Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Emmet seeking charter status again

For the second year Emmet is attempting to become a charter school district.

Last year, Emmet was turned down by the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) when the district applied for charter status. The application was denied because students would have had no choice as to where they would attend school.

During this time the state was in the process of working to consolidate as many districts as possible. The state was trying to eliminate districts with fewer than 350 students. Emmet was one of these districts, and was enmeshed in a struggle for its survival.

Emmet Superintendent Dr. Gene Ross said the school has been given a date to appear before the ADE and present its case. Ross and Donnie Davis, superintendent of the Blevins School District, which annexed Emmet last year, will be at the meeting. The two will go to Little Rock on March 14 for the meeting.

Ross said the type of charter Emmet seeks would turn the school into an agricultural district. It would use an Ed-Vision program developed in Minnesota which has proven successful elsewhere. If approved, only the high school would be affected.

It would be a multi-disciplinary program where students would pick their own projects to work on. The students could either work on individual projects or in groups, Ross said. "We plan on bringing people in different fields in to help out."

Half of each day would be spent on the project, with students required to spend the other half working on core courses. Ross said the students would still be required to pass their end of the year tests in math and literacy.

Emmet, he said, would also work to keep its extracurricular activities. These include band, FFA, basketball and baseball, as the school is working to field a team this year.

Those students who opted not to participate in the charter school, he said, would be able to attend regular classes as Blevins, the lead school in the district. Additionally, any student at Blevins who wished could attend the charter school at Emmet, if the school board approved the move.

Davis said any student wanting to attend the Emmet Charter School would have to present their case to the school board, and, if the board approved, they could attend. Each incident would be handled on its individual merit.

This would mean students could be bused from Emmet to Blevins and from Blevins to Emmet. Ross said this shouldn't be a problem as Emmet has two mini-buses. Davis said no plans have been made to transport students between the two schools, but thought one bus should handle the load.

Of course, both agreed no plans have been made for anything as the charter application has yet to be approved.

Ross said he thinks Emmet has a better chance of the charter being approved this year than last because politics shouldn't be involved as heavily. "I think they'll look at the project on its own merit instead of it being political like last time. If we'd been approved in 2004, we would have been exempt from annexation and I think that's why it (the charter) didn't happen. I think we have a better chance this year."

Ross said he and Davis have been told they would be contacted by the ADE is there's a problem with the application, but, to date, the two have heard nothing.

Davis said Jim Boardman, with the ADE, will be the chairman of the charter panel, and has had someone look at Emmet's charter application. An on-site visit is supposed to occur, where any questions the ADE has can be asked and answered, and any problems with the application can be dealt with before the March 14 meeting.

The application this year, Davis said, provides an alternative for students not wanting to attend a charter school, which was part of the problem in 2004. Had the charter been approved then, Emmet students not wanting to be in the charter school would have had nowhere else to go.

Davis pointed out this is a conversion charter, and will not draw students from several school districts. It will only affect students at Emmet and Blevins high schools.

There was some confusion, Davis said, on the application, as to whether Emmet would be utilizing the virtual high school or virtual academy. The two are polar opposites.

The virtual academy was an Internet-based home schooling program where students received computers, had them hooked to the net and took all classes over the Internet. There were some problems with this program, as there was no accountability factor included.

Virtual high schools, on the other hand, are not unusual. In the virtual high school, classes are taught over the Internet in a school setting. Blevins uses the virtual high school for its Spanish classes.

Davis said if the application is denied it will be "business as usual" with the district working to meet standards in the traditional way.

Emmet, he said, could possibly apply for charter status again, but that would be up to the school board. "Charter schools are hart to get. A lot of people think they can get one, but more have been turned down than approved."