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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Board of Education has approved expansions for two central Arkansas charter schools, despite opposition Little Rock School District supporters who argued that the move would prompt more affluent families to leave the district.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (http://bit.ly/21WAc58 ) reports that the board agreed late Thursday to let eSTEM Public Charter Schools Inc. increase enrollment by more than 2,300 students, and expand LISA Academy Charter School's enrollment cap by 600 students.
The board voted 5-3 to allow LISA Academy Charter School to build an elementary school for kindergarten through sixth-grade students in west Little Rock. Members Jay Barth of Little Rock, Mireya Reith of Fayetteville and Vicki Saviers of Little Rock voting against the charter school's expansion.
LISA Academy's current west Little Rock campus will serve seventh through 12 grades.
The board also voted 4-2 to approve eStem's expansion plan, which will allow the charter system to bring its downtown high school's 10th through 12th grades to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock campus in the 2017-18 school year. It'll also open new elementary and junior high schools.
The total number of new charter seats grows to 3,000 with the two approved expansions. All of the enrollment increases for the charter schools are within the Little Rock School District.
The meeting's main focus was the potential impact the additional the eStem and LISA Academy campuses would have on the state-controlled Little Rock School District, which has more than 23,000 students. The issue has been debated for months.
Many opponents of the expansions asked the board to hold off and instead create a plan for all public education, including both charter and more traditional schools, in central Arkansas.
In other business, the board unanimously voted to renew Covenant Keepers Charter School's charter in southwest Little Rock for three years.
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Information from: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, http://www.arkansasonline.com
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