The Dollarway School District Board of Directors and Superintendent Bettye Dunn-Wright met with Arkansas Department of Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell and his staff in a special called meeting Thursday night to find out why a $1.8 million grant was removed from Dollarway High School and to see if anything could be done to reinstate it.
The grant removal was effective March 30.
“I did not make the decision to pull the grant in one day and I will not make a decision on whether to change my mind in one day either,” Kimbrell said.
“Each of you received a letter from me regarding my decision to pull the school improvement grant,” Kimbrell said. “I outlined in the letter that these dollars were given under the plan submitted by the Dollarway School District to enhance student education.”
Board President George Stepps asked Kimbrell why the grant was removed in what appeared to be an abrupt manner.
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“When you all were here in January at our board meeting you gave us mandates and it has only been 41 days since you were here,” Stepps said. “It seemed very abrupt for you to come back and take the grant from the district now.”
Kimbrell said that issues related to the pace of implementation of required changes at the high school had become apparent well before his January presentation to the board.
“I wouldn’t characterize it as 41 days,” Kimbrell said. “The grant was approved last summer. The expectation of grant implementation didn’t become urgent 41 days ago. It became urgent as soon as it was approved.”
Kimbrell said that his office had been stressing the urgency of making needed changes since fall 2011 to no apparent avail.
“After we performed the November monitoring, there were lots of things lacking,” Kimbrell said. “We met with Dr. Wright and expressed a need for urgency and things that needed to happen regarding the superintendent. Afterwards there was no change, even in March.”
Board Vice President Robert Morehead took issue with the ADE’s findings that there was no real communication between high school Principal Arnold Robertson and Dunn-Wright on implementation of the grant and read a series of emails between the two to refute the assertion.
Board members including Stepps, Morehead and Gene Stewart all asked Kimbrell what could be done to have the grant reinstated.
“What would be different now than when we came in January with the conversation of urgency about getting the plan into play?” Kimbrell asked the board in return. “There is an urgency about getting these things done. I won’t tell you an answer to your question today but I will never close the door, especially when it comes to children. My biggest concern is what can I expect from you seven on the board and the superintendent in implementing this?”
Dunn-Wright presented Kimbrell with a document in which she responded to each of the ADE’s negative findings regarding the grant implementation process at Dollarway High School.
“I want to dispel the view that I was somehow oblivious to the implementation of this grant,” Dunn-Wright said.