Friendship Aspire Academy has withdrawn a request to move up by a year plans to open a charter school in Little Rock to take advantage of a vacant building being remodeled by the Walton Family Foundation for another charter operator that withdrew.
The state Board of Education had set a special meeting Friday to review the application. The withdrawal canceled the meeting and means Friendship won’t open in the 2018-19 school year and the remodeled Garland school building will not be occupied for a time. I’ve been unable to reach Friendship officials, but they presumably will proceed with original plans to open in Little Rock in 2019, though it’s unclear what the location will be.
The state charter review panel had given Friendship Aspire the green light in May. But, somewhat to the surprise of many, the state Board last week voted unanimously to give a full review to the application rather than immediately ratifying the charter panel’s approval. The Board heard opposition to the plan from former state Board member Sam Ledbetter, former U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder
Questions also were raised about Friendship’s original plan, which was to open a school in Southwest Little Rock in 2019. Garland school is far to the east of the area
No reason was immediately available for Friendship’s decision to drop its accelerated plan. State Education Director Johnny Key, who confirmed Friendship’s decision, has said he’ll forward the letter notifying the state of the decision when he can get access to a WiFi signal. I’ll share it when I receive it.
UPDATE: Here’s the letter from Friendship Aspire. It cites the Board’s decision to review and “potentially reverse” the charter advisory panel.
Given the burden of evidence required to review, and the time that has been lost in this process, we do not believe it to be in the best interest of the children and families of Little Rock to rush our school opening. The uncertainty, with less than seven weeks to open our doors to staff and eight weeks to open our doors to students, has created an untenable position and is unfair to our families.
The letter, from Donald Hense, said the decision was “disheartening” because it would mean “one less quality school choice” and almost mean “a completely renovated
and state-of-the-art school facility will go underutilized.”
Hense said Friendship would open in 2019. But a question remains on what review process will be necessary given that their original approval was based on serving Southwest Little Rock.