State Panel Rejects Charter School In Farmington

LOCAL DISTRICT UNAWARE OF SITE CHANGE TO FARMINGTON

FARMINGTON — An Arkansas Department of Education charter school panel last week turned down an application for a charter school just across the street from Farmington High School, though Farmington School District admin- istration had not received prior notice about the school being located in Farmington.

The Charter Authorizing Panel, made up of Education Department staff members, considered the charter school application submitted by Responsive Education Solutions of Lewisville, Texas, for a classical academy at its Aug. 17 meeting in Little Rock.

The organization proposed to open a public charter school at 271 W. Main St., in Farmington, the former Marvin’s IGA building.

The organization’s original application proposed to open a charter school at 3155 N. College Street, calling it Fayetteville Classical Academy. However, it changed the location from Fayetteville to Farmington in a facilities agreement signed June 23. This agreement showed that Responsive Education Solutions would rent the empty building for $24,167 per month from Farmington JK, LLC. The agreement was contingent on the public charter application being approved by the state.

This recent site change was one of the concerns cited by members of the charter school panel in rejecting the application.

Bryan Law, Farmington school superintendent, said he knew about a charter school application for Fayetteville because the Department of Education had given area schools the opportunity

to comment on it. Law said he did not have any comments to make since it was in Fayetteville.

However, if he had known the location had changed to Farmington, he said he would have submitted comments.

“I would have to look at what they are wanting to do,” Law said. “We’re in the process of expanding our building and expanding personnel so I certainly would have to look at it.”

He noted that a charter school opening up across the street from Farmington High could affect the school district.

According to an article in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the organization proposed a charter school for 688 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

The application said instruction would be a “mix of Socratic questioning, inquiry-based instruction, project based learning, technology-assisted learning and direct teaching.”

Mary Ann Duncan, superintendent of Responsive Education Solutions, told panel members that planners had a hard time finding a Fayetteville site because landowners were not willing to commit and wait months for the charter school to be approved and for the school to open in August 2017. That’s why they went with the Farmington location, she said.

The charter panel’s recommendation to reject the proposal will go to the Arkansas Board of Education for a final decision. The board of education can accept the recommendation or conduct its own hearings.

Responsive Education Solutions also has the right to appeal the charter panel’s vote to the board of education.