FOCUS D.C. Public Charter School Bulletin

February 2, 2005

Public Charter School Board Conditionally Approves Four More Charters for Fall 2005

The D.C. Public Charter School Board at its monthly meeting last week gave conditional approval to open next fall to all four schools that had been required by the Board to substantially revise the applications they submitted last June. Although conditional approval is no guarantee of final approval, in the past nearly all conditionally approved schools have been granted charters.

These four schools join three others that were conditionally approved on the basis of their June applications. All seven of these successful applicants took advantage of FOCUS's charter school startup program, which includes formal training programs, a comprehensive guide book, individual meetings, and line-by-line review of draft applications by academic and business experts.

The Board of Education earlier approved three schools to open next fall, which means that as many as 10 new schools could open. Two other schools that were approved last year but decided not to open this year also will be opening next fall, and several existing schools are likely to open additional campuses.

The seven conditionally-approved schools:

Academia Bilingue de la Comunidad (ABC)
A Spanish/English bilingual middle school spearheaded by Chuck Jackson, a former attorney who is working with both the National Council of La Raza and Building Excellent Schools

Academy of Learning Through the Arts (ALTA)
A pre-k through 8th arts immersion school founded by Pat Mitchell, head of the Fillmore Arts Center, with partnerships throughout the D.C. arts community

AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School
A literacy-intensive preschool based on a current private school model developed by the AppleTree Institute for Early Literacy and led by veteran charter school founders Jack McCarthy and Russ Williams

Early Childhood Academy Public Charter School
An outgrowth of a successful Head Start program that will offer a language- and literacy-rich academic environment for young children

Hope Academy Public Charter School
A K-8 school developed in cooperation with Imagine Schools, Inc. and emphasizing strong academics and technology literacy

Potomac Lighthouse Public Charter School
A K-12th arts infusion school utilizing the Core Knowledge sequence and developed in partnership with Lighthouse Academies

YouthBuild Public Charter School
A bilingual vocational GED and high school diploma program led by Patricia Bravo, current director of the YouthBuild program at the Latin American Youth Center

Audit: DCPS Total Enrollment Now 61,710

Total audited DCPS enrollment for this school year is 61,710, a decline of 2,538 students or 4% from last school year. Of the total enrollment, 58,785 occupy DCPS school buildings and 2,925 are private placement special education and general education students who attend non-public schools or public schools in surrounding counties. DCPS total enrollment has declined by 16,938 students, or 22%, since the first charter schools opened eight years ago.

Audited charter school enrollment numbers are not yet available but enrollment is expected to have increased significantly again this year.

Charter School Facilities Allowance Scheduled to Rise Again in FY ‘06

Barring intervention by the Williams administration, the per-student charter school facilities allowance will rise to $2,775 in FY 2006 from its current level of $2,380. The facilities allowance, refigured each year under a legally-mandated formula, is designed to create roughly equal facilities funding over time between DCPS, which has a separate capital budget, and the charter schools, which do not. The allowance is critical to the charter schools’ ability to acquire and renovate buildings in which to house their students.

Under the formula, each year’s per-pupil facilities allowance is determined by averaging the DCPS per-pupil capital budget for the previous five years. In line with this moving average, the charter school per-pupil facilities allowance is just now catching up with the DCPS per-pupil capital budget, which increased sharply in recent years (see attached graph). Based on current projections of DCPS capital spending over the next several years, the charter school facilities allowance will increase slightly in FY 2007 and then begin to drop, hitting around $2,200 in FY 2010.

Although the mayor’s Office of Budget and Planning has figured the allowance at $2,775, there is no guarantee that the FY 2006 budget the mayor sends to the Council in March will contain that figure. Last spring, for example, the mayor proposed to the Council a facilities allowance of $1,981 even though the formula specified $2,380. Thankfully, the Council rejected the mayor’s proposal and set the allowance at its legally-mandated level. At the moment, mayoral staff are able to say only that the administration has no current plans to ignore the formula this year.

Friends of Choice in Urban Schools
1530 16th Street, NW #104
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 387-0405 phone
(202) 667-3798 fax
www.focusdc.org