LR district: Will fight 3 charters
The Little Rock School Board went on the record Thursday night as opposing three independently run charter schools proposed for opening in the capital city in 2013.
The board’s stand on each of the proposals — one a high school, one a primary school and one for kindergarten through 12th grade — will now be communicated to the Arkansas Department of Education by Sunday’s deadline. District representatives will
be entitled to present the district’s arguments against the planned schools in November to the state Board of Education.
The state board alone has the legal authority to approve or disapprove the establishment of the taxpayer-funded schools.
The 6-0 votes on each charter-school plan comes at a time when the Little Rock district is challenging in federal court the state Education Board’s approval of independently run charter schools in Pulaski County.
Attorneys for the district contend that the state-approved independently run public charter schools in Pulaski County — of which there are 11 — compete with district magnet schools and the majority-to-minority student-transfer program in violation of a 1989 agreement in which the state pledged to support desegregation programs.
Attorneys for the state and the charter schools argued in court that the charter schools have had a minimal effect on desegregation programs and that the racebased school assignments don’t comport with current federal law.
If the district is successful in the court case, restrictions could be imposed on charter-school operations and growth in Pulaski County. U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. is expected to hand down a decision at any time on the charter-school issue.
Chris Heller, an attorney for the district, told the School Board on Thursday that the district’s general opposition to the proliferation of charter schools in the county doesn’t stop the board from approving any new charter-school plans. The board has, in the past, recommended approval of two open-enrollment charter schools — SAI-Tech Academy and the now-closed Dreamland Academy.
“I wouldn’t say that our legal position would absolutely prevent the board from considering the merits of schools like this,” Heller said. “The important question ... is whether or not there is a need.”
The board gave the greatest consideration to the proposed Premier High School of Little Rock, a plan submitted by Responsive Education Solutions of Lewisville, Texas.
The organization operates more than 50 charter schools in that state and is now applying to the Arkansas education board for charters for three schools — one each in Little Rock, Pine Bluff and Bentonville.
If approved by the state Education Board, Premier High School of Little Rock would be at 1621 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in a building to be constructed on the campus of Arkansas Baptist College. It would serve as many as 240 students in grades nine through 12.
Modeled after some two dozen Premier high schools in Texas, the Arkansas school would feature personalized, self-directed and accelerated curriculum options. There also would be a 1-to-1 student-to-computer ratio.
School Board member Melanie Fox pointed out that the school plan says its focus would be on assisting students not currently enrolled in a school.
“How do we guarantee that will happen?” Fox asked. “I would be for this if we could guarantee that. I think the kids need this chance. I like that the school is on the Arkansas Baptist College campus because they can segue right into college. There are aspects of this that I like.”
Heller said the school planners expect the impact on the traditional school district to be slight because of that, but there is no guarantee.
“They seek to do two things,” Heller said. “They say credit recovery/dropouts will be their focus, but they also say that they are looking for students with the capacity to accelerate their education effectively. That could be a broad category of students. It’s hard to know.”
Heller offered the board the option of setting conditions for the approval, such as limiting it to dropouts, but said the state board has not accepted conditions in the past.
Cassandra Norman, the school district’s director of alternative education, told the board that the Premier School plans duplicate the services offered by the district’s own Accelerated Learning Center and Evening High School, both housed at the Metropolitan Career Technical Center.
The programs enable students up to age 21 to continue or resume their educations using a blend of classroom teaching and computerized instruction.
Superintendent Morris Holmes called the district’s program — which has produced about 100 high school graduates a year for about a dozen years — among the best in the nation.
The board quickly dismissed the proposed Academic Leadership Academy School of Health Sciences for Young Men that would serve as many as 300 boys in prekindergarten through third grades at 6711 S. Hughes St. in Little Rock. School planners intend to use the former Urban Collegiate Charter School that was closed by the state in early 2011, but they have an inaccurate street number on the application.
Heller pointed out to the board that the school’s budget projects an operating loss of as much as $10 million.
The board also rejected the KidSmart Cultural Arts Charter School, a 300-pupil school for kindergarten through eighth grade at 3425 Base Line Road in Little Rock.
Academic content would include an emphasis on dance and other arts.
District officials stated that the proposal includes low targets for student achievement. They said that the district’s own nearby Baseline Elementary School has a higher achievement rate and offers a comparable arts program.
Initially, Lighthouse Academies Inc. applied to establish the Capitol City Lighthouse Charter School to be located at 5615 Geyer Springs Road. Planners for that school have withdrawn the application to the state.
Planners for a new charter school in Fort Smith also have abandoned plans to seek approval this year.
The state Education Board is now expected to decide on seven charter-school plans when it meets Nov. 1.