The LISA Academy charter school system received final state approval Thursday on its plan to build a secondary school campus in Sherwood and increase its enrollment cap for all of its campuses by 600 to a total of 2,700.
The Arkansas Board of Education voted unanimously with no questions or discussion to uphold last month's decision of the state's Charter Authorizing Panel to approve the expansion amendments to the LISA Academy system's state-issued charter.
The state Education Board has the authority to accept the panel's decision on a charter school or hold its own hearing on a charter school plan before making a final decision. The state board can conduct a hearing on a charter school change on its own initiative or at the request of either the charter school planners or leaders in the surrounding school district.
Neither the Pulaski County Special nor the North Little Rock district challenged the LISA expansion plan.
The LISA Academy system, which has campuses on both sides of the Arkansas River, applied for an amendment to its state-issued charter to construct an estimated $13 million building behind its existing kindergarten-through-12th-grade school at 5410 Landers Road.
A new, two-story building on Briley Drive will open to either grades six through 12 or seven through 12 beginning with the 2019-20 school year.
The existing school will become a building for elementary grades only, charter school system leaders have said.
A Section on 03/09/2018