Arkansas superintendent ousted before new school year

The decision to replace Guess comes after the school board also dismissed its chief legal counsel Allen P. Roberts law firm of Camden.

The board said the dismissals were due to Guess and the legal team conducting "backroom" and "side" deals while trying to end a 34-year-old desegregation lawsuit and achieve unitary status.

A school district is recognized as unitary when its school board has shown that it has affirmatively eliminated all remnants of state-imposed segregation.