| Updated: 3/31/2011 9:34 pm |
Published: 3/31/2011 3:43 pm |
LITTLE ROCK, AR – The Arkansas Department of Education has identified both the Pulaski County Special School District and the North Little Rock School District as being in fiscal distress.
The State Board of Education will consider whether to classify the districts as being in fiscal distress at a meeting on May 9th.
The PCSSD school board held an emergency meeting to address outstanding issues in the legislative report. PCSSD spokesperson Deb Roush tells Fox 16 that the district will appeal the report to the state board.
At issue for PCSSD is roughly $30,000 of debt. Items include portions of the superintendent’s contract with regard to health and dental insurance benefits. Also, a billing error in taxes, missing receipts, and document for expenditures in regard to board members travel expenses.
For North Little Rock, “bank reconciliations had not been prepared in a timely manner” for the 07-08 and 08-09 school years. The North Little Rock school board has yet to set a meeting date to discuss what actions they will take.
Both school districts have 30 days to file their appeal.
PCSSD and NLR make up the 2nd and 3rd largest school districts in the state. Once classified as being in fiscal distress, the districts have a 2 year window to correct their deficiencies. If they fail to fix them, the state must reconstitute or reconsolidate the districts. While being on the fiscal distress list, the districts cannot take on any debt without state approval.
This is not the first time PCSSD has been in this position. They were placed on the fiscal distress list in 2005.
