The superintendent of the Little Rock School District is stepping down. Jermall Wright has led the district since summer of 2022. He weill sty on until there is a transition plan in place. The announcement came in a letter, Thursday afternoon.
“It has been an honor and privilege to work alongside the board and staff,” the letter said. “To usher in significant changes in district operations all geared towards student outcomes.”
The letter contained a list of accomplishments he was proud of from his tenure. This included decreasing the number of schools with an “F” rating and bringing up graduation rates.
Wright is a Florida native who came to Little Rock after serving in several districts across the country. His leadership began at the end of the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview with Little Rock Public Radio in 2022, he talked about his concerns over pandemic learning loss in the time before he took the job.
“We have made some gains and strides from last school year,” Wright said. “We still aren't performing at pre-pandemic levels in all content areas.”
During his tenure, the district struggled with several problems including declining enrollment, budget cuts and teacher layoffs.
Under the education bill known as Arkansas LEARNS, a district can be taken over by a charter school company if they are in financial distress. The LRSD spent much of the year after the law was passed planning for a $16 million reduction in costs.
One of the causes of this budget issue was a decline in enrollment. At a May board meeting, Wright estimated that the 2023-2024 school year had 500 fewer students than his first year in the job.
Over the past few years, the LRSD has been forced to shut down several schools including Wilson, Hamilton, Southwest Jr. High, David O’Dodd, Henderson, Franklin, and Booker.
Later that month, the district released a PowerPoint outlining where the cuts would come from. The slides said 80-90% would come from personnel including many paraprofessional and secretarial positions. The rest would come from services.
At a press conference, Wright clarified that they planned to eliminate 4% of their employees. The district has also placed a greater reliance on employee “one-year contracts” meaning teachers are only retained for one school year and then let go.
Some of the terminations were because of performance issues. Several termination hearings were held for teachers who appealed the district's decision where Wright testified. He talked about this at a May press conference with reporters.
“We just have not held ourselves accountable, or our employees accountable, for a long time,” Wright said.
“I am okay with losing my job because I refuse to continue that practice of just putting people in roles or in jobs especially when it can negatively impact our kids.”
When Wright took the position he named improving literacy as one of his top priorities. In his letter, Wright said he was able to increase reading scores by 10% on state assessments.
Also under his leadership, the district brought in a successful phonics-based science of reading curriculum called Ignite! Reading. The program offers one-on-one tutoring to students in phonics 15 minutes a day. By all accounts, the program was successful and helped make small gains in the number of LRSD students who could not read on grade level. For example, over one year, 42% of kids had gaps in kindergarten reading skills went down to 12%. Despite that, the program may also end or be shaved down due to budget cuts.
The Little Rock School District frequently experiences turnover in its top role; Wright was the district's seventh superintendent in 10 years.
His letter is addressed to school board president Michael Mason, who said in his own statement that the district had made “significant strides” under Wright. He also said the board was “committed to the continued success of the district” and that they were working on a transition plan. The Little Rock School District said Wright will stay on until the transition plan is finalized.
Note: this article was edited to add that Wright will stay on until the transition is final.
