Award-winning elementary school in Arkansas set to shut down

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Board of Education has decided to shutter a small but award-winning elementary school in the Cleveland County School District.

The state Education Board voted 7-0 Thursday to close Kingsland Elementary School, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

The local School Board initially voted 6-1 in April to close it before the next school year, but the school was formerly part of an Arkansas-designated "isolated" school system. The designation required the state Board of Education to make the final decision because the local board's vote wasn't unanimous.

Kingsland Elementary, which had an enrollment of 71 students as of April 8, was one of three Arkansas schools this school year to receive a National Blue Ribbon Award for student achievement. The state's lone $25,000 Milken Educator Award winner this year also came from Kingsland.

The school, which is part of the Kingsland School District, merged with the Rison School District in 2005 to establish the Cleveland County system. The Kingsland and Rison campuses are separated by 8 miles.

The two districts were among numerous districts in Arkansas to undergo consolidation and annexation in the early 2000s in a move to reach a state-required minimum enrollment of 350 students.

Craig Dupuy, the Cleveland County superintendent, told the state board that his strategy to send Kingsland Elementary students to Rison Elementary School was due to financial forecasts for the 832-student district. The district's projected to continue seeing a drop in student enrollment and state subsidies and a rise in costs for employee salaries and benefits.

"The burden is real and hitting home a lot faster than you would think," Dupuy said. "We can't poke our head in the sand and hope it will pass us by — it...