BENTONVILLE -- Officials unveiled some details Thursday on the Walton Family Foundation's plans for a new private school in the Benton County city. The school will be near downtown Bentonville, will be supported by the Walton Family Foundation and will be built on land donated by Wal-Mart.
Called the Thaden School, it is to open in the fall of 2017 for grades seven and nine. It eventually will expand to serve grades six through 12, according to the announcement.
"There's a very strong educational system here, a community with great options. This is another one," said Clayton Marsh, Thaden's head of school.
The Walton Family Foundation, known widely for its support of public charter schools, is behind the Thaden School. Karen Minkel, the foundation's home region program director, is chairman of the school's board.
Thaden School's planned location is 30 acres at south Main Street and southeast Eighth Street, a few blocks south of the Bentonville public library. Until 2007, the now vacant property was for decades the county fairgrounds.
Wal-Mart owns the land, according to a news release on the school's website.
Educational options have increased in recent years in Benton County.
Arkansas Arts Academy in Rogers and Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy in Bentonville, both charter schools, enroll more than 1,000 students combined. Haas Hall Academy, which had operated as a charter school for several years in Fayetteville, opened a second campus in Bentonville last year.
In 2015, the Walton Family Foundation invested nearly $180 million in education nationally, with $20 million taking the form of startup grants for 100 new charter schools in 13 cities across the country, according to the foundation's website.
The foundation, however, believes in supporting more than just charter schools, Minkel said in an email.
"Our three-sector approach in Northwest Arkansas helps to ensure every child has access to high-quality educational options," Minkel said. "By working with traditional public schools, public charter schools and now an independent school, we support our vision of achieving a world-class system of schools."
Northwest Arkansas has some private schools, most of which are operated by churches or are religion-affiliated. The Thaden School will have no church affiliation and will not be faith-based, Marsh said.
The foundation announced last summer its plan to open a private school in Bentonville, though details at the time were scant. Marsh, formerly a deputy dean at Princeton University, started as head of the school in January.
The school's stated mission is "to provide a balanced and challenging education that ignites in our students a passion for discovery and learning, prepares them to succeed in college, and inspires them to lead lives of integrity, purpose, and responsible global citizenship."
Marsh said balance is an important part of the school, ranging from what is taught to the diversity of the student body. The school expects to provide full or partial financial assistance to at least 25 percent of its students, Marsh said.
Details on the school's admissions process, financial assistance and transportation options will be released over coming months, according to the news release.
The plan is to begin with grades seven and nine with about 60 students in both grades. It will add another group of seventh- and ninth-graders in its second year, advancing the original seventh- and ninth-graders to grades eight and 10.
A sixth-grade class will be added in the third year. By the fourth year, the original group of freshmen will be seniors.
"We don't want this to be sort of an airdrop school that's fully formed all at once," Marsh said. "You've got to build it up gradually."
Facility plans are still in the works. Marsh declined to comment about them until they are more fully developed.
"We do have a vision, but we're going to wait until later this fall to roll that out," he said.
Development of the campus will start with indoor and outdoor spaces that will support the school during its first two years. The institution will be on its permanent site during this first phase of operations, according to the release.
The school building is expected to be completed no later than the fall of 2019.
Debbie Jones, superintendent of the Bentonville School District, said the district supports school choice.
"We believe more competition makes us better," Jones said. "We can learn from what they're doing, and they can probably learn from what we're doing. We will work as a partner with them and help in any way we can."
The district opens the 2016-17 school year Monday with an expected 16,800 students, about 600 more than last year, or a 3.5 percent enrollment gain. Jones said she doesn't expect the new school to have a major impact on the district's enrollment trend.
Monica Kumar, executive director of Downtown Bentonville, said Thaden School will be an excellent addition to the downtown area.
"I think having a variety of educational options is really exciting because as we are looking to recruit more people to the area, having a range of options is always a wonderful thing," Kumar said.
Metro on 08/12/2016