diff --git a/apis/r/DESCRIPTION b/apis/r/DESCRIPTION
index 870da168f4..c688df1961 100644
--- a/apis/r/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/apis/r/DESCRIPTION
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Description: Interface for working with 'TileDB'-based Stack of Matrices,
     like those commonly used for single cell data analysis. It is documented at
     <https://github.com/single-cell-data>; a formal specification available is at
     <https://github.com/single-cell-data/SOMA/blob/main/abstract_specification.md>.
-Version: 1.15.99.1
+Version: 1.15.99.2
 Authors@R: c(
     person(given = "Aaron", family = "Wolen",
            role = c("cre", "aut"), email = "aaron@tiledb.com",
diff --git a/apis/r/NEWS.md b/apis/r/NEWS.md
index 797974c800..72006387a6 100644
--- a/apis/r/NEWS.md
+++ b/apis/r/NEWS.md
@@ -2,12 +2,13 @@
 
 ## Changes
 
-* Push `schema` accessor down to `libtiledbsoma` [#3079](https://github.com/single-cell-data/TileDB-SOMA/pull/3079)
-* Push `attrnames` down to C++ [#3121](https://github.com/single-cell-data/TileDB-SOMA/pull/3121)
-* Use `libtiledbsoma` for R schema evolution [#3100](https://github.com/single-cell-data/TileDB-SOMA/pull/3100)
-* Implement missing `domain` argument to `SOMADataFrame` `create` [#3032](https://github.com/single-cell-data/TileDB-SOMA/pull/3032)
 * Remove unused `fragment_count` accessor [#3054](https://github.com/single-cell-data/TileDB-SOMA/pull/3054)
+* Implement missing `domain` argument to `SOMADataFrame` `create` [#3032](https://github.com/single-cell-data/TileDB-SOMA/pull/3032)
+* Use `libtiledbsoma` for R schema evolution [#3100](https://github.com/single-cell-data/TileDB-SOMA/pull/3100)
+* Push `attrnames` down to C++ [#3121](https://github.com/single-cell-data/TileDB-SOMA/pull/3121)
+* Push `schema` accessor down to `libtiledbsoma` [#3079](https://github.com/single-cell-data/TileDB-SOMA/pull/3079)
 * Handle `numeric` coords properly when reading arrays
+* Remove two more `tiledb::schema` callsites [#3160](https://github.com/single-cell-data/TileDB-SOMA/pull/3160)
 
 # tiledbsoma 1.14.1
 
diff --git a/apis/r/R/SOMADenseNDArray.R b/apis/r/R/SOMADenseNDArray.R
index f6e12f34a3..15bd47063e 100644
--- a/apis/r/R/SOMADenseNDArray.R
+++ b/apis/r/R/SOMADenseNDArray.R
@@ -133,10 +133,7 @@ SOMADenseNDArray <- R6::R6Class(
 
       ## the 'soma_data' data type may not have been cached, and if so we need to fetch it
       if (is.null(private$.type)) {
-          ## TODO: replace with a libtiledbsoma accessor as discussed
-          tpstr <- tiledb::datatype(tiledb::attrs(tiledb::schema(self$uri))[["soma_data"]])
-          arstr <- arrow_type_from_tiledb_type(tpstr)
-          private$.type <- arstr
+          private$.type <- self$schema()[["soma_data"]]$type
       }
 
       arr <- self$object
diff --git a/apis/r/R/SOMASparseNDArray.R b/apis/r/R/SOMASparseNDArray.R
index 4bbeb22b92..93b8f0d455 100644
--- a/apis/r/R/SOMASparseNDArray.R
+++ b/apis/r/R/SOMASparseNDArray.R
@@ -269,10 +269,7 @@ SOMASparseNDArray <- R6::R6Class(
 
       ## the 'soma_data' data type may not have been cached, and if so we need to fetch it
       if (is.null(private$.type)) {
-          ## TODO: replace with a libtiledbsoma accessor as discussed
-          tpstr <- tiledb::datatype(tiledb::attrs(tiledb::schema(self$uri))[["soma_data"]])
-          arstr <- arrow_type_from_tiledb_type(tpstr)
-          private$.type <- arstr
+          private$.type <- self$schema()[["soma_data"]]$type
       }
 
       arrsch <- arrow::schema(arrow::field(nms[1], arrow::int64()),