The Arkansas Department of Education has taken back the $1.8 million School Improvement Grant initially awarded to Dollarway High School in the fall of 2011.
A March 26 letter from ADE Deputy Commissioner Tony Wood to Dollarway Superintendent Bettye Dunn-Wright said the funds were being removed from the district effective March 30 because of a failure to follow recommendations from ADE staff.
Wood wrote that a provision within the initial grant application reserved the right for the ADE to refuse to renew grant funding if a school fails to meet its goals and make progress on implementing changes within the school to enhance student learning.
ADE spokesman Seth Blomeley said that the Dollarway School District was too slow to implement the required changes.
“In general, the district needed to be more proactive with these funds, which are so important to educating our students,” Blomeley said. “For example, the grant called for changing the culture at the district. There needed to be more done toward that goal. [ADE Commissioner] Dr. [Tom] Kimbrell has offered to meet again with the board to offer his thoughts and to answer any questions board members might have.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Kimbrell spoke to the January regular meeting of the Dollarway School Board and laid out expectations regarding the grant at that time. Kimbrell said the intent of the grant was to address achievement issues at the lowest 5 percent performing schools in the state.
Dunn-Wright said she was not prepared to comment on the loss of the grant at a special called school board meeting Tuesday night, but the board planned to discuss the issue at the April 10 regular monthly meeting.
Kimbrell told the board and Dunn-Wright in January that early success in improving student achievement at Dollarway High School was essential in order to demonstrate to both the state and the federal governments that the expending of nearly $2 million on Dollarway High School was a good investment.
“I want to express the importance and urgency of implementing the plan to get data and to determine the success of that plan,” Kimbrell said in January. “If there is no improvement at Dollarway High School, then we will remove the funds and distribute them to schools where the funds can be used. The expectation is that at the end of the year we will see changes in student achievement levels.
“The point of these grants is to infuse lots of money over a period of three years into struggling schools in order to remove any financial impediments to student academic progress,” Kimbrell said in January. “In order to receive the full $1.8 million over three years, there are specific goals for student achievement that must be accomplished.”
Dollarway High School was to receive a total of $724,267 during the first year of the grant.