1:53 p.m. UPDATE:
The state’s Charter Authorizing Panel on Tuesday endorsed a proposed open-enrollment charter school designed to expand educational and social/emotional services to children in kindergarten through sixth grades who have experienced trauma.
The Hope Academy of Northwest Arkansas, to enroll as many as 70 pupils at its location within the Bentonville School District, is now subject to final approval by the Arkansas Board of Education at a meeting later this year.
Hope Academy is the only proposed open-enrollment charter school now in the works for the 2020-21 school year. Other organizations submitted applications for charter schools in the 2020-21 charter school application cycle but ultimately withdrew.
The Transforming Life Ministries Care Center withdrew its plan for the Dr. Elam Lloyd Academy of Excellence in North Little Rock at Tuesday’s charter panel meeting. That was done in response to panel member concerns about adequate financial resources for the proposed secondary school.
Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
EARLIER:
The Arkansas Charter Authorizing Panel will consider at its 10 a.m. meeting today applications from three non-profit organizations for the opening of new charter schools in the 2020-21 school year.
The proposed schools are:
• Hope Academy of Northwest Arkansas, Bentonville, for as many as 70 children in kindergarten through sixth grade by the 2024-25 school year. The sponsoring entity is the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter.
• Dr. Elam Lloyd Academy of Excellence in the North Little Rock School District for as many as 400 students in grades six through 12 by the 2024-25 school year. The sponsoring entity is Transforming Life Ministries Care Center.
• Winslow Community School to be located within Greenland School District and serve as many as 260 students in kindergarten through 12th grades by the 2024-25 school year. The sponsoring entity is Winslow Community Center Association.
The panel meeting will be live-streamed at https://bit.ly/31zcdzN