment in the landfill did not pay off.
Friends have retained legal counsel to help with this and our members are working to stay abreast of any developments by LRS and OMSWD to reopen the landfill and to bring transparency to this important issue.
-Local Beat Committee March 2023