State Board of Education to decide Umpire campus closure next week

UMPIRE – The State Board of Education is scheduled to meet this month to decide the fate of the Umpire K-12 School after the Cossatot River School Board voted earlier this year to consolidate the campus.

The meeting is scheduled for Dec. 15 in Little Rock. Officials from the Cossatot River School District are scheduled to appear before the State Board with a petition to close the Umpire campus at the end of the current school year.

The issue was advanced to the State Board after the Cossatot River School Board voted 4-2 in October to close and consolidate the isolated campus. The vote was held on a recommendation by Superintendent Tyler Broyles due to falling enrollment at Umpire and what he described as an increasing financial burden of keeping the school open.

The State Board of Education will issue the final vote on whether to uphold the district’s petition to close Umpire.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders visited Umpire Schools on Monday for a fact-finding trip regarding the potential campus closure. In a statement, a spokeswoman from the governor’s office said she met with community members, school officials and families during her visit.

Broyles said Sanders’ trip to Umpire focused on hearing from the community and determining what options are available for affected students.

“It’s always a privilege when the governor can come down and visit your school and she came down to visit our Umpire campus to take a look at the pending closure matter,” said Broyles. “The purpose of the governor’s visit was to bring together stakeholders from the community to see what options might be there for the community and for the school.”

During their visit, Broyles said members of the governor’s team recognized the infeasibility of keeping the campus open within the Cossatot River School District.

“It was acknowledged to me by our state leadership that our Umpire campus appears to be unsustainable for Cossatot River and that they are not in the business of overturning local school boards absent a gross error,” he explained. “Their purpose was not to come down here and necessarily find a way to overturn us. The stated purpose was to look for solutions like private schools or charter schools, or maybe a nearby district taking [those students] in.”

According to the press release issued by her office, Gov. Sanders and State Education Secretary Jacob Oliva “stressed that any options for the future of the school should ultimately prioritize what is in the best interest of the students.”

Broyles explains that, given consistently declining enrollment at Umpire and the rising cost to keep the school open, closing the campus would be in the best interest of the broader district and its students.

“The law says that an isolated campus will close when it is against the best interest of all the district’s students as a whole,” he said. “Our outside consultant that we hired at the recommendation of state agencies has reported to us that we spend about $20,000 per student at Umpire when the average in the state needs to be around $9,000. We’ve experienced a deficit at that campus of over $1 million in four years and half a million last school year alone. That’s a prima facie case , unfortunately, of being against the best interest of all our students.”

Broyles said the best interest of students goes beyond finance matters and includes the broader scope of educational opportunities and outcomes.

“Our Umpire campus has wonderful teachers and wonderful teachers who perform well academically,” said Broyles. “But when you look at educational opportunities, more extracurriculars, more athletics, more electives, Cossatot River can serve that better.

Broyles believes many students have left Umpire in recent years to attend the Dierks School District and take advantage of the increased opportunities available in that community.

“We hope that our students will choose our Cossatot River campuses,” said Broyles. “But the truth is, Dierks is so close to Umpire that we realize many students will choose Dierks because they have been. Dierks has about 50 Umpire students from what I’m told. We’ve lost many students to Dierks over the years and that’s  because they offer more opportunities to the Umpire students.”

However, Broyles hopes those students will choose to remain in the Cossatot River School District. He stresses Cossatot River has just as many educational opportunities for Umpire students. His district also plans to incorporate Umpire’s staff and faculty while providing bussing services to Umpire students who choose to stay at Cossatot River.

Broyles said he does not want the Umpire community to feel that it is being abandoned. Yet he realizes many will choose Dierks given, for one, that both communities are located within Howard County.

“We love our Umpire students and teachers and this has never been about writing off our Umpire community,” said Broyles. “We realize that Dierks is only 12 miles up the road from Umpire and that in all likelihood those Umpire students will probably choose Dierks, they’re both in Howard County. But that is not our mindset. We are ready, willing and able to take all 92 Umpire students in K-12. Cossatot River can serve them best even though the other schools are fine schools.”

Ultimately, Broyles said the recommendation is focused on strengthening the entire district – particularly for the 90 percent of Cossatot River students who live in Polk County and attend one of the three other campuses. He stressed that those families are also factors in the Umpire question.

“This is bigger than just the Umpire community,” he said. “Everyone in Polk County needs to understand how this affects them with the Umpire campus being open and in pending closure. I don’t want to pit the areas against each other, but it is absolutely against the best interest of our other campuses to have those kinds of expenditures that could be going back to the other campuses more evenly. That’s just the facts and the data. Polk County residents absolutely are vested stakeholders in this and need to be paying attention to make sure their voices are heard as well.”

The following is the official readout from the governor’s office following her visit to Umpire on Monday:
“Today, Governor Sanders toured Umpire Schools and held a roundtable with community members, teachers, parents, faculty and elected representatives. The Governor expressed how strong the sense of community and connection is at the school and commended the educators for contributing to the success of all their students. Both Governor Sanders and Secretary Oliva relayed how important it was for the state to hear all the perspectives and concerns directly from the community. The Governor offered the Arkansas Department of Education’s assistance to the local districts to help them in compiling data and options for Umpire Schools. Governor Sanders and Secretary Oliva stressed that any options for the future of the school should ultimately prioritize what is in the best interest of the students.”