ROGERS -- Arkansas Arts Academy soon will need a new chief executive officer.
Mary Ley, who's led the school since 2014, informed the school's board Tuesday she intends to retire at the end of June. Ley, 62, and her husband, Alan, are moving to Florida to be closer to his family, she said.
School history
Benton County School of the Arts was founded as a kindergarten- through eighth-grade charter school in 2001. The Northwest Arkansas Academy of Fine Arts was launched as a high school in 2007.
The two schools merged in 2009, taking the Benton County School of the Arts name. The school was renamed Arkansas Arts Academy in 2014.
Arkansas Arts Academy is a public charter school that enrolls students from across Northwest Arkansas.
Source: NWA Democrat-Gazette
"I believe with all of my heart, art saves lives," Ley wrote in her retirement notice to the board. "Thank you for the last six years of letting me create the dream of what a school should be. Thank you for believing and supporting me, you gave me the best ride of my life."
The Arts Academy has seen major changes on Ley's watch. She oversaw redevelopment of the high school campus downtown, a project that cost about $22 million. The additional space allowed the school to add new arts-related programs and increase enrollment.
Enrollment in the K-12 charter school has grown from 758 in 2014 to 1,122 today, and Ley expects it to surpass 1,200 this fall. The school's waiting list had 170 kids when she arrived; the list now has more than 1,000, she said.
"This is probably the most amazing educational opportunity I've had, and the board has been fabulous to me," Ley said. "I'm really proud of what we've accomplished as a team."
Howard Alsdorf, board president, said he didn't have time to comment when reached by phone Wednesday.
Arkansas Arts Academy is one of the oldest charter schools in the state. It launched as Benton County School of the Arts in 2001.
Ley said when she started, the school offered only a handful of programs dedicated to the arts. The school has expanded its programs to where it now offers things such as the culinary arts and fashion design, she said.
The Arts Academy did well on its most recent report card from the state. The high school earned an A and the elementary school got a B.
Ley said the board intends to conduct a national search for her successor. She hopes the next chief executive will take the school to an even higher level.
"I'd like to see someone who is even stronger in the arts. I feel like our arts need to be advanced even more," she said.
Ley is earning $116,900 this school year. She moved to Northwest Arkansas from Colorado in 2011 to become the Bentonville School District's director of communications under then-Superintendent Michael Poore.
NW News on 03/12/2020