A state panel on Thursday turned down three new charter schools for the 2019-2020 school year.
The Charter Authorizing Panel rejected the Sugarloaf Valley Academy in Hartford, saying there wasn’t a demonstrated need shown for the school and concerns about whether it could attract a sufficient number of students to be financially viable.
The Hartford School District absorbed into the Hackett School District because of chronically low enrollment.
Earlier, applications from Seven Arts Lyceum in Searcy and the Sims-Fayola International Academy in Pine Bluff were rejected.
On Wednesday, the charter school panel reviewed four charter school applications, granting initial approval for only one.
Open-enrollment charter schools are taxpayer-supported. They are operated by a nonprofit organization other than a traditional school district.
The charter panel’s decisions are reviewed by the state Board of Education.
The Education Board has the authority to accept the panel’s decision or hold its own hearing on an application. That hearing could come at the request of the charter school organization or a local school district that is in opposition to the charter school, or on the state board’s own initiative.
On Thursday, charter school panel members expressed concern about Seven Arts’ possible religious affiliations and questioned whether its proposed high school plan met the state-required minimum of teaching 38 courses.
Seven Arts’ proposal says the school would start with up to 150 students in grades nine through 12 and, within five years, add middle school grades and then elementary school grades. Overall kindergarten through 12th grade maximum enrollment would be 700 students.
Regarding Sims-Fayola, charter school panel members expressed concern with the school planners’ last minute changes to its proposed budget and the closing of a Sims-Fayola charter school in Denver due in part to the founders’ shifting focus to start new schools elsewhere in the country.
In Pine Bluff, Sims-Fayola proposes a fifth through eighth grade all-boys school with a maximum enrollment of 200 students.
Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.