LITTLE ROCK — Little Rock’s newest public high school building has enabled the city’s oldest charter school to meet its state-set enrollment cap of 600 students this year, with room to grow later to 1,000, LISA Academy Superintendent Cuneyt Akdemir said Tuesday.
The new $6 million building at 23 Corporate Hill Drive off West Markham Street in west Little Rock sits next door to the original school that that had become too small for a growing enrollment. Officials added a temporary building to accommodate more students.
“Our high school students had to be housed in a modular building,” Akdemir said of the conditions before the new building opened to students earlier this month. “It wasn’t comfortable for students or for teachers.
“Now, with this building, we can serve eighth- through 12th-graders with two science labs, two computer labs, 17 classrooms and a gymnasium,” he said on a day in which the school opened to visitors for tours.
“We are able to provide more course offerings and all of our teachers have their own rooms, which improves their quality of instruction and preparation. We are all very excited. We believe it will add to the quality of our current program.”
LISA, an acronym for Little Scholars of Arkansas, was established in 2004 as a college preparatory independently run, state-approved charter school that emphasizes math, science, Spanish and Turkish, and academic competitions.
Ninety percent of the students in the school’s first three graduating classes are now enrolled in four-year colleges and universities, and some of the others are attending two-year colleges, Akdemir said.
The LISA charter school program is routinely ranked among the state’s highest achieving schools, he said.
But he also acknowledged that the charter’s middle school has been placed on “alert” status by the state Department of Education because one or more of its student subgroups did not meet minimum achievement requirements on state exams. Last year, he said, the high school was on “alert” but has since been removed from that designation by the state.
On Tuesday, Gov. Mike Beebe, Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, LISA parent Paul Heye and former and current LISA students Jordan Butler and Amendian Thomas praised the school for its high student achievement, its parent involvement and its cultural and racial diversity at a ceremony celebrating the new building.
“I want all of you to understand that my commitment to education is really, really reinforced when I see what goes on at a place like LISA Academy,” Beebe said. “The high standards reflected here should be replicated across the state,” adding that it’s partly his responsibility to encourage that.
Akdemir said later that LISA officials are not planning to ask the Arkansas Board of Education to start a new LISA campus elsewhere in the state, but they do envision asking to increase the current 600-student enrollment cap to 1,000.
Because of the new high school building, LISA Academy’s enrollment grew from 475 to 600 this year. Still there are about 60 students on the school’s waiting list, Akdemir said.
The school’s original building will continue to be used to for sixth and seventh grades. Its bright green roof is a landmark visible from the Interstate 430 and Interstate 630 interchange. The roof of the new building, distinguished by its two turrets and small dome, also can be seen from a distance.
The building’s exterior is a mixture of rose and cream colored masonry and polished stone. The Corporate Hill Drive entrance to the school is marked by three stories of floor-to ceiling bay windows. And the back of the school, which serves as the student entrance and exit, includes three levels of porticos or roofed porches, on which students wait in the morning for the school doors to open.
The new building is made up of three floors of pastel green, yellow, and blue-painted classrooms, library, lunchroom and offices, which sit atop of a ground-level gymnasium.
On Tuesday, sophomore Amy Zhang, 15, joined classmates in the gym to conduct science demonstrations for visitors.
As she bounced soap bubbles on her cotton-gloved hands, Zhang said she recently moved to Arkansas from a larger school in Alabama and appreciated the fact that her LISA teachers can give her more personal attention.
Christopher Hardister, a 14-year-old freshman who has attended LISA since sixth grade, agreed.
“I like a small school and” - pointing to the fact he is taking algebra II as a ninth grader, a subject he likely would not take until 11th grade in a more traditional school - “I’m getting a better education.”
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 10/26/2011