School in Fort Smith gets board approval
The Arkansas Board of Education on Thursday accepted the state Charter Authorizing Panel’s earlier approval of an application for the Future School of Fort Smith, an open-enrollment charter school for up to 450 students in grades 10-12.
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The independently operated, taxpayer-supported school will be the first charter school in Fort Smith. It is scheduled to open for the 2016-17 school year.
The Education Board also accepted the following Charter Authorizing Panel decisions:
Denial of a charter application for the Redfield Tri-County Charter School in Redfield.
Denial of the Northwest Arkansas Academy’s request to replace some of its state-required 38 core courses with Advanced Placement courses. Panel members found the request too broad and unnecessary, as there is an existing mechanism to replace general courses with Advanced Placement courses.
Approval of Quest Middle School of West Little Rock’s request to change its name to Quest Academy, effective July 1.
Approval of the Bauxite School District’s request on behalf of the Bauxite Miner Academy conversion charter school to allow up to 45 students in a classroom taking an online course.
Approval of the Rogers School District’s request on behalf of the Rogers New Technology High School to increase the conversion charter school’s enrollment cap from 600 to 900.
Hector is taken off fiscal distress list
The 575-student Hector School District in Pope County has regained the authority to spend money without getting state approval first.
The Arkansas Board of Education on Thursday voted to release the Hector School District from the state’s fiscal distress program.
The Education Board had classified the district in fiscal distress in May 2014, after net legal balances of $977,649 in 2011-12 dipped to $582,323 in 2012-13 and $445,268 in 2013-14.
Those reserve funds improved to $680,983 in the 2014-15 school year. The district rebuilt the balance by eliminating four state-licensed positions and three support staff positions, forgoing employee pay raises and bonuses, eliminating a disability benefit, moving an alternative learning program to an existing campus, limiting field trips and reducing school bus transportation costs.
Six Arkansas school districts continue to be classified by the state as fiscally distressed, subjecting them to state approval of their expenditures and the implementation of state-approved finance plans.
The districts are Guy-Perkins, Lee County, Yellville-Summit, Maynard, Helena-West Helena and Pulaski County Special.
Pulaski County Special and Helena-West Helena are operating under state control — with state appointed superintendents and without locally elected school boards — because of the fiscal distress label.
The state Education Board will tour schools in Helena-West Helena today, as well as hold a board workshop in the district.
LR schools marking 9-week highs, lows
Little Rock School District leaders are in the process of systematically identifying the successes and failures of the first nine weeks of classes so as to learn from the successes and change the failures, Superintendent Baker Kurrus reported Thursday to the State Board of Education.
“We’re very intentionally going about a continuous improvement,” Kurrus said, adding that it is important to address the needs of all students who are struggling academically, even those in the district’s high-performing schools.
All schools have to produce students who can be successful in middle school and then in high school, he said.
The district was taken over by the state last January and the elected School Board removed because six of the district’s 48 schools are classified as academically distressed — the result of years of chronically low student scores on state tests.
Veronica Perkins, the district’s chief academic officer, described for the state board the efforts that are underway with district teachers to more tightly align state education standards, curriculum and testing.
In response to a question from Education Board member Vicki Saviers, Perkins said the district’s biggest challenge is overcoming the teacher mindset that “covering” the education standards in class is sufficient, when student mastery of the education standard is the actual goal. That can require a change in the way material is taught, she said.