HOPE, Ark. - The Hope Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously at its monthly meeting to retain an Oxford, Mississippi, consultant to seek a $15 million federal grant for the creation of a magnet school.
The board also voted unanimously to continue to pursue an appeal of its status under a 1989 federal civil consent decree in the Eighth U.S. District Court of Appeals.
Why a magnet?
The magnet school grant the district will seek through the services of Rachel Scott of Scott Consulting, LLC, is a five-year, $15 million provision under the federal Magnet School Assistance Program for the Spring, 2022, grant cycle.
"We want to attract kids to our district," Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Crossley said. "We're not just sitting idly by saying, 'We don't want our kids to go anywhere.' That's not what this is. We want students to graduate from Hope High School be participants of our school district. But we also want to wrap our arms around students and their families in a very intentional way so they want to be here."
The district's three primary goals with this grant are to provide high-quality, expanded Pre-K programs, college and career aligned middle schools, and intentional ninth grade academies to get students ready for college.
Crossley told the board the grant should provide the district with sufficient resources to pursue the concept.
He said the creation of a magnet school for the HPS is part of his long-term plan for a "cradle to career" approach to public education which will make the HPS the premiere school district in Southwest Arkansas.
"We believe that it's possible in the next three to four years for almost three quarters of our students to graduate high school with either a two-year associates degree or a certification in skill trade," Crossley said.
On School Choice
Crossley said the appeal is in response to the need to stanch declining enrollment created through the state's School Choice Act, which has affected not only the HPS but all four districts involved in the 8th Circuit Court appeal.
Last month, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel reversed its earlier decision that had upheld a lower court in exempting four school districts (Hope, Lafayette County, Junction City and Camden Fairview) from participating in interdistrict student transfers that are otherwise allowed by the School Choice Act.
"We are looking to see if we can reinstate the desegregation order and not participate in school choice," Crossley said during the meeting.
Effectively, these decades-old federal school desegregation orders had previously been used to stop students from transferring out of the four districts.
The 8th Circuit panel upheld Hickey's ruling in January, 2021, based upon an argument by HPS regarding racially-based impact. But, the Eighth Circuit panel said in its latest ruling that was insufficient.
Crossley said they are the first board to act upon this.
He said the four districts involved, Hope, Camden-Fairview, Lafayette County and Junction City have been severely affected by declining enrollment since the enactment of so-called "school choice" in Arkansas.
"We've had a lot of requests from other districts in our area that we feel like would disproportionately be skewed racially, and we want to stop that from happening," he said. "Now, we could re-visit (School Choice) in the next few years, but right now, this is the smartest decision for us. But we're not the only district who's negatively impacted by this.
"We have a diverse community here in Hope, and we believe we should also have a diverse student population, as well."
Crossley said the next step in the process is to see if other school districts will join in on this appeal effort, before finding out if the court of appeals will hear their case.
"We're hoping this is a short-term deal, and not something that's going to last for years," he said.