BENTONVILLE -- The Walton Family Foundation, which has strongly supported public charter schools and improvements to public education in general, announced Thursday it plans to open a private school for middle and high school students.
Clayton Marsh, deputy dean of Princeton University, has been chosen as the first head of the school. Marsh was selected after an extensive national search and will assume his new position in January, according to a news release from the foundation.
Clayton Marsh
Some background on Clayton Marsh, hired to be the founding head of a private school coming to Bentonville:
• Native of Kansas City, Mo.
• Holds a doctorate in English and comparative literature from Columbia University and a law degree from the University of Michigan.
• Worked as an English teacher and football and wrestling coach at The Lawrenceville School, a private school in Lawrenceville, N.J., for eight years.
• Primary responsibilities in his current job as deputy dean of college at Princeton University include working with academic departments to develop new courses and programs, leading efforts to enhance the university’s liberal arts curriculum, and encouraging innovation in teaching. He also teaches courses at Princeton.
• Plans to move to Northwest Arkansas next summer. He and his wife, Margaret, have three children.
Source: Walton Family Foundation
Marsh will lead all aspects of the Bentonville private school's development, including curriculum and infrastructure, according to the announcement.
Key details about the school -- including its name, opening date, location and specific grades it will offer -- haven't been decided, said Luis Gonzalez, a senior communications officer for the foundation. More information will come next spring after Marsh begins the job, Gonzalez said.
The school will be a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and be governed by a board of trustees. It will offer "a challenging curriculum, small classes, a diverse student body and distinctive architecture," according to the news release.
The school will charge tuition, Gonzalez said.
The foundation surveyed the desire for an independent private school in Northwest Arkansas. Study results showed 68 percent of Bentonville residents polled would support an independent school, and a similar level of support exists across the region's other school districts, according to the release.
That study was part of the plan the foundation announced last year for what it calls its home region, defined as Northwest Arkansas and the Delta regions of Arkansas and Mississippi. That plan includes creating a world-class system of prekindergarten-through-12th-grade schools, Karen Minkel, the foundation's home region program director, said in a press release issued Thursday.
The study gauged the current level of accessibility for parents and students to high-performing charter schools and traditional public schools, Minkel said in the release.
"Our assessment also revealed that an independent school would add to the range of quality options available." Minkel wasn't available for comment Thursday, Gonzalez said.
Educational options have increased in recent years in Benton County. Charter schools such as Arkansas Arts Academy in Rogers and Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy in Bentonville enroll more than 1,000 students combined.
Haas Hall Academy, a Fayetteville charter school, is expanding to Bentonville this fall with a facility down the street from the high school. U.S. News & World Report ranks Haas Hall as the best high school in Arkansas. Charter schools are public schools allowed to operate with freedom from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools.
The Walton Family Foundation has been an enthusiastic supporter of charter schools; an example of that support was its recent $500,000 grant to Haas Hall to support its expansion to Bentonville.
"We've seen enormous progress over the past 20 years and know that all children can succeed if given the opportunity," the foundation says in its 2014 annual report. "Across the country, we've focused our investments on providing parents and students with more public charter school options, and now many of those schools are some of the highest performing in their districts," the annual report says.
The foundation's 2014 annual report lists more than $27 million in grants to schools in Northwest Arkansas, about $5.5 million to education in the Delta regions and another $7.5 million in grants for education across the state.
The Walton Family Foundation is also part of Forward Arkansas, a collaboration for school improvement formed late last year by the Arkansas Board of Education, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation of Little Rock and the foundation. The initiative has appointed a 28-member steering committee of Arkansans and hired the Boston Consulting Group to develop recommendations for what leaders say they hope will push the state's schools to be among the best in the nation.
Northwest Arkansas has some private schools, most of them are operated by a church or are otherwise religious in nature.
Dana Davis, president and CEO of the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce, said the quality and variety of educational options in an area impact its quality of life.
"We have excellent schools in Bentonville, and that's one of the things that allows us to attract talent to come here," Davis said. "But at the same time, any time you give families quality choices, that enhances the opportunity to attract families here."
Michael Poore, superintendent of the Bentonville School District, said the foundation has kept him informed on developments related to the private school.
"I don't think choice is a bad thing," Poore said. "Students have different needs. We have not fought the charter schools coming here, and we won't fight this private school, either."
New educational options only reinforce the need for the district to ensure its performance doesn't drop off, Poore said.
"We're always trying to get better, not just because of the other schools coming here," he said.
Poore had a chance to meet Marsh and his wife when they visited the area in April. They toured the high school together, he said.
Janie Darr, superintendent of the Rogers School District, said education is a competitive field, and the district doesn't necessarily get every child who moves into Rogers.
"I don't know if we have many parents who will want to or be willing to pay tuition," Darr said. "We probably have some parents now who are sending their kids away to a prep school. But we always want to be competitive to offer the best education possible. We're going to have to work harder in some areas than we have before."
The district must meet the needs of students with a wide range of academic abilities, Darr said. She hopes to meet Marsh and discuss ways the district can help its brightest students, she said.
Robert Maranto, a professor of education policy at the University of Arkansas, said some people coming to Northwest Arkansas from other states and overseas are accustomed to the kind of private school the foundation is launching. He wasn't surprised to hear the foundation hired someone such as Marsh.
"I think part of what (the foundation) is going for is getting somebody who has experience in other places," Maranto said. "If you want your college-bound kids to have options, it helps to have people at the school who have experience in those options."
Marsh didn't return an email message seeking comment Thursday. The foundation's news release quoted him as saying he's honored to get to create a school in the heart of the country.
"And the conditions in Northwest Arkansas could not be better -- a welcoming and dynamic community, a readiness for innovation in education, and, of course, the inspiring beauty of the Ozarks," Marsh stated in the release.
Dave Perozek can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWADaveP.
NW News on 07/24/2015