By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
The Pulaski County Special School District Board has approved and implemented corrections or filed answers to every finding of the state Legislative Audit, which criticized the district for improper spending.
Sam Jones, the district’s attorney, told the board Wednesday he was sending the formal appeal of the proposed fiscal-distress finding to the state Board of Education on Friday.
“We’re going full-speed ahead,” he said.
Jones was very critical of the negative finding of Navigant—“this outfit from New York City, headquartered at 90 Park Avenue”—that the district had not always spent its state desegregation funds on desegregation-related matters.
“The timing is certainly interesting,” he said.
Jones said the $17 million to $20 million the state provided the district annually was only a fraction of the money the district spends on desegregation.
The district’s formal position—backed by Jones, Superintendent Charles Hopson and by former PCSSD Superintendent Bobby Lester—is that the district was never required to separate the state funds for desegregation use.
UNFAIR, INACCURATE REPORT
Jones characterized the Navigant report as “unfair and inaccurate,” saying it had tunnel vision and never asked district officials about the total spent on desegregation.
“I’d recommend we hire an Arkansas company to go behind this outfit, point out its mistakes, or get staff to do a proper and full-blown (study) of allocation (of money for desegregation purposes),” Jones told the board.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel commissioned the Navigant report for $250,000 to help determine what sort of continued desegregation financial aid the state should provide once the districts are ruled unitary—or substantially desegregated.
Little Rock is already unitary, and Judge Brian Miller has been considering releasing North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts from the desegregation agreement for more than a year.
