The state Board of Education voted 8-0 on Thursday to conduct its own hearing into whether the charter of the Pine Bluff Lighthouse Academy should be renewed.
The state Education Board will hold the hearing on the fate of the 270-pupil kindergarten-through-eighth grade campus at the Arch Ford Education Building, 4 Capitol Mall in Little Rock on Feb. 14. The hearing will be held as part of an already scheduled state board meeting that begins at 10 a.m.
On Dec. 18, a divided state Charter Authorizing Panel voted against renewal beyond this school year, citing low achievement and because of what the panel saw as insignificant or erratic gains in the school’s seven-year history.
Pine Bluff Lighthouse Academy’s lower school for grades kindergarten through six received an F letter grade from the state for the 2017-18 school year, down from a D the previous year. The upper school for seventh- and eighth-graders received a D, down from a C the previous year.
A number of schools in the Pine Bluff area are also struggling.
Both the Pine Bluff and Dollarway school districts in Jefferson County are under state control, in part because of low achievement.
If the Pine Bluff Lighthouse Academy is ultimately closed, it would be the second charter school to close in Pine Bluff in as many years. Responsive Education Solutions voluntarily surrendered its charter and closed Quest Middle School in Pine Bluff at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.