Dollarway School District leaders will request that the Arkansas Department of Education grant waivers to allow the hiring of non-licensed teachers and to expand the number of kindergartners in a classroom.
Dollarway Superintendent Barbara Warren and Assistant Superintendent Melvin Bryant were scheduled to make the request Thursday, with Warren noting that the district is struggling to find licensed teachers. Warren said she needs to hire teachers in kindergarten, second grade, elementary art, middle school English, middle school math, middle school science, middle school art, secondary art, foreign language, secondary math and social studies.
“Throughout the state we struggle to get teachers who have come through the standard route,” Warren said. “We run into people who have really good credentials and qualities. They would like to teach and we have shortages and we want to be in a position to access the best quality teachers. We find people who serve children. We are like other districts that struggle to attract licensed teachers because universities are not graduating as many.”
“We are not talking about people who do not have any type of requirements,” Warren said. “They have at least a bachelor’s degree and a concentration of 18 hours in a particular subject content area.”
Asked if parents should be worried about unqualified educators, Warren said these non-certified teachers are qualified. They may be an engineer or other professional person who is seeking to become an educator. Warren said she does not want to use the waiver but wants the flexibility to use it as a safety net.
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“There are four or five categories of being a teacher,” Warren said. “This waiver is tied to Act 1240.”
The act permits a school district to petition the State Board of Education for all or some of the waivers granted to an open-enrollment public charter school that draws students from the school district.
The waiver would override “quality teachers in every public school classroom,” “certification to teach grade or subject matter,” “definition of a teacher as licensed,” “warrants void without valid certification and contract,” and “certification generally.”
Warren said her district is not currently employing unlicensed teachers but is employing long-term substitutes.
“This area of the state is struggling, as many teachers go to north Arkansas for a variety of needs: community perceptions and teacher salaries,” Warren said. “We are all trying to do the best we can. Teachers are not out there in the abundance of numbers that they once were.”
After an interview Wednesday morning, Warren contacted the newspaper on Wednesday in the late afternoon to say the Act 1240 Waiver action will be pulled from the Arkansas State Board Agenda. Warren wants to give more consideration to this matter before venturing forward.
Appointed to her current post in December 2015 by the Arkansas Board of Education, Warren took the reigns when the state dissolved its local board of directors because the district was struggling fiscally and academically. Dollarway has been in academic distress since 2010, as fewer than 49.5 percent of students have scored at a proficient or advanced level in math or literacy. Dollarway entered fiscal distress in April 2016.
In related news, Warren and Bryant are scheduled to request a waiver to increase the kindergarten class size from 20 students per classroom. This is in response to at least one kindergarten class enrolling 22 or 23 children by the end of the 2016-2017 academic year.
“We had four kindergarten classes and received more kindergartners later in the academic year,” Warren said. “We used paraprofessionals to provide additional support. We are going to hire licensed teachers whenever we can and keep our classroom size lower when we can. Our local charter schools do not have to deal with these considerations.”
More generally, Warren is optimistic about her district improving.
“We are really excited about next steps,” she said. “We are working hard to plan for next year and making every effort to gain momentum and progress. The environment in the classroom is conducive to learning.”
In other news, the Dollarway School District will hear from ADE Public School Program Manager Richard Wilde regarding a quarterly progress report. Dollarway has two schools in academic distress: Dollarway High School and Robert F. Morehead Middle School.
School and district leadership will report on each school’s progress as identified in the 45-day quarterly progress reports, according to the agenda. The district will discuss specific data points and identify progress in student attendance, grades, reduction of student referrals, and increase in interim assessments, reduction in teacher absences and improvements in school climate and culture. An overview of next steps will be presented, according to the agenda.