A day after teachers in the Little Rock School District went on strike, members of the State Board of Education voted to change the makeup of a committee designed to aid with employment issues.
The board voted 5-4 Friday to expand a personnel policy committee for the district from eight members to just under 50, with one representative from each school in the district serving on the committee. Elections for the committee were already underway when board members voted to expand the number of seats.
The district has not had a personnel policy committee, since the Little Rock Education Association teachers’ union had been the exclusive bargaining agent for the district’s employees.
The board voted last month to no longer recognize the union, prompting public outcry and Thursday's one-day strike. Meanwhile the Arkansas Times reports a state legislative panel voted not to conduct a study of the state’s financing system for schools.
Lawmakers had previously voted to hire an outside firm to study educational adequacy, which is required by the Arkansas Constitution. Members of the state Legislative Council Friday voted against hiring that outside firm along with another firm sought to be hired by Republican lawmakers.
The study, which was set to be complete by the end of next year, would have been the first study of educational adequacy in the state in roughly 15 years.
