LITTLE ROCK — In a rare move, the Little Rock School Board voted 7-0 Thursday to support a proposed open-enrollment charter school in the city.
The school - if approved by the state Board of Education - would be for up to 275 youths at the Little Rock Job Corps Center, a residential job-training program in the city.
Chris Heller, an attorney for the district, said the proposed Little Rock School for Integrated Academics and Technologies is different from most of the other charter schools in Pulaski County that have been approved by the state over the objections of the Little Rock and neighboring Pulaski County Special and North Little Rock districts.
The Little Rock district is challenging in federal court the state’s approval of those public but independentlyrun charter schools, which it says was given without regard to the effect they might have on desegregation efforts in the traditional public schools.
Heller said the proposed Little Rock School for Integrated Academics and Technology won’t duplicate what is already provided by the Little Rock district and it won’t have any effect on desegregation efforts.
The organizers, who operate similar programs in other states, are planning a unique curriculum that will address the needs of students - mostof whom are poor and some of whom may have special needs or language barriers - who have dropped out of traditional high schools, Heller said.
The students will live at the Job Corps Center, so transportation won’t be an obstacle.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 09/24/2010