Keep Paron school open, judge orders; But start of classes unlikely Monday

by Cynthia Howell

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Three days before the start of the school year and for the second time this summer, a Pulaski County judge stopped the Bryant School District and the state Board of Education from closing tiny Paron High School. 

Circuit Judge Jay Moody issued a temporary restraining order Friday from the bench after a day-long hearing that centered on the 110-student rural school serving sixth through 12th grades in the Bryant district. 

The judge’s decision left proponents and opponents of the school in Saline County wondering whether the judge intended for the school to accept students on Monday, the first day of the school year in the Bryant district and in most Arkansas school districts. 

“Is the court ruling that Bryant has to go hire teachers and put them out there now?” James “Mitch” Llewellyn Jr., an attorney for the Bryant district, asked after Moody announced the ruling. 

“I guess the practical effect of that is yes, but I’m not advising you,” Moody responded. “Right now, as far as this court’s concerned, as of right now, you have no approval from the state Board of Education to close the school.” 

The order is in effect until a full hearing on the lawsuit to save the school can be held — unless the Arkansas Supreme Court intervenes first in what has become a complex case. 

The Department of Education and the Bryant School District have petitions pending in the Supreme Court that, if granted, could invalidate or overturn Friday’s order. 

Llewellyn, speaking on behalf of Bryant Superintendent Richard Abernathy, said Paron High can’t open to students Monday. 

“They have no teachers,” Llewellyn said. “They have no supplies. They have no plans for transportation.” 
Chris Heller, an attorney for the parents and their children who filled much of the courtroom Friday, was pleased with the ruling and urged that the school be opened quickly. 

“We want the kids to be in Paron,” Heller said. “That is something that needs to be worked out right away between people in the Paron community and the Bryant School Board and Bryant school administrators. We think they should start working on that tonight to figure out where those kids are going to go, how we can get enough teachers there and hopefully work together in a process to get Paron High School up to speed in a short period of time.” 

Danny Bean, father of two students in the Paron community, had arranged to transfer his children to schools in the neighboring Perryville School District, which is closer to his home than the Bryant campuses, where the students would have been going. Friday’s ruling changed that for him and for dozens of others who had sought similar transfers. 

“My children are going to be at Paron school to register come Monday morning,” said Bean, who was on his way to a community meeting Friday night to explain what had happened in court. 

APRIL DECISION 

Relatives of Paron High students sued the Department of Education and the state Board of Education in May to save the school. 

The lawsuit came on the heels of an Education Board vote that affirmed the Bryant School Board’s decision in April to shut down the tiny campus because of academic and financial concerns. 

The Bryant district’s original plan called for the Paron High students to be assigned to Bryant High School and Bryant Middle School. But Paron families objected to the closure because it would have resulted in one-way bus rides of one hour and 30 minutes or longer for their children to the Bryant campuses over roads they said were unpaved or dangerously hilly. 

The Paron case is being closely watched by communities across Arkansas where small, rural school districts were forced by a state law to merge with larger ones. Some of the schools in the former districts were later closed by the larger districts with approval from the state. To date, the state has affirmed all locally requested school closures, including those in the Alread, Scotland, Mount Holly, Huttig, Elaine, Biggers and Reyno communities. 

“I think it’s a great ruling,” Heller said Friday evening. “I think it’s important to these families in Paron and it’s important to parents and students in the state who live in places where there are isolated school districts.” 

He said he hopes the ruling will buy some time for rural communities. 

“I hope it will result in keeping Paron school open for the entire year while people who care about schools in the state will meet in the Legislature and decide how to address this issue on a broader basis. This affects schools other than Paron. We have to figure out how we are going to educate students in rural schools without putting them on a bus for four hours a day.” 

EARLY DECISIONS 

Moody initially held a hearing on closing Paron school on June 16 and later issued a restraining order to keep the school open, but his order was dissolved on Aug. 1 by the state Supreme Court. That was because the Bryant School District was not a named defendant in the Paron case at the time of the first restraining order. 

Paron school supporters added the Bryant district as a defendant and asked Moody to hold another hearing on opening the school. Much of Friday’s hearing repeated arguments made by the Paron supporters in the first hearing, but the Bryant district presented witnesses in defense of its decision to close the school. 

Paron High School has been on state probation for each of the past two years, Abernathy and other Bryant school officials told Moody. As a result, the state is required to take action against the Bryant district under the terms of Act 1467, the Omnibus Quality Education Act. That action could range from restructuring the curriculum to closing a school in a district. 

The Education Board is expected to take action later this year — probably in November — against districts that have schools on probation. 

Moody’s order made it clear that he was not preventing the Education Board from taking action as required by law. 

“Pending a final determination, the state Board of Education and all the state defendants are enjoined from approving Bryant’s request to close the Paron school,” Moody said. “This is different from my previous order. The state Board of Education and any other state defendants are not enjoined from enforcing any other applicable regulations beyond granting the approval of the Bryant School District to close Paron High.” 

Paron was placed on probation after the 2004-05 school year for failing to teach the 38 courses that are required by the state for all high schools. Last year, the school was placed on probation because a journalism teacher was not licensed to teach that subject. 

OPERATING COSTS 

Another issue before the Education Board is Bryant’s request to de-annex the former Paron district, which was annexed into Bryant in 2004. 

Abernathy, the Bryant superintendent, testified that as many as 90 Paron school students had sought transfers to other neighboring school districts and were no longer the responsibility of the Bryant district. 

Other testimony showed that Paron High School had cost the Bryant district about $1 million to operate last year while bringing in $829,857, creating a deficit of $287,887. The cost of educating Paron students was $9,564 per student compared with $5,419 for Bryant High School students, according to Deborah Norris, the Bryant district’s business manager. 

Bryant officials testified that Bryant High School offered more than 160 courses and 35 clubs and activities on a campus that has 24 buildings, including two libraries, while Paron High offered no more than 50 courses and only five extracurricular activities in a building that has had some repairs but is still dated. Photographs and a computerized slide show were used to show the judge the differences in the campuses. 

Larry Smith, assistant superintendent for the Bryant district, testified that Paron students preregistered last spring for some 43 courses that were taught only at the Bryant campus. That testimony contradicted some of the parents who said their children weren’t interested in the extra courses offered by the bigger school. 

Several Paron area parents testified that closing the Paron School would hinder their efforts to be involved in their children’s education and would prevent their children from participating in after-school activities because of the distance between Bryant and Paron. Others testified about the hardships that would be placed on their families if Paron High closed. 

Shelly Lynn testified that she had a job and relied on elderly relatives to pick up her children when they were sick or otherwise needed care. In anticipation of Paron High closing, she said she quit her job to be available to her children because Bryant was too far for her relatives to travel. 

Another mother said closing Paron High would result in her older daughter being separated from a younger daughter who has health problems. The mother said she would have to stop her college education to assist her youngest child. 

While parents talked about their high level of involvement in the school, Abernathy testified that only about 35 percent of the high school parents attended parent conferences last year, the lowest percentage in the Bryant district. 

Tom Farmer, Bryant’s transportation director, testified that Bryant has an equally long and more dangerous bus route in the Lake Norrell region of the district. 

Smith, the assistant superintendent, presented data showing that the Lake Norrell students had standardized test scores similar to test scores for the overall Bryant district, indicating that the students weren’t harmed educationally by their long bus rides. 

Currently in the Supreme Court is a motion appealing Moody’s first order and a petition for a writ of certiorari that argues that Moody should not have conducted a hearing in a case while it is simultaneously being appealed in the higher court.