Arkansas School Boards Association
| Arkansas School Boards Association | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Location: | Little Rock, Arkansas |
| Type: | 501(c)(4) |
| Top official: | Jeff Lisenby, president |
| Year founded: | 1955 |
| Website: | Official website |
The Arkansas School Boards Association (ASBA) is an organization of school boards in Arkansas. The association describes itself as "a private, 501(c)(4) nonprofit, membership organization that provides leadership, training, advocacy and specialized services to school boards throughout Arkansas."[1]
Background
The Arkansas School Boards Association was founded in 1955. After the Southwest Cooperative Program in Educational Administration conducted activities in Arkansas, board members signaled interest in starting a new group and subsequently founded the ASBA. As of July 2025, the organization's website says its mission "is to promote student-focused leadership in public education through training, advocacy, and service for local board members."[2]
On December 8, 2021, the ASBA board of directors voted to terminate the organization's membership in the National School Boards Association (NSBA), effective immediately. The same day, the ASBA delegate assembly voted in favor of a change to the group's bylaws that would remove references to the NSBA.[3]
Leadership
As of July 2025, the following were listed as members of the board of directors:[4]
- Jeff Lisenby, president
- Doris Parham, president-elect
- Nikki King, vice president
- Travis Warren, secretary-treasurer
- Randy Hutchinson, past president
Work and activities
School board advocacy
The Arkansas School Boards Association provides information for school board members to engage in advocacy. A handbook from the organization said they supported "local boards in fulfilling their multiple roles through professional development, advocacy and member services."[5]
Legislative advocacy
According to their website, the Arkansas School Boards Association does the following for legislative advocacy:[6]
| “ | The ASBA Legislative Team attends legislative committee meetings to stay on top of the issues and provide accurate information to our members on what is occurring at the legislature.
ASBA asks each school board to select a member to serve as their Legislative Liaison. That advocate is tasked with keeping the local board informed of legislative activity. During the legislative sessions, ASBA sends out regular Legislative Updates to the Legislative Liaisons about bills that impact K-12 education. Each day during a session, the Legislative Team identifies which bills apply to K-12 education and crafts a summary of the bills’ contents to be provided to the Legislative Liaisons. ASBA's mission is to promote student-focused leadership in public education through training, advocacy, and service for local school board members. We believe we can help accomplish this mission by providing accurate information to our members regarding the legislative process and bills that may impact K-12 education.[7] |
” |
Finances
The following is a breakdown of the Arkansas School Boards Association's revenues and expenses from 2015 to 2023. The information comes from ProPublica
| Year | Revenue | Expenses |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $2,393,088 | $2,149,549 |
| 2016 | $2,447,813 | $2,343,358 |
| 2017 | $2,542,201 | $2,545,689 |
| 2018 | $2,897,239 | $2,757,366 |
| 2019 | $2,943,471 | $2,777,896 |
| 2020 | $3,131,970 | $2,831,212 |
| 2021 | $3,495,398 | $3,044,103 |
| 2022 | $3,384,831 | $3,186,785 |
| 2023 | $3,899,012 | $3,523,140 |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Arkansas School Boards Association. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- What is an influencer?
- Public education in Arkansas
- List of school districts in Arkansas
- Consortium of State School Boards Associations
External links
- Arkansas School Boards Association official website
- Arkansas School Boards Association on Facebook
- Arkansas School Boards Association on Instagram
- Arkansas School Boards Association on LinkedIn
- Arkansas School Boards Association on X
Footnotes
- ↑ ASBA, "Our Association," accessed December 10, 2021
- ↑ Arkansas School Boards Association, "About Our Association," accessed July 29, 2025
- ↑ Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "Arkansas school boards cut ties with national organization, citing call for federal law enforcement, concerns over governance and finances," December 8, 2021
- ↑ Arkansas School Boards Association, "Board of Directors," accessed July 29, 2025
- ↑ Arkansas School Boards Association, "ADVOCACY TOOLKIT," accessed July 29, 2025
- ↑ Arkansas School Boards Association, "Legislative Advocacy," accessed July 29, 2025
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
