Deadline near on student transfers
Friday is the deadline this year for students across Arkansas to apply to attend public schools in 2015-16 in districts other than the ones in which they reside.
A parent's application for a student's transfer to a school in another district must be submitted by the deadline to the nonresident district, which is a recent change in the Arkansas Public School Choice Act.
The nonresident district is then responsible for notifying the resident district of the transfer request, according to Act 560 of 2015. The superintendent of the nonresident district is also responsible for notifying the parent and the resident district in writing by July 1 whether the student's application for transfer is accepted or rejected.
The law does not require a school district to add teachers or classrooms or exceed the state standards to accommodate transfer students. However, a district can claim a lack of capacity to accept a transfer student only if the district has reached at least 90 percent of the maximum authorized student population in a program, class, grade level or school building.
If a school district claims that student transfers across district lines would conflict with an active desegregation court order or a court-approved desegregation plan, the school district must immediately submit proof of that court order to the Arkansas Department of Education.
2 e-STEM seniors Millennium Scholars
E-STEM Public Charter Schools announced last week in its online newsletter that e-STEM High seniors Jamil Dawson and Marcellis Wilburn are 2015 Gates Millennium Scholars.
The scholarship awards provide the entire cost of educational expenses for both undergraduate and graduate level studies at any college or university.
Dawson is selecting from among Xavier College, Colorado College, Agnes Scott College and Spelman College. Wilburn is considering Howard University, Millsaps College and Birmingham-Southern College.
Hot Springs school awarded $61,152
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation recently announced awards to the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs and five other selective public high schools.
The awards are meant to support programs that prepare academically talented, low-income students to be admitted to and graduate from the campuses.
The Arkansas school will receive $61,152.
The other recipient schools are in Limestone, Maine; Baltimore; Durham, N.C.; Philadelphia; and Arlington, Va.
"We want to give low-income students who are really smart an equal opportunity to succeed," said Harold Levy, executive director of the Cooke Foundation. "Helping high ability students with financial need fulfill their potential has significant implications for the social mobility among America's lower-income families and for the strength of our economy."
Maumelle charter earns another honor
Academics Plus Charter School, an independently operated public charter school in Maumelle, was recently named Large Business of the Year by the Maumelle Area Chamber of Commerce.
The award is the latest in a series of honors and achievements for the kindergarten-through-12th-grade campus.
Honors include state designation as an "achieving" school district.
Additionally, both the elementary and high schools were named "Reward" schools by the state, making them eligible for financial rewards. Both the elementary and high school received an "A" on the recently released state online school report cards.
Metro on 04/26/2015