The state Board of Education has approved another rural charter school in Oklahoma

A Seminole-based nonprofit group focused on establishing charter schools in rural Oklahoma towns now has a green light to open a site in Okmulgee.

The state Board of Education last week approved without opposition the expansion of The Academy of Seminole into Okmulgee, about 65 miles to the east. The Okmulgee site, which is scheduled to open in August 2024, will hold classes in downtown Okmulgee in the building where a private school is closing at the end of this school year.

State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, the chairman of the state board, called the application submitted to the board “thorough.”

“This is an incredibly successful rural charter school that continues to position Oklahoma as a leader in education reform and innovation,” Walters said. “We want students and parents in rural communities to have robust options in education, and through its expansion, this high-quality school is filling that need. This school provides a model for others while making our state more competitive and our students more successful.”

Advance Rural Education, which opened The Academy of Seminole in 2017, also will operate the Okmulgee site. The path toward the creation of both sites hasn’t been without obstacles.

How the charter school in Okmulgee won state approval

In 2015, changes to state law opened the door to communities outside of Oklahoma City and Tulsa to have charter schools, which according to the Oklahoma State Department of Education website are public schools that are allowed greater flexibility for greater accountability. Charter schools have their own governing boards and are accountable to their sponsoring organization – either a local school board or the state Board of Education.

After the announcement in August 2016 of an application by ARE for a charter from the Seminole Public Schools board, that board rejected that application two months later. But in February 2017 the state board, led by then-state schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, agreed to serve as the school’s sponsor.

The Okmulgee site followed a similar track. In July, the Okmulgee Public Schools board declined the charter school’s application, leading ARE to instead seek sponsorship from the state board. Instead of sponsoring what will be called The Academy of Okmulgee as a separate entity, though, the state board approved the expansion of The Academy of Seminole to Okmulgee, so both campuses will operate under the already-existing agreement.

Bryan Cleveland, the OSDE’s general counsel, recommended that setup, telling the state board “it made more sense, at least from my perspective, to open up (Okmulgee) as a site” under the existing Seminole charter district. “It minimizes the financial risk and it also minimizes the legal limitations of what sharing (of resources) can happen.”

Wren Hawthorne, the superintendent of the Seminole charter school, said the Okmulgee site will open with grades pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, then add another grade each year until it goes through 12th grade. School officials projected enrollment for the 2024-25 academic year to be about 180 students, with growth to between 250 and 300 students over the next four years.

“There’s lots of interest to have a change and have a choice in Okmulgee,” he said.

What will happen to Stonebridge Academy, the current Okmulgee private school?

Hawthorne said the board of the current Okmulgee private school, Stonebridge Academy, “asked us to come in and start thinking about changing the private school into a charter. That’s how we started this journey.”

Stonebridge Academy’s board also has voted to turn over all of that school’s assets, including the building, to the new charter school, Hawthorne said. He added the Sam Viersen Family Foundation – which previously has supported Stonebridge Academy financially – has pledged $1.15 million over five years to support The Academy of Okmulgee and the Oakland, California-based NewSchools Venture Fund has awarded the Okmulgee site a $215,000 grant to help with startup costs.

The Academy of Seminole has 230 students. Its pre-K through eighth grade school and its high school each received a B on the most recent Oklahoma State Report Cards, the top score of any Seminole County school. Hawthorne said the Seminole school has a proven record of success which should bode well for establishing a similar school in Okmulgee, which has a population of about 11,300.

“That’s not something you have very often,” he said. “We’ve been through it once and we figured out the pitfalls and the things that work. We’re committed to trying to do that again.”

The Academy of Seminole has an Early College High School agreement with Seminole State College that allows academy students to simultaneously work toward earning an associate’s degree while also earning their high school diplomas. Hawthorne said the plan is to have a similar setup with The Academy of Okmulgee and the Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology in Okmulgee. Such a plan would have to be approved by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: New rural charter school site to open in Okmulgee after board approval