An Arkansas Department of Education panel on Wednesday voted down a plan to replicate the A-graded Haas Hall Academy at a Springdale site.
The department approved a new location for Little Rock Preparatory Academy’s middle school.
The Charter Authorizing Panel, citing concerns about student diversity, past lottery selection practices and a tight timeline for opening a school by August, voted 8-0 against a 500-student Haas Hall Academy for seventh- through 12th-graders at the Jones Center in Springdale.
The panel decisions will now go in June to the Arkansas Board of Education, which can either accept the panel decisions or hold its own hearings on either proposals before making final decisions.
Haas Hall on Wednesday generated some opposition from the Springdale School District to plans to add a Springdale campus to the Fayetteville and Bentonville campuses.
Haas Hal features an accelerated college preparatory program for grades seven through 12. The older Fayetteville campus is nationally ranked for student achievement and recently received the highest number of points and an A grade from the state for student achievement and academic gains on state exams over a three-year period.
Martin Schoppmeyer, the founder and superintendent of Haas Hall, told the panel 22 percent of students at the Fayetteville campus and 30 percent at the Bentonville campus are of races and ethnicities other than white. He said the Springdale campus at the Jones Center would be a means of further increasing the school’s racial and socio-economic diversity. The center is easily accessible by public bus service and provides many wellness and recreational services that attract diverse families, he said.
He said the school system doesn’t participate in the federal school meal program subsidizing the cost of school meals for students from low-income families. He didn’t have any numbers but assured the panel Haas Hall schools provide meals and uniforms to those in need.
Jared Cleveland, Springdale School District’s deputy superintendent, objected to the timing of the Haas Hall proposal, saying the potential loss of as many as 500 students in 20117 after his district has made legally required staffing decisions for that year by May 1 could be costly to the district over time.
He also said the district has invested millions of dollars into a new conversion charter/school of innovation. Northwest Arkansas school districts provide an array of educational options, he said and questioned the need for an independently run open-enrollment charter school.
The panel on Wednesday cast three votes on charter amendments proposed by Haas Hall.
The panel’s first vote, 6-1, denied the school proposal to increase the enrollment cap from 400 to 500 at the Fayetteville campus,
Panel members praised recent efforts to make the school’s lottery system for selecting students more transparent and open to public scrutiny, but they also said more time is needed to build trust in the altered system. Panel members had asked questions about past enrollment practices that appeared to enable a small number of students to enroll in the school outside the random lottery system and in violation of laws and rules about charter school enrollment.
The panel approved 5-2 a proposal to give enrollment preference to the siblings of Haas Hall students.
It voted 8-0 against allowing the Jones Center campus for different reasons.
Deputy Commissioner Mark Gotcher said the Springdale district offers multiple opportunities for students and didn’t see a need for charter expansion now.
Jennifer Liwo, an attorney for the department and a panel member, said she had concerns about the lack of diversity at the charter school and the impact on the Springdale district.
Pfeffer said added the timeline for opening the school was too rushed to allow for an adequate student recruitment and lottery process. She said she felt school leaders were taking steps to correct matters problematic in the past.
“I think there needs to be time to show that things that are being put in place are going to set the foundation for changes in the future,” Pfeffer said.
Deborah Coffman, the Education Department’s chief of staff and chairman of the panel, said she hoped Schoppmeyer would take the positive criticism and return with data and evidence the recruitment plan for diverse group of students is working.
Schoppmeyer said after the meeting he would resubmit the proposal for the Jones Center location as long as the space at the center — the former home of the Springdale School of Innovation — remains available.