Alternative School Proposed for Kingsland

RISON - The Cleveland County School Board voted to table a decision on moving Cleveland County Head Start students from Kingsland to the Rison after Superintendent Jerrod Williams informed the board that discussions are underway to possibly use the Kingsland campus as an alternative school.By a 4-2 vote, the school board approved a motion by Sheila Towery to table a decision on a request made by Head Start to move the students currently at Kingsland School into what was formerly the 4th-5th grade building at the Rison campus. Her motion to table the matter came after Williams told the board about the idea of using Kingsland School as an alternative campus.Towery, Helen Browning, Kelly Taylor and William King voted in favor of the motion to table the decision while Nick Bennett and Harrell Wilson voted against it. Tony White, the other board meeting, was unable to attend Monday night.This was the second consecutive month that the school board has tabled a decision on the transfer. Williams informed the board that he has twice met with the superintendents from the Woodlawn, Fordyce and Hampton school districts about creating an alternative learning environment (ALE) facility at Kingsland that would help those students struggling with the traditional classroom settings and those who are having behavioral issues."To me, it's just a huge win," Williams said about the idea.The concept that Williams said he envisions for the Kingsland campus will be modeled after the three "academies" that were developed by the Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative (ARESC) at Pine Bluff.ARESC set up what are essentially three schools to help students who are struggling in the conventional classroom setting, whether it be related to discipline or their situation in life. Those academies are shared by the Pine Bluff, Stuttgart, Watson Chapel and White Hall school districts. Dollarway was also using the academies before being consolidated wi...