School of Innovation pairs academics, job skills

Fletcher Lyons, a student at the School of Innovation, talks Oct. 29 about the school during the Springdale Chamber of Commerce Big Brew event. Joe Rollins (left), principal, listens to Lyons’ presentation. For more photos, go to www.nwadg.com/photos.
Fletcher Lyons, a student at the School of Innovation, talks Oct. 29 about the school during the Springdale Chamber of Commerce Big Brew event. Joe Rollins (left), principal, listens to Lyons’ presentation. For more photos, go to www.nwadg.com/photos.

SPRINGDALE -- School of Innovation student Fletcher Lyons, 14, had to develop a marketing plan and logo and interview to apply for his internship with an online merchant.

Since becoming an intern for the Springdale-based Sire boutique, Fletcher has gained a better understanding of business through activities such as organizing sales and attending the Dallas Market Center to help choose a fall clothing line for the women's clothing and accessories boutique.

Race to the Top grant

• $25.88 million over four years

• Awarded December 2013

• 12 projects, including a seat-time waiver pilot, revising high school schedules, advisory programs, personal learning plans and student-led conferences, multiple pathways to graduation, centralized prekindergarten, technology, parent academy and School of Innovation.

Source: Springdale School District

He and five other interns were invited to a recent Big Brew morning networking event organized by the Springdale Chamber of Commerce.

"Since I am going into business, I will have so much experience I would have never gained from just going to a regular high school," Fletcher told the crowd at the Big Brew. "I feel really prepared."

The School of Innovation is in its second year at The Jones Center with about 400 students in the eighth and ninth grades. A new campus is being built in east Springdale set to open in August, and the school plans to add a grade each year until it reaches 1,000 students in grades eight through 12 in 2018-19.

The school is structured to give students an introduction into careers and to options for earning college credit.

The hope is students will finish the School of Innovation well prepared for the next step after graduation, said Principal Joe Rollins.

Student-centered learning

The School of Innovation is a demonstration site for a series of projects the Springdale School District is implementing with a federal Race to the Top grant to emphasize student-centered learning, according to a district report on the grant's progress. The shift includes giving students more choices and control over what they learn and their pace of learning at school, according to the report.

Innovations supported through the four-year, $25.88 million grant include no "seat time" requirements for how long student must be in class to gain credit, a revision of traditional high school schedules, advisory classes, personalized learning plans, student-led conferences, a Chromebook laptop for every student and staff teams that focus on student learning.

The state Department of Education waived some regulations affecting most public high schools through the school of innovation law. The School of Innovation also has applied to become a district-run conversion charter school, starting with the 2016-17 school year. A state Charter Authorizing Panel is expected to review the application this month.

Some innovations in place at the School of Innovation have been implemented at other schools in the district, but only the School of Innovation has state permission to allow students to finish high school courses in a shorter time frame, said Marsha Jones, the district's Race to the Top grant coordinator.

"The premise is that students should be allowed to have greater control over the amount of time it takes to successfully demonstrate the expected learning outcomes," Jones said. "That redesign model allows them also to take additional classes with the ultimate hope they can [graduate with] an associate's degree" from high school.

Some students already have been able to advance through courses more quickly, Rollins said. In science, 132 freshmen are taking their second high school science course, biology. In math, 48 students are taking geometry ahead of the traditional pacing, he said. Some of them are eighth-graders taking geometry at the same time they are taking the first year of algebra.

Another 70 eighth-graders are enrolled in ninth-grade English and advanced social studies, Rollins said.

School officials also are working with business and industry to create projects that connect academics with the real world, Rollins said.

"In this kind of learning system, learning is not confined to the classroom," Rollins said. "Knowledge is not limited to what happens in a classroom."

Connecting with work

Each Wednesday, the school invites representatives of businesses to speak to students for Real World Wednesday, Rollins said. The weekly sessions led to a new partnership between the school and Sire, the type of partnership the staff hopes to expand.

The Wednesday sessions give students access to industry-level expertise from professionals in the region and introduce them to jobs they may not have considered, Rollins said. The sessions assist students in making career decisions they can begin pursuing through the School of Innovation, Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville and Northwest Technical Institute in Springdale.

Many businesses also have expressed interest in working with the School of Innovation to develop internships for high school students, Rollins said.

Sire owners Nate and Stephanie Robinson graduated from Springdale High School. Nate Robinson also works in banking and had visited the School of Innovation during a Real World Wednesday. The experience connected the couple with Wendy Kelley, who coordinates the Wednesday program and is a business teacher for the school.

"That led us to taking an interest with them," Stephanie Robinson said.

The Robinsons' boutique doesn't have any other employees. The students are called interns, but it's really more project-based learning in the school setting, Robinson said. The students can earn credit for classes, such as English, through tasks they do for the business. Students now are involved in marketing campaigns for a forthcoming sale, she said.

Students also learn "linking lessons" in their classes they apply to their internship, Kelley said. The internship began in November 2014 with six students, including Fletcher.

Students have gained experience in all aspects of operating an online store, including marketing, merchandise sales, customer service and shipping, Robinson said. They also learning tedious parts of business, including balancing books.

"The kids are extremely intelligent, very bright," Robinson said. "You're just seeing them pick up skills. I get just as many ideas from them."

The students have organized two separate sales events for Sire at the Jones Center, Kelley said. The next sale will take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 18-20 and will be open to the public.

"Doing is a great teacher," Rollins said.

A different type of school

The first year at the School of Innovation, with its flexible schedule and self-paced curriculum, came with some hard lessons for ninth-graders Rachel Glenn and Samantha Garcia, both 14.

They were used to teachers telling them what to do, Samantha said.

Rachel remembers having an entire week of cramming at the end of her first semester because she was behind on studying, she said.

"We all definitely wasted so much time that first semester," Rachel said.

This year, they have learned to manage their schedules better, Samantha said. Samantha learned to give priority to her school work over socializing on the weekends. If she decides to go out on a weekend, she knows she will need to spend Monday and Tuesday catching up, she said.

Among the interns with Sire, they had a memorable experience going to Dallas Market Center this summer.

Proceeds from a sale in March helped pay for part of the trip, with Sire picking up the rest, Robinson said. All of the fall and winter clothing sold by Sire was chosen by students and approved by the Robinsons.

At first, sellers at the market in Dallas questioned why teenagers were at the market, with one woman telling the students to leave her store. The next day, the students had lanyards identifying them as buyers and word had spread about their presence, Rachel said. The Robinsons joined them, and the sellers were more receptive.

Rachel was interested in becoming an agriculture teacher, but now is also thinking about agricultural business and marketing, she said.

Samantha was thinking about a career in biomedical engineering, but the experience with the business and marketing class and the Sire internship has interested her in fashion and merchandising.

"There's this whole opportunity I really like,"she said.

NW News on 11/08/2015

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