The proposed Westwind School for Performing Arts, to serve up to 150 sixth through eighth graders in North Little Rock near Maumelle, won approval Wednesday from the state's Charter Authorizing Panel.
The Timmons Art Foundation — the operator of a summer arts program in Central Arkansas — is the sponsoring nonprofit organization of the school that now must be approved by the Arkansas Board of Education in order to open for operation in the 2021-22 school year.
The state charter panel on Wednesday denied a different application, one for the Diamond Cuts Performing Arts Academy Public Charter School -- which was planned for 600 students in seventh through 12th grades in the former Playtime Pizza restaurant location in west Little Rock. The panel concluded that the application, proposed by the Anthony Bland Foundation, was incomplete.
The panel did approve the proposed expansion of the 275-student enrollment cap to 1,000 students at the Van Buren School District's River Valley Virtual Academy. District leaders asked for a new cap to accommodate families in the district who are interested in a virtual educational program for their students in this school year.