Tuesday is runoff election day for the Little Rock School Board's Zones 3 and 6 seats, the outcome of which will complete the membership on a newly established school board in the state's capital city.
Tommy Branch Jr. and Evelyn Hemphill Callaway are vying for the Zone 3 position.
FranSha' Anderson and Vicki Hatter are competing for the Zone 6 position.
Polling places in the two central Little Rock zones will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
But, before that, early voting can be done from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday at the following locations:
• Pulaski County Regional Building, 501 W. Markham St., Little Rock.
• Little Rock William F. Laman Library, 2801 Orange St., North Little Rock.
• Sidney S. McMath Library, 2100 John Barrow Road, Little Rock.
• Hillary Clinton Children's Library, 4800 W. 10th St., Little Rock.
The runoff candidates were the top two vote-getters in four-person races in the Nov. 3 election. However, no candidate in either race received more than 50% of the votes cast, which was necessary to avoid a runoff.
Tuesday's winners will join the newly elected Michael Mason, Sandrekkia Morning, Leigh Ann Wilson, Ali Noland, Norma Johnson, Greg Adams and Jeff Wood on the school district's first elected board in nearly six years.
School district leaders have proposed at least tentative plans for the nine new board members to participate in training sessions as soon as Friday and Saturday, and hold a first organizational meeting Dec. 17.
The 21,000-student district has been without an elected board since January 2015 when the state Board of Education voted 5-4 to take control of the district because of academic distress. The takeover included dissolving the then-seven-member elected board and placing the superintendent under state direction.
The state Education Board voted in late 2019 to return the district to local governance after the election of a new board, but there are some restrictions on the board until the district can exit from the Level 5-Intensive Support category of the state's school district accountability system.
Those restrictions, for example, prohibit the board from recognizing the Little Rock Education Association as a sole contract bargaining agent for the employees or altering the recently established Personnel Policy Committees that serve as advisory organizations on employee-related issues.
The Little Rock Education Association and Arkansas Learns, which describes itself as "the voice of business for excellent education options," have played key, competing roles in the school board campaigns, including the making of financial contributions to the candidate campaigns. That is the case in the races for Zones 3 and 6.
Callaway is a retired, longtime family consumer science teacher in the district, and Hatter, is a business office employee in a fleet management company and a longtime activist for restoring local governance to the district.
Both are endorsed and financed in part by the employees' union.
Branch is assistant director of day programs at Friendship Community Care and served for a short time on the School Board in 2012-13. Anderson is chief executive officer of the Arkansas State Independent Living Council and immediate past president of the Little Rock Parent Teacher Association Council of school PTA presidents.
Both have received contributions from Arkansas Learns' political action committee and from prominent business and philanthropic leaders.
Earlier in the campaign, Gary Newton, executive director of the Arkansas Learns, complained to the Arkansas Ethics Commission that the Little Rock Education Association was not a state-registered political action committee and was ineligible to make campaign contributions. Hatter, Callaway and newly elected board member Noland returned the association checks. The union has since registered with the state and has reissued contributions to its endorsed candidates.
Three of the four candidates in the runoffs submitted updated financial contribution reports last week in advance of Tuesday election.
A pre-election report for runoff candidates was due Tuesday of last week covering the period of Nov 4-21, However, a candidate is not required to file if contributions are less than $500, Marc Harrison of the Pulaski County Clerk's office said.
Hatter in Zone 6 did not file a pre-election report for the runoff and her pre-election report for the Nov. 3 election was submitted early -- dated Oct. 16 for an Oct. 27 deadline.
A few of Hatter's early donors in addition to the Little Rock Education Association included Janis Kearney, Progressive Arkansas Women, Will Bond, Denise Ennett, Holly Dickerson and Susan Inman.
Additionally, Hatter has not submitted to the county clerk's office for public posting a statement of financial interest, which gives a general indication of a candidate's sources of personal income. Failure to submit that puts a candidate or elected official in jeopardy of sanctions -- such as a letter of caution and a fine -- by the Arkansas Ethics Commission.
Anderson in the Zone 6 race submitted a 10-day pre-runoff report showing contributions of $5,500 and expenditures of $85.30 and a balance of $5,414.70 for the reporting period of Nov. 4-21.
Her contributors included Gene and Linda Pfeifer, Arkansas Learns, Margaret Dickinson, Haskell and Peggy Dickinson, Ella Barnett of Batesville, and Carl and Michelle Hunter.
Before the Nov. 3 general election, Anderson's campaign reported contributions of $8,800, personal loans totaling $1,200.41 and expenditures of $2,790. Her campaign reported a balance of $6,009 for July 8-Oct. 25.
Little Rock attorney and Blue Hog Report blogger Matt Campbell has questioned Anderson's eligibility for elected office because of her misdemeanor hot check convictions in the 1990s and a 2006 state audit report of her guilty plea to a misdemeanor theft of property charge tied to personal use of a state credit card while she worked for the Arkansas Transitional Employment Board.
Anderson has responded that she is eligible to hold office because she has paid her debt and the convictions have been sealed. She has cited her work history as a nonprofit organization leader, her training in executive leadership and her experience in advocacy for children with special needs as qualifying her for the school board role.
In the Zone 3 race, Callaway filed a campaign contribution report for Oct. 28-Nov. 24, in which her campaign stated that she had received contributions of $5,636 and spent $3,415. Her report also stated that she had started the reporting period with $10,463.
The Callaway report showed her return of $1,000 to the Little Rock Education Association, and then receiving two contributions of $1,000 and $300 from the association.
In his most recent campaign contribution report, Branch in Zone 3, reported expenditures of $1,413 and contributions of $250 for the period of Nov. 4-21 and a negative balance of $27,292.
Branch also submitted last week an amended pre-election campaign contribution report for the Nov. 3 general election to correct a contribution amount from Arkansas Learns, making it $1,000 rather than $1,100. Arkansas Learns is listed in that report for two other contributions of $600 and 1,200 to Branch in the same pre-election report for the Nov. 3 election.
Gallery: Races to fill out new School Board[Gallery not loading above? Click here for more photos » arkansasonline.com/1129lrsdrunoffs/]
The amended report lists campaign contributions of $8,800, expenditures of $35,029 and a deficit of $26,229, which has now grown in the runoff.
Branch's candidacy for the school board comes as he awaits a June 30 trial on charges of driving while intoxicated and prohibited driving stemming from his Sept. 20 arrest at Interstate 30 East and Interstate 430. A breath sample resulted in a test result of 0.18%, according to Arkansas State Police records, twice the legal minimum of 0.08% for intoxication. He has pleaded innocent to the charges.
VOTER TURNOUT
Newton of Arkansas Learns, said he will be watching the voter turnout Tuesday. He previously championed the changes in state law to combine what were separate school board elections in September with primary and general elections -- when possible -- to increase voter involvement in school board elections statewide.
"Our concern is that the runoff elections in Zones 3 and 6 don't revert to the low turnout elections which have plagued past boards," Newton said recently. "So, we strongly encourage voters in Zones 3 and 6 to return to the polls en masse to ensure their representatives on the new board reflect their entire community like the already decided zones, and not just a self-interested few.
Further, it's unfortunate that, because of Thanksgiving, the Pulaski County Election Commission afforded only three days of early voting for the runoff, he said.
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