Stephen F. Austin State University

NACOGDOCHES, Texas -- The Texas State Board of Education today unanimously approved an application by Stephen F. Austin State University to open a university charter school during the 2008-09 school year.

In December, SFA’s James I. Perkins College of Education submitted a letter of intent to the Texas Education Agency to open a university charter school. The completed application was forwarded to the state agency earlier this month and considered by the State Board of Education’s Committee of School Initiatives during a Jan. 17 meeting. The committee recommended the board approve the application.

“With the approval of the application, we can move forward with our plans to create a ‘one-of-a-kind’ early childhood education center as we open the new university charter school this fall,” said Dr. John Jacobson, dean of the Perkins College of Education.

Jacobson said SFA's new university charter school will become the only such school in Texas directly linked with a research laboratory. Currently, the University of Texas at Austin is the only other Texas university that operates a university charter school.

The new university charter school will offer the Perkins College an opportunity to build on the great success that has been achieved with the exemplary-rated NISD/SFA Charter School. It will be integrally linked with the Perkins College of Education Department of Elementary Education and the Early Childhood Laboratory, a research laboratory within the college that prepares SFA students to work with young children and their families.

“With the dynamic interaction of the Elementary Education department, Early Childhood Laboratory and the university charter school, the Perkins College will be able to perform cutting-edge research in early childhood education,” Jacobson said. “This will be a one-of-a-kind center for East Texas and the state.”

The current NISD/SFA Charter School operations agreement between the Nacogdoches Independent School District and the university expires in July 2008. The new university charter school, which will be state funded and operate as a public school, will replace the NISD/SFA Charter School.

Lysa Hagan, who has served as the charter school leader since 2002, will serve as director of the new school.

“We are very excited about transitioning from a very successful district charter school with NISD to this new university charter school,” Hagan said. “We look forward to continued collaboration for teacher preparation as well as expanded research opportunities.”

SFA university charter school classes will be held in the current charter school facilities during the 2008-09 school year. In 2009, the university charter school will move to the facilities of the Early Childhood Research and Development Center that also will house the Early Childhood Laboratory and the Department of Elementary Education.

Parents of current NISD/SFA Charter School students will have the option to automatically enroll their children in the new university charter school, and new students will be accepted on an open-enrollment basis beginning with the fall 2008 semester. Information about applications will be available in February.