The LISA Academy charter school system that enrolls more than 3,200 students in Little Rock, North Little Rock and Springdale is seeking state approval for a semi-virtual school for 1,050 in kindergarten-through-12th grades.
The proposed LISA Academy Arkansas Hybrid School is on the agenda for the Charter Authorizing Panel's 9 a.m. meeting Tuesday. If endorsed by the panel, the proposal that is in the form of an amendment to the LISA Academy's existing state charter to operate will go to the Arkansas Board of Education later for final approval.
The hybrid school plan calls for providing students -- starting with kindergarten-through-ninth grade in the coming 2021-22 school year -- with remote instruction paired with a requirement that students report once or twice a week for one-half day at a time to a campus or satellite learning center.
That student's time on a LISA campus or at a satellite learning center will be used for hands-on lessons, taking mandatory tests, tutoring, academic enrichment, special services, sports, clubs and interaction with other students, said Fatih Bogrek, the chief executive officer/superintendent of the LISA Academy system.
"It's unique. It's a home-made model," Bogrek said about the plan that marries LISA's now 17-year-old school operation with what he said has been LISA's successful virtual education program in use during the current covid-19 pandemic.
The proposed model is a way to take the LISA education program -- with its emphasis on college preparation and academic competition -- to families in parts of the state that do not have easy access to the LISA Academy campuses, Bogrek said. The charter school system routinely receives requests from people in different parts of the state asking the system to open schools in their areas, he added.
The charter school system is currently serving more than 3,200 students at seven campuses in Little Rock, Sherwood and Springdale. The system is in the process of building a campus in Rogers to open in August 2022 as an elementary school with a middle and high school to follow.
In the amendment proposal for the Arkansas Hybrid School, the LISA system is asking to raise its maximum enrollment cap of 4,382 by 1,050 to accommodate the new program and by another 200 seats for the system's Springdale campus. The student enrollment maximum, to be phased in over a number of years, would then be 5,632.
In the first year of the hybrid school, a student's half day onsite every week or, at a minimum, every other week, will be on the campuses of the existing LISA Academy Middle School, 21 Corporate Hill Drive, in Little Rock, and LISA Springdale campus, 301 Holcomb St. Administrative offices for the hybrid school's principal and other staff will be at the Little Rock middle school site.
Five satellite learning centers throughout the state will be added in the northwest, southwest, northeast, southeast and central regions as demand builds for them.
Bogrek said it is likely that the satellite centers will be located in churches, libraries or community centers that have some classroom and school-breakfast-and-lunch dining space. The satellite centers also need to be able to accommodate portable science laboratory and recreation equipment.
Core academic subjects will be taught by LISA faculty members. Some of the non-core courses may initially be provided by third-parties, Bogrek said, but the goal is to have all courses taught by system employees. Hybrid school staff will largely be separate from faculty at the traditionally taught LISA campuses although there might be shared teachers in subjects such as art and music, he said. Course offerings will be broad. Counseling will be available. Parent conferences will be mandatory.
LISA will provide the hybrid school students with learning materials, including computer devices and hot spots, if needed, for access to the internet.
Parents will have to be involved as learning coaches for their children -- especially elementary school-aged children, Bogrek said. Instruction is likely to be a mix of live, synchronous teaching or recorded or asynchronous lessons, depending on what the families need.
During the pandemic there have been complaints from educators in the state and nationally about students who signed up for remote instruction but are not doing as well academically and in some cases not participating or doing their school work at all. Bogrek said there will be set policies and consequences for hybrid school students. Those who are excessively absent or truant could result in the student having to repeat a grade, he said.
The charter for LISA Academy in Little Rock was initially approved for a maximum of 450 students in 2004, which was followed by a second charter for a North Little Rock school in 2007.
As of 2014 , all LISA schools, including an elementary and middle school in Springdale and the Rogers campus to open in 2022, are under one charter that is due to expire on June 30, 2030.
Currently, LISA Academy's enrollment cap is 3,432 with approval from the state to grow annually at the new Rogers elementary, middle and high schools -- until reaching a maximum of 4,382 by 2033-34.