State Board Extends One Charter School, Allows Another To Surrender

The State Board of Education extended the charter of a school serving a high percentage of students with special needs during its monthly meeting June 10, but the renewal was for three years rather than the 10 the school requested.

The board also accepted the voluntary surrender of another school’s charter and removed the Bismarck and Cutter Morning Star districts from fiscal distress.

The Imboden Area Public Charter School, the state’s third oldest charter school and the smallest, serves a student population of about 50-60 students in a rural area about 45 miles northeast of Jonesboro. It offers individualized attention to a population of 50-60 students. Four teachers teach nine grades.

Charter schools are public schools granted regulatory flexibility in order to apply innovative teaching techniques.

The common criticism of charter schools is that they focus on easier-to-teach students. However, about 23 percent of the Imboden school is made up of students with special needs, compared to a statewide population of 12 percent, and 80 percent of the school is composed of students receiving free and reduced lunch prices, compared to a statewide average of 60 percent. The school also provides bus transportation, a service commonly not provided by charter schools.

In 2011-12, 73 percent of the school’s students tested proficient or advanced in literacy on the state’s benchmark exams. Test scores show the Imboden school are lower than the nearby Sloan-Hendrix and Pocahontas districts, but both of those have lower percentages of students with special needs. Judy Warren, the school’s director, and Dr. Gary Ritter with the University of Arkansas Office of Education Policy testified that students have shown improvement.

Following a recommendation by a Department of Education advisory committee, Imboden was granted a three-year renewal. Board member Dr. Jay Barth expressed concern about the school’s flat enrollment numbers.

Warren had asked for a 10-year renewal so that it could offer a sense of permanence to students’ family members.

“Parents need to know when they enroll their child in kindergarten that nine years later the school is going to be there,” Warren said.

The State Board also accepted the voluntary surrender of a charter held by the Oak Grove Elementary Health, Wellness and Environmental Science School in Paragould.

That charter had been granted in 2009, but the district asked that it be surrendered effective June 30. Superintendent Debbie Smith told the State Board that Paragould is undergoing a grade configuration change and needed to change the school’s grade levels so that it matches the rest of the district. The district has a declining balance and did not want to replace two health-related employees who are leaving the school, she said.