By john hofheimer
Leader senior staff writer
Pulaski County Special School District Superintendent Charles Hopson has signaled that he will ask the school board Tuesday to consider combining some schools and shutting others down as part of the cost-cutting strategy board president Bill Vasquez has asked him to prepare.
Vasquez called upon Hopson to identify cost-saving measures, saying he was particularly concerned that the district be prepared for the sudden or eventual end of about $17 million a year in state aid for desegregation.
In his Dec. 6 “Superinten-dent’s Corner,” posted on the district’s website, Hopson forewarned district patrons, “Facility repurposing is the huge elephant that has been walking around this district for a long time.”
Facilities “is the single area that has probably cost the district hundreds of millions in the past 15 years. We will tackle it. This is a risk I am willing to take rather than succumb to the inertia of fear,” he wrote in his column.
Hopson and his staff will introduce and discuss the Vision 2020 Facilities Plan with board members at the Monday workshop.
It will be a busy week for Hopson, staff and board members, with a four-hour board workshop slated for 5 p.m. Monday, a board work session followed by the regular board meeting Tuesday and a Wednesday morning appearance before the state Joint Legislative Audit Committee, which is still scrutinizing the district, looking for remedies to past financial problems.
The Vision 2020 Facilities Plan, which apparently calls for closing one or more schools and combining them with others, as well as fixing some schools and building new, long-overdue schools, could be among items discussed at the 4:30 p.m. board work session and its approval is slated for discussion at the regular December meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
“What I will be proposing to the board may not be popular with some, but the long-term stability of the district and the safety and well-being of our students and staff will be the primary focus of a proposal from our executive director of operations aimed at trimming several million through facility repurposing,” he wrote.
“We have to build new schools, and they have to be equitable,” Hopson has said.
Retired Col. Derek Scott has been surveying the state of the district’s buildings to determine which need fixing, which need remodeling, which need replacing and apparently, which need to be combined with another and closed.
Communications director Deb Roush said the authority to close, combine and build schools resides with the board, and that communities would need to have input into the decisions.
Hopson and chief financial officer Anita Farver will brief the board about the district’s current financial situation at the Monday workshop.
The board is expected to vote on new contracts with the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers and the Pulaski Association of Support Staff at the regular meeting Tuesday, and it needs to confirm that there is sufficient money for proposed pay increases.
Board member Mildred Tatum asked for the workshop, but both she and board member Sandra Sawyer will be out of town for the workshop, called by Vasquez.
Also on the agenda for the board workshop is a report by attorney Sam Jones on desegregation and legal issues and staffing updates by deputy Superintendent Paul Brewer.
At the regular board meeting, in addition to voting on new contracts for teachers and support staff and the Vision 2020 Facilities Plan, the board will consider a request for installation of artificial turf at Jacksonville, Mills and Sylvan Hills high schools, and revision of the Pacific Educational Group contract—that’s the group that was hired to teach administrators and teachers how to deal effectively with issues of race and poverty.
