Parents hear charter proposal for Springdale's School of Innovation

Joe Rollins, principal of Springdale’s School of Innovation, talks to parents Tuesday. The School District is applying for a charter for the school for the 2016-17 school year.
Joe Rollins, principal of Springdale’s School of Innovation, talks to parents Tuesday. The School District is applying for a charter for the school for the 2016-17 school year.

SPRINGDALE -- Parents with children enrolled in the School of Innovation like the self-paced, flexible learning environment the school offers and look forward to expanded opportunities that would come if the school becomes a district-run charter school, they said.

"It's just another level of education this is going to provide," said Dawn Manos, who thinks her 12-year-old daughter Sara will thrive when she begins eighth grade at the School of Innovation. "Their concern is for the students."

School of Innovation

• Plans announced in fall 2013.

• State grants school of innovation status in summer 2014.

• Opens with 200 eighth-graders in temporary space in the Jones Center in August 2014.

• School will enroll about 400 eighth- and ninth-graders at the Jones Center in August.

• School of Innovation to move to permanent home in August 2016.

Manos was among about 50 parents who attended a public hearing Tuesday night to learn more about the Springdale School District's proposal for the school to become a district-conversion charter school. District officials have submitted a letter of intent to the Arkansas Department of Education and a comprehensive application is due Sept. 9.

The school received waivers from the state to create a more personalized learning environment than the district has offered, and a conversion charter would provide for additional waivers from state regulations to expand the school's offerings, Principal Joe Rollins said.

The primary reasons for seeking a charter are to continue to personalize learning, provide more digital learning options for students and to make connections from school to college and careers, he said.

The school opened for the 2014-15 year for about 200 eighth-graders at The Jones Center. The school will operate out of the center for one more school year with 400 eighth-graders and freshmen.

In 2016-17, the school will move to a permanent home across from Lakeside Junior High School on Hylton Road, south of Robinson Avenue. Construction is due to start soon on what will be a $24 million, 143,000-square-foot campus there, said Gary Compton, assistant superintendent for support services.

The new campus is expected to open with about 600 to 650 students in the eighth through 10th grades and by 2018-19 grow to as many as 1,000 students in the eighth through 12th grades.

A district-conversion charter school is a public school governed by a school district, as opposed to an open-enrollment charter school run by an independent organization and aren't limited to enrolling students from a specific geographic boundary like a public school district.

Springdale will have to receive approval from a state Charter Authorizing Panel and the State Board of Education before the School of Innovation can operate under waivers sought by the district, Witonski said. The waivers wouldn't apply until the 2016-17 school year, she said.

If the application is denied, the school will continue as it is, and the district can reapply next year, Witonski said.

The charter application will ask for waivers to allow for a fully digital kindergarten through 12th-grade program under the School of Innovation, Witonski said. Students could choose to have all face-to-face instruction, to blend face-to-face instruction with online courses or to take all of their classes online. The content would be created and monitored by Springdale teachers.

Waivers are necessary for plans to offer instruction in more than one language and to allow industry professionals without a teaching license to teach classes, though the industry professionals would be subject to background checks, Witonski said.

Administrators and teachers are constantly changing and adding to the school, said Michelle Crozier, whose 14-year-old daughter Mackenzie will begin as a freshman in August at the school. The school is giving students exposure to opportunities in the community and workforce, she said.

"They really are seeking to meet the needs of the students in the way they like to learn," Crozier said.

Matt Gumm, whose 14-year-old son Trevor begins ninth grade in August at the school, said his family has supported non-traditional education. Trevor was a student of the open-enrollment charter school Arkansas Virtual Academy before becoming a School of Innovation student.

Gumm thinks having digital courses will be a good option, he said.

"I don't think any delivery method or school setting is perfect for anyone," he said. "Giving students and parents a choice, I think it will be beneficial."

NW News on 07/01/2015

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