GREENLAND : Schools’ future source of angst in community
Posted on Sunday, June 29, 2008
GREENLAND — Tension is mounting in this 930-student school district.
Community members raise funds and tote petitions to fight forced annexation by the Arkansas Department of Education. But lingering grievances from families to the south in Winslow, annexed into the district in 2003, threaten to shatter the unified front.
Education Commissioner Ken James sent a letter to Greenland School District leaders on June 13 informing them that the Arkansas Board of Education will consider annexing Greenland schools into a neighboring district at its July 14 meeting.
The letter came three days after voters narrowly passed a 2. 6-mill property tax increase, billed as salvation for the cashstrapped district.
Rumors and emotions swirled in the letter’s wake. Many claimed it was unprecedented for the state to dissolve a district without first giving it time to raise its bottom line. Others suspected political involvement.
Some Winslow residents, still adjusting to the closure of their own schools, say Greenland is getting what it deserves.
A DISTRICT DIVIDED If Greenland is annexed, students in Winslow might attend three high schools before graduation without changing their addresses. The 285-student Winslow district, in the heart of the Boston Mountains on U. S. 71, was one of 57 districts affected by Act 60 of the Second Extraordinary Session of 2003. The law mandated that schools with 350 or fewer students merge with larger districts. The Winslow School Board in 2004 voted to merge with Greenland, choosing it over neighboring West Fork because Greenland administrators promised to keep Winslow’s schools open. But in 2005, the Greenland School Board voted 5-2 to close Winslow High School for financial reasons. In 2007, the board closed Winslow’s elementary school after years of dwindling enrollment.
Winslow parents attended pivotal School Board meetings, interrupting discussions by standing and screaming at board members.
Emotions are still raw for many, said JoAnn Kyle, a former Winslow representative on the School Board who voted against closing the high school.
“I hear just about every day, ‘ They’re getting what they deserve, ’” she said. “They caused so many hard emotions in this community.”
The tension in Winslow was evident in the June 10 millage election, which passed by just eight votes. The measure failed in Winslow precincts by a vote of 178-32. Greenland residents fear that closing their schools could remove the core from their community— a reality Winslow has already dealt with, Kyle said. “We have nothing that brings the community together anymore,” she said. Winslow’s main school buildings sit mostly empty, and residents no longer pack into the gym to cheer on the Squirrels at basketball games.
HISTORY REPEATING Winslow students, angered over Greenland’s decision to close their schools, streamed out of the district, filling classrooms in neighboring Mountainburg and West Fork instead.
Greenland lost 178 students after annexing Winslow. The students took per-pupil state funding with them, draining district resources and contributing to its deficit, Greenland School Board President Bill Groom said.
“Financially, it just hits you and hits you and hits you when they don’t come,” he said.
The state Education Department originally projected the district would end its fiscal year $ 300, 000 in the red on Monday. Revised projections show Greenland about $ 140, 000 short of breaking even.
An annexation could take place as soon as August, and any of six surrounding districts could be required to absorb all or part of Greenland’s schools, students and assets.
All neighboring districts — including Elkins, Farmington, Fayetteville, Mountainburg, Prairie Grove and West Fork — have noticed an increase in studenttransfer requests from Greenland since word of a possible annexation first surfaced.
Many Winslow students already attend West Fork schools, but the district has had more than 100 petitions for transfer from other Greenland students in the past month, West Fork Superintendent Diane Barrett said.
West Fork schools can’t likely accommodate all of those students, but many parents have made their transfers contingent upon Greenland’s consolidation, she said.
Ten Greenland students applied to transfer to Elkins, 12 to Mountainburg, 14 to Fayetteville and 22 to Prairie Grove, district officials said.
“People walk into the office and I say, ‘ Let me guess, Greenland ?’” said Prairie Grove administrative assistant Michelle Beeks.
Receiving districts get incentive funding for taking in new districts, but it’s not enough to cover the cost of completely shifting district resources, Groom said, calling it “fool’s gold.”
The Fayetteville district, considered the likely recipient of Greenland’s students, hasn’t been receptive to the idea. At a meeting Thursday, the Fayetteville School Board passed a resolution to support the Greenland district. Fayetteville Superintendent Bobby New gave the administrative recommendation to retain existing Greenland students in the case of an annexation by keeping the current schools open. “The Pirates will continue,” New said, referring to Greenland’s mascot. “Green and white are their colors. There’s no question in my mind.”
ONE DISTRICT Gary Ricker, Greenland’s police chief, said Winslow residents need to move past their anger over the 2004 merger. “I think most of us want to save the school regardless of past problems,” he said.
Ricker joined an informal campaign of residents who quickly raised a $ 5, 000 legal fund, donating $ 1, 000 of his federal economic-stimulus check to the effort.
The group held yard sales and sought private donations, seeking to raise the district’s bottom line by Monday, the end of its fiscal year.
“We’ll work our butts off to raise that money,” he said.
The effort is similar to what happened in the 568-student Midland School District in Independence County. After the Education Department took over the district in January 2006 and threatened to dissolve it, supporters raised more than $ 400, 000 to cover a budget shortfall.
Julie Johnson Thompson, spokesman for the Education Department, said state board members would likely consider whether Greenland School District could sustain a positive bank balance before taking private donations into account.
But public fundraising could factor into the decision, she said.
Greenland residents also have circulated petitions and called and written legislators, state board members and Gov. Mike Beebe in hopes of stopping the annexation.
“We’re getting some traction in Little Rock,” Groom told community members at a public information meeting Thursday.
But Winslow residents have launched a separate petition campaign, asking the state Board of Education to annex their portion of the district into West Fork, where many of their students already attend, said Kyle, the former Winslow representative on the Greenland School Board.
NOT THE FIRST TIME State laws passed in 2003 authorize the state board to classify any of the 245 school districts in Arkansas as fiscally distressed and to require districts to develop and comply with a stateapproved financial improvement plan. Arkansas Code 6-20-1901-1907 gives districts up to two years to remedy their financial issues before the state board is mandated to take action. The law allows state officials to act before the two years expire. Some Greenland families think it is unfair and even unprecedented that state officials would threaten the district without first giving it two years to work out its financial woes. “Given time, we’ll heal ourselves,” Groom said.
Ricker questioned issuing the consolidation letter just days after voters passed a millage increase.
“The timing is suspect,” he said.
But the state board has closed other districts without first allowing them two years of fiscal distress, Thompson said.
The urgency in Greenland’s case was related to a negative year-end balance and previous placement on the state’s fiscal distress list, she said.
“Fortunately, it’s not a very common event,” Thompson said. “But the law is there to protect the students.”
In 2005, the state board merged the Parkin School District with neighboring Wynne, just one month after classifying it in fiscal distress.
Parkin had a negative balance of $ 233, 000.
Darrell Smith, superintendent of the Wynne School District, attended the state meeting prepared to take in 238 Parkin students before the end of that week.
It was the first time the state had merged districts during a school year.
“The word got handed down and we had students in school two days later,” Smith said. “We just had to do whatever was best for the students.”
Smith invited parents to attend school with their children on their first day in the new building.
To maintain a sense of continuity, he displayed Parkin athletic trophies in the trophy cases.
Some students still transferred out of the district, but Wynne largely avoided the negative emotions that Greenland has experienced with Winslow, he said. “I’m sure that there are people that wish the school had never gotten into the situation it got into,” Smith said. “It has an effect on the community whenever they give up their school. But I think everyone wants a good education for their children.”
To contact this reporter: eblad@arkansasonline. com
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