CCSB Votes To Reduce Seats For ALE School at Kingsland

RISON - The Cleveland County School District has renewed its contract with the Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative to continue using the Compass Academy at Kingsland to place alternative learning environment (ALE) students, but the district did cut the number of seats in its contract by half.Meanwhile, the school board also addressed several routine items during its regular monthl;y meeting.Superintendent Davy King said the district will be cutting the number of seats at the ALE school from 20 to 10, reducing the cost from $133,00 to $66,000. He said the district did not have the need for that many seats.Compass Academy was created last year in an agreement between the Cleveland County School District and the Arkansas Rivers Education Cooperative to operate the school in the Kingsland School building. The Arkansas River Cooperative has been operating similar ALE schools for the past few years for districts in and around Jefferson County. ALE is designed for students who struggle in traditional classroom settings. The school offers more flexible learning programs to help students complete high school.Cleveland County is one of three districts using Compass Academy as an option for ALE students. The other two are Fordyce and Woodlawn. The Woodlawn School District renewed its contract with Compass Academy on Monday as well.Legislative AuditThe school board also formally approved the state’s legislative audit conducted on the district’s financial operations. King said there were no major findings in the audit, and all the minor findings have been corrected.King gave the school board an overview of the audit findings during its April meeting. He said their exit interview with state auditors revealed five “supplemental” findings, which could be described as minor violations dealing mostly with clerical errors.In some cases, those supplemental findings were related to p...