Future School (Future School) of Fort Smith serves students in grades 9-12 in Fort Smith. Future School is an open-enrollment charter school with a unique nontraditional model that includes students completing internships. As a FY2020 APSRC CSP Subgrantee, Future School was awarded $1,222,233.00 in May 2020.

Mission Statement

Future School of Fort Smith (Future School) relentlessly empowers every student to shape their future and community through engaging them in high quality, professional educational experiences. We are the only public school in Arkansas to provide personalized, comprehensive advising coupled with professional internships and tuition-free college experience for every student.

To promote participation in advisory communities, despite over half of the students attending school virtually, advisors are asking students for synchronous attendance to advisory circles through Google Meets and are projecting the virtual participants so students can see each other as they circle. Future School created a new set of advisory lessons and developed a curriculum map for each grade level advisory. They have systemized grade level teams and advisory with each scheduled on the school staff calendar. Advisors will receive training through Big Picture Learning (BPL); attend site visits; receive in-person training from the BPL Coach and the Learning Through Interests Advisory Coach; and attend conferences hosted by BPL.

With CSP funding, Future School has been able to expand their promotion and marketing by using billboards, radio spots, Facebook ads, and other social media platforms. Future School maintains positive relationships with the media in Fort Smith, and they have been interviewed many times by local news sources, including newspapers and television stations.

Since its inception, Future School has been active in the River Valley community. For example, they built a float and participated in the Fort Smith Christmas Parade; hosted a booth at Konsplosion, the local anime convention; volunteered with the Salvation Army as bell ringers during the holidays; and painted the windows of local businesses during the winter season. Future School has also hosted community events open to the public to promote their model. Most notably, their First Annual Block Party attracted citizens from throughout the Fort Smith area, including vendors, artists, and sponsors. The Chalk the Block competition, which was part of the Block Party, resulted in students from area high schools participating.

90% of students in grades 10-12 will have had at least one Learning Through Interest (LTI) experience per year. These may be internships, WATC classes, or passion projects selected by the students. Although COVID restrictions could have made it difficult to make progress towards this goal, the Future School created a list of options that meet the needs of students attending campus, virtual students, and hybrid students.

90% of students in grades 10-12 who complete an LTI will create an exhibition based on their individual interests, internship site, community, and/or school need. The Exhibitions are scheduled for December 14th through the 18th. Future School is piloting ImBlaze, a program to streamline internship acquisition, follow-through, and attendance. The School plans to increase the number of community partnerships that support internships from the 186 students placed in internships last year at 166 different local business partners.