New charter school pitched for Bentonville

BENTONVILLE — A charter school focused on science, technology, engineering and math plans to open in Bentonville for the 2018-19 academic year if state officials approve.

Focus STEM Academy proposes to serve up to 320 students in grades five through eight in its first year and up to 352 students after that.

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It’s one of 10 independently operated public charter schools proposed to start in Arkansas in the fall of 2018 and the only one in Northwest Arkansas. The state Board of Education can approve only five under the state formula.

Arkansas has 24 open-enrollment charter schools. The cap is 29 for the 2018-19 school year. The Charter Authorizing Panel is scheduled to hold charter applicant hearings Aug. 16-17. The board will decide Sept. 14 whether to review the panel’s decisions.

Open-enrollment charter schools are public schools run independent of traditional school districts through a charter contract with the state and aren’t limited by specific geographic boundaries. Traditional districts draw students from within their geographic boundaries, though students can apply for a transfer to attend a school in another district.

State money follows the student to an open-enrollment charter school, but those schools don’t collect any property tax revenue.

Focus STEM Academy of Benton County is listed as the school’s sponsoring entity in an application filed with the Arkansas Department of Education last month.

Jonathan Cummings of Aurora, Mo., is listed as chairman of the board. He is a certified public accountant working for KPM CPAs and Advisors in Springfield, Mo. He said others involved in the school are from Arkansas, including his sister, Micah Cummings.

Jonathan Cummings said one day he and some friends were discussing education and the job market. They got to talking about their various skills and how they could implement an education model they thought would be effective.

“We want to provide a great place for kids in Bentonville to learn and push themselves and prepare themselves for a future in the economy that exists now and what will exist by the time they need jobs,” he said.

The school would have a central project or “maker” space where students would work on multiple projects throughout the year, Cummings said. Music and physical education will be emphasized, as will parental and community involvement, he said.

“People in different industries would volunteer to serve as mentors and coaches to these students and fill in the gaps where the parental involvement may not be as strong,” Cummings said.

That’s at least partly why Bentonville was chosen as the school’s site.

“We looked at all of the businesses we would need to partner with us as part of this, and Bentonville obviously has a lot to provide on that front,” he said.

The school’s proposed location is 5121 Runway Drive in Bentonville, which is off Southwest Regional Airport Boulevard and near the Walmart Distribution Center. The facility is a vacant 22,288-square-foot office building, according to the application.

Kingman Land, the company that owns the building, has agreed to construct a building for the school once it reaches a steady enrollment at maximum capacity, according to the application.

Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy officials initially considered the same site before opening their school in 2013, but eventually decided to lease space on Melissa Drive in Bentonville.

Focus STEM Academy would become the third open-enrollment charter school to locate within the Bentonville School District, joining Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy and Haas Hall Academy. Arkansas Connections Academy, a virtual charter school, also is based in Bentonville but serves students from across the state.

Debbie Jones, the district’s superintendent, said STEM education is a vital component in any diverse and well-rounded program, adding the district is doing fine work in that area.

“While we will not oppose the opening of any charter school, we cannot endorse a program without knowing a comprehensive plan for the curriculum, hiring practices, teacher certification requirements, financial stability of the organization, leadership and educational monitoring plans,” Jones said in an email.

Focus STEM Academy’s application states public schools in the area do a good job with student achievement as measured on standardized tests but struggle with a “noticeable gap” between the general population and several subpopulations of students.

Bentonville is closing its gap at a much greater rate than other similarly sized districts in the state, Jones wrote.

The state’s new science standards were developed using the most current research on science learning and were written for all students to engage in high levels of STEM-enriched curriculum, according to Jones.

“These new standards allow us to enhance what we’ve already been doing in Bentonville, by allowing students the time to explore deeper levels of real-world phenomena and problems,” Jones wrote.

Bentonville School District administrators, under the direction of then-Superintendent Michael Poore, in 2014 recommended converting Baker Elementary School into a charter school focused on science, technology, engineering and math, all explored through the arts. Administrators envisioned it as a school for grades kindergarten through five. The School Board declined to pursue it.

Focus STEM Academy, as part of its application, included a letter of support from Jen Daniels of Rogers. Daniels wrote she has a son who will be a seventh-grader for the 2018-19 school year and she would be interested in enrolling him in the school.

“As a parent, I like the daily PE classes and the music classes,” Daniels wrote. “Science and math are very important, and I like that they plan to do projects with that. My son is an active learner, so a school that keeps him moving sounds good.”

State Rep. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville, also wrote a letter of support for the school.

“Parents and students in Northwest Arkansas are demanding more educational options than ever before,” Dotson wrote. “Students learn in a variety of ways, in a variety of environments and should have the opportunity to learn in one that best suits them.”

The school would like to shift to a “year-round” calendar after its first year, according to the application. A year-round calendar generally means a shorter summer break with more breaks interspersed throughout the year.

The only public school in Benton County operating on a year-round calendar is Eastside Elementary School in Rogers. Arkansas Arts Academy, a charter school in Rogers, is switching to the year-round format this fall.

Dave Perozek can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWADaveP.

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