Charter School Approved

State Board Tables Lincoln Application

Friday, November 2, 2012

— Students in the Bentonville area will have another education option next year.

The Arkansas State Board of Education unanimously approved a charter school proposal from Responsive Education Solutions during a meeting Thursday in Little Rock.

Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy is planned to open with 445 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Officials plan to add a grade each year until the school is kindergarten through high school with 685 students, said Virginia Perry, Arkansas regional director for the organization.

A building at 5121 S.W. Runway Drive in Bentonville is an option for the school’s location, Perry said. She said a lease hasn’t been signed for the building.

The tuition-free school will also have open enrollment, meaning there will be no academic or location requirements.

Responsive Education Solutions operates more than 50 schools in Texas with more than 10,600 students enrolled in 2011.

Ten parents from the Bentonville area in support of the proposal traveled to Little Rock for the meeting.

Bethany Culpepper was one of those parents. She is a member of Parents Seeking Options, a Bentonville group that formed in 2011. The group asked Responsive Education to consider a school in Bentonville after visiting and researching schools run by the organization.

“We are so excited,” Culpepper said of approval of the school. “We are thrilled about this great opportunity for our community.”

Parents were jumping up and down in the audience following the board’s vote, Culpepper said.

“This is another great option for Bentonville parents and their scholars,” Culpepper said.

More than 500 residents signed a petition in support of the charter. Another 30 letters of support, including one from a Walmart executive, was submitted with the school’s application.

The organization plans to offer a “classic curriculum” at the school.

Alan Wimberely, director of learning services for the organization, explained what a classic curriculum is to the board.

“It goes back to the seven disciplines, really from ancient times,” Wimberely said. “It is a liberal arts education. It teaches students how to lay a foundation of language, grammar, literacy.”

Students will learn how subjects are linked, Wimberely said.

“In the high school years we are establishing very clear ways of how to express themselves,” Wimberely said. “We know that 21st century students can get their answers without us. We want to teach them how to use that information.”

Perry said parents will be able to enroll students in the spring for classes to start August 2013. She said plans on informing the public about the school include public meetings that will start in December along with a marketing campaign to possibly start in January.

Bentonville School District Superintendent Michael Poore said the district has remained neutral throughout the charter school application process. Poore said district officials are interested to learn about the location of the school and the officials who will run it.

The state board also on Thursday tabled action on a “virtual” charter school application from retired Lincoln Superintendent Frank Holman to address concerns raised by the Department of Education staff.

The application could be back before the board by its January meeting, but in the meantime the staff will work with Holman about the potential location of centers where students around the state could go for tutoring, testing, special events and other student services. The issue came up in the staff review of the application.

In a staff review by the Education Department, concerns were raised that centers may need to be set up around the state to give the students a place to go for tutoring, testing or other special services, rather than traveling to Lincoln, in far western Washington County, where the school, called America’s Charter School, would be headquartered. Students in Washington and Benton counties will be targeted but the virtual school would have the potential to attract students from across the state.

Holman spent more than an hour before the state board, which generally endorsed the concept for the school but wanted those staff concerns addressed before a final vote is taken.

In response to the concerns, Holman said he has contacted several school districts and other organizations, all of which have indicated they would be willing to cooperate as student centers. The location of those centers would depend on where the students are from.

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For more about Responsive Education visit: www.responsiveed.com.