By GARRICK FELDMAN
Leader executive editor
Bobby Lester, the interim Pulaski County Special School District superintendent, wants his friends and neighbors in Jacksonville to know that even though he has agreed to lead the troubled district during the summer, he still supports a Jacksonville-area school district.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that Jacksonville should have its own school district,” Lester said in an interview this week.
“Jacksonville ought to have its own school district if the people can afford it,” Lester told The Leader. “As long as they want a district, I’d support it. I’ll help them get their own district.”
He pointed out that U.S. DistrictJudge Brian Miller, who recently ruled to cut desegregation funds to the three Pulaski County districts, thinks the district is too spread out.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week ordered a stay of the judge’s order until appeals can be heard in September on phasing out $70 million a year in state aid.
“The judge said the district needs to be broken up,” Lester said.
Lester said the district should plan its budget with the assumption it will lose $20 million a year in desegregation funds.
Although the district has won a temporary reprieve and will collect $1.6 million a month in state desegregation money, at least for a few months, Lester said PCSSD must plan as if that money didn’t exist much longer.
“We’ve got to plan as if that money is gone,” he said. “Who knows how long we’ll get the checks? We have to approach it conservatively.”
On a brighter note, he said Sylvan Hills Middle School and Maumelle High School are nearing completion. North Pulaski High School is being repaired after a tornado ripped off its roof and destroyed the auditorium and laboratory.
He said he has taken the interim superintendent’s job during the state Education Department’s takeover of the distressed district to ease the transition from local control to state supervision.
“We have to be optimistic but also realistic,” he said.
Lester said he didn’t want the district broken up when he was superintendent. “It would have upset me if the district had split,” he said.
But now he thinks the people of Jacksonville are passionate about splitting from PCSSD and deserve their independence.
“I understand the passion the people have to form their own district,” he continued.
Lester was district superintendent for 15 years, before he retired in 1999. The district has lost much of its territory and almost half of its students, falling from 30,000 to about 17,000, which reduced the district’s tax base.
PCSSD lost 15 schools over the last 25 years. Jacksonville Elementary School closed this month and others are scheduled to close, including Harris Elementary School.
But in the long run, he hopes PCSSD can survive financially and improve academically, and then Jacksonville could work on becoming a separate district.
Lester thinks it will take two to three years to return local control to PCSSD patrons.
“We’ve got lots of problems, but we’ll have schools ready in the fall with everybody happy,” Lester continued. “It’s going to happen.”
