2 charter groups to delay openings
The Arkansas Board of Education has approved requests from two open-enrollment charter school organizations to delay the opening of the new campuses for a year.
The Arkansas Military and First Responders Academy, initially planned for opening in August in Pulaski County, sought and received approval for an August 2023 opening from the state board.
"A number of factors have made this change unavoidable," the sponsoring American Quality Schools Inc. explained in an application for the date change.
"During the planning phase, it became very clear any site we might select would require significant capital improvement."
The organization said that anticipated supply-chain constraints occurring nationally would be "a tremendous roadblock" for completing construction and equipping the ninth through 12th grade campus in time to open this year.
"We have connected with members from the Walton Personal Philanthropy Group for assistance in searching for and securing a site appropriate to support the academic program and that satisfies all required code compliance matters," the school planners also told state officials.
The IDEA Public Schools Arkansas requested and received state approval of a charter amendment to start all approved grades/seats in August 2024, rather than August 2023.
IDEA still seeks to establish two campus sites within Pulaski County -- each starting with kindergarten, first, second and sixth grades in their inaugural year, and eventually growing to offer kindergarten through 12th grades.
The charter school planners told state education officials that they needed the additional year to train school leaders in the IDEA school model and "to secure facilities that allow us to serve communities where demand and need are greatest."
2022-23 sign-up underway in LRSD
Registration for the 2022-23 school year in the Little Rock School District is underway for those who have not already enrolled students for the year.
The first day of school in the Little Rock School District is Aug. 22.
Links to school enrollment options are available on the district's website: https://www.lrsd.org.