Charter panel denies bids for 2 new schools
Planners requested spots in Little Rock and Weiner
Proposals for open-enrollment charter schools in southwest Little Rock and in the northeast Arkansas town of Weiner failed Wednesday to win approval from the state’s Charter Authorizing Panel.
The panel of state employees and interested residents voted 6-0 to deny a charter to Aviate Through Knowledge Inc., which had proposed the opening of the Prolific Learning Arts Academy for up to 400 ninththrough-12th graders at 6210 Baseline Road.
The panel voted 5-1 to deny a charter to the Weiner Academy of Agriculture and Technology proposed for 400 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, but starting with 125 sevenththrough-12th graders in the 2018-19 school year at the former Weiner High School building.
Planners of both schools have the opportunity to appeal the panel votes to the state Board of Education, which has the final say on charter schools. The Education Board can vote to accept the panel’s decision on a school, or conduct a hearing — on its own initiative or at the request of an applicant or an affected school district — before making a final decision on an application.
The authorizing panel, led by Ivy Pfeffer, deputy commissioner of the Arkansas Department of Education, voted on the plans Wednesday, the second of three days of hearings this week on charter school proposals for the 2018-19 school year.
The panel will meet again at 8:30 a.m. today to hear proposals for two charter schools in Pine Bluff and one in Little Rock. Earlier this week the panel gave preliminary approval to two proposals for charter elementary/middle schools in Little Rock.
Open-enrollment charter schools are taxpayer-supported and operated by nonprofit organizations independent of traditional public school districts. There are 24 charter schools and school
systems in the state, plus a new adult education charter school.
Both Prolific Learning Arts Academy and Weiner Academy of Agriculture and Technology generated opposition from the superintendents of traditional school districts in their areas but had support from others, including Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville, and Rep. Dwight Tosh, R-Jonesboro, in the case of the Weiner proposal.
The Weiner proposal was the latest in a years-long effort to restore a kindergarten through 12th grade education system in Weiner. The former Weiner School District was forced to merge with the Harrisburg School District when the Weiner district’s enrollment fell below the 350-student minimum required by state law to maintain a district.
The Harrisburg district has kept Weiner Elementary School open but closed the secondary school, causing students in the upper grades to attend classes in Harrisburg.
Weiner community members were unsuccessful in suing the state leaders in federal court to save the district. More recently, community members worked with lawmakers for Act 742 of 2017 that allows a charter school to be designated as a school for agricultural studies.
Bentley told the panel prior to its vote that people across the nation were watching for the development of the Weiner Academy of Agriculture and Technology and that the school would “be a bright light.”
Karen Ballard, professor of program evaluation for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service, is the division’s liaison to the proposed school and presented the plan to the panel with assistance from Greta Greeno and Mary Norton of the Asset Foundation, which proposed the school. Radius Baker would be the school’s superintendent.
“This is about a phoenix rising from the dust,” Ballard said about the school designed to pique what she said was the anemic interest students have in science and the $14 billion agriculture industry.
The school’s purpose would be to promote academic achievement of students with a technologically advanced agricultural science curriculum, including applied research, in partnership with local businesses in the agricultural community. The opportunity for students to cultivate crops on 16 acres of donated land would be one feature of the school, which would offer as many as 80 courses through traditional and online instruction.
Danny Sample, superintendent of the Harrisburg School District, objected to using the former Weiner High for the charter school. He said the building is needed by Harrisburgand is used for school district storage and for children’s basketball games.
Sample also said that his district has operated a state-approved conversion charter school and that it provides a diverse academic program to an academically diverse student body. The potential loss of students to a Weiner charter school would reduce funding to Harrisburg, he said. Donn Mixon, the district’s attorney, warned that Harrisburg’s own multi-faceted agricultural education program could be jeopardized by the new school.
Panel members had many questions for the school planners about their plans and budgets for counseling, special education, gifted education, food service, teacher training, student transportation, and health services. They also questioned whether the course offerings met the state standards for what must be offered to students and what is required for career and technical education classes.
In voting against the application, panel member Mike Hernandez said it has several deficiencies in terms of student support services and budgeting. He called the concept “very good and worthy of being pursued after more planning and collaboration.”
Panel member Mike Wilson cast the sole vote in support of the school plan, calling it innovative and “so important to the agricultural community and the local area.”
The proposed Prolific Learning Arts Academy in Little Rock would emphasize the teaching of science, technology, engineering and math along with the arts in the 72209 zip code area and beyond, Edmond Davis, executive director of the proposed school, told the panel.
Decisions driven by student data, lessons in how to respond appropriately in dealing with law enforcement officers, and efforts to promote parent involvement in their students’ education would be other features of the school that would start with 200 students in ninth-through-12th grades in 2018-19.
Little Rock Superintendent Mike Poore, who is leading plans to open a new high school in southwest Little Rock in 2020, said the proposed school’s plans for emphasizing arts, math and sciences are “awesome” but also hard to pull off in a 200-student school. He also noted that McClellan and Fair high schools in the Little Rock district, which serve the southwest part of the city, showed increases in a majority of the tested subjects and grades last spring.
In voting to deny the charter, panel member Naccaman Williams said the school’s goal of a 2 percent achievement increase was too low.
Panel member Jeremy Owoh said the application “has some innovative instructional initiatives but lacks several key student support services that are essential to student success.”