Oklahoma charter school may expand to Fayetteville

By Brett Bennett

Posted: July 30, 2009 at 7:04 a.m.

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FAYETTEVILLE — A school administrator for the Oklahoma-based charter schools that hope to establish a new open-enrollment charter school in the Fayetteville area said the group will host a public meeting about its plans in August.

The Dove School of Excellence will hold a meeting at 2 p.m. Aug. 22 in the Fayetteville Public Library's Willard and Pat Walker Meeting Room, said Kaan Camuz, director of the Dove schools in Oklahoma.

If approved by the Arkansas Department of Education later this year, the group hopes to open a Dove School of Excellence for Northwest Arkansas by 2010-2011.

"We hope to start with 300 students in grades K to eight," he said.

The school would then add a grade level each year until it becomes a kindergarten-to-12th-grade school, with the first graduating class departing in five years.

The Dove schools are overseen by a nonprofit organization in Oklahomacalled the Sky Foundation. It was established in 1999.

There are four Dove schools in Oklahoma, which include two in Tulsa and two in Oklahoma City, he said.

"Here in Oklahoma, we work mostly with underprivileged children," Camuz said.

Camuz describes the schools' focus as offering a college-preparatory curriculum that focuses on math, science, engineering and technology.

His description is very similar to the stated mission of Haas Hall Academy, a Fayetteville-based open enrollment charter school for grades eight to 12.

Camuz said he isn't familiar with Haas Hall's program, but he hopes the Arkansas State Board of Education considers the quality of the Dove school program when it reviews the application.

"I believe they would look at the quality of the program," he said. "Our program might have somedifferent aspects (than Haas Hall's)."

Although they currently operate only in Oklahoma, Camuz said there are local residents in Fayetteville who are familiar with the program and supportive of it opening in Fayetteville. He said those residents are helping with the location scouting as they seek a suitable facility.

Haas Hall superintendent and founder, Martin Schoppmeyer, said he isn't familiar with the Dove schools, but as a general rule, he supports charter schools.

"I don't look at it as competition," Schoppmeyer said. "I'm always going to support charters."

The Dove school was one of two new proposed charter school programs that wrote letters of intent to the state in June saying they wanted to establish an area program. The other proposed new charter is the Prism Education Center spearheaded by West Fork resident Misty Newcomb.

In their letters to the state, Prism said the school would be designed for upto 300 students in grades K to eight, while Dove school hopes to house up to 500 students in grades K to 12.

Newcomb and Prism representatives held a public meeting about their efforts Tuesday evening at the Fayetteville Boys & Girls Club.

"We had a little over 40 people sign in," Newcomb said. "We had a few people that showed up late that may not have signed in."

Considering that the meeting was about the possibility of the school opening, and not a time to actually enroll, Newcomb said she was pleased with the turnout. A previous public meeting at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale had about 30 participants.

At Tuesday's meeting, there were so many questions that they had to cut it short because the Boys & Girls Club was getting ready to close, Newcomb said. The meeting started at 6:30 p.m.

Newcomb said she hopes to open Prism with at least 200 students and they are in the process of scouting potential school locations.

They hope to locate in an area with a high concentration of low-income pupils, as those are the type of students they hope to serve, Newcomb said. Prism also plans to have limited transportation to and from the facility.

"Certainly, I'm pro-charter school, so I'm glad to have as many charters as the state board deems acceptable," Schoppmeyer said.

Haas Hall updates

As Prism and Dove officials make plans, Fayetteville's operational openenrollment charter school plans to host an open house from 5-7 p.m. today.

The 2009-2010 school year will notably be the academy's first full year in the Paradigm Building, 3155 N. College Ave. The school moved during the 2009 spring semester after being located in rural Farmington since 2004.

Schoppmeyer said enrollment is currently filled for the upcoming year with 195 students, but people can always apply and get on the school's enrollment list in case of an opening.

The school has also set up its Web site, www.

haashall.org, so people can register and enroll for future years, he said.

Haas is adding eighth grade for the coming year, but enrollment for the eighth grade was capped at 30 students, Schoppmeyer said. More than 100 students in that grade level applied to attend, he said.

The school plans to expand its enrollment to 240 students in 2010-2011 and its maximum allotted enrollment of 320 by 2011-2012.

Schoppmeyer said they are trying to take a controlled growth approach, as adding eighth grade alone means a major change for the school. Several charter school people he has talked to in other places said growing too fast was one of their regrets.

"Their biggest mistake was doubling their enrollment in one year," he said. "Slow, controlled growth is the way to go."

The school only utilizes a ground floor section of the Paradigm Building, a commercial facility whose othertenants include Maggie Moo's Ice Cream and Treatery and World Gym. However, the building includes a second floor above the school that could be renovated for additional space in the fall of 2010.

Schoppmeyer credits the change in location from the rural Farmington structure with increasing interest in the school. Haas Hall weathered an admittedly rough first year where enrollment dropped down to only 13 students by the end of the year.

"The only advice I can give anybody who is starting a charter is that to be successful you have to be passionate about what you're doing," Schoppmeyer said. "I think the most important thing is to have a unique program and something the community wants."

News, Pages 1, 3 on 07/30/2009

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