Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Demand drives new choices in public, private high schools
Plans to start or expand private schools in Benton and Washington counties will give families more options for high school.
“There’s a feeling this area needs many different options,” said Dennis Chapman, president and head of school of The New School in Fayetteville. “It’s great for the families here in Northwest Arkansas to have choices and to say what’s best for my family.”
The New School in Fayetteville will have its first group of ninth-graders in the fall, a step toward developing a high school program, he said.
Benton and Washington counties for years have been described by the National Association of Independent Schools as being “private school deserts,” said Patrick Wolf, professor and 21st Century Chair in School Choice for the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. The two counties, given their populations, have had among the least availability of private schools.
Factors contributing to the expansion of private school options in Northwest Arkansas are general population growth in a metropolitan area, families who have moved to the area and are used to more options for private school and the desire among some families for another choice besides large high schools, Wolf said.
At one time, about the only alternative was Shiloh Christian Academy in Springdale, Wolf said.
Options expanded with Haas Hall Academy in Fayetteville and Arkansas Arts Academy in Rogers, two public open-enrollment charter schools, he said. Public school districts within the past couple of years have developed new types of high schools that offer a smaller learning environment.
BUILDING PROJECTS
Providence Classical Christian Academy opened in 2004 with kindergarten through fourth grade, Headmaster Jason Ross said. The school added a grade level each year and graduated its first group of seniors in 2012.
Within the past five years, enrollment in kindergarten through 12th grade has increased from 250-300 students in 2012-13 to 470 students this school year, Ross said. Students now attend classes in space leased at two churches, Rogers First Church of the Nazarene and Immanuel Baptist Church, also in Rogers.
“Every year we’ve picked up additional classroom space due to the growth at both of those facilities,” Ross said. “We needed to look toward the future.”
The plan is to build a university-like campus over about the next 15 years for about 750 kindergarten through 12th graders on 66 acres off of Spring Creek Road in Lowell, Ross said. The school is raising $1.5 million to pay off the land and prepare the site for building.
The next step will involve raising about $3.2 million for the first building for students in 10th through 12th grade, Ross said.
Prism Education Center in Fayetteville opened in January 2012 as an after-school program for 10 students, said Misty Newcomb, the executive director. That fall, the school had 45 children in kindergarten through seventh grade. This school year, Prism has about 175 children from 6 weeks old to 10th grade and will add 11th grade in August.
Prism students attend school at three leased spaces scattered around Fayetteville, Newcomb said.
“We have had a waiting list for some time now for our students,” Newcomb said.
“We felt like we needed to enlarge our capacity.”
School officials also want to move students and faculty to one location, Newcomb said. The preschool and kindergarten will remain on Willow Street, but first through 11th grade will move in December to a new 18,000-square-foot space being built at 2030 Morningside Drive. The school is raising about $2 million for the project.
The New School in Fayetteville announced plans in January to develop a high school after the announcement of two gifts totaling $13 million to The New School Forever Campaign.
The addition of ninth grade will mean the start of an Advanced Placement program and an expansion of athletic programs, Chapman said. Construction on a new three-story building to house fifth through 12th grades is expected to start in the fall and finish in 2017.
In the summer of 2014, enrollment had dropped below 300, but inched up to 324 for the 2014-15 school year, Chapman said. This school year started with 336 in preschool through eighth grade, with enrollment now at 375. Chapman expects to have room for 600 students with the addition of the new Upper School building.
The New School this month named its founding Upper School head and academic dean, who begins July 1. He is Phil Schwartz, now a dean of faculty and curriculum of Lake Forest Academy, a private boarding school for high school students in Lake Forest, Ill.
Walton Family Foundation in July announced plans to develop a new private school in Bentonville that is expected to be designed for middle and high school students.
The foundation at the time announced it had hired Clayton Marsh, a deputy dean at Princeton University, as its founding head of school. Marsh started in January. New information about the plans for the school will be released in early summer, spokesman Luis Gonzalez said.
“Northwest Arkansas families have access to some of the best traditional and charter public schools in the state,” said Karen Minkel, the foundation’s home region program director. “However, our residents expressed the need for a high-performing independent school.”
Private schools in Northwest Arkansas have focused
“Northwest Arkansas families have access to some of the best traditional and charter public schools in the state. However, our residents expressed the need for a high-performing independent school.”
— Karen Minkel, Walton Family Foundation home region program director
on younger students in the past, and the expansion into high school shows demand has increased enough to convince some of the need for private high schools, said Gary Ritter, professor and endowed chair in education policy for UA’s Department of Education Reform.
Some families the business community is attracting are used to vibrant private and public school sectors in other parts of the country, Ritter said. Each private school fills a different need, he said.
The private school being developed by the Walton Family Foundation will be an elite school designed to prepare students for Ivy League colleges, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Stanford University, Ritter said. Prism Education Center, which will have its first class of seniors in the fall, opened to provide low income families in Fayetteville with an option for private school, Ritter said.
A smaller setting motivates other families, Ritter said.
“There’s waiting lists at other public charters,” Ritter said. “Some parents with means might want to ensure their kid gets the smaller option.”