The Arkansas Board of Education voted Monday to return local control to the Bald Knob School District, which the state took over in 2007 because it projected a $2 million debt.
The board voted to remove the 1,300-student district from its fiscal distress list on July 1 and to allow the district to vote in a new school board in a September election.
The district was placed on the fiscal distress list in June 2007 and was taken over by the state later that year after it was expected to be $2 million in debt that year.
James W. Staggs, who was apponted by the state to be its interim superintendent, told Education Commissioner Ken James in a letter that the district was projected to end the fiscal year with a $1.6 million cash balance. The district was able to raise $1.5 million in private funds, and the citizens of Bald Knob approved a sales tax increase to help fund the struggling district, Staggs said.
"It has been an exceptional nineteen months for our school and its patrons," Staggs said in his letter. "We have been blessed in a way that no one can understand without having lived these past months among us."
School districts placed in fiscal distress by the state have up to two years to submit a plan showing how they will remove themselves from the classification, have the plan approved and successfully implement the steps. Then the district can petition the board to be removed from the list.
Before 2007, the state had taken over three school districts — Helena-West Helena, Eudora and Midland. Helena-West Helena and Midland have regained control of their districts, and Eudora was annexed into neighboring Lakeside School District based at Lake Village.
Since Bald Knob's takeover, the state has also taken control of the Decatur and Greenland school districts.
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The Arkansas Board of Education voted Monday to return local control to the Bald Knob School District, which the state took over in 2007 because it projected a $2 million debt.
The board voted to remove the 1,300-student district from its fiscal distress list on July 1 and to allow the district to vote in a new school board in a September election.
The district was placed on the fiscal distress list in June 2007 and was taken over by the state later that year after it was expected to be $2 million in debt that year.
James W. Staggs, who was apponted by the state to be its interim superintendent, told Education Commissioner Ken James in a letter that the district was projected to end the fiscal year with a $1.6 million cash balance. The district was able to raise $1.5 million in private funds, and the citizens of Bald Knob approved a sales tax increase to help fund the struggling district, Staggs said.
"It has been an exceptional nineteen months for our school and its patrons," Staggs said in his letter. "We have been blessed in a way that no one can understand without having lived these past months among us."
School districts placed in fiscal distress by the state have up to two years to submit a plan showing how they will remove themselves from the classification, have the plan approved and successfully implement the steps. Then the district can petition the board to be removed from the list.
Before 2007, the state had taken over three school districts — Helena-West Helena, Eudora and Midland. Helena-West Helena and Midland have regained control of their districts, and Eudora was annexed into neighboring Lakeside School District based at Lake Village.
Since Bald Knob's takeover, the state has also taken control of the Decatur and Greenland school districts.
