FLSD board OKs charter school grant application

FOUNTAIN LAKE — Members of the Fountain Lake School District Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to approve a resolution in favor of submitting a grant application for the new charter middle school.

The district will apply for $ 600,000 in grant funds for the new Fountain Lake Middle School Cobra Digital Prep Academy, which will begin with the 2014- 2015 school year.

Fountain Lake hopes to be granted $ 200,000 for the planning of the charter school and another $ 400,000 for the implementation of the school’s new practices.

The board approved the submission of the 2014 grant application for federal charter school program funding to the Arkansas Department of Education. The U. S. Department

of Education and the ADE will have access to and the right to examine all records, books, papers or documents relating to the grant funding.

Brad Sullivan, district director of curriculum, will serve as the charter school’s authorized representative in negotiating the grant.

Superintendent Darin Beckwith said the district has not signed any agreements with Responsive Education Solutions at this time. Responsive Ed is a community of charter schools in Texas.

Beckwith said Fountain Lake will not integrate Responsive Ed’s curriculum. Fountain Lake’s coursework must still reflect Arkansas curricula. He said the district will likely contract with Responsive Ed for professional development at some point.

Administrators and middle school teachers have been visiting other charter schools in Louisiana and Texas to observe their methods. More visits will take place ahead of the opening of the new charter school.

Fountain Lake High School senior Eli Westerman received a Cobra Pride Award as the school’s first National Merit Scholarship finalist. He received another award for the founding and mentoring of the middle school’s robotics teams.

High school EAST facilitator Melody Gilleran and middle school librarian Laura Keese received Cobra Pride Awards for sponsoring the robotics teams. The enrollment in the robotics club doubled this year.

Applications were accepted by Westerman and the two sponsors to determine which students would participate. Applications were necessary because of the amount of interest in joining the teams.

Seventh- and eighth- graders in robotics competed in FIRST Tech Challenge. Fifthand sixth- graders competed in the FIRST Lego League.

Both teams competed in their respective state competitions in Mountain Home in December. Westerman and members of the robotics teams demonstrated the entries constructed by the teams.

“I believe that if we challenge our students, they can do things that we can’t even imagine,” Westerman said.

Middle school teachers Barbara Oliver and Kim Richard were recognized for their use of grant funds in their classes. Oliver and Richard applied for the grants on their own.

The board unanimously approved the construction of a storage building to be built alongside one of the district’s safe room buildings. The storage facility will be constructed with funds that were saved on a recent work for a parking lot.

The district saved more than $ 81,000 on the construction of the parking lot. The storage facility could be constructed for less than $ 80,000.

Keith Baker, district director of maintenance and operations, reported that the age of the district’s bus fleet is young compared to some other districts, but Fountain Lake must be proactive to maintain a young fleet.

Fountain Lake will pay off the lease of two buses for local routes and purchase a new bus. The lease of another bus with a larger capacity meant for longer trips will be paid off and a new trip bus will also be leased.