By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
Jacksonville’s Daniel Gray and Sherwood’s Tjuana Byrd and Margie Anne Snider have been appointed to the new, seven-member Pulaski County Special School District’s advisory panel.
The state Board of Education on Monday approved boards for PCSSD and for the Helena-West Helena School District, both of which are in year three of fiscal distress and have been taken over by the state.
Act 600 of 2013 gave the state authority to run districts in fiscal distress for as long as five years and said since the school boards were dissolved by the state, the state should appoint advisory panels to give feedback.
PCSSD Superintendent Jerry Guess said when it meets, he would advise members of what the district was doing to meet its fiscal goals.
“I would imagine they would meet monthly,” he said, perhaps more often in order to take care of disciplinary matters. He said the advisory panel would report to state Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell quarterly to report the progress in meeting the fiscal goals.
Of the six members appointed so far, he said, “Daniel is the only one I know. But I’ll work with whomever.”
Kimbrell is appointing one advisory member from each school board zone, with approval of the state board.
In Zone 1, Gray, a Realtor and father of two in the district, serves on the Jacksonville Parks and Recreation Board. He is the current face of Jacksonville’s effort to detach from PCSSD and form its own district, and was a school-board candidate at the time the state took over the district and dissolved the board.
Gray said he believed he was nominated by Rep. Mark Perry (D-Jacksonville) and Sen. Jane English (R-North Little Rock).
“They called me on Friday and asked if I’d be willing to serve, and on Monday, they voted on it,” Gray said.
“I don’t know the full scope of responsibility. Maybe it’s a school board with training wheels,” Gray said.
He said he thought there would be public meetings and he looks forward to serving.
As far as student discipline and personnel hearings go, “I don’t know how they’ve been handling that to this point.”
“I don’t know when we’ll first meet. We will be doing some training,” Gray added.
Gray said one of the major items facing the district is its fiscal-distress status. He said both unitary status (desegregation) and detachment of a Jacksonville district are related to the fiscal distress.
Debbie Coffman, Kimbrell’s chief of staff, confirmed that the board could give advice and feedback on any topic, including the district’s ongoing struggle to achieve unitary status and also the detachment of a Jacksonville district from PCSSD.
Byrd, a North Little Rock lawyer who lives in Sherwood, will represent Zone 2 on the new community advisory board.
In 2012, she ran unsuccessfully for circuit judge, Sixth Judicial District, 11th Division.
The seat oversees juvenile cases.
Byrd is still practicing in that field of law.
As a special judge, she rendered decisions on a wide variety of cases, most of them in the juvenile court.
Byrd said that she doesn’t know details yet about what she will be doing on the advisory board because it hasn’t met yet.
“I’m not a parent of any student in the Pulaski County Special School District, but I represent and serve a lot of those children...I hope that my unique perspective and contact with the community will help me to advise and advocate for changes that are in the best interests of students in the district,” Byrd said.
The board will advise Guess and will perform the thankless task of dealing with student-discipline hearings and teacher hearings, according to Coffman.
Kimbrell also appointed and the board approved the following advisory board members:
In Zone 4, Snider is a retired North Little Rock science teacher with 31 years of teaching experience. She has served on the district’s Personnel Policy Committee. “I’m very concerned about the state of PCSSD schools,” she said.
In Zone 5, Lindsey Pierson Gustafson, assistant professor of law at UALR Bowen School of law, will represent Maumelle. She has six children in the district and was appointed to the Maumelle High School Curriculum Committee in 2010.
Dr. Julian McMurray of Little Rock — a chiropractic physician, a long-term substitute and lead instructor and facilitator for the Arkansas Virtual High School, PCSSD and the Alternative Learning Academy — will represent Zone 6. He has one child in the district.
Representative for Zone 7 is Susie Marks, senior vice president for the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce. She volunteers for many community groups.
Zone 3 is currently vacant, with Kimbrell awaiting nominations and consideration of candidates before making an appointment, Coffman said.