BENTONVILLE — School District officials want to open a charter school that emphasizes innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.
The School Board held a special meeting Monday to hear a presentation about a charter school proposal developed over the past few months by a committee of 32 district administrators and teachers.
At A Glance
Timeline
Bentonville School District officials have a timeline in mind as they move toward opening a charter school:
April/May: Community meetings will be held about the charter school.
June: District administrators will formally present their charter plan for approval by the local School Board.
Aug. 31: By this date the district must file a letter with the state indicating intent to submit an application to open a charter.
Oct. 31: By this date the district must submit its charter application to the state.
Early 2015: The state’s Charter Authorizing Panel will hold a hearing on the district’s application and either approve it or not. The district will have 20 minutes to present its case. Opponents to the proposal will have 20 minutes to present their case as well.
August 2015: The charter school would open if granted the state’s permission.
Source: Staff Report
The meeting also featured a panel of guests, most of them from outside Bentonville, to answer questions from Superintendent Michael Poore and the board about the process of opening a charter school.
The committee has developed a plan to convert one of the district's buildings into a charter school for grades kindergarten through eight. The new school would focus on science, technology, engineerings and mathematics -- commonly grouped together by the acronym STEM -- with an additional focus on the arts.
Which building would be converted has not been decided. The soonest it could open is the start of the 2015-16 school year because of the state approval process any charter school proposal must endure.
Judy Marquess, district director of instruction, introduced the charter idea by explaining the district has much to be proud of, including strong academic and extracurricular performances.
"So why would we want to change anything?" Marquess said. "Bentonville schools are exceptional because we've never been satisfied with the current status."
Students learn in different ways and the district should provide more choices for students and parents, she said.
Poore also emphasized the importance of choices.
"Choice is something people are used to," Poore said. "It's important to keep in mind we must be ready to compete."
The committee has developed a mission statement and defined some core elements for the charter. Students would be empowered to be "co-constructors" of their education and would learn by doing. Students would adopt the role of innovator in their quest for knowledge.
"Student initiative is what will be different at this school," said Shannon Wicker, a committee member and music teacher at Ardis Ann Middle School. "They will learn to think for themselves. They will be empowered to learn by motivation and curiosity."
There are two kinds of charter schools in Arkansas.
An open-enrollment charter school is run by a governmental entity, an institution of higher learning or a tax-exempt nonsectarian organization. It can draw students from anywhere in the state.
A conversion charter school is a traditional public school converted to a charter by a school district. It can draw only students from within that school district's boundaries.
Scott Smith, director of the Arkansas Public School Resource Center, told the board there are 18 conversion charter schools in the state run by 15 school districts.
The Rogers School District opened a conversion charter, New Tech High School, last fall with 300 students. Lance Arbuckle, New Tech's director, was among the panel members at Monday's meeting.
Joe Quinn, a board member for Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy, an open-enrollment charter school that opened in Bentonville in August, said it's important for the district to get parents to buy in to the charter plan from the beginning. At an early meeting about the formation of the academy, interested families learned from the start what the school was going to be all about.
"You have to win the parents over, win them over early, and then you can create that kind of synergy with the parents who will drive this and stand up in front of the (Charter Authorizing Panel) in Little Rock," Quinn said.
Grant Lightle, a School Board member, expressed concerns about how the district would pay for the charter. The district has a lot on its plate already, he said.
Marquess said after the meeting she did not believe the charter would cost anymore to run on a per-student basis than any other school. There will be some extra costs associated with professional development and technology, but there are grant opportunities available to help cover those costs, she said.
Though no building has been identified for the charter, some possibilities floated at Monday's meeting included R.E. Baker, Thomas Jefferson and Sugar Creek elementary schools. Baker is on the district's nontraditional "continuous learning" calendar. It enrolls kids from across the district and does not have an attendance zone.
Lisa Clark, a board member, asked if there's a curriculum and a "road map" for the school.
Leah Cheek, a committee member and first grade teacher at Willowbrook Elementary, said the beauty of the school is there is no road map.
"What we're talking about is empowering our students to say, what are you interested in," Cheek said.
Some kids might not want to take such initiative in directing their own learning opportunities, "but from my experience, they all do," Cheek said.
NW News on 04/01/2014