The Arkansas Department of Education has awarded federal grants of $483,000 to five charter schools opening in August.
Four more charter schools set to open are eligible for the grants, though the grants have not been awarded yet.
The money comes from a five-year U.S. Department of Education grant to Arkansas that will total $12.02 million by the end of the grant cycle in 2014-15, said Diane Gross, charter school program adviser for the state department. After the State Board of Education approves all charter schools, department officials determine the total amount of funding to be split evenly between the schools.
“You see a lot of furnishings,” Gross said. “I’m not surprised to see technology. In order to start a new school, technology is needed. You can’t do school without it any more.”
Charter school operators apply for the startup grants, which can be spent on planning and during the first 24 months of implementation, Gross said. As charter school operators spend money, they apply for reimbursement from the grant.
The federal grant comes with strict guidelines and can’t be spent on ongoing costs, such as salaries or annual fees. The money can’t go toward major renovations to a property.
For Rogers New Technology High School, the grant money will help prepare teachers to work with students as a New Tech school, said Lance Arbuckle, the school’s director.
“The grant really helps us,” Arbuckle said. “There’s a lot of cost when you start a new school that sometimes you might not have ever thought about. It’s kind of like moving.”
The New Tech model was developed in the mid-1990s in Napa, Calif., to equip high school graduates with work-force skills. New Tech schools share three components: project-based learning, a computer for each student and a culture that emphasizes trust, respect and responsibility.
New Tech schools rely heavily on technology, and the grant money will allow Arbuckle to purchase laptops and iPads for teachers and laptops for students, he said. The grant money also will go toward launching an electronic library.
In June, the grant will pay for the staff members to go to Grand Rapids, Mich., to a training about the New Tech Network for all new schools joining the network, Arbuckle said.
Brunson Elementary School for fourth- and fifth-graders in Warren will become Brunson New Vision Charter School on July 1, Principal Regina Scoggins said. As New Vision, the campus is transitioning to a standards-based education, which allows children to advance through school when they master skills, not at the end of a 177-day school calendar.
Fifth-graders will have the opportunity to begin learning sixth-grade material while still enrolled at New Vision, Scoggins said. Students will be grouped based on skills and not based on grade levels.
The charter school grant will go toward the purchase of new furnishings, Scoggins said.
“Instead of everyone sitting at a desk in a row, we’re going to have tables for students to sit in groups and work on projects,” Scoggins said.
Scoggins also will use the grant money to purchase laptops to issue to each pupil and to improve the wireless Internet connection throughout the campus, she said.
Other charter schools approved for the $483,000 grants are The Academies at Jonesboro High School, Blytheville High School - A New Tech School and Washington Academy in Texarkana.
Grants are pending for three charter schools slated to open by Responsive Education Solutions, based in Lewisville, Texas: Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy in Bentonville, Premier High School in Little Rock and Quest Middle School in Pine Bluff, Perry said. The schools are open-enrollment charters.
The new charter schools will need all the furnishings and technology seen in most schools, Perry said.
The startup grants for each school will go toward the purchase of tables, chairs, desks, copy machines and fax machines, Perry said.
The grant also will assist with the purchase of technology for classrooms, including computers, projectors that display videos and documents, and interactive “whiteboards.” The whiteboards are large
screens typically mounted on classroom walls that can function like computer screens and can be manipulated with a finger or a stylus.
“It will be all about making sure we have those essential things,” Perry said.
A grant also is pending for Miner Academy in Bauxite.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 04/20/2013