Arkansas school officials approve district mergers

From Arkansas News: A month after rejecting a proposal by the Weiner and Delight school districts to merge their 200-miles-apart school systems, the state Board of Education has given the districts approval to merge with neighboring districts. The board approved annexing Weiner into the Harrisburg School District and merging Delight with the Murfreesboro School District to create the South Pike County School District. Both Wiener and Delight fell below 350 students for two consecutive years, so under Arkansas law they would have faced mandatory annexation into other districts if they had not received approval for voluntary mergers. Harrisburg has 1,134 students. Murfreesboro has 545. The superintendents of all four affected districts said the annexations would enable the districts to pool their resources and improve educational opportunities for students. Board members also approved a proposal to merge the Wickes and Van-Cove school districts to create the Cossatot River School District.