The State Board of Education approved a new charter school in Seminole, Oklahoma on Thursday.
This makes the school one of the first rural charter schools in the state. It also makes this school one of the first charters to be approved, and sponsored by, the State Board of Education.
Charter schools are typically run and approved by local school boards, but the Seminole Public School Board of Education had denied this charter application twice, saying it was incomplete.
Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said the new charter school will meet a need that the local school district cannot.
"We're talking about the students who are currently in high school—just giving them the option, not taking anything away from the students in Seminole public school."
The new charter school—the Academy of Seminole—will focus on science and technology.
Opponents of the charter school say the Seminole public school system already does a good job of that.
