Greenland students seek admittance into Elkins
Posted on Wednesday, July 2, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/66740/
ELKINS — The Board of Education approved 13 of 21 school choice transfer applications from Greenland School District residents at a special meeting Tuesday evening.
Superintendent Mike Harris, who officially started the job Tuesday, said the recommendations were based on space available in the schools.
The applications not acted on were from two 11 th-graders, five ninth-graders and one eighth-grader.
The school choice law allows students to transfer without consent from their home district provided the application is made before July 1.
Harris indicated most of the requests were made by students concerned about the future of the Greenland School District.
The Arkansas Department of Education has recommended the district be annexed due to financial woes and being on the state’s fiscal distress list. At a June 24 meeting, the Elkins school board passed a resolution that endorses allowing Greenland to remain intact.
“ The continuum for this is more state involvement before they get rid of them, such as a state takeover, ” Harris said. “ They’ve given all indications that they’re skipping that step. ”
The Arkansas State Board of Education is scheduled to act on the matter at a July 14 meeting in Little Rock. The Elkins board said it would allow Harris to pick an administrator to attend the meeting on the district’s behalf.
The Fayetteville and West Fork school districts are considered the most likely districts to take over Greenland if the state board approves the annexation recommendation.
The Elkins board also approved one of seven school choice transfer requests from Fayetteville. Harris said the district could not accept white students from Fayetteville this year because of a complex race clause in the school choice law.
In other business, the board:
• Approved a resolution for the upcoming September millage election with no tax increase
• Discussed the possibility of buying a new printer and software to print paychecks
• Hired Kathy Hall as a high school science teacher and Brandi VanAmberg as an English teacher
• Discussed the condition of the old gym at the middle school