Northwest Arkansas charter schools prepare for lotteries

Ozark Montessori Academy in Springdale is seen in this 2016 file photo.
Ozark Montessori Academy in Springdale is seen in this 2016 file photo.

Students applying for Northwest Arkansas open-enrollment charter schools will find out over the next few weeks whether they have a spot for the 2017-18 school year.

Charter schools are required to select students randomly through a lottery when there are more applicants than seats. Haas Hall Academy and Ozark Montessori Academy will run lotteries Tuesday, followed by Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy on Thursday. Arkansas Arts Academy plans its event for March 31.

Lottery dates

Lottery dates for area open-enrollment charter schools

• Haas Hall Academy: 6 p.m. Tuesday at its Starr Scholar Center, 3880 N. Front St., Fayetteville

• Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy: 6 p.m. Thursday at the school at 1302 Melissa Drive, No. 100, Bentonville

• Ozark Montessori Academy: 6 p.m. Tuesday at the school, 301 S. Holcomb St., Springdale

• Arkansas Arts Academy: 9 a.m. March 31 at the administration office, 1110 W. Poplar, Suite A, Rogers

Source: Staff report

"We encourage all schools to communicate widely and clearly about when their lottery will be held and that people can come," said Sarah McKenzie, executive director of the Office of Education Policy at the University of Arkansas. "We think it's critical to have clear and transparent charter school lotteries."

Open-enrollment charter schools are public schools run independently of traditional school districts through a charter contract with the state. They can draw students from anywhere, rather than from a specific geographic boundary.

Haas Hall worked with the Arkansas Department of Education Charter Unit on a new lottery system that was used for the first time last year, said Heather Holaway, spokeswoman for the school that for the first time will have campuses in Northwest Arkansas' four largest cities.

The new system allows parents to track their applications through the entire process with their child's lottery identification number, Holaway said. The system has been fine-tuned this year through the work of two Haas Hall seniors in Advanced Placement Computer Science.

"Increasing the ease of this has been the biggest change," Holaway said. "It's a mysterious process for a lot of people. No one understood how this worked. They can check every single step to see where they're at and what's happening."

Charter schools annually accept applications for students interested in attending the following year. The Office of Education Policy recommends charter schools limit information on their applications to name, the grade the child is going into and contact information for the parents, McKenzie said.

Some charter applications do ask for information on whether a student was expelled and about siblings because siblings will have priority for admission, school officials said.

The Office of Education Policy advises against asking for information about a student's race, gender or special education needs as part of a fair and transparent lottery, McKenzie said.

For the lottery, the office has a system that generates a random number that is assigned to each applicant, McKenzie said. The numbers are sorted from largest to smallest with the top names on the list receiving a spot for the forthcoming school year. Lotteries also help determine spots on school waiting lists.

Schools can give priority for admission for the new school year to siblings and the children of staff, McKenzie said.

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Ozark Montessori has 150 applicants for 50 spots for next school year, said Christine Silano, executive director of Ozark Education, the nonprofit organization operating the school.

The academy will expand with the addition of eighth grade in the new school year, Silano said. She has seven openings for eighth grade after accounting for seventh-graders who are moving up. Silano will have 25 openings in kindergarten, the most of any grade level.

The annual lottery night comes with some tense, quiet moments, Silano said. University representatives are careful to avoid errors, she said. Parents quietly wait to find out if their children are selected or will go on a waiting list.

Classes at Ozark Montessori provide a hands-on learning environment that mixes students from different grade levels, Silano said.

"I see a real need for a school like ours," Silano said. "We just have limited seating. It does inspire me to look to the future for opportunities for the growth and development of our organization."

Haas Hall Academy received 1,400 applications for the 2017-18 school year, Holaway said.

Haas Hall provides an accelerated academic program designed to prepare students in seventh through 12th grade for college, she said. Students take courses by the semester to mirror a college setting. There is an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.

New Haas Hall campuses will open for the 2017-18 school year for seventh- through 10th-graders in Rogers and Springdale. No lottery is necessary for those campuses, Holaway said. All 256 applicants for Rogers and all 340 applicants for Springdale have a spot, she said.

Haas Hall will conduct lotteries Tuesday for its Fayetteville and Bentonville campuses, with 429 applicants for Fayetteville and 388 applicants for Bentonville, Holaway said. School officials are unsure how many openings they will have. This is the first year Haas Hall will give priority for enrollment for siblings, Holaway said.

Fewer than 10 applications were from students who applied to the Rogers campus only or the Springdale campus only, Holaway said. Most applicants are seeking enrollment in two or more campuses.

Students can continue to apply for spots in Rogers and Springdale on a first-come, first-served basis, Holaway said. Both campuses have a maximum cap of 500 students, though school officials have not determined exactly how many students they will admit for the new school year.

Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy in Bentonville has 398 applications for next school year and has the greatest number of openings in kindergarten, Headmaster Susan Provenza said.

Applications were submitted for every grade even though some grade levels have no openings for the school year, Provenza said. The applications are submitted for the purpose of being assigned a spot on the waiting list, she said.

The 2017-18 is the first time Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy will have a senior class, Provenza said. Students in the first graduating class include those who began their eighth-grade year.

The school focuses on providing a classical education in the liberal arts with students reading classic pieces of literature, instruction on Greek and Latin root words beginning in third grade, and a learning environment that encourages discussion and conversation, she said.

Arkansas Arts Academy's lottery is set for the morning of March 31 and will involve herself, the principals, school registrars and an official from the Arkansas Department of Education Charter Unit, said Mary Ley, chief executive officer of the Rogers charter school.

The event is open to parents, though school officials traditionally have not asked them to come, Ley said. School officials run the lottery and then call parents to let them know whether they have a spot or are on a waiting list.

Parents have 48 hours to accept a spot, Ley said.

The academy will have up to 825 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, she said. Ley, who was out of town Friday, anticipates having 400 in the lottery for kindergarten through eighth grade but was not sure how many had applied for the high school.

The learning environment is geared toward children with a passion for creativity, Ley said. The goals of the school are to provide strong academics, students mastering the arts, the integration of the arts and providing students experiences with museums.

Plans are for Arkansas Arts Academy in June to begin a renovation and expansion project at the high school.

NW News on 02/20/2017

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