Big change proposed for Springdale charter school

SPRINGDALE -- Ozark Montessori Academy will be absorbed by the LISA Academy charter school system starting next fall if the state approves an agreement the two organizations reached last month.

Officials expect the proposal to go before the state's Charter Authorizing Panel in February. The state Board of Education will have the final say.

Ozark Montessori would shed most of its identity as a Montessori school and adopt the LISA school system's emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math -- commonly referred to as STEM -- with the purpose of preparing students for college.

"We're excited to partner with LISA Academy," said Ben Temple, president of Ozark Montessori's board. "A quality STEM education, coupled with the extracurricular activities and enrichment programs LISA offers, will be a real benefit to current and future students here in Springdale."

LISA officials have agreed to provide consulting and support services to Ozark Montessori for the remainder of this school year. The three-page agreement says Ozark Montessori is expected to make staff changes and budget adjustments based on LISA officials' assessments and guidance.

The Montessori model likely will be retained at the school's kindergarten level and may be applied to kindergarten classes at LISA's other buildings as well, according to Luanne Baroni, assistant superintendent of the LISA school system.

The Montessori approach is not so much about what students learn, but how they learn it; multi-age groupings are a hallmark of Montessori, where younger children learn from older children, and older children reinforce their learning by teaching concepts they have mastered, according to the American Montessori Society.

"The child, through individual choice, makes use of what the environment offers to develop himself, interacting with the teacher when support and/or guidance is needed," the society's website states.

Ozark Montessori, which opened in 2015, serves 169 students in grades kindergarten through nine. LISA Academy, with six schools on three campuses in Little Rock and Sherwood, serves about 2,100 students in grades kindergarten through 12. It opened its first school in 2004 with about 300 students.

Ozark Montessori has struggled to gain its footing academically since opening. The school has earned a D on its last two report cards from the state. LISA's six buildings received three A's, two B's and one C on their last report cards both of the past two years.

School grades take into account not only student performance and improvement over time on the state-mandated ACT Aspire exams, but other factors such as the progress of English language learners on the state-required tests, high school graduation rates, student attendance, science achievement and community service by students.

LISA was looking to expand into Northwest Arkansas and saw a potential opportunity with Ozark Montessori, Temple said. Documents posted on Ozark Montessori's website indicate LISA plans to make the Springdale school into a K-8 campus and eventually open additional K-8 campuses in Rogers and Fayetteville, as well as a high school somewhere in the region.

"They came to us with their kind of skills and abilities and told us about their educational style and shared with us the great success they've had. We were pretty intrigued by that," he said.

Much of a charter school's funding from the state is based on its enrollment. Maintaining sufficient enrollment to meet financial needs has been a challenge at Ozark Montessori, Temple said.

Ozark Montessori has 26 staff members. They will be considered first for positions LISA Academy offers starting next fall at the school, said Ozark Montessori Superintendent Barb Padgett. Baroni said LISA Academy hopes to retain as many of Ozark Montessori's current staff members as possible.

Sarah McKenzie, executive director of the Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas, said the office believes it's important to recognize schools where students are demonstrating strong academic growth from year to year. LISA schools frequently show good year-to-year growth, whereas Ozark Montessori has not.

"It will be interesting to see if LISA can transfer their successes from the Little Rock area to the population in Northwest Arkansas," McKenzie said.

Ozark Montessori and LISA are two of 26 open-enrollment charter school districts in the state. Open-enrollment charter schools are run by entities other than public school districts. They're open and free to students from any district, and they receive state money based on enrollment, but they do not receive property tax revenue.

Charter districts must periodically renew their charters through the state. LISA Academy received a 13-year charter renewal in 2016, the longest renewal granted to any school in Arkansas. Ozark Montessori was scheduled to seek charter renewal this school year.

The LISA Academy schools are run by the LISA Foundation, a nonprofit organization. Arkansas doesn't allow for-profit companies to operate charter schools. Rather, there have been several examples of "mom-and-pop" charter schools launched by people with an interest in education, McKenzie said.

"But there's a lot more that goes into running a charter school than just the teaching aspect of it," she said. "And sometimes those mom-and-pop charters have difficulty managing all of the facets of running a school, and that can be challenging. I think LISA has demonstrated their ability in managing those organizations and can bring that experience to bear on Ozark Montessori."

McKenzie said she's not aware of another case of two Arkansas charter school operators merging since the state's first charter schools opened in 2000.

There are several Montessori schools in Arkansas, but Ozark Montessori is the only one that is public. Rockbridge Montessori School, a charter school in Little Rock, closed after the state revoked its charter last summer.

The plan to merge with LISA is the second major change announced at Ozark Montessori this year. Christine Silano, the founding head of the school, resigned in January just as the school board was meeting to discuss her performance evaluation. Both the board and Silano declined to discuss the reasons for her departure.

NW News on 12/10/2018