School Officials Disappointed Applications Denied

FARMINGTON — Farmington and Prairie Grove school officials were disappointed that their applications to become a school of innovation were denied last week by Tom Kimbrell, commissioner of education with the Arkansas Department of Education.

Bryan Law, Farmington superintendent, said Farmington originally had not planned to apply to be a District of Innovation. However, he said a representative of the education department indicated in March the rules for the new program had changed somewhat and the application process “would be kinder and gentler,” so the district decided to submit an application.

“It turned out it was not a kinder and gentler situation,” Law said.

He said he felt worse for community members who gave of their time to serve on committees to give input on the application process and the changes being requested by the school.

“After this, I’m not sure if we are going to enter this process again,” Law said. “There are other waivers to go through that the ADE has had in place a long time.”

A School of Innovation or a District of Innovation designation is a new concept that became available through state Act 601 of 2013. With this title, schools can request alternatives to existing instructional and administrative practices and rules.

Farmington and Prairie Grove districts both applied to be named Districts of Innovation and asked to be allowed to have an earlier start date for school and to be able to extend the school day beyond the required 360 minutes per day and use the extra minutes to make up snow days. Farmington also wanted to bank the extra minutes for district-wide professional development.

In letters to Law and Allen Williams, Prairie Grove’s superintendent, Kimbrell wrote that their applications were denied because a change in start date or instructional time did not qualify under the definition of innovation, as described in Arkansas Code.

Kimbrell wrote that in reviewing applications, the department’s focus was to determine whether the application “included new and creative alternatives to improve learning for all students and whether the application had the potential to transform and improve teaching and learning.”

Law said the district, in filling out its application, tried to follow all the rules in place for the application process. He said Kimbrell indicated to school officials what he would accept the first year and an earlier start date to the calendar was included in this.

“We moved on that,” Law said.

Williams agreed that Kimbrell early on encouraged school districts to apply under the School of Innovation process for an earlier start date. However, about two weeks ago, he said Kimbrell told districts that if they were only asking to deviate from the school calendar, their applications probably would not be approved.

“Yes, we were disappointed but it was expected after what he said,” Williams said, adding he believes Prairie Grove will apply again next year.

Farmington High submitted an application to be named a School of Innovation and both Williams and Folsom elementary schools also submitted School of Innovation applications.

Farmington High made 10 requests in its application, including a late start on Wednesdays and the ability to offer new courses, with approval to use non-certified staff to teach some of the courses. For example, introduction to street law could be taught by school resource officer Chad Parrish.

Farmington High’s application was denied because a change in start date or instructional time did not qualify under the definition of innovation and also because the waiver for courses could be approved through other means, according to Kimbrell.

Purifoy said the requests in the application were ideas to “help our students out more than anything. These were things we were trying to do to help our students and give them more opportunities.”

Purifoy added, “I thought some of these were pretty innovative. They said we could ask for 10 and we asked for all 10. We tried and gave it our best shot.”

He said the school’s counselors are working with the department of education to be able to provide some of the new courses next year, such as advanced healthcare, jazz band and advanced instrumental methods.

If approved as a School of Innovation, both elementary schools in Farmington asked permission to use the first three days of school to assess kindergarten students. Their applications were denied for the same reasons as the district and high school: a change in start date or instructional time does not qualify under the definition of innovation.

Megan Witonski with the Department of Education said by email that applications are still being processed and a finalized list of approved Schools of Innovation would be available in July.