Arkansas Education Secretary Jacob Oliva at a state Board of Education meeting. Brian Chilson

Taken over by the state after years of low enrollment and academic distress, the Marvell-Elaine School District in Phillips County will now be steered by a charter school management group.

The state Board of Education voted Friday to authorize Arkansas Education Secretary Jacob Oliva to enter into a contract with Friendship Education Foundation to manage the district of just over 300 students.

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Brian Chilson
Attorney Ali Noland raises legal questions about whether the Arkansas LEARNS Act is even if effect yet.

The vote to move forward came despite a challenge from Little Rock attorney Ali Noland, a Little Rock School Board member and Arkansas Times contributor. Noland represents a group of citizens who take issue with being left out of the process. She noted that a procedural quirk in the 2023 legislative session may well mean the emergency clause that put the Arkansas LEARNS Act into effect immediately was unlawful. And the language in the law itself is not sufficient to establish an emergency, Noland said.

“LEARNS is not yet the law in the state of Arkansas. If you move forward with this vote, my clients are prepared to file something on court immediately to stop you,” she said.

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The Arkansas House manual here seems pretty clear, as does the state constitution. Right?

Voting to approve a contract the public has never seen is also a no-go, Noland said.

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“I will remind you that you cannot vote on a secret document. There needs to be a public release of this public information,” she said.

(The Arkansas Department of Education shared the board-approved “district transformation agreement” after the meeting, read it here.)

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State board members forged ahead, despite most of the details of the pending contract remaining under wraps. We know only that Friendship will be paid an initial $50,000, plus $200,000 a year for three years to operate Marvell-Elaine.

Brian Chilson
Stacy Smith of the Arkansas Department of Education explains why Friendship

Stacy Smith, deputy commissioner for the Arkansas Department of Education, said three groups vied for the opportunity to take over control of the district. Friendship beat out Charter One, a charter school management company based in Arizona, and Grassroots Arkansas, a nonprofit local community group. Grassroots had plans to keep the district in local hands but turn it into a school of innovation, a move that would have given them extra leeway to try new approaches.

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Friendship already operates schools in Little Rock, Pine Bluff and Washington, D.C. The group’s charter schools score poorly on the letter grade system Arkansas uses, but their C average is better than the F grade Marvell-Elaine is currently assigned. And that C average is high enough to qualify Friendship for a “transformation contract,” a new option created by the Arkansas LEARNS Act.

Prompted by questions from board members, Smith said Friendship has experience working in areas of high poverty. She acknowledged the process has been quick and bumpy, but said moving ahead with a transformation contract was the best move.

“We’ve got kids getting hurt because we’re not providing them a decent education,” she said.

Brian Chilson
Public education advocate Joyce Elliott said the state and charter companies will struggle with the same challenges until poverty and quality of life issues are addressed.

Entering into the transformation contract will save the Marvell-Elaine district from possibly having to consolidate with another district, but will also chop into local control. The school board will dissolve at the end of this year, and Oliva will act as the main decision maker instead.

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While Smith took pains to convey that the Friendship Education Foundation would be contracting with the school district itself and not with the state education department, she clarified that because the state has taken over control of Marvell-Elaine, Oliva is what she means by “the district.” In lieu of a locally elected school board, Oliva will be calling the shots.

Smith said the committee that picked Friendship included members of the Marvell-Elaine community, and that the group liked that Friendship is based in Arkansas. Friendship’s teacher recruitment posts to bring on new staff in Marvell-Elaine went up on social media in April, weeks before today’s vote. That ruffled feathers, with some people complaining the fix must be in. Smith said that was not the case. A vocal contingent of people in Marvell and Elaine are excited about the prospect of bringing Friendship in to help, she said.

Brian Chilson
Smith also emphasized that although the district will be run by a charter school group, the Marvell-Elaine School District will not be a charter school district.

Former state senator and longtime public education advocate Joyce Elliott was among the handful of people who gave public comment at Friday’s meeting. Watching the fate of another school district shaped by the whims of the state Board of Education moved her to speak up. State takeovers of other districts, including in Little Rock, failed to yield improvements.

“I went today because I was afraid that we were going to see, one more time, where the board just does whatever it chooses to do without meaningfully including the community,” Elliott said. “There seems to be a notion that if we can just get charter schools in most parts of our state and over the schools that are struggling, that’s going to solve the problem.” 

In reality, schools will continue to struggle as long as students fight with poverty, poor nutrition and other challenges endemic in our poor state.

“It does not mean that kids who are struggling can’t learn. I don’t want that to be misunderstood. But it does mean the state as a whole has left all of the work up to the Department of Education without addressing issues such as housing, food deserts, quality of life in general for kids,” Elliott said.

Brian Chilson
Kwami Abdul-Bey expressed skepticism that a transformation contract is the right cure.

Dr. Anika Whitfield, a leader with Grassroots Arkansas, told board members she’s frustrated that Friday’s meeting wasn’t called until Thursday, meaning the people of Marvell and Elaine who will be most affected didn’t have time to make arrangements to make the two-hour trip. The meeting should have been held in the community it was about, she said.

Jesselia Maples, a community organizer in Marvell who’d hoped to make Friday’s meeting in Little Rock but ended up watching online instead, said afterward that she was confused about how the board got to sign off on a contract that no one has seen yet.

“Why can’t it be shared with us?” she asked. If this is the best move to save her school district from consolidation, Maples said she’s good with that. But she still wants to know the details. 

“In year three, how will you all strategize to exit our district and still leave us standing so we can sustain and keep moving without you?” Maples wanted to know. “We feel like we ask questions but we can’t get answers. We just want to be informed.”