By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — The state Board of Education said today it may seek an attorney general’s opinion on whether approving a new open-enrollment charter school in Little Rock would affect long-running desegregation litigation involving three Pulaski County school districts.
The board voted unanimously to wait until next month to act on an application for the proposed Little Rock Urban Collegiate Public Charter School for Young Men in Little Rock. An attorney for the Little Rock School District argued that granting the application could affect desegregation litigation that has its roots in the 1957 school integration crisis.
State Education Board Chairman Naccaman Williams of Springdale said the board will consult with legal counsel and may seek an attorney general’s opinion on the matter.
The board also rejected applications for new charter schools in Springdale and West Memphis, granted a license to KIPP Delta Inc. to open a new charter school in Blytheville and was discussing an application for a charter school in Fayetteville into the night. The meeting is scheduled to resume Tuesday.
Jackie Jackson of Little Rock, board president of the Little Rock Urban Collegiate Public Charter School for Young Men, told the board that “our young men are in a crisis.”
A 2008 study showed that boys are more likely than girls to drop out of school, be expelled, make low grades, commit suicide and be diagnosed with a learning disability, Jackson said. An all-boys school in Little Rock would be better able to address the issues faced by today’s young men than co-ed schools, she said.
The proposed school would serve kindergarten through eighth grade with a maximum enrollment of 696.
Chris Heller, attorney for the Little Rock School District, did not argue against the benefits of an all-boys school but said the board did not have enough information to say whether granting the application would adversely impact desegregation efforts.
“You’ve got a statutory obligation … to not approve this charter school or any other public charter school if it in any manner negatively affects the desegregation efforts of the public school districts,” Heller said.
Most likely the school would have a negative effect on desegregation, Heller argued. He said some charter schools the board has approved have much smaller percentages of black students than they claimed they would have when applying to the board for their charters, in part because black families are less likely to be able to provide transportation.
“Some of the most segregated schools in Pulaski County today are charter schools that were approved by this board within the last several years,” Heller said.
Scott Smith, a former state Education Department attorney who is now director of the Arkansas Public School Resource Center, argued that the Little Rock School District has been declared unitary, or desegregated. Smith also said the school for young men would provide transportation to students.
The board rejected an application for the proposed Dove School of Excellence in Springdale, an open-enrollment charter school that would serve students in grades kindergarten-12 with a maximum enrollment of 650.
Also rejected was an application for the proposed Guap Academy College Preparatory School in West Memphis, an open-enrollment charter school that would serve students in grades 9-12 with a maximum enrollment of 100.
The board approved KIPP Delta Inc.’s request for a license for the proposed KIPP Blytheville College Preparatory School, an open-enrollment charter school that would serve students in grades 5-8 with a maximum enrollment of 360.
KIPP, or the Knowledge Is Power Program, already operates three charter schools in Helena-West Helena.
Arkansas currently has 18 open-enrollment charter schools. The state Legislature has set a cap of 24 on the number of open-enrollment charters the Education Board can approve.
The board’s approval of KIPP’s application does not count toward the cap because KIPP applied for a license to start a new school under an existing charter. Seven applications for new charters were on the board’s agenda for today and Tuesday.
