Bella Vista elementary school seeks innovation status

BENTONVILLE -- Cooper Elementary School will apply to the state for innovation status allowing it some freedom from state education rules.

The School Board this week approved Cooper's request to move forward with the school of innovation application. The deadline to apply to the Arkansas Department of Education is March 16. The department will announce new schools of innovation on May 1, according to a timeline on the department's website.

The state's first schools of innovation were established this school year under a 2013 law that provided another option for testing instructional models apart from charter schools. The law allows the department to waive some state regulations. There are 11 schools of innovation, including seven in the Springdale School District.

Cooper, in Bella Vista, is the Bentonville School District's first school to apply for innovation status. It enrolls 684 students in grades kindergarten through four.

Cooper is seeking flexibility in the state's rules on class sizes and the time teachers spend on planning. That flexibility will help the school pursue six goals it has outlined to be achieved through innovation status, officials said.

Those goals include providing hands-on science lessons to students and increasing students' engagement in economics, science, technology, engineering, arts and math -- subjects collectively referred to by the acronym E-STEAM.

Cooper officials also want to increase teachers' use of E-STEAM-focused strategies for instruction in math, literacy and science. It also wants to train teachers to work in a project-based mindset that helps build critical thinking skills.

Other goals presented at Monday's board meeting include raising the performance of Cooper's special-education students in math and literacy, increasing the percentage of students reaching growth goals, and developing well-rounded citizens through physical education.

Rachel Manus, Cooper's assistant principal, called the innovation status a great opportunity.

"Teachers and administrators get into this because we want to meet the needs of children," Manus said. "This is allowing us an opportunity to do this in a way we've always wanted. It allows us to think outside the box without getting hung up on the possible hurdles."

One such hurdle is the state's requirement teachers be given 200 minutes of instructional preparation time per week. Kristine Crownover, a Cooper literacy coach, told the board Monday the school would like teachers to be able to bank that time so they may use it in longer chunks to focus on E-STEAM projects.

The school also seeks class-size flexibility to allow inclusion of special-needs students at times when the number of children in a classroom might exceed the state maximums.

No additional staff members will be needed and there is no additional cost associated with what the school is proposing, Crownover said.

"Many of the things Cooper wants to do, they don't even have to get permission from the state to do," said Tamara Gibson, the district's executive director of elementary and middle school instruction. "What it comes down to is, sometimes you need some waivers from rules that keep us from being as creative as we want to be."

Schools must follow a procedure to apply for innovation status. A school council made up of teachers, staff members, students, parents and community members must solicit innovative ideas and proposals and select ideas to be voted on by school employees. At least 60 percent of school employees must vote in favor of an innovation plan before that plan may be submitted to the local school board for approval.

Thirty-four out of 45 staff members at Cooper approved the school's innovation plan, an approval rate of 75 percent, Crownover said.

The commissioner of education approves schools of innovation for a four-year period. The innovation status may be renewed for additional four-year periods thereafter. Schools of innovation must also submit yearly reports to the state.

Brent Leas, a board member, said his daughter attends Cooper Elementary and he is excited about what's already taking place there, such as an economics class.

"It's kind of cool what the kids are learning," Leas said.

Springdale's Sonora Middle School is one of several other schools vying for innovation status this year. Sonora Middle wants a more flexible school day where students would not be driven by bells telling them when to switch subjects; instead, they would meet with an advisory teacher to plan what they must accomplish each week, according to Principal Shawna Lyons.

NW News on 03/05/2015