Charles Hopson, the new superintendent for the Pulaski County Special School District, has been on the job just a couple of weeks, and it seems as if every day he’s faced a new crisis, thanks to a clueless school board and incompetent predecessors who made PCSSD one of the worst in the state.
A judge’s ruling Monday reaffirming an earlier decision that the board acted improperly when it withdrew its recognition of the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers — purely out of spite, but at great expense to the taxpayers because of protracted litigation — is just the latest crisis that Hopson has had to deal with just two weeks into the job.
But he’s a conciliator who could bring peace to the troubled district, which has not had a real leader since Superintendent Bobby Lester’s glory days. Last week, barely into his new job, Hopson convinced the board to settle two discrimination suits brought by two staff members — one black, the other white — at a cost of nearly $300,000. As Hopson said, it was better to settle now than to have a drawn-out fight in the courts, which could have cost the district a lot more.
Hopson said he wants the district and board to chart a new course in personnel relations.
“My intent as superintendent is to make sure we don’t have these kinds of actions in the future,” Hopson said. “We need to be proactive and treat people in a way so that these kinds of actions are minimized.”
The board voted to pay $200,000 to Donna Humphries, who recently retired from her job as counselor at Sherwood Elementary School. Humphries, who is white, filed a lawsuit alleging she had been a victim of reverse discrimination and breach of contract.
The board voted to pay Mike Nellums $50,000 and up to $25,000 for attorney’s fees for a mindless investigation of his performance while principal of Jacksonville Boys Middle School, followed by former Superintendent Rob McGill’s recommendation that he be fired. The district will also pay Nellums’ taxes on the $50,000.
As for Judge Fox reaffirming his earlier decision that the school board acted in bad faith when it decertified the union, Hopson seems to think another settlement is in order. Appealing the decision over and over would not benefit the students or staff, although the school board will probably keep trying.
Before Hopson was hired, the school board retained a New York attorney named Lyle Zuckerman, who specializes in representing management in labor disputes — as if we didn’t have enough such lawyers in our neck of the woods. He says he’s thinking about appealing the judge’s decision.
So we have here a New York lawyer who’s studying an Arkansas judge’s ruling about the Pulaski County school district that can’t teach local students or maintain its rundown campuses. But Zuckerman, whose office is down the street from the David Letterman Show, weighed in after Fox’s ruling this way: “I am analyzing the court’s decision, which will take a bit more time. At this point, I am respectful of the judge’s decision but disappointed with the result. However, I am pleased that the court upheld the District’s right to separate from the union and form a personnel policies committee at any time during the year. The court kept the union agreement in effect only because of a technical timing issue. The board has not made a decision whether to appeal, but I believe that the appellate court should have an opportunity to review it, including that it was PACT and certain teachers that caused the technical timing snafu.”
How much did it cost Arkansas taxpayers to get the mid-town Manhattan lawyer to compose this gem? Wouldn’t it make sense to fire the lawyers and make peace with PACT?
Superintendent Hopson, who has shown adult leadership early into his new administration, could ask the board to get rid of the high-priced lawyers and negotiate with the teachers in good faith. Failing that, the state Education Department should take over the troubled district and call for new school elections.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
TOP STORY > >Group told financing is likely for water line
By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer
The leaders of the Lonoke-White Public Water Authority who met in Ward at noon Tuesday appeared optimistic but cautious about the latest financing plan for the 16-year-old project to bring water to the central part of the state from Greers Ferry Lake.
Several plans have fallen through for the group that includes Cabot, Jacksonville, Ward, Austin, Beebe, Lonoke, Furlow, McRae, Vilonia, North Pulaski Water Association and Grand Prairie Bayou Two Water Association.
Last year, plans to use federal stimulus money from the Environmental Protection Agency funneled through the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission failed because members of the project have no immediate need for water. A revised version of that plan that would also use state money failed for the same reason.
The latest plan is to pay for 65 percent of the project with money from the USDA at 4 percent interest with 35 percent of that interest given back as a rebate through the Build America bond program which is also stimulus money. The remaining 35 percent of the funding would come from selling bonds.
There is no rush on the private bond part of the latest plan, but to get the interest rebate, the details must be worked out and approved by Dec. 31. Although there is talk of extending the deadline, Bob Wright with the bond firm Crews and Associates, told the group that there is no talk of leaving the rebate at 35 percent.
But saving money on financing is not the only reason for moving quickly, Wright said. The price of construction is also low now.
Calvin Aldridge, a certified public accountant from Cabot who has been brought in to help with financing, told the group they must work fast.
“Time is short,” Aldridge said. “You definitely want to get a plan in place within the next month. If you’re going to use (the Build America program), you’re going to have to use it fast.”
Woody Bryant, project manager, told the group that the cost for each member will likely go up under the latest plan.
“It’s not going to be quite as cheap as we thought it would be but we think it will still work,” Bryant said.
Since the USDA can’t fund projects for cities with populations greater than 6,500, Cabot’s and Jacksonville’s 35 percent of the project would be funded with bonds, Wright told the group.
Bill Cypert, spokesman for the Cabot Water and Wastewater Commission as well as a candidate for Cabot mayor, questioned whether Cabot and Jacksonville would be expected to repay 35 percent of the cost of the project.
Cabot and Jacksonville are currently paying for connections to Central Arkansas Water out of the Little Rock area and both say they need the connection to Greers Ferry Lake for emergency use.
Bryant assured Cypert that Jacksonville and Cabot would not have to pay more than they have already agreed to pay.
Cypert also questioned Crews and Associates involvement in the project without the standard requests for qualifications that cities must use before hiring professionals.
Clint McGue, attorney for the LWPWA, responded that the restrictions for LWPWA are not as tight as for cities.
Project engineer Tommy Bond of Jacksonville said in his monthly report that a funding meeting last week was attended by Ricky Carter and Larry Duncan from the USDA, Dave Fenter from ANRC, bond counsel David Menz and Wright from Crews and Associates.
During that same meeting, Crist Engineering submitted a draft of the environmental report that will have to be approved before the project may start. Bond said the USDA is so committed to the project that Martin, from the USDA, will hand carry the environmental report to Washington when it is completed.
Leader staff writer
The leaders of the Lonoke-White Public Water Authority who met in Ward at noon Tuesday appeared optimistic but cautious about the latest financing plan for the 16-year-old project to bring water to the central part of the state from Greers Ferry Lake.
Several plans have fallen through for the group that includes Cabot, Jacksonville, Ward, Austin, Beebe, Lonoke, Furlow, McRae, Vilonia, North Pulaski Water Association and Grand Prairie Bayou Two Water Association.
Last year, plans to use federal stimulus money from the Environmental Protection Agency funneled through the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission failed because members of the project have no immediate need for water. A revised version of that plan that would also use state money failed for the same reason.
The latest plan is to pay for 65 percent of the project with money from the USDA at 4 percent interest with 35 percent of that interest given back as a rebate through the Build America bond program which is also stimulus money. The remaining 35 percent of the funding would come from selling bonds.
There is no rush on the private bond part of the latest plan, but to get the interest rebate, the details must be worked out and approved by Dec. 31. Although there is talk of extending the deadline, Bob Wright with the bond firm Crews and Associates, told the group that there is no talk of leaving the rebate at 35 percent.
But saving money on financing is not the only reason for moving quickly, Wright said. The price of construction is also low now.
Calvin Aldridge, a certified public accountant from Cabot who has been brought in to help with financing, told the group they must work fast.
“Time is short,” Aldridge said. “You definitely want to get a plan in place within the next month. If you’re going to use (the Build America program), you’re going to have to use it fast.”
Woody Bryant, project manager, told the group that the cost for each member will likely go up under the latest plan.
“It’s not going to be quite as cheap as we thought it would be but we think it will still work,” Bryant said.
Since the USDA can’t fund projects for cities with populations greater than 6,500, Cabot’s and Jacksonville’s 35 percent of the project would be funded with bonds, Wright told the group.
Bill Cypert, spokesman for the Cabot Water and Wastewater Commission as well as a candidate for Cabot mayor, questioned whether Cabot and Jacksonville would be expected to repay 35 percent of the cost of the project.
Cabot and Jacksonville are currently paying for connections to Central Arkansas Water out of the Little Rock area and both say they need the connection to Greers Ferry Lake for emergency use.
Bryant assured Cypert that Jacksonville and Cabot would not have to pay more than they have already agreed to pay.
Cypert also questioned Crews and Associates involvement in the project without the standard requests for qualifications that cities must use before hiring professionals.
Clint McGue, attorney for the LWPWA, responded that the restrictions for LWPWA are not as tight as for cities.
Project engineer Tommy Bond of Jacksonville said in his monthly report that a funding meeting last week was attended by Ricky Carter and Larry Duncan from the USDA, Dave Fenter from ANRC, bond counsel David Menz and Wright from Crews and Associates.
During that same meeting, Crist Engineering submitted a draft of the environmental report that will have to be approved before the project may start. Bond said the USDA is so committed to the project that Martin, from the USDA, will hand carry the environmental report to Washington when it is completed.
TOP STORY > >Sheriff cuts wide swath in Lonoke County
By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer
Who’s fighting crime in Lonoke County?
Based on the frequent press releases that make their way to local newspapers and Little Rock television stations, it might appear that the sheriff’s department is doing all the work in the unincorporated areas and a good deal of the work inside city limits where local police departments generally claim jurisdiction.
Appearances aside, the answer to the question is that all the agencies are working and often they work together. But not all agencies keep the public informed.
Lonoke County Sheriff Jim Roberson says he sends out press releases because it keeps county residents informed about what’s happening in their neighborhoods.
And knowing what to watch out for makes them safer.
A press release last week told the details of a marijuana bust on Sunset Circle in Cabot that also netted illegal prescription drugs priced to sell by the pill, numerous flat-screen televisions and numerous handguns, shotguns and rifles.
The next day, after the bust was announced on television, Jake Wesley Robertson, 26, and Kailee L. Horton, 19, turned themselves in at the sheriff’s department.
The two were charged with manufacturing a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, felony theft by receiving, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Both were released on $10,000 bonds.
That information came in a follow-up press release that also said the sheriff needs help locating the owners of several flat-screen televisions, several handguns and one X-box with initials scratched on the inside cover that were seized at the couple’s home.
ROBERSON IS OFTEN ON TV
In mid-May, Roberson was on television talking about a prostitution bust in Cabot’s exclusive Greystone subdivision. That case has not yet gone to court, but the two women who were arrested deny the charges and reliable sources say Cabot Police Chief Jackie Davis was not pleased with the way the arrest was handled.
Sgt. Brent Lucas, spokesman for the Cabot Police Department, while not disputing his department’s concerns about the apparent issues with jurisdiction, said Friday that although the address of the recent marijuana bust was Cabot, it was actually outside city limits where the sheriff unquestionably has jurisdiction.
“Cabot encompasses a large area and not all of it is inside the city limits,” Lucas said. “A lot of the Cabot mailing addresses are in Lonoke County and we’ve even got some Cabot addresses in Pulaski County.”
As for the alleged house of prostitution, Lucas said, “We got numerous calls out there and couldn’t get a warrant for it.
Apparently, the sheriff did.”
Lucas said that while it is true that sheriffs typically work the unincorporated areas and leave the rest for the city police departments, it is also true that the sheriff is the head law enforcement officer with authority over the whole county. Simply put, he can go anywhere he chooses.
GIVING THEM A HEADS UP
But Lucas added that no police agency stays inside its own area all the time. Cabot Police Department and all others follow leads and sometimes those leads take them outside their own jurisdiction.
When that happens, they still follow, but they tell the police agency in that other jurisdiction they are there and what they are doing.
“We give them a heads up,” he said.
As for the issue of publicity, Lucas said his department intentionally minimizes its efforts.
“We don’t send a lot of stuff out,” he said. It’s not that we’re trying to hide anything, but you never know when one arrest might lead to another.”
Criminals often have accomplices, he said. If the word gets out that a suspect has been arrested for dealing drugs or some other illegal activity, the odds of catching his accomplices decreases.
Former Sheriff Charlie Martin, who is now serving as Ward police chief and running against Roberson for his old job, agrees.
The sheriff is the head law- enforcement officer in the county and he can go wherever he chooses, Martin said in a recent interview. But like Cabot, Martin said Ward tries to keep its efforts as quiet as possible.
“We find we get more done that way,” the former sheriff said.
Lt. Carl Minden, a public information office for the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department, said his department frequently works with other agencies.
The most recent big-news event, he said, was a 600-pound marijuana bust that also involved North Little Rock and the Saline County Sheriff’s Department.
Minden said his department tries to get information out to the public as soon as it’s available.
INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC
“I think it’s better to tell because it’s going to get out eventually anyway,” Minden said. “Besides it makes it look like you’re doing something.”
Lt. Jim Kulesa, spokesman for the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Department and the source of most of the press releases, said this week that he has heard before that his reports make Lonoke County look bad, but he disagrees.
“You don’t hide crime. It’s not useful to hide crime,” Kulesa said, adding that it is common for his releases to lead to additional information and more arrests.
“It’s not about blowing our on horn,” he said. “You want to know what’s going on in your neighborhood so you can take better precautions.”
Victims of residential burglaries in The Leader’s coverage area who lost a television, X-box or firearm should call the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Department at 501-676-3000 or 501-843-2611.
Leader staff writer
Who’s fighting crime in Lonoke County?
Based on the frequent press releases that make their way to local newspapers and Little Rock television stations, it might appear that the sheriff’s department is doing all the work in the unincorporated areas and a good deal of the work inside city limits where local police departments generally claim jurisdiction.
Appearances aside, the answer to the question is that all the agencies are working and often they work together. But not all agencies keep the public informed.
Lonoke County Sheriff Jim Roberson says he sends out press releases because it keeps county residents informed about what’s happening in their neighborhoods.
And knowing what to watch out for makes them safer.
A press release last week told the details of a marijuana bust on Sunset Circle in Cabot that also netted illegal prescription drugs priced to sell by the pill, numerous flat-screen televisions and numerous handguns, shotguns and rifles.
The next day, after the bust was announced on television, Jake Wesley Robertson, 26, and Kailee L. Horton, 19, turned themselves in at the sheriff’s department.
The two were charged with manufacturing a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, felony theft by receiving, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Both were released on $10,000 bonds.
That information came in a follow-up press release that also said the sheriff needs help locating the owners of several flat-screen televisions, several handguns and one X-box with initials scratched on the inside cover that were seized at the couple’s home.
ROBERSON IS OFTEN ON TV
In mid-May, Roberson was on television talking about a prostitution bust in Cabot’s exclusive Greystone subdivision. That case has not yet gone to court, but the two women who were arrested deny the charges and reliable sources say Cabot Police Chief Jackie Davis was not pleased with the way the arrest was handled.
Sgt. Brent Lucas, spokesman for the Cabot Police Department, while not disputing his department’s concerns about the apparent issues with jurisdiction, said Friday that although the address of the recent marijuana bust was Cabot, it was actually outside city limits where the sheriff unquestionably has jurisdiction.
“Cabot encompasses a large area and not all of it is inside the city limits,” Lucas said. “A lot of the Cabot mailing addresses are in Lonoke County and we’ve even got some Cabot addresses in Pulaski County.”
As for the alleged house of prostitution, Lucas said, “We got numerous calls out there and couldn’t get a warrant for it.
Apparently, the sheriff did.”
Lucas said that while it is true that sheriffs typically work the unincorporated areas and leave the rest for the city police departments, it is also true that the sheriff is the head law enforcement officer with authority over the whole county. Simply put, he can go anywhere he chooses.
GIVING THEM A HEADS UP
But Lucas added that no police agency stays inside its own area all the time. Cabot Police Department and all others follow leads and sometimes those leads take them outside their own jurisdiction.
When that happens, they still follow, but they tell the police agency in that other jurisdiction they are there and what they are doing.
“We give them a heads up,” he said.
As for the issue of publicity, Lucas said his department intentionally minimizes its efforts.
“We don’t send a lot of stuff out,” he said. It’s not that we’re trying to hide anything, but you never know when one arrest might lead to another.”
Criminals often have accomplices, he said. If the word gets out that a suspect has been arrested for dealing drugs or some other illegal activity, the odds of catching his accomplices decreases.
Former Sheriff Charlie Martin, who is now serving as Ward police chief and running against Roberson for his old job, agrees.
The sheriff is the head law- enforcement officer in the county and he can go wherever he chooses, Martin said in a recent interview. But like Cabot, Martin said Ward tries to keep its efforts as quiet as possible.
“We find we get more done that way,” the former sheriff said.
Lt. Carl Minden, a public information office for the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department, said his department frequently works with other agencies.
The most recent big-news event, he said, was a 600-pound marijuana bust that also involved North Little Rock and the Saline County Sheriff’s Department.
Minden said his department tries to get information out to the public as soon as it’s available.
INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC
“I think it’s better to tell because it’s going to get out eventually anyway,” Minden said. “Besides it makes it look like you’re doing something.”
Lt. Jim Kulesa, spokesman for the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Department and the source of most of the press releases, said this week that he has heard before that his reports make Lonoke County look bad, but he disagrees.
“You don’t hide crime. It’s not useful to hide crime,” Kulesa said, adding that it is common for his releases to lead to additional information and more arrests.
“It’s not about blowing our on horn,” he said. “You want to know what’s going on in your neighborhood so you can take better precautions.”
Victims of residential burglaries in The Leader’s coverage area who lost a television, X-box or firearm should call the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Department at 501-676-3000 or 501-843-2611.
TOP STORY > >Board weighs next move on judge’s ruling
By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer
Officials for the Pulaski County Special School District are conferring with attorneys and pondering options after a judge ruled Monday that the district has violated state law in its latest efforts to cut off the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers as the collective bargaining agent for district teachers and do away with existing personnel policies and teacher contracts.
Judge Tim Fox of Pulaski County Circuit Court Sixth District responded to two related lawsuits, one filed by PACT and a class-action suit by five teachers on behalf of all PCSSD certified personnel.
The suits challenged actions by the PCSSD school board to replace the union with a committee made up of teachers and administrators by June 30 and institute a new set of personnel policies and teacher contracts, effective July 1.
Fox found there “was no just and reasonable cause for the PCSSD board’s vote on May 17, 2010 to terminate the plaintiffs’ contracts.”
While Fox ruled that the district, by state law, has the authority to terminate recognition of the union, but “the vote of April 20, 2010 is declared null and void, and the professionally negotiated agreement remains in effect between the parties.”
Fox had ruled in April that a prior board vote on Dec. 8 to decertify was null and void because of the same reason he ruled as he did Monday – that the board failed to “have in place a written policy agreement with an organization representing the majority of teachers or a Committee on Personnel Policies together with written personnel policies.”
Fox ordered both sides to participate in mediation to work out the terms of the contract and other differences and to reach resolution by August 2. All school board members, PACT officers and members of the newly formed personnel policies committee (PPC) must take part.
Marty Nix, PACT president, said that she was not surprised by the ruling and is ready to engage in mediation.
“That the contract remains in effect is what we have argued the whole time,” Nix said. “There is a process and the district has to follow it just like everybody else. We’ve always been willing to talk.”
In a statement released Monday, school board president Tim Clark said: “We received the judge’s ruling this afternoon. It is lengthy and requires review by our board and attorneys to determine what the district’s next step in this process will be.”
Two weeks ago, when asked if he would want to appeal an unfavorable ruling from Fox rather than respect it as the court’s clarification of state law on the matter, Clark said, “It will be up to the board to decide.”
Clark, along with board members Danny Gililland, Mildred Tatum and Charlie Wood, voted in April to withdraw recognition of the union. Sandra Sawyer, Bill Vasquez and Gwen Williams opposed the measure.
The same four board members voted to withdraw recognition of PACT on Dec. 8 and move forward with establishing a PPC.
In a statement released Monday, Lyle Zuckerman, the Manhattan lawyer recently hired by the district to help with the lawsuit, said he favored going ahead with an appeal.
He blamed teachers for delaying the process for getting the PPC in place sooner. He suggested that should be a reason for a higher court to side with the district.
“The court kept the union agreement in effect only because of a technical-timing issue,” Zuckerman said. “The board has not made a decision whether to appeal, but I believe that the appellate court should have an opportunity to review it, including that it was PACT and certain teachers that caused the technical timing snafu.”
Last month the board hired Zuckerman to assist with the lawsuits because of his experience in representing management in tough labor disputes.
CONTRACT STANDS
According to law, a PPC must have 10 days to review any written personnel policies before ratification by a school board.
Instead, the PCSSD board on April 20 approved an “operating agreement with classroom teachers” – in effect, a new set of personnel policies to replace those in the PNA – although district teachers had not reviewed or adopted the agreement.
On June 27, elections were held for the five teacher representatives for the PPC. The three administration representatives are to be appointees of the superintendent.
Fox declared that the district, in its formation of a PPC on June 27, had “established a properly constituted (PPC), but it did not have a set of written policies established in either strict or substantial conformance with Arkansas law.”
“The PCSSD Board had no legal authority in April, 2010 or at any time prior to establishment of the Committee on Personnel Policies to adopt or revise any personnel policies,” Fox ruled.
“Further, after establishment of the Committee on Personnel Policies on Sunday, June 27, 2010, the ten-working day submission requirement deprived the PCSSD Board of any legal authority to vote on policies or policy amendments until well after June 30, 2010.”
Therefore, the current contract will remain in effect for the 2010-11 school year, unless a majority of teachers vote to replace it sooner with a new set of policies. That is unlikely because the majority of teachers are union members and do not welcome the institution of a PPC.
STATE LAW IGNORED
Fox came down hard on the board for its leaving teachers out of the process of setting the policies by which they are to do their jobs and be evaluated.
He notes the repercussions for districts who fail to adhere to the statutory requirements governing promulgation of policies that affect its certified employees.
“Even a cursory review of the Legislature’s statutory enactments codified as A.C.A. §6-17-201, et seq., evidences the significance of the “personnel policies” themselves, the participation of the Committee on Personnel Policies in drafting and propounding those policies, and the substantial involvement awarded by the General Assembly to teachers in participating in the establishment of personnel policies,” the ruling stated.
The ruling goes on to say that any school district that fails to have either a set of personnel policies or a professionally negotiated agreement with its teachers risks loss of state funding or accreditation.
Leader staff writer
Officials for the Pulaski County Special School District are conferring with attorneys and pondering options after a judge ruled Monday that the district has violated state law in its latest efforts to cut off the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers as the collective bargaining agent for district teachers and do away with existing personnel policies and teacher contracts.
Judge Tim Fox of Pulaski County Circuit Court Sixth District responded to two related lawsuits, one filed by PACT and a class-action suit by five teachers on behalf of all PCSSD certified personnel.
The suits challenged actions by the PCSSD school board to replace the union with a committee made up of teachers and administrators by June 30 and institute a new set of personnel policies and teacher contracts, effective July 1.
Fox found there “was no just and reasonable cause for the PCSSD board’s vote on May 17, 2010 to terminate the plaintiffs’ contracts.”
While Fox ruled that the district, by state law, has the authority to terminate recognition of the union, but “the vote of April 20, 2010 is declared null and void, and the professionally negotiated agreement remains in effect between the parties.”
Fox had ruled in April that a prior board vote on Dec. 8 to decertify was null and void because of the same reason he ruled as he did Monday – that the board failed to “have in place a written policy agreement with an organization representing the majority of teachers or a Committee on Personnel Policies together with written personnel policies.”
Fox ordered both sides to participate in mediation to work out the terms of the contract and other differences and to reach resolution by August 2. All school board members, PACT officers and members of the newly formed personnel policies committee (PPC) must take part.
Marty Nix, PACT president, said that she was not surprised by the ruling and is ready to engage in mediation.
“That the contract remains in effect is what we have argued the whole time,” Nix said. “There is a process and the district has to follow it just like everybody else. We’ve always been willing to talk.”
In a statement released Monday, school board president Tim Clark said: “We received the judge’s ruling this afternoon. It is lengthy and requires review by our board and attorneys to determine what the district’s next step in this process will be.”
Two weeks ago, when asked if he would want to appeal an unfavorable ruling from Fox rather than respect it as the court’s clarification of state law on the matter, Clark said, “It will be up to the board to decide.”
Clark, along with board members Danny Gililland, Mildred Tatum and Charlie Wood, voted in April to withdraw recognition of the union. Sandra Sawyer, Bill Vasquez and Gwen Williams opposed the measure.
The same four board members voted to withdraw recognition of PACT on Dec. 8 and move forward with establishing a PPC.
In a statement released Monday, Lyle Zuckerman, the Manhattan lawyer recently hired by the district to help with the lawsuit, said he favored going ahead with an appeal.
He blamed teachers for delaying the process for getting the PPC in place sooner. He suggested that should be a reason for a higher court to side with the district.
“The court kept the union agreement in effect only because of a technical-timing issue,” Zuckerman said. “The board has not made a decision whether to appeal, but I believe that the appellate court should have an opportunity to review it, including that it was PACT and certain teachers that caused the technical timing snafu.”
Last month the board hired Zuckerman to assist with the lawsuits because of his experience in representing management in tough labor disputes.
CONTRACT STANDS
According to law, a PPC must have 10 days to review any written personnel policies before ratification by a school board.
Instead, the PCSSD board on April 20 approved an “operating agreement with classroom teachers” – in effect, a new set of personnel policies to replace those in the PNA – although district teachers had not reviewed or adopted the agreement.
On June 27, elections were held for the five teacher representatives for the PPC. The three administration representatives are to be appointees of the superintendent.
Fox declared that the district, in its formation of a PPC on June 27, had “established a properly constituted (PPC), but it did not have a set of written policies established in either strict or substantial conformance with Arkansas law.”
“The PCSSD Board had no legal authority in April, 2010 or at any time prior to establishment of the Committee on Personnel Policies to adopt or revise any personnel policies,” Fox ruled.
“Further, after establishment of the Committee on Personnel Policies on Sunday, June 27, 2010, the ten-working day submission requirement deprived the PCSSD Board of any legal authority to vote on policies or policy amendments until well after June 30, 2010.”
Therefore, the current contract will remain in effect for the 2010-11 school year, unless a majority of teachers vote to replace it sooner with a new set of policies. That is unlikely because the majority of teachers are union members and do not welcome the institution of a PPC.
STATE LAW IGNORED
Fox came down hard on the board for its leaving teachers out of the process of setting the policies by which they are to do their jobs and be evaluated.
He notes the repercussions for districts who fail to adhere to the statutory requirements governing promulgation of policies that affect its certified employees.
“Even a cursory review of the Legislature’s statutory enactments codified as A.C.A. §6-17-201, et seq., evidences the significance of the “personnel policies” themselves, the participation of the Committee on Personnel Policies in drafting and propounding those policies, and the substantial involvement awarded by the General Assembly to teachers in participating in the establishment of personnel policies,” the ruling stated.
The ruling goes on to say that any school district that fails to have either a set of personnel policies or a professionally negotiated agreement with its teachers risks loss of state funding or accreditation.
SPORTS>>Falcons looking after coach flies
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
North Pulaski is back where it was a year ago and with only three weeks to do something about it.
Football coach Rick Russell left the Falcons after one year to take the vacant job at Jacksonville, where he assisted 14 years, and was announced as Red Devils head coach on Tuesday morning.
“Coach Russell will do a good job over there,” North Pulaski athletic director Tony Bohannon said.
Russell’s departure left Bohannon and the administration again looking to fill the football job at a program that has won four games thepast five seasons and will be naming its third head coach in three years.
“It was a loss for one school and, you’d say, a gain for one,” said Jacksonville athletic director Jerry Wilson, who accepted football coach Mark Whatley’s resignation last month. Whatley departed to join the staff at Springdale High School.
“It seems like it’s the same story just two or three weeks later,” Wilson said. “Of course, North Pulaski is going to go through the same things we did.”
Bohannon, who stepped down as Falcons coach after seven years in 2008 and was replaced by Russell, said Tuesday he was going to consult with the North Pulaski administration and see what the best option would be for finding Russell’s replacement.
Bohannon said it was possible North Pulaski would go through a search process or promote an assistant or junior high coach.
“Hopefully something with as little disruption as possible,” Bohannon said. “That’s what we’re going to talk about and see what our options are.”
North Pulaski, of the 5A-Southeast Conference, was 1-9 with a 35-13 victory over Little Rock McClellan last season. The Falcons are 6-74 the past eight years.
“One of the toughest things I ever had to do in my 27 years of coaching was go in there and look those guys in the eyes and tell them I wasn’t going to be their coach next year,” Russell said of his farewell to the Falcons.
Russell, 51, said it had always been his goal to be head coach at Jacksonville, where he served the last eight of his 14 years as defensive coordinator.
“It came open this year, unfortunately for what we were trying to do at North Pulaski,” Russell said.
North Pulaski has been going through summer weight training and conditioning as well as competing in 7-on-7 games weekly at Cabot, where the Falcons were 2-0-1.
Russell said he had been planning to open up the offense more with athletic quarterback Shyheim Barron running and passing out of the Spread formation.
“Last week was the best week of football I had at North Pulaski,” Russell said. “I told them ‘I appreciate the way you treated me and the effort you put into this football team.’ I hope they understand, as far as me as a football coach, I didn’t abandon them. I told them I’d always be their football coach, I’d be very fond of the relationships we had.
“It was just something I had to do for me and my family.”
Leader sports editor
North Pulaski is back where it was a year ago and with only three weeks to do something about it.
Football coach Rick Russell left the Falcons after one year to take the vacant job at Jacksonville, where he assisted 14 years, and was announced as Red Devils head coach on Tuesday morning.
“Coach Russell will do a good job over there,” North Pulaski athletic director Tony Bohannon said.
Russell’s departure left Bohannon and the administration again looking to fill the football job at a program that has won four games thepast five seasons and will be naming its third head coach in three years.
“It was a loss for one school and, you’d say, a gain for one,” said Jacksonville athletic director Jerry Wilson, who accepted football coach Mark Whatley’s resignation last month. Whatley departed to join the staff at Springdale High School.
“It seems like it’s the same story just two or three weeks later,” Wilson said. “Of course, North Pulaski is going to go through the same things we did.”
Bohannon, who stepped down as Falcons coach after seven years in 2008 and was replaced by Russell, said Tuesday he was going to consult with the North Pulaski administration and see what the best option would be for finding Russell’s replacement.
Bohannon said it was possible North Pulaski would go through a search process or promote an assistant or junior high coach.
“Hopefully something with as little disruption as possible,” Bohannon said. “That’s what we’re going to talk about and see what our options are.”
North Pulaski, of the 5A-Southeast Conference, was 1-9 with a 35-13 victory over Little Rock McClellan last season. The Falcons are 6-74 the past eight years.
“One of the toughest things I ever had to do in my 27 years of coaching was go in there and look those guys in the eyes and tell them I wasn’t going to be their coach next year,” Russell said of his farewell to the Falcons.
Russell, 51, said it had always been his goal to be head coach at Jacksonville, where he served the last eight of his 14 years as defensive coordinator.
“It came open this year, unfortunately for what we were trying to do at North Pulaski,” Russell said.
North Pulaski has been going through summer weight training and conditioning as well as competing in 7-on-7 games weekly at Cabot, where the Falcons were 2-0-1.
Russell said he had been planning to open up the offense more with athletic quarterback Shyheim Barron running and passing out of the Spread formation.
“Last week was the best week of football I had at North Pulaski,” Russell said. “I told them ‘I appreciate the way you treated me and the effort you put into this football team.’ I hope they understand, as far as me as a football coach, I didn’t abandon them. I told them I’d always be their football coach, I’d be very fond of the relationships we had.
“It was just something I had to do for me and my family.”
SPORTS>>Quarterbacks strutting stuff on 7-on-7 stage for Jackrabbits
By JASON KING
Leader staff writer
Lonoke’s effort to replace quarterback Michael Nelson from last year’s 4A state runner-up team got a shot in the arm when senior Logan Dewhitt returned from a year’s hiatus, and the progress of junior Tarrell Watson over the summer has doubled the dosage.
The Jackrabbits, who lost to Shiloh Christian in last year’s state final, have had successful results in their weekly 7-on-7 league games at Searcy High School. Lonoke went 3-1 last week against a contingent that included Searcy’s varsity and junior varsity squads, as well as Harding Academy and Des Arc.
Dewhitt has looked solid in his return to the team, but has found himself in a competition with Watson.
“It’s open,” Jackrabbits coach Doug Bost said. “With Tarrell, we get a little more speed. There are certain packages where we can use him. We want to get him some playing time when we can.”
Though Dewhitt possesses the strongest arm and has the most experience behind center, Bost said the gap between he and Watson is not as wideas it was when spring practice began.
“We had a team camp last week, and he did everything we asked of him,” Bost said of Watson. “And Logan, we know he has a strong arm. With Logan, we’ve got size, and he has a quick release. He’s about 6-3 and Tarrell is about 6-4, so we know we have two tall quarterbacks.”
While Dewhitt and Watson cling to the top of the quarterback depth chart, Bost said senior receiver Darius Scott has continued to improve out of the Wildcat formation, a set he directed last year as a junior.
“He ran it last year, so it’s nothing new for him,” Bost said. “We’ve got him throwing the ball a little bit now, so it won’t just be running.”
Defensively, Bost said the experience gained by the secondary in 7-on-7 games is invaluable.
With no pass rush involved in the limited-contact game, offenses are allowed to go wide open and put constant pressure on cornerbacks and safeties to chase down receivers.
“We know that with 7-on-7, you get every worse-case scenario possible in situations,” Bost said. “Offenses can go five wide all day, and it’s tough to defend. In an actual game situation, you know there’s going to be linemen up there putting pressure on the quarterback, so they’re not able to send five wide like that all the time.”
The Jackrabbits will wrap up 7-on-7 on Monday. Two-a-days begin the first week of August.
Leader staff writer
Lonoke’s effort to replace quarterback Michael Nelson from last year’s 4A state runner-up team got a shot in the arm when senior Logan Dewhitt returned from a year’s hiatus, and the progress of junior Tarrell Watson over the summer has doubled the dosage.
The Jackrabbits, who lost to Shiloh Christian in last year’s state final, have had successful results in their weekly 7-on-7 league games at Searcy High School. Lonoke went 3-1 last week against a contingent that included Searcy’s varsity and junior varsity squads, as well as Harding Academy and Des Arc.
Dewhitt has looked solid in his return to the team, but has found himself in a competition with Watson.
“It’s open,” Jackrabbits coach Doug Bost said. “With Tarrell, we get a little more speed. There are certain packages where we can use him. We want to get him some playing time when we can.”
Though Dewhitt possesses the strongest arm and has the most experience behind center, Bost said the gap between he and Watson is not as wideas it was when spring practice began.
“We had a team camp last week, and he did everything we asked of him,” Bost said of Watson. “And Logan, we know he has a strong arm. With Logan, we’ve got size, and he has a quick release. He’s about 6-3 and Tarrell is about 6-4, so we know we have two tall quarterbacks.”
While Dewhitt and Watson cling to the top of the quarterback depth chart, Bost said senior receiver Darius Scott has continued to improve out of the Wildcat formation, a set he directed last year as a junior.
“He ran it last year, so it’s nothing new for him,” Bost said. “We’ve got him throwing the ball a little bit now, so it won’t just be running.”
Defensively, Bost said the experience gained by the secondary in 7-on-7 games is invaluable.
With no pass rush involved in the limited-contact game, offenses are allowed to go wide open and put constant pressure on cornerbacks and safeties to chase down receivers.
“We know that with 7-on-7, you get every worse-case scenario possible in situations,” Bost said. “Offenses can go five wide all day, and it’s tough to defend. In an actual game situation, you know there’s going to be linemen up there putting pressure on the quarterback, so they’re not able to send five wide like that all the time.”
The Jackrabbits will wrap up 7-on-7 on Monday. Two-a-days begin the first week of August.
SPORTS>>Cabot advances to quarterfinals
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
SHERIDAN — Two innings were the longest Cabot could extend its season against a tough Texarkana team.
Texarkana beat Cabot Centennial Bank 5-3 in the quarterfinals of the American Legion junior state tournament Monday.
Centennial Bank rallied once to tie the junior Razorbacks 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh and force extra innings at Oliver Williams Field. But when Texarkana capitalized on a pair of Cabot errors in the top of the ninth to add two more runs, it was enough to advance to the semifinals.
It was Cabot’s second loss of the double-elimination tournament after an opening-day setback to the host Sheridan Yellowjackets on Saturday and a comeback triumph over North Little Rock on Sunday.
“We said we were going to be aggressive all year, and the kids bought into that,” Andy Runyan said after his final game as a Cabot baseball coach. “I was extremely proud of how they played. And even though we turned out on the wrong side of it tonight, I couldn’t be more proud of a bunch of 14- and 15-year-old kids.”
Texarkana had two outs and two on in the top of the ninth when Blake Sullivan hit a grounder to Casey Vaughan at third base.
Vaughan’s throw to first was just out of first baseman James McCraine’s reach and allowed both runners to score.
Vaughan’s chance at redemption at the plate in the bottom of the ninth ended in a double play after Dylan Wilson led off the inning with a single.
“It’s one of those things where you go back and there were probably 10 different plays in that game in the end that could have teetered the game one way or the other,” Runyan said. “Go back to the first inning — I got Cole Thomas picked off of first base on a steal, you know, that’s something as a coach that you look at and wish you could have back.”
Cabot (19-11) got itself back in the game in the bottom of the seventh inning when Cole Thomas led off with a walk and Wilson advanced him to third with a double down the third-base line. Cleanup hitter Rob White singled to left to score Thomas and make it 3-2 before Wilson scored the tying run when Ryan Logan hit into a fielder’s choice.
Logan beat the throw to first to stay out of a game-ending double play.
Both teams relied on defense through the first six innings.
Texarkana held a 1-0 lead after first baseman Brett Reinhart smashed Kason Kimbrell’s first pitch of the second inning over the right field wall. It was one of few hiccups for Kimbrell, who held the Razorbacks scoreless from that point until the top of the seventh when he began to show fatigue.
Kimbrell walked Jared Brown and gave up two straight singles and a run that made it 2-1. That led to Dustin Morris to relieve Kimbrell.
Morris retired one batter but gave up an RBI single to Justin House for the two-run lead.
Cabot tied it for the first time in the bottom of the fifth.
Wilson reached on an infield single when he stunned Texarkana pitcher Blake Sullivan with a line drive up the middle. Vaughan advanced Wilson with a single bloop to left and White drove him in with a single up the middle.
Wilson was 5 for 5 with a double and four singles. White was 2 for 5 with two RBI. For Texarkana, House was 3 for 5 with an RBI while Jacob Kirkland and Chase Sealy were both 2 for 4 with an RBI for Sealy.
“We said all year, kind of as a coaching point, that we weren’t going to use youth as an excuse,” Runyan said. “We had a bunch of ninth and tenth-graders-to-be playing in a 17-under league against a bunch of juniors and seniors, so for them to finish eight games above .500, finish top two in the zone and make it to the quarterfinals of the state tournament and be one of the last six teams standing in the state, those guys don’t have anything to hang their heads about.
“They’ve accomplished a lot for a young group this year.”
Leader sportswriter
SHERIDAN — Two innings were the longest Cabot could extend its season against a tough Texarkana team.
Texarkana beat Cabot Centennial Bank 5-3 in the quarterfinals of the American Legion junior state tournament Monday.
Centennial Bank rallied once to tie the junior Razorbacks 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh and force extra innings at Oliver Williams Field. But when Texarkana capitalized on a pair of Cabot errors in the top of the ninth to add two more runs, it was enough to advance to the semifinals.
It was Cabot’s second loss of the double-elimination tournament after an opening-day setback to the host Sheridan Yellowjackets on Saturday and a comeback triumph over North Little Rock on Sunday.
“We said we were going to be aggressive all year, and the kids bought into that,” Andy Runyan said after his final game as a Cabot baseball coach. “I was extremely proud of how they played. And even though we turned out on the wrong side of it tonight, I couldn’t be more proud of a bunch of 14- and 15-year-old kids.”
Texarkana had two outs and two on in the top of the ninth when Blake Sullivan hit a grounder to Casey Vaughan at third base.
Vaughan’s throw to first was just out of first baseman James McCraine’s reach and allowed both runners to score.
Vaughan’s chance at redemption at the plate in the bottom of the ninth ended in a double play after Dylan Wilson led off the inning with a single.
“It’s one of those things where you go back and there were probably 10 different plays in that game in the end that could have teetered the game one way or the other,” Runyan said. “Go back to the first inning — I got Cole Thomas picked off of first base on a steal, you know, that’s something as a coach that you look at and wish you could have back.”
Cabot (19-11) got itself back in the game in the bottom of the seventh inning when Cole Thomas led off with a walk and Wilson advanced him to third with a double down the third-base line. Cleanup hitter Rob White singled to left to score Thomas and make it 3-2 before Wilson scored the tying run when Ryan Logan hit into a fielder’s choice.
Logan beat the throw to first to stay out of a game-ending double play.
Both teams relied on defense through the first six innings.
Texarkana held a 1-0 lead after first baseman Brett Reinhart smashed Kason Kimbrell’s first pitch of the second inning over the right field wall. It was one of few hiccups for Kimbrell, who held the Razorbacks scoreless from that point until the top of the seventh when he began to show fatigue.
Kimbrell walked Jared Brown and gave up two straight singles and a run that made it 2-1. That led to Dustin Morris to relieve Kimbrell.
Morris retired one batter but gave up an RBI single to Justin House for the two-run lead.
Cabot tied it for the first time in the bottom of the fifth.
Wilson reached on an infield single when he stunned Texarkana pitcher Blake Sullivan with a line drive up the middle. Vaughan advanced Wilson with a single bloop to left and White drove him in with a single up the middle.
Wilson was 5 for 5 with a double and four singles. White was 2 for 5 with two RBI. For Texarkana, House was 3 for 5 with an RBI while Jacob Kirkland and Chase Sealy were both 2 for 4 with an RBI for Sealy.
“We said all year, kind of as a coaching point, that we weren’t going to use youth as an excuse,” Runyan said. “We had a bunch of ninth and tenth-graders-to-be playing in a 17-under league against a bunch of juniors and seniors, so for them to finish eight games above .500, finish top two in the zone and make it to the quarterfinals of the state tournament and be one of the last six teams standing in the state, those guys don’t have anything to hang their heads about.
“They’ve accomplished a lot for a young group this year.”
SPORTS>>Light-hitting Canseco does right
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
I never thought I could empathize with Jose Canseco.
But then, I never thought the guy would lose a boxing match to a 60-year-old man.
At Dickey-Stephens Park on Friday, UALR associate athletic director Gary Hogan, 60, beat the 46-year-old Canseco on points, 39-37, in a four-round bout before the Arkansas Travelers’ Texas League game with the Midland RockHounds.
It was another oddity in an eyebrow-arching career for Canseco, who in his post-baseball life has dabbled in boxing and mixed martial arts while trying to live down his use of performance-enhancing drugs as a player.
In a uniform that fit his 6-4 frame like spandex, Canseco hit 462 career home runs, good for 32nd all-time.
On the 1988 Oakland Athletics, Canseco became the first player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases. He was one of Oakland’s “Bash Brothers,” joining Mark McGwire to punish baseballs on the prolific A’s teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Oakland went to three straight World Series while Canseco played and won one, the 1989 classic thrown off schedule by the Bay Area earthquake.
That should have been a sign of the turmoil to come.
Canseco was issued multiple speeding tickets and a citation from California police for carrying a handgun in his car.
He had a dalliance with the singer Madonna that of course made the tabloids, and he nearly fought a heckling fan who targeted the relationship at Yankee Stadium.
Canseco clashed with Oakland management and was traded to Texas.
In one week with the Rangers in May 1993, Canseco had a fly ball bounce off his head and over the fence for a home run then nearly ended his career with a ligament injury when he pitched during a blowout loss to the Boston Red Sox.
Injuries continued to dog Canseco — he was with the St. Louis Cardinals but never played a game because of a back injury — and he finally hung it up in 2002.
His problems, even some of the injuries, seemed of his own making, and it’s hard topity a guy with Canseco’s fame and accomplishments, even if analyst Peter Gammons lumped him with Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden as the three great wastes of talent from 1980-2000.
Then Canseco wrote the book “Juiced” in which he admitted his steroid use and named McGwire, Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro and Jason Giambi as users too.
Canseco also testified about steroids in baseball before a congressional committee, whose investigations led to a more stringent, anti-doping policy in the game.
He was vilified as a snitch and relegated to appearances on reality TV and in the ring as a boxer, wrestler and mixed martial-arts combatant. Meanwhile guys like McGwire, currently hitting coach for St. Louis, are still welcome in baseball.
Yet I didn’t feel sorry for Canseco any more than I felt sorry for McGwire when it became clear the one-time home-run king was going to be closed out of the Hall of Fame voting for some years to come.
Again, the career wounds seemed self-inflicted.
Then Canseco came to North Little Rock to fight Hogan, and I have to applaud Canseco for the way he handled the difficult spot in which he was placed.
Hogan, of course, is the former UALR baseball coach and local television sports anchor who fought a few exhibitions with former heavyweights in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In those bouts Hogan proved himself a stubborn competitor unwilling to go down. But, while he is in great shape thanks to his training at the gym of Golden Gloves guru Ray Rodgers, Hogan is still a 60-year-old with an artificial hip and five knee surgeries to his credit.
Canseco was roundly booed when he walked onto the field and climbed into the ring Friday night, and he clearly knew it would be worse if he pounded Hogan the way he seemed capable.
So Canseco bloodied Hogan’s chin in the first round and staggered him with a late shot, but otherwise he covered up and let Hogan pummel his midsection to gain the points for his narrow decision.
Afterward Canseco, who earned approximately $14,000 for his appearance, praised Hogan — who raised money for Rodgers’ gym — and called him “a great man.”
Predictably, people who knew Canseco only through his rap sheet and mishaps laughed and sneered that a 60-year-old beat him.
But what was Canseco to do?
“Anyone that would take advantage of a 60-year-old man in the ring deserves to get there [sic] skull cracked by me in the ring,” Canseco later said in a Twitter update.
Hogan may have outpointed Canseco, and the guy gets no points for spelling either. But this time I’m giving Canseco a break.
Leader sports editor
I never thought I could empathize with Jose Canseco.
But then, I never thought the guy would lose a boxing match to a 60-year-old man.
At Dickey-Stephens Park on Friday, UALR associate athletic director Gary Hogan, 60, beat the 46-year-old Canseco on points, 39-37, in a four-round bout before the Arkansas Travelers’ Texas League game with the Midland RockHounds.
It was another oddity in an eyebrow-arching career for Canseco, who in his post-baseball life has dabbled in boxing and mixed martial arts while trying to live down his use of performance-enhancing drugs as a player.
In a uniform that fit his 6-4 frame like spandex, Canseco hit 462 career home runs, good for 32nd all-time.
On the 1988 Oakland Athletics, Canseco became the first player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases. He was one of Oakland’s “Bash Brothers,” joining Mark McGwire to punish baseballs on the prolific A’s teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Oakland went to three straight World Series while Canseco played and won one, the 1989 classic thrown off schedule by the Bay Area earthquake.
That should have been a sign of the turmoil to come.
Canseco was issued multiple speeding tickets and a citation from California police for carrying a handgun in his car.
He had a dalliance with the singer Madonna that of course made the tabloids, and he nearly fought a heckling fan who targeted the relationship at Yankee Stadium.
Canseco clashed with Oakland management and was traded to Texas.
In one week with the Rangers in May 1993, Canseco had a fly ball bounce off his head and over the fence for a home run then nearly ended his career with a ligament injury when he pitched during a blowout loss to the Boston Red Sox.
Injuries continued to dog Canseco — he was with the St. Louis Cardinals but never played a game because of a back injury — and he finally hung it up in 2002.
His problems, even some of the injuries, seemed of his own making, and it’s hard topity a guy with Canseco’s fame and accomplishments, even if analyst Peter Gammons lumped him with Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden as the three great wastes of talent from 1980-2000.
Then Canseco wrote the book “Juiced” in which he admitted his steroid use and named McGwire, Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro and Jason Giambi as users too.
Canseco also testified about steroids in baseball before a congressional committee, whose investigations led to a more stringent, anti-doping policy in the game.
He was vilified as a snitch and relegated to appearances on reality TV and in the ring as a boxer, wrestler and mixed martial-arts combatant. Meanwhile guys like McGwire, currently hitting coach for St. Louis, are still welcome in baseball.
Yet I didn’t feel sorry for Canseco any more than I felt sorry for McGwire when it became clear the one-time home-run king was going to be closed out of the Hall of Fame voting for some years to come.
Again, the career wounds seemed self-inflicted.
Then Canseco came to North Little Rock to fight Hogan, and I have to applaud Canseco for the way he handled the difficult spot in which he was placed.
Hogan, of course, is the former UALR baseball coach and local television sports anchor who fought a few exhibitions with former heavyweights in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In those bouts Hogan proved himself a stubborn competitor unwilling to go down. But, while he is in great shape thanks to his training at the gym of Golden Gloves guru Ray Rodgers, Hogan is still a 60-year-old with an artificial hip and five knee surgeries to his credit.
Canseco was roundly booed when he walked onto the field and climbed into the ring Friday night, and he clearly knew it would be worse if he pounded Hogan the way he seemed capable.
So Canseco bloodied Hogan’s chin in the first round and staggered him with a late shot, but otherwise he covered up and let Hogan pummel his midsection to gain the points for his narrow decision.
Afterward Canseco, who earned approximately $14,000 for his appearance, praised Hogan — who raised money for Rodgers’ gym — and called him “a great man.”
Predictably, people who knew Canseco only through his rap sheet and mishaps laughed and sneered that a 60-year-old beat him.
But what was Canseco to do?
“Anyone that would take advantage of a 60-year-old man in the ring deserves to get there [sic] skull cracked by me in the ring,” Canseco later said in a Twitter update.
Hogan may have outpointed Canseco, and the guy gets no points for spelling either. But this time I’m giving Canseco a break.
SPORTS>>Travelers punch up pregame
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
It began with an idle comment at a UALR basketball game.
It ended with Gary Hogan standing victorious next to Jose Canseco in a boxing ring.
Hogan, 60, an associate athletic director at UALR, took a 39-37 decision over Canseco before the Arkansas Travelers’ game with the Midland RockHounds at Dickey-Stephens Park on Friday night.
Canseco, 46, the former big-league slugger who retired in 2002, has been in and out of the ring as a boxer, wrestler and mixed martial-arts competitor, among other pursuits. Hogan, on the other hand, hadn’t raised a glove against an opponent in an organized bout since 1981.
How did this happen?
Travelers general manager Pete Laven knew of Hogan’s love for boxing. He knew Hogan, a one-time, local sports anchor, had fought one-time light heavyweight contender Mike Quarry twice and boxed former WBA heavyweight champ John Tate once at the Travelers’ former home in Ray Winder Field in 1981.
When Laven mentioned idly to Hogan at a basketball game that Canseco was available, he was almost assured of Hogan’s participation.
“Let’s put it this way: It’s the entertainment business and I’m not going to go out there and get booed for not throwing punches,” Hogan said in the runup to the fight. “I may go down, I have no fear of that, but the bottom line is we’re going to make it entertaining. The worst thing to happen is for us to kiss each other.”
Laven tracked down Canseco’s agent and got a commitment, then learned the Arkansas Athletic Commission would have to sanction the bout, a process that took several weeks.
Hogan, the former Trojans baseball coach who has had five knee surgeries and a hip replacement, trains in the gym of Arkansas Golden Gloves guru and pro cut man Ray Rodgers.
“I feel great, I’m in the best shape I’ve been in in years,” said Hogan, noting he would be the last man to box at Ray Winder, which closed in 2006, and the first to fight at Dickey-Stephens Park, which opened in 2007.
Canseco, 6-4, 240 pounds, had a longer reach and drastically outweighed the 191-pound Hogan.
He was greeted at Dickey-Stephens Park mostly with boos, perhaps owing to his checkeredpast as a steroids user during his playing days with Oakland and Texas, among others, and his willingness to name other users in his book “Juiced.”
Hogan initially wore headgear, but took his off when Canseco entered the ring without.
Hogan seemed intent on keeping his promise to throw punches as he went after Canseco early, only to get his chin bloodied in the first of the four rounds.
“Not at all, never bothered me a bit, they just wiped it off when I came to the corner,” Hogan said.
Canseco appeared eager to prove to the crowd he could win if he cut loose and then he held off for most of the rest of the fight, covering up and letting Hogan hammer away at his midsection. Canseco’s only other decisive blow was a straight right that staggered Hogan into the ropes in the fourth.
In a Twitter update after the fight, Canseco condemned anyone who would “take advantage” of a 60-year-old man.
Both men were generous in their comments afterward.
“It was a lot of fun, I’m glad nobody got hurt,” Canseco said. “A great man right there and a great match. He can box, I’m telling you. He’s 60 years old and he can fight.”
Canseco signed a contract paying $14,000.
Hogan did not receive a check but enlisted numerous sponsors to raise money for Rodgers’ gym and praised his coach there,
Walt Woods, and his sparring partner, Walt’s son Johnny, for his training.
“He won the first round, he got me a few times,” Hogan said. “I threw more punches and moved around the ring. I won the last three. I thought he got a little tired, to be honest with you, but he did a nice job coming in. I really do appreciate him coming in and doing this.”
Leader sports editor
It began with an idle comment at a UALR basketball game.
It ended with Gary Hogan standing victorious next to Jose Canseco in a boxing ring.
Hogan, 60, an associate athletic director at UALR, took a 39-37 decision over Canseco before the Arkansas Travelers’ game with the Midland RockHounds at Dickey-Stephens Park on Friday night.
Canseco, 46, the former big-league slugger who retired in 2002, has been in and out of the ring as a boxer, wrestler and mixed martial-arts competitor, among other pursuits. Hogan, on the other hand, hadn’t raised a glove against an opponent in an organized bout since 1981.
How did this happen?
Travelers general manager Pete Laven knew of Hogan’s love for boxing. He knew Hogan, a one-time, local sports anchor, had fought one-time light heavyweight contender Mike Quarry twice and boxed former WBA heavyweight champ John Tate once at the Travelers’ former home in Ray Winder Field in 1981.
When Laven mentioned idly to Hogan at a basketball game that Canseco was available, he was almost assured of Hogan’s participation.
“Let’s put it this way: It’s the entertainment business and I’m not going to go out there and get booed for not throwing punches,” Hogan said in the runup to the fight. “I may go down, I have no fear of that, but the bottom line is we’re going to make it entertaining. The worst thing to happen is for us to kiss each other.”
Laven tracked down Canseco’s agent and got a commitment, then learned the Arkansas Athletic Commission would have to sanction the bout, a process that took several weeks.
Hogan, the former Trojans baseball coach who has had five knee surgeries and a hip replacement, trains in the gym of Arkansas Golden Gloves guru and pro cut man Ray Rodgers.
“I feel great, I’m in the best shape I’ve been in in years,” said Hogan, noting he would be the last man to box at Ray Winder, which closed in 2006, and the first to fight at Dickey-Stephens Park, which opened in 2007.
Canseco, 6-4, 240 pounds, had a longer reach and drastically outweighed the 191-pound Hogan.
He was greeted at Dickey-Stephens Park mostly with boos, perhaps owing to his checkeredpast as a steroids user during his playing days with Oakland and Texas, among others, and his willingness to name other users in his book “Juiced.”
Hogan initially wore headgear, but took his off when Canseco entered the ring without.
Hogan seemed intent on keeping his promise to throw punches as he went after Canseco early, only to get his chin bloodied in the first of the four rounds.
“Not at all, never bothered me a bit, they just wiped it off when I came to the corner,” Hogan said.
Canseco appeared eager to prove to the crowd he could win if he cut loose and then he held off for most of the rest of the fight, covering up and letting Hogan hammer away at his midsection. Canseco’s only other decisive blow was a straight right that staggered Hogan into the ropes in the fourth.
In a Twitter update after the fight, Canseco condemned anyone who would “take advantage” of a 60-year-old man.
Both men were generous in their comments afterward.
“It was a lot of fun, I’m glad nobody got hurt,” Canseco said. “A great man right there and a great match. He can box, I’m telling you. He’s 60 years old and he can fight.”
Canseco signed a contract paying $14,000.
Hogan did not receive a check but enlisted numerous sponsors to raise money for Rodgers’ gym and praised his coach there,
Walt Woods, and his sparring partner, Walt’s son Johnny, for his training.
“He won the first round, he got me a few times,” Hogan said. “I threw more punches and moved around the ring. I won the last three. I thought he got a little tired, to be honest with you, but he did a nice job coming in. I really do appreciate him coming in and doing this.”
SPORTS>>Travelers punch up pregame
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
It began with an idle comment at a UALR basketball game.
It ended with Gary Hogan standing victorious next to Jose Canseco in a boxing ring.
Hogan, 60, an associate athletic director at UALR, took a 39-37 decision over Canseco before the Arkansas Travelers’ game with the Midland RockHounds at Dickey-Stephens Park on Friday night.
Canseco, 46, the former big-league slugger who retired in 2002, has been in and out of the ring as a boxer, wrestler and mixed martial-arts competitor, among other pursuits. Hogan, on the other hand, hadn’t raised a glove against an opponent in an organized bout since 1981.
How did this happen?
Travelers general manager Pete Laven knew of Hogan’s love for boxing. He knew Hogan, a one-time, local sports anchor, had fought one-time light heavyweight contender Mike Quarry twice and boxed former WBA heavyweight champ John Tate once at the Travelers’ former home in Ray Winder Field in 1981.
When Laven mentioned idly to Hogan at a basketball game that Canseco was available, he was almost assured of Hogan’s participation.
“Let’s put it this way: It’s the entertainment business and I’m not going to go out there and get booed for not throwing punches,” Hogan said in the runup to the fight. “I may go down, I have no fear of that, but the bottom line is we’re going to make it entertaining. The worst thing to happen is for us to kiss each other.”
Laven tracked down Canseco’s agent and got a commitment, then learned the Arkansas Athletic Commission would have to sanction the bout, a process that took several weeks.
Hogan, the former Trojans baseball coach who has had five knee surgeries and a hip replacement, trains in the gym of Arkansas Golden Gloves guru and pro cut man Ray Rodgers.
“I feel great, I’m in the best shape I’ve been in in years,” said Hogan, noting he would be the last man to box at Ray Winder, which closed in 2006, and the first to fight at Dickey-Stephens Park, which opened in 2007.
Canseco, 6-4, 240 pounds, had a longer reach and drastically outweighed the 191-pound Hogan.
He was greeted at Dickey-Stephens Park mostly with boos, perhaps owing to his checkeredpast as a steroids user during his playing days with Oakland and Texas, among others, and his willingness to name other users in his book “Juiced.”
Hogan initially wore headgear, but took his off when Canseco entered the ring without.
Hogan seemed intent on keeping his promise to throw punches as he went after Canseco early, only to get his chin bloodied in the first of the four rounds.
“Not at all, never bothered me a bit, they just wiped it off when I came to the corner,” Hogan said.
Canseco appeared eager to prove to the crowd he could win if he cut loose and then he held off for most of the rest of the fight, covering up and letting Hogan hammer away at his midsection. Canseco’s only other decisive blow was a straight right that staggered Hogan into the ropes in the fourth.
In a Twitter update after the fight, Canseco condemned anyone who would “take advantage” of a 60-year-old man.
Both men were generous in their comments afterward.
“It was a lot of fun, I’m glad nobody got hurt,” Canseco said. “A great man right there and a great match. He can box, I’m telling you. He’s 60 years old and he can fight.”
Canseco signed a contract paying $14,000.
Hogan did not receive a check but enlisted numerous sponsors to raise money for Rodgers’ gym and praised his coach there,
Walt Woods, and his sparring partner, Walt’s son Johnny, for his training.
“He won the first round, he got me a few times,” Hogan said. “I threw more punches and moved around the ring. I won the last three. I thought he got a little tired, to be honest with you, but he did a nice job coming in. I really do appreciate him coming in and doing this.”
Leader sports editor
It began with an idle comment at a UALR basketball game.
It ended with Gary Hogan standing victorious next to Jose Canseco in a boxing ring.
Hogan, 60, an associate athletic director at UALR, took a 39-37 decision over Canseco before the Arkansas Travelers’ game with the Midland RockHounds at Dickey-Stephens Park on Friday night.
Canseco, 46, the former big-league slugger who retired in 2002, has been in and out of the ring as a boxer, wrestler and mixed martial-arts competitor, among other pursuits. Hogan, on the other hand, hadn’t raised a glove against an opponent in an organized bout since 1981.
How did this happen?
Travelers general manager Pete Laven knew of Hogan’s love for boxing. He knew Hogan, a one-time, local sports anchor, had fought one-time light heavyweight contender Mike Quarry twice and boxed former WBA heavyweight champ John Tate once at the Travelers’ former home in Ray Winder Field in 1981.
When Laven mentioned idly to Hogan at a basketball game that Canseco was available, he was almost assured of Hogan’s participation.
“Let’s put it this way: It’s the entertainment business and I’m not going to go out there and get booed for not throwing punches,” Hogan said in the runup to the fight. “I may go down, I have no fear of that, but the bottom line is we’re going to make it entertaining. The worst thing to happen is for us to kiss each other.”
Laven tracked down Canseco’s agent and got a commitment, then learned the Arkansas Athletic Commission would have to sanction the bout, a process that took several weeks.
Hogan, the former Trojans baseball coach who has had five knee surgeries and a hip replacement, trains in the gym of Arkansas Golden Gloves guru and pro cut man Ray Rodgers.
“I feel great, I’m in the best shape I’ve been in in years,” said Hogan, noting he would be the last man to box at Ray Winder, which closed in 2006, and the first to fight at Dickey-Stephens Park, which opened in 2007.
Canseco, 6-4, 240 pounds, had a longer reach and drastically outweighed the 191-pound Hogan.
He was greeted at Dickey-Stephens Park mostly with boos, perhaps owing to his checkeredpast as a steroids user during his playing days with Oakland and Texas, among others, and his willingness to name other users in his book “Juiced.”
Hogan initially wore headgear, but took his off when Canseco entered the ring without.
Hogan seemed intent on keeping his promise to throw punches as he went after Canseco early, only to get his chin bloodied in the first of the four rounds.
“Not at all, never bothered me a bit, they just wiped it off when I came to the corner,” Hogan said.
Canseco appeared eager to prove to the crowd he could win if he cut loose and then he held off for most of the rest of the fight, covering up and letting Hogan hammer away at his midsection. Canseco’s only other decisive blow was a straight right that staggered Hogan into the ropes in the fourth.
In a Twitter update after the fight, Canseco condemned anyone who would “take advantage” of a 60-year-old man.
Both men were generous in their comments afterward.
“It was a lot of fun, I’m glad nobody got hurt,” Canseco said. “A great man right there and a great match. He can box, I’m telling you. He’s 60 years old and he can fight.”
Canseco signed a contract paying $14,000.
Hogan did not receive a check but enlisted numerous sponsors to raise money for Rodgers’ gym and praised his coach there,
Walt Woods, and his sparring partner, Walt’s son Johnny, for his training.
“He won the first round, he got me a few times,” Hogan said. “I threw more punches and moved around the ring. I won the last three. I thought he got a little tired, to be honest with you, but he did a nice job coming in. I really do appreciate him coming in and doing this.”
SPORTS>>Russell returns to run Devils
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
The memories are intact for Rick Russell.
Jacksonville High School named Russell its football coach Tuesday, capping a whirlwind search that began when Mark Whatley stepped down on June 21 and ended when Russell, 51, agreed to leave the head coaching job at crosstown North Pulaski and return to where he has spent most of his coaching life.
“It played a big part in it,” said Russell, the former Red Devils assistant who was at North Pulaski for one year before his old employer came calling. “I spent 14 years here. I’ve been teaching for 20 and coaching for 27 and that’s over half my career at Jacksonville High School.”
Russell, the former Jacksonville defensive coordinator, was speaking from the fieldhouse where he spent so much time and where his two youngest daughters would play school, drawing on the coach’s blackboard, while waiting for their mother to pick them up after classes.
“It’s kind of like my home. It’s my kids’ home; they went to school here,” Russell said. “It was a family decision and a good decision for me.”
The decision to hire Russell was one of the first major moves by new Jacksonville principal June Aynie, who based her choice on the recommendation of a five-person committee thatincluded faculty members and administrators like Jacksonville athletic director Jerry Wilson.
The panel’s recommendation to hire Russell from a field of 18 candidates was unanimous, Wilson said.
“Well it had a lot to do with his knowledge of the kids around the community,” Wilson said. “That was a big selling point.
Experience. And an educator. All those things go with what makes up a head coach and we had good candidates this late in the game.”
Russell will sign a standard, one-year contract that pays $68,212 annually. Along with his coaching duties, which include track, Russell will teach physical education and business courses.
“We’re trying to get productive young men and women out there and that’s what you look for in a leader,” Wilson said.
Russell, who played college football at Arkansas, Ouachita Baptist and Central Arkansas, was Jacksonville’s defensive coordinator for eight years before taking the North Pulaski job.
He began the baseball program at Pulaski Academy and won two state championships, and he also served as the Bruins’ junior high football coach and assistant and held similar posts at Sylvan Hills and at Nashville before coming to Jacksonville in 1995.
Russell was 1-9 in his one year at North Pulaski, of the 5A-Southeast Conference. The Falcons scored their lone victory over Little Rock McClellan, 35-13, and Russell was in the process of punching up the offense with the Spread formation before taking the Jacksonville job.
The Red Devils last won a conference championship when they took the 6A-East and won seven games in 2006. They won six games in 2008 but were 2-8 last year under Whatley, who is taking the offensive-coordinator job at Springdale High School.
Jacksonville won a non-conference victory over Lonoke last season and a conference victory over Little Rock Hall.
Jacksonville, which will play in the 7A/6A East this year, already uses the Spread and became known last year for making games interesting late, with big plays on fourth and long.
But the Red Devils, who averaged 20.9 points a game while allowing 29.4, too often played from behind. Russell, the former defensive coordinator, will be trying to strengthen the defense at the point of attack, using stunts and shifts to disrupt the offensive line and put pressure on the quarterback.
“At the high school level the more pressure you put at those two levels the more successful you’ll be on defense,” Russell said.
Russell must hire three assistants, including an offensive coordinator, the job Whatley filled while head coach. The Red Devils are currently going through summer conditioning workouts and have a team camp planned with other programs at Vilonia on Thursday.
Russell said he wouldn’t try to implement major changes until practice begins in August, and said his new assistants, once hired, would have some impact on the playbook. By late Tuesday morning, Russell still had not had a chance to speak to the entire team, but he had met with many players during their morning weight training.
“We want that complete game,” Russell said. “We want to be in shape. The kids, when I talked to them today I told them ‘It’s my job to make you the most in-shape, successful athlete you can be.”
The hiring of Russell, with football practice starting in three weeks, completes one of the most urgent items of business for the Jacksonville athletic department. But the school still needs to find a coach for volleyball, which also begins in the fall, and assistants for volleyball, softball and girls basketball.
Wilson said he hoped to announce coaches for all positions before the weekend.
Leader sports editor
The memories are intact for Rick Russell.
Jacksonville High School named Russell its football coach Tuesday, capping a whirlwind search that began when Mark Whatley stepped down on June 21 and ended when Russell, 51, agreed to leave the head coaching job at crosstown North Pulaski and return to where he has spent most of his coaching life.
“It played a big part in it,” said Russell, the former Red Devils assistant who was at North Pulaski for one year before his old employer came calling. “I spent 14 years here. I’ve been teaching for 20 and coaching for 27 and that’s over half my career at Jacksonville High School.”
Russell, the former Jacksonville defensive coordinator, was speaking from the fieldhouse where he spent so much time and where his two youngest daughters would play school, drawing on the coach’s blackboard, while waiting for their mother to pick them up after classes.
“It’s kind of like my home. It’s my kids’ home; they went to school here,” Russell said. “It was a family decision and a good decision for me.”
The decision to hire Russell was one of the first major moves by new Jacksonville principal June Aynie, who based her choice on the recommendation of a five-person committee thatincluded faculty members and administrators like Jacksonville athletic director Jerry Wilson.
The panel’s recommendation to hire Russell from a field of 18 candidates was unanimous, Wilson said.
“Well it had a lot to do with his knowledge of the kids around the community,” Wilson said. “That was a big selling point.
Experience. And an educator. All those things go with what makes up a head coach and we had good candidates this late in the game.”
Russell will sign a standard, one-year contract that pays $68,212 annually. Along with his coaching duties, which include track, Russell will teach physical education and business courses.
“We’re trying to get productive young men and women out there and that’s what you look for in a leader,” Wilson said.
Russell, who played college football at Arkansas, Ouachita Baptist and Central Arkansas, was Jacksonville’s defensive coordinator for eight years before taking the North Pulaski job.
He began the baseball program at Pulaski Academy and won two state championships, and he also served as the Bruins’ junior high football coach and assistant and held similar posts at Sylvan Hills and at Nashville before coming to Jacksonville in 1995.
Russell was 1-9 in his one year at North Pulaski, of the 5A-Southeast Conference. The Falcons scored their lone victory over Little Rock McClellan, 35-13, and Russell was in the process of punching up the offense with the Spread formation before taking the Jacksonville job.
The Red Devils last won a conference championship when they took the 6A-East and won seven games in 2006. They won six games in 2008 but were 2-8 last year under Whatley, who is taking the offensive-coordinator job at Springdale High School.
Jacksonville won a non-conference victory over Lonoke last season and a conference victory over Little Rock Hall.
Jacksonville, which will play in the 7A/6A East this year, already uses the Spread and became known last year for making games interesting late, with big plays on fourth and long.
But the Red Devils, who averaged 20.9 points a game while allowing 29.4, too often played from behind. Russell, the former defensive coordinator, will be trying to strengthen the defense at the point of attack, using stunts and shifts to disrupt the offensive line and put pressure on the quarterback.
“At the high school level the more pressure you put at those two levels the more successful you’ll be on defense,” Russell said.
Russell must hire three assistants, including an offensive coordinator, the job Whatley filled while head coach. The Red Devils are currently going through summer conditioning workouts and have a team camp planned with other programs at Vilonia on Thursday.
Russell said he wouldn’t try to implement major changes until practice begins in August, and said his new assistants, once hired, would have some impact on the playbook. By late Tuesday morning, Russell still had not had a chance to speak to the entire team, but he had met with many players during their morning weight training.
“We want that complete game,” Russell said. “We want to be in shape. The kids, when I talked to them today I told them ‘It’s my job to make you the most in-shape, successful athlete you can be.”
The hiring of Russell, with football practice starting in three weeks, completes one of the most urgent items of business for the Jacksonville athletic department. But the school still needs to find a coach for volleyball, which also begins in the fall, and assistants for volleyball, softball and girls basketball.
Wilson said he hoped to announce coaches for all positions before the weekend.
Friday, July 09, 2010
EDITORIAL >>AG breaks state law
He is a mean grinch who will question a good deed, but sometimes someone must do the thankless. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel the other day donated $100,000 in state money to a private fund to build a memorial to fallen firefighters on the grounds of the state Capitol and he shouldn’t have.
General McDaniel eloquently explained why he was doing it. The Capitol ought to be the host for a “permanent reminder of our fallen firefighters’ heroic efforts,” he said. We like the idea of a firefighters’ memorial, too, although it ought to be privately funded like some of the other memorials. The monument is to cost $1.1 million and McDaniel’s generosity puts the fund within $64,000 of the goal.
But the $100,000 did not come from McDaniel’s personal checkbook. While the cash did not come directly from taxpayers it was state money, and it should have been spent like your sales-tax dollars —according to the most urgent needs of the state.
The money was part of Arkansas’ share of the proceeds from the settlement of a lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. brought by 33 states, including Arkansas, over the company’s marketing of the drugs Bextra and Celebrex. The settlement followed a five-year investigation going back early in the decade. The state has participated in a number of such multistate lawsuits the past 40 years and reaped many millions of dollars in judgments and settlements from wayward corporations, the tobacco companies being the most famous ones.
McDaniel did not claim that it was his personal gift, although he would later suggest that it came about because of his good lawyering. He might have mentioned the lawyering of his predecessor and the attorneys general of 32 other states and the District of Columbia. But he got lots of political credit for the gesture. Will firefighters, their families and admirers forget his gesture at the next election?
But a little politicking with state money is not our big concern. The governor, mayors, federal and state lawmakers do it all the time. After all, it is for a cause, which, though private, many people will support.
Our problem is that it is unconstitutional and, even if it were constitutional, it’s poor public policy. The Constitution says not once but twice that the state cannot pay any money out of the state treasury without an appropriation. An appropriation is an act passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor that determines what the state can spend money on and how much.
Yes, yes, we know that the Arkansas Supreme Court made a screwball decision in 1949 that said if state money somehow did not actually find its way into the treasury in the first place, it could be spent without an appropriation and pretty much however the person or agency that got their hands on the money wanted to spend it. It’s called the “cash funds case” and state colleges and universities and some other institutions have loved it. The chief justice, Griffin Smith, was appalled at his colleagues’ decision and predicted great mischief as a result. He was right.
As you could have anticipated, the ruling was an invitation to create cash funds and avoid the controls on their spending. Now cash funds total some $6.5 billion a year, although the legislature over the years has forced agencies and institutions to submit most of it to the appropriation process. That is good because the legislature, for better or worse, is the body all of us depend upon to weigh the vast needs of the state and to distribute the state’s assets according to those needs.
McDaniel’s little subsidy to the firefighters makes a perfect example of the need to bring the cash funds under control. Not because more statuary on the Capitol’s grounds is a bad idea, although some argue that there is too much already, but because the state has vast unmet needs and the firefighters’ statue ought to be measured against the rest.
The attorneys general of the states have been racking up some big settlements, and we can’t say that McDaniel has been spending Arkansas’ share of them foolishly. Millions have gone to Medicaid, which has helped shore up the Medicaid fund during the fiscal crisis. But the Constitution did not anticipate that the attorney general would determine how a big share of the state’s money is spent.
He’s the state’s lawyer, nothing more. We invest the legislature with the power to determine state needs. We don’t always like its priorities, but that is the system the founders came up with.
We should live with it.
General McDaniel eloquently explained why he was doing it. The Capitol ought to be the host for a “permanent reminder of our fallen firefighters’ heroic efforts,” he said. We like the idea of a firefighters’ memorial, too, although it ought to be privately funded like some of the other memorials. The monument is to cost $1.1 million and McDaniel’s generosity puts the fund within $64,000 of the goal.
But the $100,000 did not come from McDaniel’s personal checkbook. While the cash did not come directly from taxpayers it was state money, and it should have been spent like your sales-tax dollars —according to the most urgent needs of the state.
The money was part of Arkansas’ share of the proceeds from the settlement of a lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. brought by 33 states, including Arkansas, over the company’s marketing of the drugs Bextra and Celebrex. The settlement followed a five-year investigation going back early in the decade. The state has participated in a number of such multistate lawsuits the past 40 years and reaped many millions of dollars in judgments and settlements from wayward corporations, the tobacco companies being the most famous ones.
McDaniel did not claim that it was his personal gift, although he would later suggest that it came about because of his good lawyering. He might have mentioned the lawyering of his predecessor and the attorneys general of 32 other states and the District of Columbia. But he got lots of political credit for the gesture. Will firefighters, their families and admirers forget his gesture at the next election?
But a little politicking with state money is not our big concern. The governor, mayors, federal and state lawmakers do it all the time. After all, it is for a cause, which, though private, many people will support.
Our problem is that it is unconstitutional and, even if it were constitutional, it’s poor public policy. The Constitution says not once but twice that the state cannot pay any money out of the state treasury without an appropriation. An appropriation is an act passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor that determines what the state can spend money on and how much.
Yes, yes, we know that the Arkansas Supreme Court made a screwball decision in 1949 that said if state money somehow did not actually find its way into the treasury in the first place, it could be spent without an appropriation and pretty much however the person or agency that got their hands on the money wanted to spend it. It’s called the “cash funds case” and state colleges and universities and some other institutions have loved it. The chief justice, Griffin Smith, was appalled at his colleagues’ decision and predicted great mischief as a result. He was right.
As you could have anticipated, the ruling was an invitation to create cash funds and avoid the controls on their spending. Now cash funds total some $6.5 billion a year, although the legislature over the years has forced agencies and institutions to submit most of it to the appropriation process. That is good because the legislature, for better or worse, is the body all of us depend upon to weigh the vast needs of the state and to distribute the state’s assets according to those needs.
McDaniel’s little subsidy to the firefighters makes a perfect example of the need to bring the cash funds under control. Not because more statuary on the Capitol’s grounds is a bad idea, although some argue that there is too much already, but because the state has vast unmet needs and the firefighters’ statue ought to be measured against the rest.
The attorneys general of the states have been racking up some big settlements, and we can’t say that McDaniel has been spending Arkansas’ share of them foolishly. Millions have gone to Medicaid, which has helped shore up the Medicaid fund during the fiscal crisis. But the Constitution did not anticipate that the attorney general would determine how a big share of the state’s money is spent.
He’s the state’s lawyer, nothing more. We invest the legislature with the power to determine state needs. We don’t always like its priorities, but that is the system the founders came up with.
We should live with it.
EDITORIAL >>AG breaks state law
He is a mean grinch who will question a good deed, but sometimes someone must do the thankless. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel the other day donated $100,000 in state money to a private fund to build a memorial to fallen firefighters on the grounds of the state Capitol and he shouldn’t have.
General McDaniel eloquently explained why he was doing it. The Capitol ought to be the host for a “permanent reminder of our fallen firefighters’ heroic efforts,” he said. We like the idea of a firefighters’ memorial, too, although it ought to be privately funded like some of the other memorials. The monument is to cost $1.1 million and McDaniel’s generosity puts the fund within $64,000 of the goal.
But the $100,000 did not come from McDaniel’s personal checkbook. While the cash did not come directly from taxpayers it was state money, and it should have been spent like your sales-tax dollars —according to the most urgent needs of the state.
The money was part of Arkansas’ share of the proceeds from the settlement of a lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. brought by 33 states, including Arkansas, over the company’s marketing of the drugs Bextra and Celebrex. The settlement followed a five-year investigation going back early in the decade. The state has participated in a number of such multistate lawsuits the past 40 years and reaped many millions of dollars in judgments and settlements from wayward corporations, the tobacco companies being the most famous ones.
McDaniel did not claim that it was his personal gift, although he would later suggest that it came about because of his good lawyering. He might have mentioned the lawyering of his predecessor and the attorneys general of 32 other states and the District of Columbia. But he got lots of political credit for the gesture. Will firefighters, their families and admirers forget his gesture at the next election?
But a little politicking with state money is not our big concern. The governor, mayors, federal and state lawmakers do it all the time. After all, it is for a cause, which, though private, many people will support.
Our problem is that it is unconstitutional and, even if it were constitutional, it’s poor public policy. The Constitution says not once but twice that the state cannot pay any money out of the state treasury without an appropriation. An appropriation is an act passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor that determines what the state can spend money on and how much.
Yes, yes, we know that the Arkansas Supreme Court made a screwball decision in 1949 that said if state money somehow did not actually find its way into the treasury in the first place, it could be spent without an appropriation and pretty much however the person or agency that got their hands on the money wanted to spend it. It’s called the “cash funds case” and state colleges and universities and some other institutions have loved it. The chief justice, Griffin Smith, was appalled at his colleagues’ decision and predicted great mischief as a result. He was right.
As you could have anticipated, the ruling was an invitation to create cash funds and avoid the controls on their spending. Now cash funds total some $6.5 billion a year, although the legislature over the years has forced agencies and institutions to submit most of it to the appropriation process. That is good because the legislature, for better or worse, is the body all of us depend upon to weigh the vast needs of the state and to distribute the state’s assets according to those needs.
McDaniel’s little subsidy to the firefighters makes a perfect example of the need to bring the cash funds under control. Not because more statuary on the Capitol’s grounds is a bad idea, although some argue that there is too much already, but because the state has vast unmet needs and the firefighters’ statue ought to be measured against the rest.
The attorneys general of the states have been racking up some big settlements, and we can’t say that McDaniel has been spending Arkansas’ share of them foolishly. Millions have gone to Medicaid, which has helped shore up the Medicaid fund during the fiscal crisis. But the Constitution did not anticipate that the attorney general would determine how a big share of the state’s money is spent.
He’s the state’s lawyer, nothing more. We invest the legislature with the power to determine state needs. We don’t always like its priorities, but that is the system the founders came up with.
We should live with it.
General McDaniel eloquently explained why he was doing it. The Capitol ought to be the host for a “permanent reminder of our fallen firefighters’ heroic efforts,” he said. We like the idea of a firefighters’ memorial, too, although it ought to be privately funded like some of the other memorials. The monument is to cost $1.1 million and McDaniel’s generosity puts the fund within $64,000 of the goal.
But the $100,000 did not come from McDaniel’s personal checkbook. While the cash did not come directly from taxpayers it was state money, and it should have been spent like your sales-tax dollars —according to the most urgent needs of the state.
The money was part of Arkansas’ share of the proceeds from the settlement of a lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. brought by 33 states, including Arkansas, over the company’s marketing of the drugs Bextra and Celebrex. The settlement followed a five-year investigation going back early in the decade. The state has participated in a number of such multistate lawsuits the past 40 years and reaped many millions of dollars in judgments and settlements from wayward corporations, the tobacco companies being the most famous ones.
McDaniel did not claim that it was his personal gift, although he would later suggest that it came about because of his good lawyering. He might have mentioned the lawyering of his predecessor and the attorneys general of 32 other states and the District of Columbia. But he got lots of political credit for the gesture. Will firefighters, their families and admirers forget his gesture at the next election?
But a little politicking with state money is not our big concern. The governor, mayors, federal and state lawmakers do it all the time. After all, it is for a cause, which, though private, many people will support.
Our problem is that it is unconstitutional and, even if it were constitutional, it’s poor public policy. The Constitution says not once but twice that the state cannot pay any money out of the state treasury without an appropriation. An appropriation is an act passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor that determines what the state can spend money on and how much.
Yes, yes, we know that the Arkansas Supreme Court made a screwball decision in 1949 that said if state money somehow did not actually find its way into the treasury in the first place, it could be spent without an appropriation and pretty much however the person or agency that got their hands on the money wanted to spend it. It’s called the “cash funds case” and state colleges and universities and some other institutions have loved it. The chief justice, Griffin Smith, was appalled at his colleagues’ decision and predicted great mischief as a result. He was right.
As you could have anticipated, the ruling was an invitation to create cash funds and avoid the controls on their spending. Now cash funds total some $6.5 billion a year, although the legislature over the years has forced agencies and institutions to submit most of it to the appropriation process. That is good because the legislature, for better or worse, is the body all of us depend upon to weigh the vast needs of the state and to distribute the state’s assets according to those needs.
McDaniel’s little subsidy to the firefighters makes a perfect example of the need to bring the cash funds under control. Not because more statuary on the Capitol’s grounds is a bad idea, although some argue that there is too much already, but because the state has vast unmet needs and the firefighters’ statue ought to be measured against the rest.
The attorneys general of the states have been racking up some big settlements, and we can’t say that McDaniel has been spending Arkansas’ share of them foolishly. Millions have gone to Medicaid, which has helped shore up the Medicaid fund during the fiscal crisis. But the Constitution did not anticipate that the attorney general would determine how a big share of the state’s money is spent.
He’s the state’s lawyer, nothing more. We invest the legislature with the power to determine state needs. We don’t always like its priorities, but that is the system the founders came up with.
We should live with it.
TOP STORY > >Road panel: It’s going to take money
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
The Blue Ribbon Highway Committee reported its progress July 1 to the state General Assembly, deferring recommendations until December. Many expect the committee to recommend either a temporary sales-tax increase or transfer transportation-related sales tax revenues from the state’s general fund to its highway fund, or both, but no one wants to discuss tax increases in an election year.
The committee did detail the scope of the problem and 18 possible options to help raise money to address the problem—stagnant revenues for highway maintenance and construction but dramatically increasing needs and cost.
The state Highway and Trans-portation Department has identified about $23 billion in needs over the next decade, but only about $4.1 billion in anticipated revenues.
The current formula of adequate public-roadway funding in Arkansas has been relatively successful because vehicle miles traveled has continually increased, motor fuel has been relatively inexpensive, fuel efficiency has not dramatically improved and highway revenues have kept close to the highway-construction cost index.
But those have changed in the 21st Century, changes likely to be permanent, so highway maintenance and construction will not be sustainable, according to the report.
Fuel-tax revenues are based on the number of gallons, not cost. So higher fuel efficiency and higher fuel costs hold down the number of gallons pumped and thus the amount of revenues derived from fuel taxes.
Meanwhile, the cost of highway construction has escalated.
That means less money generated at a time when a dollar builds or fixes less highway.
General revenues in Arkansas have escalated over time, but the number of gallons sold and thus the amount of tax revenue generated for the highway trust fund has remained flat while the construction-cost index roughly doubled between 2004 and 2008.
“The task of the committee was to formulate an adequate road-funding program,” says state Sen. John Paul Capps, D-Searcy.
“That’s all we’re charged with. Someone else will have to take it from there.”
“We’re going to really be in trouble in this state if we continue … without raising money,” Capps said. “Money is dwindling, costs are increasing dramatically. You’ve got to get some elasticity—to develop a system of funding where you won’t have to go to the people every two years (for) two more cents on the gas tax.
“We’re going to get the figures on all the options, including a report in late summer on how they allocate the damage that trucks do,” he said. “The next committee meeting will be probably in 45 days. The report will be ready by December 1. (The legislators) should have 30 to 45 days before the session begins.”
The committee will recommend a restructured funding mechanism, according to Capps, but “The legislature and the governor will have to run with it.”
Capps said the state was in an economic bind and that he doesn’t like to raise taxes, but “It’s about the only way in Arkansas to get some money. It’s not fair, but it’s the only place to get a sizable amount of money.”
Two leading recommendations are proposals by highway commissioner Madison Murphy, who is a member of the blue-ribbon Committee.
One of his proposals would raise the state sales tax by 1/2 cent per dollar, tied to a bond issue so the state could get some money quick and start building what it needs over the next five or six years, before construction costs rise too much.
That proposal would include a sunset clause, discontinuing the tax after a set period of time—perhaps 10 years.
The halfpenny sales tax increase, which could be written to expire at the end of 10 years, could generate about $157 million a year to state highways, with another $33.6 million a year split between counties and cities.
That would be mostly for new construction, Capps suggested, “And we’re still $200 million a year short to stay even on our maintenance.”
Murphy also suggested shifting revenues from taxes on transportation-related sales from general to highway funds. Over the course of the 10-year phase-in, the highway fund would receive about $2 billion and by the end of the 10th year, when the new sales tax expired, the highways would be receiving $300 million a year in additional revenue from the transportation-related taxes.
The commission has identified four objectives:
To protect from further erosion the existing tax base of highway, road, street and bridge funding.
To restore construction and maintenance purchasing power
To preserve, maintain and enhance the safety of existing state and local systems and
To add new capacity to state and local systems.
There is no debate that the existing funding system is incapable of providing the necessary revenues to maintain and create an “effective transportation infrastructure going forward,” according to the report.
What is subject to debate is the question of which of the 18-option “menu of possibilities” identified could sustain in coming decades “equitable and adequate funding.”
The committee and its two subcommittees have studied and will continue to study the effects of those options before making their recommendation.
Those options include, but are not limited to, raising vehicle license and registration fees, indexing motor-fuel excise taxes to construction costs; reviewing GARVEE bonds, authorizing a five-, 10- or 15-year bonding authority, changing user fees to reflect the amount of highway-related costs attributable to different types of vehicles.
Issue highway-construction bonds to be retired by a time-limited half-cent general sales tax.
Levy a new excise tax on wholesale price of motor fuels, phased in over time.
Removal of current sales tax exemption on motor fuels.
Levy special sales tax on top of existing sales tax on new and used vehicles, with new revenues dedicated to the highway fund.
Transfer from general revenues to highway funds the existing road-user-related sales taxes—new and used vehicles, auto repair parts and services, tires and batteries—phased in over as long as a decade.
Vehicle miles traveled based on fuel economy.
Regional taxing authorities and local-option revenues.
Review laws relative to legislative referrals of financing to the general electorate by methods including an initiated act.
While general revenues in Arkansas have risen from $500 million in 1976 to nearly $6 billion in 2009, highway revenues during the same 33-year period barely increased from roughly $100 million to about $300 million.
In 1977, a $10 million overlay program resurfaced 400 miles of highway, but by 1991, only 167 miles and last year only 47 miles. That means each dollar last year resurfaced only 12 percent the number of miles a dollar resurfaced in 1977.
By the same token, in 1977, $100 million widening program improved 143 miles, but only 37 miles in 1991 and 13 miles last year.
“…It became obvious that over 70 percent of the financing methodology was systemically flawed,” according to the report.
Fuel consumption, fuel-tax revenue and total highway revenues decreased from 2008 to 2009 and if nothing changes, the decline is likely to be exacerbated by federally mandated fuel-efficiency standards, which require an average consumption in passenger cars of 35 miles per gallon by 2016.
In rural states like Arkansas, in which long distances must be driven by much of the population for work, shopping and commerce, there are relatively few taxpayers among whom to spread the burden, and they are really pinched.
In Arkansas, the state system includes 16,433 miles of highways—the 12th largest state system in the U.S. with 66,811 miles of county roads—10th most in the U.S., but carrying only 9 percent of the state’s traffic.
So a population ranked 32nd in the nation must pay for the upkeep of highway and roadway systems averaging the 11th largest in the nation.
Leader senior staff writer
The Blue Ribbon Highway Committee reported its progress July 1 to the state General Assembly, deferring recommendations until December. Many expect the committee to recommend either a temporary sales-tax increase or transfer transportation-related sales tax revenues from the state’s general fund to its highway fund, or both, but no one wants to discuss tax increases in an election year.
The committee did detail the scope of the problem and 18 possible options to help raise money to address the problem—stagnant revenues for highway maintenance and construction but dramatically increasing needs and cost.
The state Highway and Trans-portation Department has identified about $23 billion in needs over the next decade, but only about $4.1 billion in anticipated revenues.
The current formula of adequate public-roadway funding in Arkansas has been relatively successful because vehicle miles traveled has continually increased, motor fuel has been relatively inexpensive, fuel efficiency has not dramatically improved and highway revenues have kept close to the highway-construction cost index.
But those have changed in the 21st Century, changes likely to be permanent, so highway maintenance and construction will not be sustainable, according to the report.
Fuel-tax revenues are based on the number of gallons, not cost. So higher fuel efficiency and higher fuel costs hold down the number of gallons pumped and thus the amount of revenues derived from fuel taxes.
Meanwhile, the cost of highway construction has escalated.
That means less money generated at a time when a dollar builds or fixes less highway.
General revenues in Arkansas have escalated over time, but the number of gallons sold and thus the amount of tax revenue generated for the highway trust fund has remained flat while the construction-cost index roughly doubled between 2004 and 2008.
“The task of the committee was to formulate an adequate road-funding program,” says state Sen. John Paul Capps, D-Searcy.
“That’s all we’re charged with. Someone else will have to take it from there.”
“We’re going to really be in trouble in this state if we continue … without raising money,” Capps said. “Money is dwindling, costs are increasing dramatically. You’ve got to get some elasticity—to develop a system of funding where you won’t have to go to the people every two years (for) two more cents on the gas tax.
“We’re going to get the figures on all the options, including a report in late summer on how they allocate the damage that trucks do,” he said. “The next committee meeting will be probably in 45 days. The report will be ready by December 1. (The legislators) should have 30 to 45 days before the session begins.”
The committee will recommend a restructured funding mechanism, according to Capps, but “The legislature and the governor will have to run with it.”
Capps said the state was in an economic bind and that he doesn’t like to raise taxes, but “It’s about the only way in Arkansas to get some money. It’s not fair, but it’s the only place to get a sizable amount of money.”
Two leading recommendations are proposals by highway commissioner Madison Murphy, who is a member of the blue-ribbon Committee.
One of his proposals would raise the state sales tax by 1/2 cent per dollar, tied to a bond issue so the state could get some money quick and start building what it needs over the next five or six years, before construction costs rise too much.
That proposal would include a sunset clause, discontinuing the tax after a set period of time—perhaps 10 years.
The halfpenny sales tax increase, which could be written to expire at the end of 10 years, could generate about $157 million a year to state highways, with another $33.6 million a year split between counties and cities.
That would be mostly for new construction, Capps suggested, “And we’re still $200 million a year short to stay even on our maintenance.”
Murphy also suggested shifting revenues from taxes on transportation-related sales from general to highway funds. Over the course of the 10-year phase-in, the highway fund would receive about $2 billion and by the end of the 10th year, when the new sales tax expired, the highways would be receiving $300 million a year in additional revenue from the transportation-related taxes.
The commission has identified four objectives:
To protect from further erosion the existing tax base of highway, road, street and bridge funding.
To restore construction and maintenance purchasing power
To preserve, maintain and enhance the safety of existing state and local systems and
To add new capacity to state and local systems.
There is no debate that the existing funding system is incapable of providing the necessary revenues to maintain and create an “effective transportation infrastructure going forward,” according to the report.
What is subject to debate is the question of which of the 18-option “menu of possibilities” identified could sustain in coming decades “equitable and adequate funding.”
The committee and its two subcommittees have studied and will continue to study the effects of those options before making their recommendation.
Those options include, but are not limited to, raising vehicle license and registration fees, indexing motor-fuel excise taxes to construction costs; reviewing GARVEE bonds, authorizing a five-, 10- or 15-year bonding authority, changing user fees to reflect the amount of highway-related costs attributable to different types of vehicles.
Issue highway-construction bonds to be retired by a time-limited half-cent general sales tax.
Levy a new excise tax on wholesale price of motor fuels, phased in over time.
Removal of current sales tax exemption on motor fuels.
Levy special sales tax on top of existing sales tax on new and used vehicles, with new revenues dedicated to the highway fund.
Transfer from general revenues to highway funds the existing road-user-related sales taxes—new and used vehicles, auto repair parts and services, tires and batteries—phased in over as long as a decade.
Vehicle miles traveled based on fuel economy.
Regional taxing authorities and local-option revenues.
Review laws relative to legislative referrals of financing to the general electorate by methods including an initiated act.
While general revenues in Arkansas have risen from $500 million in 1976 to nearly $6 billion in 2009, highway revenues during the same 33-year period barely increased from roughly $100 million to about $300 million.
In 1977, a $10 million overlay program resurfaced 400 miles of highway, but by 1991, only 167 miles and last year only 47 miles. That means each dollar last year resurfaced only 12 percent the number of miles a dollar resurfaced in 1977.
By the same token, in 1977, $100 million widening program improved 143 miles, but only 37 miles in 1991 and 13 miles last year.
“…It became obvious that over 70 percent of the financing methodology was systemically flawed,” according to the report.
Fuel consumption, fuel-tax revenue and total highway revenues decreased from 2008 to 2009 and if nothing changes, the decline is likely to be exacerbated by federally mandated fuel-efficiency standards, which require an average consumption in passenger cars of 35 miles per gallon by 2016.
In rural states like Arkansas, in which long distances must be driven by much of the population for work, shopping and commerce, there are relatively few taxpayers among whom to spread the burden, and they are really pinched.
In Arkansas, the state system includes 16,433 miles of highways—the 12th largest state system in the U.S. with 66,811 miles of county roads—10th most in the U.S., but carrying only 9 percent of the state’s traffic.
So a population ranked 32nd in the nation must pay for the upkeep of highway and roadway systems averaging the 11th largest in the nation.
TOP STORY > >Road panel: It’s going to take money
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
The Blue Ribbon Highway Committee reported its progress July 1 to the state General Assembly, deferring recommendations until December. Many expect the committee to recommend either a temporary sales-tax increase or transfer transportation-related sales tax revenues from the state’s general fund to its highway fund, or both, but no one wants to discuss tax increases in an election year.
The committee did detail the scope of the problem and 18 possible options to help raise money to address the problem—stagnant revenues for highway maintenance and construction but dramatically increasing needs and cost.
The state Highway and Trans-portation Department has identified about $23 billion in needs over the next decade, but only about $4.1 billion in anticipated revenues.
The current formula of adequate public-roadway funding in Arkansas has been relatively successful because vehicle miles traveled has continually increased, motor fuel has been relatively inexpensive, fuel efficiency has not dramatically improved and highway revenues have kept close to the highway-construction cost index.
But those have changed in the 21st Century, changes likely to be permanent, so highway maintenance and construction will not be sustainable, according to the report.
Fuel-tax revenues are based on the number of gallons, not cost. So higher fuel efficiency and higher fuel costs hold down the number of gallons pumped and thus the amount of revenues derived from fuel taxes.
Meanwhile, the cost of highway construction has escalated.
That means less money generated at a time when a dollar builds or fixes less highway.
General revenues in Arkansas have escalated over time, but the number of gallons sold and thus the amount of tax revenue generated for the highway trust fund has remained flat while the construction-cost index roughly doubled between 2004 and 2008.
“The task of the committee was to formulate an adequate road-funding program,” says state Sen. John Paul Capps, D-Searcy.
“That’s all we’re charged with. Someone else will have to take it from there.”
“We’re going to really be in trouble in this state if we continue … without raising money,” Capps said. “Money is dwindling, costs are increasing dramatically. You’ve got to get some elasticity—to develop a system of funding where you won’t have to go to the people every two years (for) two more cents on the gas tax.
“We’re going to get the figures on all the options, including a report in late summer on how they allocate the damage that trucks do,” he said. “The next committee meeting will be probably in 45 days. The report will be ready by December 1. (The legislators) should have 30 to 45 days before the session begins.”
The committee will recommend a restructured funding mechanism, according to Capps, but “The legislature and the governor will have to run with it.”
Capps said the state was in an economic bind and that he doesn’t like to raise taxes, but “It’s about the only way in Arkansas to get some money. It’s not fair, but it’s the only place to get a sizable amount of money.”
Two leading recommendations are proposals by highway commissioner Madison Murphy, who is a member of the blue-ribbon Committee.
One of his proposals would raise the state sales tax by 1/2 cent per dollar, tied to a bond issue so the state could get some money quick and start building what it needs over the next five or six years, before construction costs rise too much.
That proposal would include a sunset clause, discontinuing the tax after a set period of time—perhaps 10 years.
The halfpenny sales tax increase, which could be written to expire at the end of 10 years, could generate about $157 million a year to state highways, with another $33.6 million a year split between counties and cities.
That would be mostly for new construction, Capps suggested, “And we’re still $200 million a year short to stay even on our maintenance.”
Murphy also suggested shifting revenues from taxes on transportation-related sales from general to highway funds. Over the course of the 10-year phase-in, the highway fund would receive about $2 billion and by the end of the 10th year, when the new sales tax expired, the highways would be receiving $300 million a year in additional revenue from the transportation-related taxes.
The commission has identified four objectives:
To protect from further erosion the existing tax base of highway, road, street and bridge funding.
To restore construction and maintenance purchasing power
To preserve, maintain and enhance the safety of existing state and local systems and
To add new capacity to state and local systems.
There is no debate that the existing funding system is incapable of providing the necessary revenues to maintain and create an “effective transportation infrastructure going forward,” according to the report.
What is subject to debate is the question of which of the 18-option “menu of possibilities” identified could sustain in coming decades “equitable and adequate funding.”
The committee and its two subcommittees have studied and will continue to study the effects of those options before making their recommendation.
Those options include, but are not limited to, raising vehicle license and registration fees, indexing motor-fuel excise taxes to construction costs; reviewing GARVEE bonds, authorizing a five-, 10- or 15-year bonding authority, changing user fees to reflect the amount of highway-related costs attributable to different types of vehicles.
Issue highway-construction bonds to be retired by a time-limited half-cent general sales tax.
Levy a new excise tax on wholesale price of motor fuels, phased in over time.
Removal of current sales tax exemption on motor fuels.
Levy special sales tax on top of existing sales tax on new and used vehicles, with new revenues dedicated to the highway fund.
Transfer from general revenues to highway funds the existing road-user-related sales taxes—new and used vehicles, auto repair parts and services, tires and batteries—phased in over as long as a decade.
Vehicle miles traveled based on fuel economy.
Regional taxing authorities and local-option revenues.
Review laws relative to legislative referrals of financing to the general electorate by methods including an initiated act.
While general revenues in Arkansas have risen from $500 million in 1976 to nearly $6 billion in 2009, highway revenues during the same 33-year period barely increased from roughly $100 million to about $300 million.
In 1977, a $10 million overlay program resurfaced 400 miles of highway, but by 1991, only 167 miles and last year only 47 miles. That means each dollar last year resurfaced only 12 percent the number of miles a dollar resurfaced in 1977.
By the same token, in 1977, $100 million widening program improved 143 miles, but only 37 miles in 1991 and 13 miles last year.
“…It became obvious that over 70 percent of the financing methodology was systemically flawed,” according to the report.
Fuel consumption, fuel-tax revenue and total highway revenues decreased from 2008 to 2009 and if nothing changes, the decline is likely to be exacerbated by federally mandated fuel-efficiency standards, which require an average consumption in passenger cars of 35 miles per gallon by 2016.
In rural states like Arkansas, in which long distances must be driven by much of the population for work, shopping and commerce, there are relatively few taxpayers among whom to spread the burden, and they are really pinched.
In Arkansas, the state system includes 16,433 miles of highways—the 12th largest state system in the U.S. with 66,811 miles of county roads—10th most in the U.S., but carrying only 9 percent of the state’s traffic.
So a population ranked 32nd in the nation must pay for the upkeep of highway and roadway systems averaging the 11th largest in the nation.
Leader senior staff writer
The Blue Ribbon Highway Committee reported its progress July 1 to the state General Assembly, deferring recommendations until December. Many expect the committee to recommend either a temporary sales-tax increase or transfer transportation-related sales tax revenues from the state’s general fund to its highway fund, or both, but no one wants to discuss tax increases in an election year.
The committee did detail the scope of the problem and 18 possible options to help raise money to address the problem—stagnant revenues for highway maintenance and construction but dramatically increasing needs and cost.
The state Highway and Trans-portation Department has identified about $23 billion in needs over the next decade, but only about $4.1 billion in anticipated revenues.
The current formula of adequate public-roadway funding in Arkansas has been relatively successful because vehicle miles traveled has continually increased, motor fuel has been relatively inexpensive, fuel efficiency has not dramatically improved and highway revenues have kept close to the highway-construction cost index.
But those have changed in the 21st Century, changes likely to be permanent, so highway maintenance and construction will not be sustainable, according to the report.
Fuel-tax revenues are based on the number of gallons, not cost. So higher fuel efficiency and higher fuel costs hold down the number of gallons pumped and thus the amount of revenues derived from fuel taxes.
Meanwhile, the cost of highway construction has escalated.
That means less money generated at a time when a dollar builds or fixes less highway.
General revenues in Arkansas have escalated over time, but the number of gallons sold and thus the amount of tax revenue generated for the highway trust fund has remained flat while the construction-cost index roughly doubled between 2004 and 2008.
“The task of the committee was to formulate an adequate road-funding program,” says state Sen. John Paul Capps, D-Searcy.
“That’s all we’re charged with. Someone else will have to take it from there.”
“We’re going to really be in trouble in this state if we continue … without raising money,” Capps said. “Money is dwindling, costs are increasing dramatically. You’ve got to get some elasticity—to develop a system of funding where you won’t have to go to the people every two years (for) two more cents on the gas tax.
“We’re going to get the figures on all the options, including a report in late summer on how they allocate the damage that trucks do,” he said. “The next committee meeting will be probably in 45 days. The report will be ready by December 1. (The legislators) should have 30 to 45 days before the session begins.”
The committee will recommend a restructured funding mechanism, according to Capps, but “The legislature and the governor will have to run with it.”
Capps said the state was in an economic bind and that he doesn’t like to raise taxes, but “It’s about the only way in Arkansas to get some money. It’s not fair, but it’s the only place to get a sizable amount of money.”
Two leading recommendations are proposals by highway commissioner Madison Murphy, who is a member of the blue-ribbon Committee.
One of his proposals would raise the state sales tax by 1/2 cent per dollar, tied to a bond issue so the state could get some money quick and start building what it needs over the next five or six years, before construction costs rise too much.
That proposal would include a sunset clause, discontinuing the tax after a set period of time—perhaps 10 years.
The halfpenny sales tax increase, which could be written to expire at the end of 10 years, could generate about $157 million a year to state highways, with another $33.6 million a year split between counties and cities.
That would be mostly for new construction, Capps suggested, “And we’re still $200 million a year short to stay even on our maintenance.”
Murphy also suggested shifting revenues from taxes on transportation-related sales from general to highway funds. Over the course of the 10-year phase-in, the highway fund would receive about $2 billion and by the end of the 10th year, when the new sales tax expired, the highways would be receiving $300 million a year in additional revenue from the transportation-related taxes.
The commission has identified four objectives:
To protect from further erosion the existing tax base of highway, road, street and bridge funding.
To restore construction and maintenance purchasing power
To preserve, maintain and enhance the safety of existing state and local systems and
To add new capacity to state and local systems.
There is no debate that the existing funding system is incapable of providing the necessary revenues to maintain and create an “effective transportation infrastructure going forward,” according to the report.
What is subject to debate is the question of which of the 18-option “menu of possibilities” identified could sustain in coming decades “equitable and adequate funding.”
The committee and its two subcommittees have studied and will continue to study the effects of those options before making their recommendation.
Those options include, but are not limited to, raising vehicle license and registration fees, indexing motor-fuel excise taxes to construction costs; reviewing GARVEE bonds, authorizing a five-, 10- or 15-year bonding authority, changing user fees to reflect the amount of highway-related costs attributable to different types of vehicles.
Issue highway-construction bonds to be retired by a time-limited half-cent general sales tax.
Levy a new excise tax on wholesale price of motor fuels, phased in over time.
Removal of current sales tax exemption on motor fuels.
Levy special sales tax on top of existing sales tax on new and used vehicles, with new revenues dedicated to the highway fund.
Transfer from general revenues to highway funds the existing road-user-related sales taxes—new and used vehicles, auto repair parts and services, tires and batteries—phased in over as long as a decade.
Vehicle miles traveled based on fuel economy.
Regional taxing authorities and local-option revenues.
Review laws relative to legislative referrals of financing to the general electorate by methods including an initiated act.
While general revenues in Arkansas have risen from $500 million in 1976 to nearly $6 billion in 2009, highway revenues during the same 33-year period barely increased from roughly $100 million to about $300 million.
In 1977, a $10 million overlay program resurfaced 400 miles of highway, but by 1991, only 167 miles and last year only 47 miles. That means each dollar last year resurfaced only 12 percent the number of miles a dollar resurfaced in 1977.
By the same token, in 1977, $100 million widening program improved 143 miles, but only 37 miles in 1991 and 13 miles last year.
“…It became obvious that over 70 percent of the financing methodology was systemically flawed,” according to the report.
Fuel consumption, fuel-tax revenue and total highway revenues decreased from 2008 to 2009 and if nothing changes, the decline is likely to be exacerbated by federally mandated fuel-efficiency standards, which require an average consumption in passenger cars of 35 miles per gallon by 2016.
In rural states like Arkansas, in which long distances must be driven by much of the population for work, shopping and commerce, there are relatively few taxpayers among whom to spread the burden, and they are really pinched.
In Arkansas, the state system includes 16,433 miles of highways—the 12th largest state system in the U.S. with 66,811 miles of county roads—10th most in the U.S., but carrying only 9 percent of the state’s traffic.
So a population ranked 32nd in the nation must pay for the upkeep of highway and roadway systems averaging the 11th largest in the nation.
TOP STORY > >District’s new hires to focus on failures in Jacksonville
NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer
Charles Hopson, in his first week on the job as superintendent of Pulaski County Special School District, has tapped two veteran educators to turn conditions around at Jacksonville High School.
The dilapidated state of the 40-year-old facility caught the attention of district officials, the public and news media this spring when a group of graduating Jacksonville High seniors made a presentation to the school board with photos of the school as well as statistics showing that Jacksonville is getting short shrifted when it comes to allocation of district capital-improvement funding.
June Haynie, in her 31st year with PCSSD, will serve as principal on one-year special assignment. This year she finished her fourth year as principal of Robinson High School.
Karl Brown, who retired from the district in 2006, will serve as the director on special assignment from the superintendent’s office, which is a new position for the district.
Brown’s role will be to address the three priorities identified by Hopson as critical to the school: racial disparities in student discipline and achievement, safety and orderliness of the school environment and cleanliness and general condition of the facilities.
“It is a school in crisis,” Brown said in an interview Thursday. “You have to get some things in place to get the school under control.”
Hopson said he chose Brown because of his past success at other schools in improving test scores and fostering a climate of accountability – two attributes he wanted in new leadership for the school.
Brown has lived in Jacksonville for the past 12 years. As assistant superintendent for equity and pupil services – his last job with the district – Brown said he recalls even then that the high school “was one of the schools in Jacksonville most talked about” because of discipline issues and lagging test scores.
“I am a no-nonsense administrator,” Brown said. “I will hold both students and teachers accountable. I told Dr. Hopson that I felt that I could be of assistance because I am somewhat familiar with the problems they are facing, but it will be a challenge. I am really interested in the students at Jacksonville High School.”
Brown’s role will be to observe, assess, recommend and bring individuals together to solve the problems the school faces.
“My communication will be with the superintendent directly,” Brown said.
Four committees already in place – targeting safety and gangs, activities and tutoring, student mentoring and facilities – will help in the change process at the school. Community members, teachers and administrators and students will comprise the committees.
“Everything we put in place will be a recommendation from these committees,” Brown said. “We value their input and welcome people from the community to be involved.”
Anyone interested in joining the committees should contact Brenda Bowles at the district office, Brown said.
On Monday, Brown will conduct a walk-through of the school with district maintenance.
“It doesn’t take a whole lot of money to clean the place up – the tile, carpet and restrooms,” Brown said. “We want kids to come to a clean, safe, orderly environment.”
Jacksonville High is not alone when it comes to high suspension rates for African-American students. In 2008-09, 73 percent of black students at the school were suspended compared to 27 percent of the whites.
Rates at Jacksonville Girls Middle School and Mills University Studies High School were higher, with 73 percent and 76 percent of the black students, respectively, suspended that year. Rates for white students were a third of that for blacks.
“We are going to have to get African-American students to value education more so,” Brown said.
There are plans to bring Kareem Moody, a motivational speaker who works with gangs and troubled youth, to the school to help improve school climate and develop student leadership.
Meetings with students by grade and gender are planned early in the new school year “to make sure that students know what is expected,” Brown said. “It is just a matter of sharing the handbook with them. It is very important that we are very consistent in regard to what we will tolerate here at Jacksonville High School. We have to make some changes.”
All students will be required to wear identification badges.
Brown, 53, began his career in 1978 teaching special education at Sylvan Hills High School. The following year he taught fifth grade at Bayou Meto Elementary School. In 1983, he left the district to work for the Arkansas Department of Education as the special-education supervisor for south central Arkansas. Brown has also worked as an administrator at Sylvan Hills Middle School, Pinewood Elementary and College Station Elementary. He was principal of Oakbrooke Elementary School in Sherwood for 15 years.
Brown holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s in education from the University of Central Arkansas.
TEAM EFFORT
June Haynie says that she is ready to meet the challenges at Jacksonville High “head on,” using strategies that helped to raise test scores at Robinson High School faster than any other school in the district.
“It will take all of us working together – teachers, parents and students,” Haynie said. “That is what we did at Robinson, and we can do the same thing at Jacksonville.”
Consistent with Hopson’s vision that PCSSD principals be the instructional leaders for their schools, Haynie said her charge will be to improve overall development of curriculum and teaching strategies.
She won’t be bringing in new ideas or approaches so much as “reminding teachers of what they already know works,” Haynie explained. “It is a matter of putting proven best practices into place.
“We won’t solve everything, but we can do quite a bit in a year.” Strategies that worked at Robinson, Haynie is eager to implement at Jacksonville. For example, professional development in instructional methods for advanced placement classes will be open to all teachers.
“My goal is to have as many of our teachers as possible have AP training,” Haynie said. “All students benefit – lower level, regular and accelerated.”
Classroom instruction will consist of less lecture and more “hands-on, so that students are actually doing, are involved.”
Creating an environment where teachers can teach and students can learn is paramount, Haynie said.
“We will have a safe school. You’ll see (the administrators) a lot in halls and in the classrooms. Parents and students need to see us there. We set the tone just by being there, being proactive.”
A team approach involving school administrators, teachers, parents and students will help teachers get a holistic view of each individual student and give students, especially ninth-graders, the support they need to progress, Haynie says.
“Ninth-graders tend to get lost in the transition from middle to high school, and this will give them more of a base to go,” Haynie said. “This is difficult for parents as well as students, so this will be a way for parents to get a true overview of what is going on.”
Haynie wants to see students participating in the committees organized to improve the school.
“We certainly need student involvement,” Haynie said. “I would push for that, yes. Students are pretty good at solving problems that they know something about.”
Haynie holds a bachelor’s degree in home economics with a minor in biology from Henderson State University and a master’s degree and certification in school administration from the University of Central Arkansas. She began her career at Poplar Street
Middle School in the North Little Rock School District as a home-economics teacher.
In 1978, she replaced her home-economics teacher at her alma mater, Robinson High, where she taught for 23 years.
She served as assistant principal at Sylvan Hills and North Pulaski high schools and director of secondary educator for NLRSD before returning to Robinson in 2006 to serve as principal.
Leader staff writer
Charles Hopson, in his first week on the job as superintendent of Pulaski County Special School District, has tapped two veteran educators to turn conditions around at Jacksonville High School.
The dilapidated state of the 40-year-old facility caught the attention of district officials, the public and news media this spring when a group of graduating Jacksonville High seniors made a presentation to the school board with photos of the school as well as statistics showing that Jacksonville is getting short shrifted when it comes to allocation of district capital-improvement funding.
June Haynie, in her 31st year with PCSSD, will serve as principal on one-year special assignment. This year she finished her fourth year as principal of Robinson High School.
Karl Brown, who retired from the district in 2006, will serve as the director on special assignment from the superintendent’s office, which is a new position for the district.
Brown’s role will be to address the three priorities identified by Hopson as critical to the school: racial disparities in student discipline and achievement, safety and orderliness of the school environment and cleanliness and general condition of the facilities.
“It is a school in crisis,” Brown said in an interview Thursday. “You have to get some things in place to get the school under control.”
Hopson said he chose Brown because of his past success at other schools in improving test scores and fostering a climate of accountability – two attributes he wanted in new leadership for the school.
Brown has lived in Jacksonville for the past 12 years. As assistant superintendent for equity and pupil services – his last job with the district – Brown said he recalls even then that the high school “was one of the schools in Jacksonville most talked about” because of discipline issues and lagging test scores.
“I am a no-nonsense administrator,” Brown said. “I will hold both students and teachers accountable. I told Dr. Hopson that I felt that I could be of assistance because I am somewhat familiar with the problems they are facing, but it will be a challenge. I am really interested in the students at Jacksonville High School.”
Brown’s role will be to observe, assess, recommend and bring individuals together to solve the problems the school faces.
“My communication will be with the superintendent directly,” Brown said.
Four committees already in place – targeting safety and gangs, activities and tutoring, student mentoring and facilities – will help in the change process at the school. Community members, teachers and administrators and students will comprise the committees.
“Everything we put in place will be a recommendation from these committees,” Brown said. “We value their input and welcome people from the community to be involved.”
Anyone interested in joining the committees should contact Brenda Bowles at the district office, Brown said.
On Monday, Brown will conduct a walk-through of the school with district maintenance.
“It doesn’t take a whole lot of money to clean the place up – the tile, carpet and restrooms,” Brown said. “We want kids to come to a clean, safe, orderly environment.”
Jacksonville High is not alone when it comes to high suspension rates for African-American students. In 2008-09, 73 percent of black students at the school were suspended compared to 27 percent of the whites.
Rates at Jacksonville Girls Middle School and Mills University Studies High School were higher, with 73 percent and 76 percent of the black students, respectively, suspended that year. Rates for white students were a third of that for blacks.
“We are going to have to get African-American students to value education more so,” Brown said.
There are plans to bring Kareem Moody, a motivational speaker who works with gangs and troubled youth, to the school to help improve school climate and develop student leadership.
Meetings with students by grade and gender are planned early in the new school year “to make sure that students know what is expected,” Brown said. “It is just a matter of sharing the handbook with them. It is very important that we are very consistent in regard to what we will tolerate here at Jacksonville High School. We have to make some changes.”
All students will be required to wear identification badges.
Brown, 53, began his career in 1978 teaching special education at Sylvan Hills High School. The following year he taught fifth grade at Bayou Meto Elementary School. In 1983, he left the district to work for the Arkansas Department of Education as the special-education supervisor for south central Arkansas. Brown has also worked as an administrator at Sylvan Hills Middle School, Pinewood Elementary and College Station Elementary. He was principal of Oakbrooke Elementary School in Sherwood for 15 years.
Brown holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s in education from the University of Central Arkansas.
TEAM EFFORT
June Haynie says that she is ready to meet the challenges at Jacksonville High “head on,” using strategies that helped to raise test scores at Robinson High School faster than any other school in the district.
“It will take all of us working together – teachers, parents and students,” Haynie said. “That is what we did at Robinson, and we can do the same thing at Jacksonville.”
Consistent with Hopson’s vision that PCSSD principals be the instructional leaders for their schools, Haynie said her charge will be to improve overall development of curriculum and teaching strategies.
She won’t be bringing in new ideas or approaches so much as “reminding teachers of what they already know works,” Haynie explained. “It is a matter of putting proven best practices into place.
“We won’t solve everything, but we can do quite a bit in a year.” Strategies that worked at Robinson, Haynie is eager to implement at Jacksonville. For example, professional development in instructional methods for advanced placement classes will be open to all teachers.
“My goal is to have as many of our teachers as possible have AP training,” Haynie said. “All students benefit – lower level, regular and accelerated.”
Classroom instruction will consist of less lecture and more “hands-on, so that students are actually doing, are involved.”
Creating an environment where teachers can teach and students can learn is paramount, Haynie said.
“We will have a safe school. You’ll see (the administrators) a lot in halls and in the classrooms. Parents and students need to see us there. We set the tone just by being there, being proactive.”
A team approach involving school administrators, teachers, parents and students will help teachers get a holistic view of each individual student and give students, especially ninth-graders, the support they need to progress, Haynie says.
“Ninth-graders tend to get lost in the transition from middle to high school, and this will give them more of a base to go,” Haynie said. “This is difficult for parents as well as students, so this will be a way for parents to get a true overview of what is going on.”
Haynie wants to see students participating in the committees organized to improve the school.
“We certainly need student involvement,” Haynie said. “I would push for that, yes. Students are pretty good at solving problems that they know something about.”
Haynie holds a bachelor’s degree in home economics with a minor in biology from Henderson State University and a master’s degree and certification in school administration from the University of Central Arkansas. She began her career at Poplar Street
Middle School in the North Little Rock School District as a home-economics teacher.
In 1978, she replaced her home-economics teacher at her alma mater, Robinson High, where she taught for 23 years.
She served as assistant principal at Sylvan Hills and North Pulaski high schools and director of secondary educator for NLRSD before returning to Robinson in 2006 to serve as principal.
TOP STORY > >District’s new hires to focus on failures in Jacksonville
NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer
Charles Hopson, in his first week on the job as superintendent of Pulaski County Special School District, has tapped two veteran educators to turn conditions around at Jacksonville High School.
The dilapidated state of the 40-year-old facility caught the attention of district officials, the public and news media this spring when a group of graduating Jacksonville High seniors made a presentation to the school board with photos of the school as well as statistics showing that Jacksonville is getting short shrifted when it comes to allocation of district capital-improvement funding.
June Haynie, in her 31st year with PCSSD, will serve as principal on one-year special assignment. This year she finished her fourth year as principal of Robinson High School.
Karl Brown, who retired from the district in 2006, will serve as the director on special assignment from the superintendent’s office, which is a new position for the district.
Brown’s role will be to address the three priorities identified by Hopson as critical to the school: racial disparities in student discipline and achievement, safety and orderliness of the school environment and cleanliness and general condition of the facilities.
“It is a school in crisis,” Brown said in an interview Thursday. “You have to get some things in place to get the school under control.”
Hopson said he chose Brown because of his past success at other schools in improving test scores and fostering a climate of accountability – two attributes he wanted in new leadership for the school.
Brown has lived in Jacksonville for the past 12 years. As assistant superintendent for equity and pupil services – his last job with the district – Brown said he recalls even then that the high school “was one of the schools in Jacksonville most talked about” because of discipline issues and lagging test scores.
“I am a no-nonsense administrator,” Brown said. “I will hold both students and teachers accountable. I told Dr. Hopson that I felt that I could be of assistance because I am somewhat familiar with the problems they are facing, but it will be a challenge. I am really interested in the students at Jacksonville High School.”
Brown’s role will be to observe, assess, recommend and bring individuals together to solve the problems the school faces.
“My communication will be with the superintendent directly,” Brown said.
Four committees already in place – targeting safety and gangs, activities and tutoring, student mentoring and facilities – will help in the change process at the school. Community members, teachers and administrators and students will comprise the committees.
“Everything we put in place will be a recommendation from these committees,” Brown said. “We value their input and welcome people from the community to be involved.”
Anyone interested in joining the committees should contact Brenda Bowles at the district office, Brown said.
On Monday, Brown will conduct a walk-through of the school with district maintenance.
“It doesn’t take a whole lot of money to clean the place up – the tile, carpet and restrooms,” Brown said. “We want kids to come to a clean, safe, orderly environment.”
Jacksonville High is not alone when it comes to high suspension rates for African-American students. In 2008-09, 73 percent of black students at the school were suspended compared to 27 percent of the whites.
Rates at Jacksonville Girls Middle School and Mills University Studies High School were higher, with 73 percent and 76 percent of the black students, respectively, suspended that year. Rates for white students were a third of that for blacks.
“We are going to have to get African-American students to value education more so,” Brown said.
There are plans to bring Kareem Moody, a motivational speaker who works with gangs and troubled youth, to the school to help improve school climate and develop student leadership.
Meetings with students by grade and gender are planned early in the new school year “to make sure that students know what is expected,” Brown said. “It is just a matter of sharing the handbook with them. It is very important that we are very consistent in regard to what we will tolerate here at Jacksonville High School. We have to make some changes.”
All students will be required to wear identification badges.
Brown, 53, began his career in 1978 teaching special education at Sylvan Hills High School. The following year he taught fifth grade at Bayou Meto Elementary School. In 1983, he left the district to work for the Arkansas Department of Education as the special-education supervisor for south central Arkansas. Brown has also worked as an administrator at Sylvan Hills Middle School, Pinewood Elementary and College Station Elementary. He was principal of Oakbrooke Elementary School in Sherwood for 15 years.
Brown holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s in education from the University of Central Arkansas.
TEAM EFFORT
June Haynie says that she is ready to meet the challenges at Jacksonville High “head on,” using strategies that helped to raise test scores at Robinson High School faster than any other school in the district.
“It will take all of us working together – teachers, parents and students,” Haynie said. “That is what we did at Robinson, and we can do the same thing at Jacksonville.”
Consistent with Hopson’s vision that PCSSD principals be the instructional leaders for their schools, Haynie said her charge will be to improve overall development of curriculum and teaching strategies.
She won’t be bringing in new ideas or approaches so much as “reminding teachers of what they already know works,” Haynie explained. “It is a matter of putting proven best practices into place.
“We won’t solve everything, but we can do quite a bit in a year.” Strategies that worked at Robinson, Haynie is eager to implement at Jacksonville. For example, professional development in instructional methods for advanced placement classes will be open to all teachers.
“My goal is to have as many of our teachers as possible have AP training,” Haynie said. “All students benefit – lower level, regular and accelerated.”
Classroom instruction will consist of less lecture and more “hands-on, so that students are actually doing, are involved.”
Creating an environment where teachers can teach and students can learn is paramount, Haynie said.
“We will have a safe school. You’ll see (the administrators) a lot in halls and in the classrooms. Parents and students need to see us there. We set the tone just by being there, being proactive.”
A team approach involving school administrators, teachers, parents and students will help teachers get a holistic view of each individual student and give students, especially ninth-graders, the support they need to progress, Haynie says.
“Ninth-graders tend to get lost in the transition from middle to high school, and this will give them more of a base to go,” Haynie said. “This is difficult for parents as well as students, so this will be a way for parents to get a true overview of what is going on.”
Haynie wants to see students participating in the committees organized to improve the school.
“We certainly need student involvement,” Haynie said. “I would push for that, yes. Students are pretty good at solving problems that they know something about.”
Haynie holds a bachelor’s degree in home economics with a minor in biology from Henderson State University and a master’s degree and certification in school administration from the University of Central Arkansas. She began her career at Poplar Street
Middle School in the North Little Rock School District as a home-economics teacher.
In 1978, she replaced her home-economics teacher at her alma mater, Robinson High, where she taught for 23 years.
She served as assistant principal at Sylvan Hills and North Pulaski high schools and director of secondary educator for NLRSD before returning to Robinson in 2006 to serve as principal.
Leader staff writer
Charles Hopson, in his first week on the job as superintendent of Pulaski County Special School District, has tapped two veteran educators to turn conditions around at Jacksonville High School.
The dilapidated state of the 40-year-old facility caught the attention of district officials, the public and news media this spring when a group of graduating Jacksonville High seniors made a presentation to the school board with photos of the school as well as statistics showing that Jacksonville is getting short shrifted when it comes to allocation of district capital-improvement funding.
June Haynie, in her 31st year with PCSSD, will serve as principal on one-year special assignment. This year she finished her fourth year as principal of Robinson High School.
Karl Brown, who retired from the district in 2006, will serve as the director on special assignment from the superintendent’s office, which is a new position for the district.
Brown’s role will be to address the three priorities identified by Hopson as critical to the school: racial disparities in student discipline and achievement, safety and orderliness of the school environment and cleanliness and general condition of the facilities.
“It is a school in crisis,” Brown said in an interview Thursday. “You have to get some things in place to get the school under control.”
Hopson said he chose Brown because of his past success at other schools in improving test scores and fostering a climate of accountability – two attributes he wanted in new leadership for the school.
Brown has lived in Jacksonville for the past 12 years. As assistant superintendent for equity and pupil services – his last job with the district – Brown said he recalls even then that the high school “was one of the schools in Jacksonville most talked about” because of discipline issues and lagging test scores.
“I am a no-nonsense administrator,” Brown said. “I will hold both students and teachers accountable. I told Dr. Hopson that I felt that I could be of assistance because I am somewhat familiar with the problems they are facing, but it will be a challenge. I am really interested in the students at Jacksonville High School.”
Brown’s role will be to observe, assess, recommend and bring individuals together to solve the problems the school faces.
“My communication will be with the superintendent directly,” Brown said.
Four committees already in place – targeting safety and gangs, activities and tutoring, student mentoring and facilities – will help in the change process at the school. Community members, teachers and administrators and students will comprise the committees.
“Everything we put in place will be a recommendation from these committees,” Brown said. “We value their input and welcome people from the community to be involved.”
Anyone interested in joining the committees should contact Brenda Bowles at the district office, Brown said.
On Monday, Brown will conduct a walk-through of the school with district maintenance.
“It doesn’t take a whole lot of money to clean the place up – the tile, carpet and restrooms,” Brown said. “We want kids to come to a clean, safe, orderly environment.”
Jacksonville High is not alone when it comes to high suspension rates for African-American students. In 2008-09, 73 percent of black students at the school were suspended compared to 27 percent of the whites.
Rates at Jacksonville Girls Middle School and Mills University Studies High School were higher, with 73 percent and 76 percent of the black students, respectively, suspended that year. Rates for white students were a third of that for blacks.
“We are going to have to get African-American students to value education more so,” Brown said.
There are plans to bring Kareem Moody, a motivational speaker who works with gangs and troubled youth, to the school to help improve school climate and develop student leadership.
Meetings with students by grade and gender are planned early in the new school year “to make sure that students know what is expected,” Brown said. “It is just a matter of sharing the handbook with them. It is very important that we are very consistent in regard to what we will tolerate here at Jacksonville High School. We have to make some changes.”
All students will be required to wear identification badges.
Brown, 53, began his career in 1978 teaching special education at Sylvan Hills High School. The following year he taught fifth grade at Bayou Meto Elementary School. In 1983, he left the district to work for the Arkansas Department of Education as the special-education supervisor for south central Arkansas. Brown has also worked as an administrator at Sylvan Hills Middle School, Pinewood Elementary and College Station Elementary. He was principal of Oakbrooke Elementary School in Sherwood for 15 years.
Brown holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s in education from the University of Central Arkansas.
TEAM EFFORT
June Haynie says that she is ready to meet the challenges at Jacksonville High “head on,” using strategies that helped to raise test scores at Robinson High School faster than any other school in the district.
“It will take all of us working together – teachers, parents and students,” Haynie said. “That is what we did at Robinson, and we can do the same thing at Jacksonville.”
Consistent with Hopson’s vision that PCSSD principals be the instructional leaders for their schools, Haynie said her charge will be to improve overall development of curriculum and teaching strategies.
She won’t be bringing in new ideas or approaches so much as “reminding teachers of what they already know works,” Haynie explained. “It is a matter of putting proven best practices into place.
“We won’t solve everything, but we can do quite a bit in a year.” Strategies that worked at Robinson, Haynie is eager to implement at Jacksonville. For example, professional development in instructional methods for advanced placement classes will be open to all teachers.
“My goal is to have as many of our teachers as possible have AP training,” Haynie said. “All students benefit – lower level, regular and accelerated.”
Classroom instruction will consist of less lecture and more “hands-on, so that students are actually doing, are involved.”
Creating an environment where teachers can teach and students can learn is paramount, Haynie said.
“We will have a safe school. You’ll see (the administrators) a lot in halls and in the classrooms. Parents and students need to see us there. We set the tone just by being there, being proactive.”
A team approach involving school administrators, teachers, parents and students will help teachers get a holistic view of each individual student and give students, especially ninth-graders, the support they need to progress, Haynie says.
“Ninth-graders tend to get lost in the transition from middle to high school, and this will give them more of a base to go,” Haynie said. “This is difficult for parents as well as students, so this will be a way for parents to get a true overview of what is going on.”
Haynie wants to see students participating in the committees organized to improve the school.
“We certainly need student involvement,” Haynie said. “I would push for that, yes. Students are pretty good at solving problems that they know something about.”
Haynie holds a bachelor’s degree in home economics with a minor in biology from Henderson State University and a master’s degree and certification in school administration from the University of Central Arkansas. She began her career at Poplar Street
Middle School in the North Little Rock School District as a home-economics teacher.
In 1978, she replaced her home-economics teacher at her alma mater, Robinson High, where she taught for 23 years.
She served as assistant principal at Sylvan Hills and North Pulaski high schools and director of secondary educator for NLRSD before returning to Robinson in 2006 to serve as principal.
TOP STORY > >Cabot keeps a close watch on finances
JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writer
An unfilled position at Cabot City Hall is now paying for an auditor to learn the city books and be on hand to ensure a smooth transition when a new clerk-treasurer takes over in January.
June 30 was the last day on the job for Karen Davis, director of operations for Cabot Mayor Eddie Joe Williams. Davis now works for the school district as assistant to the superintendent. Kay Waters, who already worked at city hall, has taken over Davis’ duties.
But the remainder of Davis’ $54,000 annual salary is now being used to pay Calvin Aldridge, the certified public accountant who, two years ago, found discrepancies in the books at the parks department that led to a bookkeeper being arrested for embezzlement, considerable embarrassment and greater scrutiny by the mayor and city council.
Williams said this week that state auditors just finished the city’s books and the report is going to be a good one. But there have always been troublesome glitches with the accounting program that Aldridge had already fixed and by the time a new clerk is elected in November, he will be able to provide any needed training. Candidates for public office in Cabot are not affiliated with political parties.
Everyone runs as independents and no one files until August. Clerk-Treasurer Treasurer Marva Verkler, whose poor health often keeps her out of the office, is not running for re-election. So far, only Norma Naquin who runs the office at Cabot Public Works, has announced for the position.
But for several months, there has been speculation at city hall that one of Verkler’s deputies would run for her job. And although former Alderman Becky Lemaster has not officially announced, she has told The Leader that she intends to run.
While on the council, Lemaster was known for her scrutiny of the city’s spending but most recently, she made the news when her husband, Roger Lemaster, was found guilty of raping her daughter.
Williams, who is running as a Republican for the state Senate and not for a second term as mayor, said he only wants the next clerk-treasurer to have the training needed to come in and go to work.
Alderman Eddie Cook, along with former Mayor Stubby Stumbaugh and Bill Cypert, secretary and spokesman for the Cabot Water and Wastewater Commission, have announced for mayor. Cook said getting an auditor to do more than spot check the books is what he’s been wanting for years.
Cook has been heavily involved with the budget for almost four years. He first chaired a committee working on the budget after Williams had been elected as mayor but before he took office. During that time, the city was barely making payroll and because of outstanding bills the budget was actually in the red.
Although Cook praises the job William has done cutting expenses, balancing the budget and building savings for the city, he said without an outside audit, taxpayers are being asked to have complete faith in what amounts to “the government policing the government.”
“I’m excited about this,” Cook said. “With the turnover that will occur not only with the mayor but the city clerk too, we need to make sure our procedures are in order.”
Earlier this year, he talked to the budget and personnel committee about bringing in a private auditor before the turnover that is coming at the first of the year with a new mayor and clerk-treasurer. But the committee declined, saying the state audits are good enough.
With $27,000 left in the budget this year to pay Davis’ salary, money to pay for an outside audit is not an issue.
“I think this is a huge step financially for our city,” Cook said.
Leader staff writer
An unfilled position at Cabot City Hall is now paying for an auditor to learn the city books and be on hand to ensure a smooth transition when a new clerk-treasurer takes over in January.
June 30 was the last day on the job for Karen Davis, director of operations for Cabot Mayor Eddie Joe Williams. Davis now works for the school district as assistant to the superintendent. Kay Waters, who already worked at city hall, has taken over Davis’ duties.
But the remainder of Davis’ $54,000 annual salary is now being used to pay Calvin Aldridge, the certified public accountant who, two years ago, found discrepancies in the books at the parks department that led to a bookkeeper being arrested for embezzlement, considerable embarrassment and greater scrutiny by the mayor and city council.
Williams said this week that state auditors just finished the city’s books and the report is going to be a good one. But there have always been troublesome glitches with the accounting program that Aldridge had already fixed and by the time a new clerk is elected in November, he will be able to provide any needed training. Candidates for public office in Cabot are not affiliated with political parties.
Everyone runs as independents and no one files until August. Clerk-Treasurer Treasurer Marva Verkler, whose poor health often keeps her out of the office, is not running for re-election. So far, only Norma Naquin who runs the office at Cabot Public Works, has announced for the position.
But for several months, there has been speculation at city hall that one of Verkler’s deputies would run for her job. And although former Alderman Becky Lemaster has not officially announced, she has told The Leader that she intends to run.
While on the council, Lemaster was known for her scrutiny of the city’s spending but most recently, she made the news when her husband, Roger Lemaster, was found guilty of raping her daughter.
Williams, who is running as a Republican for the state Senate and not for a second term as mayor, said he only wants the next clerk-treasurer to have the training needed to come in and go to work.
Alderman Eddie Cook, along with former Mayor Stubby Stumbaugh and Bill Cypert, secretary and spokesman for the Cabot Water and Wastewater Commission, have announced for mayor. Cook said getting an auditor to do more than spot check the books is what he’s been wanting for years.
Cook has been heavily involved with the budget for almost four years. He first chaired a committee working on the budget after Williams had been elected as mayor but before he took office. During that time, the city was barely making payroll and because of outstanding bills the budget was actually in the red.
Although Cook praises the job William has done cutting expenses, balancing the budget and building savings for the city, he said without an outside audit, taxpayers are being asked to have complete faith in what amounts to “the government policing the government.”
“I’m excited about this,” Cook said. “With the turnover that will occur not only with the mayor but the city clerk too, we need to make sure our procedures are in order.”
Earlier this year, he talked to the budget and personnel committee about bringing in a private auditor before the turnover that is coming at the first of the year with a new mayor and clerk-treasurer. But the committee declined, saying the state audits are good enough.
With $27,000 left in the budget this year to pay Davis’ salary, money to pay for an outside audit is not an issue.
“I think this is a huge step financially for our city,” Cook said.
TOP STORY > >PCSSD to pay $275,000 in bias suits
By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer
The school board for the Pulaski County Special School District in closed session at an emergency meeting Thursday approved agreements to settle complaints by two district employees — one black, the other white — with pay-offs totaling up to $275,000.
The board voted to pay $200,000 by the end of the month to Donna Humphries, who recently retired from her job as counselor at Sherwood Elementary School. Humphries, who said she was denied promotion because she’s white, filed a complaint in 2006 and an amended complaint in 2007, both in U.S. District Court, alleging that she had been a victim of reverse discrimination and breach of contract.
Since 1996, she applied for about 16 administrative positions and in at least 12 cases was passed over for much less qualified or totally unqualified candidates. In return for the settlement, Humphries agreed not to take any future legal action against the district.
The board voted to pay Mike Nellums $50,000 – a “personal payment” in the terms of the settlement agreement – as well as up to $25,000 for attorney’s fees to settle his complaint against the district arising from an investigation of his performance while principal of Jacksonville Boys Middle School and the former Superintendent Rob McGill’s recommendation that he be fired. The district will also pay Nellums’ taxes on the $50,000.
Nellums wrote in the proposed settlement agreement that his claim against the district was in response to “a certain investigation and complaints concerning my job performance and activities related thereto, all as were memorialized in a submission to the PCSSD board of directors dated Sept. 12, 2009 and sent by Acting Superintendent Robert McGill to Michael Nellums together with certain policies and statutes.”
McGill, who conducted the investigation of Nellums, recommended that Nellums be terminated. On Sept. 28, 2009, the board voted 4-3 not to uphold McGill’s recommendation.
Nellums was reassigned to Mills University Studies High School, where he now serves as principal.
The Arkansas Board of Education sent a letter to the district on May 27 stating that it “had not followed its own policies in respect to the investigation of Mr. Nellums.”
Yesterday, Nellums received the first of two equal installments of the payment from the district. The other is to be paid by Jan. 7, 2011.
In exchange for Nellums agreeing to take no legal action against the district pertaining to the recommendation that he be fired, the district has agreed to remove all related documents from his personnel file as “permitted by state law.”
Any remaining documents that relate to the incident will be sealed and accessible only by a court order.
The district will also remove any references to the so-called “termination matter” from district minutes and website, the settlement agreement states.
In addition, board president Tim Clark agreed to write a letter of recommendation for Nellums if requested.
Personnel matters account for a large portion of the district’s legal bills, totaling almost $126,743 in 2008-09 and $235,426 through May of the 2009-10 fiscal year. Grievances are the reason for most personnel-related legal bills, according to Anita
Farver, chief financial officer for the district.
After the board meeting, new Superintendent Charles Hopson said he felt it was “more expedient” to settle the two lawsuits out of court, but he wants the district and board to chart a new course in personnel relations.
“My intent as superintendent is to make sure we don’t have these kinds of actions in the future,” Hopson said. “We need to be proactive and treat people in a way so that these kinds of actions are minimized.”
In other business, the board approved 2010-11 performance objectives for Hopson and board operating principles, both of which the board had developed at a retreat on June 26.
Each goal has indicators and target dates that school patrons will be able to track on the district’s website, Hopson said.
Hopson has agreed to:
Improve student achievement for all students that result in increases in test scores and a closing of the achievement gap.
Develop a sound financial plan to avoid fiscal distress and prepare for future state audits and successful conclusion of the desegregation case.
Work to restore confidence in the district by building better relationships with stakeholders.
The board has pledged to operating principles in the areas of accountability, board communication and professionalism, planning and goal setting, board meeting procedures, processes for addressing patron concerns and the district chain of command.
Leader staff writer
The school board for the Pulaski County Special School District in closed session at an emergency meeting Thursday approved agreements to settle complaints by two district employees — one black, the other white — with pay-offs totaling up to $275,000.
The board voted to pay $200,000 by the end of the month to Donna Humphries, who recently retired from her job as counselor at Sherwood Elementary School. Humphries, who said she was denied promotion because she’s white, filed a complaint in 2006 and an amended complaint in 2007, both in U.S. District Court, alleging that she had been a victim of reverse discrimination and breach of contract.
Since 1996, she applied for about 16 administrative positions and in at least 12 cases was passed over for much less qualified or totally unqualified candidates. In return for the settlement, Humphries agreed not to take any future legal action against the district.
The board voted to pay Mike Nellums $50,000 – a “personal payment” in the terms of the settlement agreement – as well as up to $25,000 for attorney’s fees to settle his complaint against the district arising from an investigation of his performance while principal of Jacksonville Boys Middle School and the former Superintendent Rob McGill’s recommendation that he be fired. The district will also pay Nellums’ taxes on the $50,000.
Nellums wrote in the proposed settlement agreement that his claim against the district was in response to “a certain investigation and complaints concerning my job performance and activities related thereto, all as were memorialized in a submission to the PCSSD board of directors dated Sept. 12, 2009 and sent by Acting Superintendent Robert McGill to Michael Nellums together with certain policies and statutes.”
McGill, who conducted the investigation of Nellums, recommended that Nellums be terminated. On Sept. 28, 2009, the board voted 4-3 not to uphold McGill’s recommendation.
Nellums was reassigned to Mills University Studies High School, where he now serves as principal.
The Arkansas Board of Education sent a letter to the district on May 27 stating that it “had not followed its own policies in respect to the investigation of Mr. Nellums.”
Yesterday, Nellums received the first of two equal installments of the payment from the district. The other is to be paid by Jan. 7, 2011.
In exchange for Nellums agreeing to take no legal action against the district pertaining to the recommendation that he be fired, the district has agreed to remove all related documents from his personnel file as “permitted by state law.”
Any remaining documents that relate to the incident will be sealed and accessible only by a court order.
The district will also remove any references to the so-called “termination matter” from district minutes and website, the settlement agreement states.
In addition, board president Tim Clark agreed to write a letter of recommendation for Nellums if requested.
Personnel matters account for a large portion of the district’s legal bills, totaling almost $126,743 in 2008-09 and $235,426 through May of the 2009-10 fiscal year. Grievances are the reason for most personnel-related legal bills, according to Anita
Farver, chief financial officer for the district.
After the board meeting, new Superintendent Charles Hopson said he felt it was “more expedient” to settle the two lawsuits out of court, but he wants the district and board to chart a new course in personnel relations.
“My intent as superintendent is to make sure we don’t have these kinds of actions in the future,” Hopson said. “We need to be proactive and treat people in a way so that these kinds of actions are minimized.”
In other business, the board approved 2010-11 performance objectives for Hopson and board operating principles, both of which the board had developed at a retreat on June 26.
Each goal has indicators and target dates that school patrons will be able to track on the district’s website, Hopson said.
Hopson has agreed to:
Improve student achievement for all students that result in increases in test scores and a closing of the achievement gap.
Develop a sound financial plan to avoid fiscal distress and prepare for future state audits and successful conclusion of the desegregation case.
Work to restore confidence in the district by building better relationships with stakeholders.
The board has pledged to operating principles in the areas of accountability, board communication and professionalism, planning and goal setting, board meeting procedures, processes for addressing patron concerns and the district chain of command.
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