Pea Ridge Wins Charter School

State Authorizes Manufacturing And Business Academy At Pea Ridge

Congratulations started rolling in after Pea Ridge won approval from the state on Thursday to create a charter school focused on business and manufacturing skills, said Rick Neal, superintendent.

The advisory panel, which includes local business leaders, held its first official meeting Friday as administrators race to open the school to juniors and seniors this fall.

Neal said the panel has 10 days to select a leader for the Pea Ridge Manufacturing and Business Academy.

AT A GLANCE

Academy Tracks

The Pea Ridge Business and Manufacturing Academy will be a charter school within the Pea Ridge High School. It will open to juniors and seniors in August 2014. Students will choose one track of study supported by local businesses. The tracks are:

• Advanced welding and metal fabrication

• Health informatics

• Supply chain command/logistics management

• Industrial technician and maintenance

• Sales and communication/broadcasting

Source: Staff Report

New facilities will give them flexibility, but administrators need to figure out how exactly to fit classroom space for the school within the high school, he said.

District leaders will meet next week with representatives from Responsive Education Solutions to talk about the redefined roles teachers will have in the building. There will be a subject matter expert for each area, but teachers will shepherd a cohort of students instead of seeing classes.

Classes have to be developed and submitted to the state by May.

Not every student needs or wants to go to college, and for those not college-bound, jobs are important, Neal said. A student making minimum wage can’t pay for housing, let alone a college education, he said.

His appeal to the Charter Authorizing Panel centered on the idea of building value into a diploma. When a graduate walks across the stage at Pea Ridge, Neal said, he hands them a diploma cover. The students come back and pick up the actual diplomas, but for some students that diploma cover is as good as empty.

“I give a diploma right now with very little value,” Neal said. “That kid who is going to Sonic is working for the same amount of money as the kid who dropped out.”

The diploma has value for the 30 percent of Pea Ridge graduates who leave high school and head to college, Neal said.

Members of the presentation team told the board that 55 percent of the last two graduating classes work in low skill or minimum wage jobs.

“We do a tremendous job of preparing our students for college. We don’t do a good job of preparing them for a career,” Neal told the board Thursday.

A skilled job would allow students to work their way through college, Neal said.

Kim Davis, director of education and work force development for the Northwest Arkansas Council spoke in favor of the Pea Ridge application at the meeting, saying the region has high growth in private sector jobs, but needs a work force ready for that growth.

The idea of the school was hailed as a first of its kind by the Charter Authorizing Panel during the Thursday meeting. Members asked Neal to chronicle its journey so other schools could follow the pattern Pea Ridge is developing.

There will be about 260 juniors and seniors at Pea Ridge High School next fall. Student recruiting for the academy will begin among those students in the next several weeks, Neal said.

School officials will call parents, talk to students and hold meetings, but part of that talk is about what they want to do and what jobs are available through the courses they will offer.

“We’re going to have to educate our kids on what those jobs are,” Neal said.

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