Panel OKs charter school expansion

BENTONVILLE — Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy’s plan to open another campus within the next few years earned the endorsement of the state’s Charter Authorizing Panel on Tuesday.

The Bentonville charter school has 850 students in grades K-12. It had 848 students apply for 87 openings for the 2020-21 school year, Headmaster Susan Provenza said.

“We have a huge demand here in Northwest Arkansas from families who appreciate what we’re doing, who want to be a part of what we’re doing,” Provenza told panel members.

School officials want to buy 20 acres on Dodson Road in Rogers, about four miles east of their campus on Melissa Drive in Bentonville and less than one-half of a mile west of Interstate 49.

They intend to build a K-8 school that would open in 2022 and a high school to open by 2024, both on the Dodson Road site. Once the high school opens, the Bentonville school would shift from a K-12 to a K-8 campus. All high school students would go to the Rogers campus.

Responsive Education Solutions, a Texas organization running the Classical Academy and three other charter schools in Arkansas, has an agreement with the land owner contingent on the state’s approval of the

plan, said Steven Gast, superintendent of the organization’s Arkansas schools.

The property is listed for sale at $2.1 million, according to documents the school submitted to the state. Gast said he expects the final price will be close to that.

“This particular company has students that attend our school, and they are offering us a piece of land at a price that we generally could not match if we were just in the general market,” he said.

The property is just west of a site on South Horsebarn Road in Rogers, which LISA Academy has chosen for a K-12 campus. LISA Academy is a charter school district with campuses in central Arkansas and Springdale. The state Board of Education approved LISA Academy’s proposal to expand into Rogers in May.

The panel approved Classical Academy’s request to increase its enrollment cap from 1,500 to 2,500 by a 4-1 vote. The state Board of Education will have an opportunity to review the panel’s decision at its meeting next month.

Greg Rogers, a panel member and assistant commissioner for fiscal and administrative services in the state Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, was the only member who voted no.

Rogers was caught off guard by the extent of the Classical Academy’s request. Several other items on the panel’s agenda concerned virtual charter schools requesting enrollment cap increases in anticipation of additional students signing up for this fall. Rogers said he thought that’s what the Classical Academy was seeking as well.

Arkansas Virtual Academy and three other charter schools run by the Fayetteville, Springdale and Cabot school districts requested enrollment cap increases. The panel approved each of them.

Their requests came as parents are being asked to decide what their children’s school setting will be for this school year.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Arkansas Education Secretary Johnny Key have said traditional school campuses will open to students for face-to-face instruction the week of Aug. 24. Schools also must have online instruction programs ready with the flexibility to blend face-toface and online instruction, and to pivot from one to the other in the event of a viral outbreak.

The Fayetteville School District asked to expand its Virtual Academy enrollment cap from 500 in grades four through 12 to 5,000 students in kindergarten through grade 12. The district’s overall enrollment is about 10,500.

The Virtual Academy is a district-operated charter school, which had 154 students last school year. Fayetteville, like other school districts, is preparing for many students to opt for virtual education and wants flexibility to offer that, said Megan Slocum, associate superintendent.

Angela Kremers was the only panel member who voted against Fayetteville’s request, saying she felt it was “excessive.” Others, however, agreed the district needed the flexibility such a cap increase would offer, because it’s unclear how many students will go for that option.

The panel unanimously approved the Springdale School District’s request to increase the enrollment cap at its Tyson School of Innovation from 2,000 to 8,000. The move would allow additional students in kindergarten through 12th grade to access the school’s Virtual Innovation Academy — a completely online educational program for students uncomfortable returning to on-site instruction.

The panel also approved a request by the Arkansas Virtual Academy, an online charter school serving K-12 students statewide, to increase its cap from 3,000 to 4,000 students.

Amy Johnson, the Arkansas Virtual Academy’s head of school, said the school has 2,931 students enrolled and 918 applications for the 202021 year.

Many families fill out applications and don’t complete the enrollment process, Johnson said. The conversion rate of application to enrollment is about 40% during a typical enrollment season. This year, however, the school had a conversion rate of 76% by the end of June, Johnson said. Applying that rate to pending applications, the enrollment could increase to 3,628 students, she said.

The Cabot School District earned panel approval of a 500-student increase, to 1,000 students, for its Academic Center for Excellence for a virtual learning option this year.