Zoning shift advances plan for charter school
Conversion of old site splits LR board
Plans to convert the long-vacant Mitchell Elementary into a Walton Family Foundation-backed charter school moved forward after Little Rock’s Board of Directors approved a zoning change Tuesday.
ScholarMade Educational Services’ proposal to teach up to 520 pupils in the historic, century-old buildings at 2410 S. Battery St. still requires approval from the state Board of Education. ScholarMade is one of four pending applications from Little Rock and one of 10 statewide proposals that are scheduled to be decided by this fall.
Elected city leaders had a say in this proposal because the property’s approved land use needed to be amended to include ScholarMade’s plan, and city directors must approve those changes.
Coming after the board issued a series of nonbinding resolutions on school district business this year, the measure gave city directors the rare power to directly affect the city’s public schools.
Charter schools give parents an additional option as to where they send children and often offer distinctive curriculums. But they cut into enrollment of nearby school districts and state taxpayer funding that is based on head counts.
“I’m, of course, disappointed in the outcome,” said City Director Capi Peck, who, along with Vice Mayor Kathy Webb, was on the
losing end of the board’s 8-2 vote. Peck said the decision “directly pulls people out of the Little Rock School District.”
The issue surfaced in a politically charged environment that has surrounded the city’s schools since the state took control of the district in early 2015 because of slumping test scores at six campuses.
Residents who have felt powerless since the takeover have at times called on the Board of Directors to represent their wishes. Two weeks ago, the board adopted a resolution requesting that the state set an election date so control of the district would be returned to voters.
Webb said her vote was not based on land-use or zoning reasons but on the idea that the school will weaken the traditional public school district. She contrasted the ability to have a tangible effect on the district with the symbolic resolution from two weeks ago.
City Director Lance Hines, voting in favor, said the investment stands to improve the central Little Rock location, which is across from the State Fairgrounds and blocks away from Central High School.
“This is a multimillion dollar investment in one of the poorest, most impoverished areas in our city,” Hines said.
Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, urged the board to reject the charter school, citing the closures of three schools and repurposing of a fourth during a district budget crunch.
“Yet we would open another school in the same district where we are closing schools,” Elliott said. “At some point, somebody needs to say no, no matter how great the thought is.”
City Director Erma Hendrix said debate over whether the school is needed is suited for the state Board of Education. At times during the meeting, City Attorney Tom Carpenter told board members to limit their comments to zoning-related issues.
KLS Leasing LLC, a company held by the nonprofit Walton Family Foundation, bought the abandoned Mitchell school two months ago and submitted the site, according to the county assessor’s office and planning documents.
City directors were schedwhich
uled to vote on the change two weeks earlier, but the measure was tabled because KLS did not have a representative at the meeting to answer questions.
Historically, the property was zoned for residential use with an exception to allow the elementary school. In 2008, city directors zoned the school as a planned commercial district. One year later, the board authorized the property’s use for a charter school, according to planning documents, but those plans fell through.
Planning Director Tony Bozynski said Tuesday’s action was needed because the proposed uses for the site have changed over the years.
“We felt it was an opportunity to look at all aspects of the development,” Bozynski said, including whether increased traffic would clog the neighborhood’s streets.
Little Rock’s Planning Commission in April unanimously approved the change. No one spoke in objection.
This would be ScholarMade’s first charter school in Arkansas, though its executive director, Phillis Nichols-Anderson, was previously affiliated with Lighthouse Academy charter schools.
ScholarMade seeks approval to start an open-enrollment charter school in August 2018 and intends to hit its requested enrollment cap of 520 students from kindergarten through ninth grade in the 2022-23 school year, according to its application to the state. Open-enrollment charter schools can take students from across district boundaries.
The application says the central Little Rock location is “driven by the lack of access to high-performing school choices, lack of quality early care options, student performance, and the persistent achievement gap.”
The Mitchell school, dates back to 1909, has been vacant since students moved to other schools in 2003 ahead of an announced renovation. The school district did not refurbish the building and formally closed Mitchell in 2005.
A year later, the district spurned a $450,000 offer for the property made by someone who wanted to establish a day care center at the site. Among the concerns then was the absence of a guarantee that the buyers wouldn’t eventually convert the building into a charter school, according to previous Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporting.
The Wright Avenue Association bought the vacant school in 2008 for $200,000, and it was transferred to the Blevins Family Trust in 2012, according to the county assessor’s office. KLS paid $440,000 for the property in April.
ScholarMade will pay $289,205 annually over five years to lease the property, but KLS will maintain ownership, Walton Family Foundation spokesman Luis Gonzalez said. That amounts to about $1.4 million in lease payments over the term.
Renovation of the former Mitchell school, overseen by the foundation, could start as early as next month, said Chad Young, vice president of Wittenberg, Delony & Davidson Architects and the project’s architect.
The school, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2009, will be restored to its original design once rotten wood is stripped from the building and its roof and flooring are repaired, Young said.
Two other school buildings — built in 1912 and 1952 — also will be restored, and a glass hallway will be built to connect them, Young said. An outdoor basketball court will be installed, an existing playground will be improved and parking and student drop-off spaces will be added as part of the 12-month project, Young said.
An estimate on how much the construction and renovation will cost was not available Tuesday, Gonzalez said.
The state’s Charter Authorizing Panel next meets on Aug. 17-18. If it makes a recommendation on ScholarMade’s proposal then, the matter goes before the state Board of Education in September.
Information for this article was contributed by Cynthia Howell of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.