Charter school seen as more 'flexible' route to go for alternative learning
Posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The Lincoln School District wants to develop a conversion charter school that would encompass its current alternative learning program.
The district will hold a public hearing on the plan for a conversion charter school 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27 at the Lincoln Central Administration Office, 117 Boyer St.
"It basically will become the program for our alternative school,"said James Gregory, the district's federal programs coordinator.
Superintendent Frank Holman said he believes a conversion charter school will allow the district more flexible class time and academic options for certain high school students. The program could potentially offer flexible schedules besides the "traditional 8 to 3 school day,"he said.
Gregory said he expected more details about the specifics of how the program will function will be worked out in advance of the meeting.
Gregory said the conversion charter is modeled after a program Superintendent Frank Holman oversaw in Cabot. Holman worked as Cabot's superintendent for five years before returning to Lincoln in 2007.
"It is very similar,"Holman said.
Cabot operates the Academic Center of Excellence as a conversion charter high school program. The school Web site says," ACE is a unique and flexible learning environment that promotes high quality and rigorous academic achievement programs through the development of individual student strengths, talents and interests with an emphasis on mastery learning, self-discipline, socio-emotional development and parent involvement."
Lincoln's current alternative learning environment program operates as an in-house, on-campus program where students take many of their required classes in the alternative classrooms but they may also go into regular classrooms for electives and course work.
Lincoln implemented the on-campus alternative learning program this year after three years as a participating partner with the Boston Mountain Educational Cooperative's Education Center in Fayetteville. The center provides alternative learning programs to six districts -- Elkins, Farmington, Greenland, Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove and West Fork.
A conversion charter school is different from an open-enrollment charter school. A conversion school is initiated by the local school district as a new in-house operation.
"It has its own policies and procedures,"Holman said.
The Greenland School District previously operated a conversion charter school called the Arkansas School for Information Systems and Technology, which was discontinued after the 2005-2006 school year.
Some of the reasons then-Superintendent Ron Brawner and school director Rick Gales cited for discontinuing the program were the state requirements involved with operating a separate school, and they believed the school's programs could be incorporated into the high school curriculum without the confines of a charter program.
An example of an open-enrollment charter school is Haas Hall Academy in rural Farmington, which has no affiliation with the local district. The program receives state aid for students enrolled there, but it has no authority to levy local property taxes.
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