LITTLE ROCK-The Arkansas Board of Education has approved the relocation of a charter school in Little Rock and a new charter school campus in Springdale.
The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that the board approved the move and the new campus Thursday.
Little Rock Preparatory Academy's middle school will relocate to the former site of Lutheran High School, and will serve as many as 180 students in grades five through eight. The charter school is a college-preparatory program for underserved communities, and the new campus has science laboratories, a gymnasium, outdoor recreational space and other amenities that are not available at the school's current site.
A new Haas Hall Academy campus was also approved by the board. It's scheduled to open in Springdale in 2017, and will serve up to 500 students in seventh through twelfth grades. Haas Hall Academy has campuses in Fayetteville and Bentonville.
The state's Charter Authorizing Panel approved the Little Rock school's relocation in May, but denied Haas Hall's application to open a school in the Jones Center for Families in Springdale.
The panel's decisions are subject to review by the Education Board, which can either uphold the panel's decisions or makes its own decision after a hearing.
Springdale School District superintendent Jim Rollins sent a letter to the Education Board saying that the due to the area's diverse community, the opening of the campus would lead to segregation. He cited data saying that existing Haas Hall campuses do not special-education students or students learning English as a second language.
Haas Hall Academy founder and superintendent Martin Schoppmeyer and the charter system's attorney, Mark Henry, told the board that school planners are anxious to show that the school's college-preparatory program will be successful with a diverse student population.