The application process ends Friday for Pea Ridge Manufacturing and Business Academy, the new charter conversion school at Pea Ridge High School. It is a separate school, with its own LEA (local education authority) number, according to director Charley Clark.
"Everything else we do is different," he said. "As a charter school, we follow different state guidelines."
The state has set a cap of 125 students for the first year of the academy.
March Madness, a special event to answer questions about the academy, will be held from 4-7 p.m. Thursday, March 20, in the parking lot in front of the high school gym, Clark said. There will be hot dogs served.
"We got our grant back on Tuesday," Clark said this week, "from the Arkansas Department of Education. It was $600,000 from the charter school department."
Those funds will be used for equipment, technology ... "tons of equipment for all pathways," Clark said, adding that the equipment for the welding pathway is expensive. He said computers and software will also be purchased.
"When talking logistics, we will be training kids on what is current. Current costs more than old," he said of software.
Clark's personal experience inspires his passion for his role and for what he hopes to provide for students in Pea Ridge.
"I'm very, very fortunate," he said, explaining that when he was a teen, he worked at Whirlpool in Fort Smith and drove a forklift at Planter's Peanuts. He remembers that a lot of people who made good money at Whirlpool lost their jobs when the company outsourced. "They made good money, but they didn't have the skills ... so they couldn't find other jobs," he said.
"If you have the students' best interests at heart and communicate to them what it's like out there," he said, "you should be able to help them. I get along great with kids. I want to communicate that our charter school is for everyone -- they can go right into a career or go to college.
"Most of our students are only exposed to two things -- what their parents do and what their teacher does. Now, we're opening the doors to more for them," he said.
"My whole thing is to let these kids be successful, to give them options."
Clark has continued meeting with business partners and now has an agreement with Walmart TV, Embassy Suites/John Q. Hammonds, too.
"As the economy changes and moves around, so will we," he said.
The application process ends at 3:30 p.m. Friday, March 21. Forms can be picked up and returned to the Pea Ridge High School office.
General News on 03/19/2014