Rural Matters

Background

The Paron school district was one of 57 districts that have been dissolved by the Arkansas legislature since it passed Act 60 in 2003. Act 60 requires all public school districts to have at least 350 students. Arkansas provides several legal methods by which small districts can be dismantled. The method used to dissolve Paron was to annex it to the neighboring Bryant district. In annexation, the former district is subsumed to an existing district, which takes over governance. The receiving district gets a monetary incentive from the Arkansas Department of Education, plus all the buildings, bonds, and cash accounts of the former district. The former district gets proportional representation on the school board, which in most cases, including Paron’s means just one seat.

Paron District Annexed, High School Closed

Paron was annexed in 2004. In April of 2006—just before the state’s high-stakes testing regimen—Bryant’s school board voted, but not unanimously, to close Paron High School and bus its 6th through 12th grade students to Bryant, a daily ride of nearly four hours for most of the students. The Board cited “academic and fiscal distress” as reasons to close the school. See Facts Are Stubborn Things, Mr. Greenberg for more information about these allegations. Because the vote was not unanimous it had to be reviewed by the State Board of Education, which approved the decision in May.

Lawsuit Filed, Temporary Restraining Order Issued

Parents, students, and other residents of Paron then filed a law suit claiming that the long bus rides would harm students and their education. In June, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Jay Moody issued an eight-page Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) barring Bryant District from closing Paron High until the case could be heard on its merits. Moody said Paron plaintiffs had shown “that irreparable harm will be done to them if the Paron High School is closed prior to a full and fair hearing on the remaining counts of the Plaintiffs’ complaint. The Court further finds that the Plaintiffs have shown a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits of the case.”

Judge Moody cited 13 reasons for issuing the TRO. He noted that Paron students generally score above average on state and national tests. He specifically noted that the closure of the high school would require students to ride the bus up to four hours daily, with “significant amounts of time riding in the dark on dangerous roads…” He referenced a federal Appeals Court ruling that balanced transportation time with basic education rights in desegregation cases. And, he raised several questions about whether the State Board of Education had followed the Administrative Procedure Act and noted that the Bryant district had taken actions inconsistent with assurances that it would take no action to close Paron high prior to July 1, 2006.

Appeal, Order Overturned

The Bryant district appealed and in July the Arkansas Supreme Court overturned Moody’s order on the grounds that the Paron patrons had not named the Bryant district as a defendant in the original lawsuit. Paron lawyers re-filed, naming Bryant district as a defendant and alleging that Paron supporters were denied opportunities to question witnesses in a board hearing before the consolidation decision was made.

Bryant district, had already (prior to July 1, for which they were cited by Moody in the original TRO) re-assigned teachers from Paron and moved certain materials including computers from Paron High School. A majority of Paron’s 111 students in sixth through twelfth grade applied, under the state’s school choice law, for transfers to other school districts with schools closer to Paron than Bryant.

New Restraining Order

On the evening of Friday, the 18th of August, just two days before Bryant district was scheduled to begin classes on Monday, Judge Moody ruled again that Paron students would be harmed by long bus rides and issued another Temporary Restraining Order that blocked the district from closing the school.

Over the weekend, Paron parents worked at the school preparing classrooms for students, spreading the word that students could attend school there on Monday, and arranging for retired teachers in the community to hold classes.

Students Denied Entrance

Ninety-seven students showed up at Paron High on Monday morning, but Bryant district administrators, along with a Bryant police officer, were at the school and denied entrance to all but 34 students. Bryant claimed they couldn’t admit students who had either opted for Freedom of School Choice or Legal Transfers from other districts without releases from those districts and approval from Bryant. That process could take as long as a month. Paron supporters claimed that many of the students’ transfer hearings had not even been held, and spokespersons for Bryant district admitted, according to reports in Arkansas papers, that no transfers had been approved by the board since 2005. Paron supporters also asserted that Bryant officials had said throughout the summer’s turmoil that residents of the district would be able to attend school in the district if Paron High were open. Both Paron supporters and the Bryant District filed legal papers seeking various clarifications. The Bryant School District notified some of the students that they could return to school on Tuesday.

Order Dissolved, School Closed

Late on Tuesday afternoon, August 22, the day after Paron High had been re-opened, Judge Moody dissolved the TRO, clearing the way for Bryant to close the school. In the one-page order, Moody wrote simply that after a review of the administrative record and arguments of counsel, the court found the State Board of Educations’ hearing substantially complied with the Administrative Procedures Act and that the State Board had sufficient evidence to conclude that the closing of Paron High School was warranted.

Bryant district moved immediately to remove grades six through twelve from Paron and the high school was officially shuttered at the end of the school day on Wednesday, August 23.