GENTRY -- Following a special school district presentation to the public on its reasons for applying for a conversion charter school within the district and a waiver of certain state requirements, the school board met in special session and passed two resolutions -- one applying for the waiver and the other for a conversion charter school in Gentry's school district.
According to material presented in the public informational hearing by Randy Barrett, district superintendent, Judy Winslett, assistant superintendent, and Brae Harper, high school principal, the school district wished to apply to have a conversion charter school in connection with the high school to better prepare high school students to obtain gainful employment upon graduation by providing specialized training to give students needed job skills to find employment in a number of different fields.
According to information presented by Barrett, only 44 percent of Gentry graduates go on to college, compared to 55 percent in Arkansas and 62 percent nationwide. Of students starting college, about half of those do not finish and obtain a degree, Barrett said.
Barrett said the school district has a high graduation rate and has "done a pretty decent job of preparing kids to go on to college, but we have not done equally well with the kids going to work" after high school. Barrett cited the school district offering students the opportunity to complete up to 24 college credit hours concurrently with high school, giving students the opportunity to complete almost a year's worth of college by the time they graduate from high school.
He explained that the charter school would not only benefit students not going on to college but would give college-bound students job skills they could use to work their way through college by attending a two-year college while working and then deciding whether or not to pursue a four-year degree.
He said, in order to better equip Gentry students, the district was looking at a three-pronged approach: 1. Seeking certain waivers from the Arkansas Board of Education to allow the district to get started in providing vocational training to students as soon as possible, without waiting until next year to start a conversion charter school; 2. Seeking a conversion charter school within the district; and 3. Working together with other west-side school districts and industry to establish a regional vocational and technical training center on the west side of Benton County.
One of the waivers the school district is seeking would allow instructors not certified as teachers by the Arkansas Department of Education to teach some of the vocational and technical classes. As an example, Barrett asked how many certified teachers would the district be able to find who are also qualified to teach diesel mechanics -- adding that local industries have a need for diesel mechanics. The same would also likely be true in other specialized fields, such as information technology, nursing and specialized machine operators.
During a question and answer period, some teachers asked if such a waiver would eventually eliminate teachers' jobs in the district and across the state. Barrett and Harper said the waivers and charter school would not eliminate teaching positions or classes currently offered which require certified teachers but would add additional opportunities and classes for Gentry students.
Barrett further addressed those concerns in an email communication sent to school staff on Sept. 3:
"I was asked by a board member to make sure you all understood the intent of the Act 1240 waivers the district is requesting. Act 1240 gives public school districts the ability, in certain circumstances, to request the same waivers as offered to open enrollment charter schools. The ones we are requesting are a companion piece to our conversion charter application, as I explained last week in my letter to you inviting you to our public town hall meeting. If you remember reading it, that letter asked you to email me, to come by and visit me personally, and / or come to the meeting with any questions or concerns you might have.
"Both the Act 1240 waiver request and the conversion charter application have no 'secret agendas' in regard to existing staff or programs. The conversion charter, which contains the same waiver requests as the Act 1240 waivers, has been discussed at seven board meetings beginning in December of 2014 and an earlier town hall meeting in April of 2015. You can read those board minutes on our school website under state-required information. There have been news articles in the paper during that period. The actual Act 1240 waiver application and the PowerPoint presentation from the last meeting are in the Dropbox on the school website as well.
"As I related at the public meeting, all of this effort is to give the district the flexibility to offer an expanded vocational and technical curriculum to attempt to meet the needs of our graduates who do not plan to seek admission to a four-year college upon graduation; that's a minimum of 50 percent of the students each year in our recent graduating classes.
"So, in short summary, this initiative is not about you. Nor is it about me. But it is about doing a better job with the 'careers' side of College and Careers public school education.
"I hope this helps any of you who might not have been keeping up with the issue. I would not want you to be misinformed about the intent and actions of the school board in voting unanimously to approve my recommendation to pursue both these strategies which seek to better serve our students."
Questions were also raised about funding for a new charter school and whether it would take away funding from the current school programs. Winslett told those in attendance that some startup funding was available from the sate but that many local businesses and industries had voiced their willingness to assist the school district in providing the specialized training and equipment needed for vocational training.
Other waivers requested relate to certain exemptions from state-mandated grading scales since they do not necessarily apply to all vocational courses, exceptions to the length of instructional days to give students more opportunities to pursue specialized vocational training or seek employment and an exemption in the appeal process under the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act to reduce the possibility of the district having to spend its resources defending itself in court.
According to Barrett's presentation, the intent behind seeking a conversion charter school within the district is to: "improve student learning; increase learning opportunities for all students; encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods; create new professional opportunities for teachers, including the opportunity to be responsible for the learning program at the school site; provide parents and pupils with expanded choices in the types of educational opportunities that are available within the public school system; and hold the schools accountable for meeting measurable student achievement standards."
Possible opportunities through a district conversion charter school include: building partnerships with business and industry; students having internships with business and industry; expanding course offerings outside traditional high school courses; and students graduating with industry certificates.
Possible areas of interest or focus in the school if the charter school application is granted include the healthcare field; the transportation industry, including diesel mechanics and logistics; information technology; and sales and marketing.
The district is already expanding its course offerings to better prepare students for careers upon graduation and has also partnered with Northwest Arkansas Community College to offer a certified nurse aide course this semester and possibly a patient care technician course in the spring semester.
The full PowerPoint presentation from last week's meeting is available to the public on the school district's website under items in the school board's folder in Dropbox.
General News on 09/09/2015