LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Little Rock School District board members met Thursday night to begin implementing the LEARNS Act into the curriculum.
This included changes to teacher contracts and personnel policies.
To follow the new law, districts must implement LEARNS before July 1. If they don't, the state could withhold funding used for teacher pay raises.
There was a bit of discussion from the directors and some hesitation to go ahead and approve the policy changes.
"I don't know how to vote on this because I don't like the policy as it is," LRSD board member Ali Noland said. "Not just because we have to comply with LEARNS, but I also don't want to put us in a bind in terms of timing."
Some of the changes for LRSD include employee pay, work hours and addressing students' preferred pronouns.
From now on, unless the school has written permission from a parent, they must address a student by the name on their birth certificate and pronoun consistent with their biological sex.
"All of our students, including our gay, lesbian, trans, non-binary students, are welcomed and valued," Noland said. "We live in Arkansas, and we have to follow the laws of Arkansas, but your school district will do everything we can to value you."
Board members don't want to put LRSD school teachers in a challenging situation by missing the deadline and losing state funding, which can impact paychecks.
"Because the law binds us, we don't want to risk harming our district by losing that funding," LRSD board member Greg Adams said. "I will support these changes."
The board passed the policy changes unanimously.
The proposal is heading to the district's personnel policy committee to decide if any changes need to be made before returning to the board in June for final approval.