The Little Rock School Board is well on its way to converting Hall West High School into a charter school, moving forward with a plan that to one parent appears to have come "out of left field."

Board members Thursday were briefed by state and local officials on the details to that plan that will likely turn the midtown high school into a charter school by early next year.

There was more curiosity than opposition Thursday, as board members asked Hall Principal Carlton McGee and Darrell Smith from the state Department of Education's Office of School Choice and Parent Empowerment a series of questions.

The hourlong discussion yielded new details with one stated aim -- giving families more flexibility.

The conversion to a charter school -- which are public schools run by their districts,

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