FOCUS D.C. Public Charter School Bulletin

September 11, 2006

--One Expansion, Six New Charter Schools Open For Business
--Under Pressure, Board of Education Agrees To Look at State Function
--Candidates Back Moratorium on Charters, Zoning Restrictions
--FOCUS Hires Literacy Specialist to Help Startup Schools
--Fourth Annual Startup Program To begin October 24

One Expansion, Six New Charter Schools Open for Business

The number of public charter schools in the District grew to 55 last week with the opening of six startup public charter schools and one expansion campus. Unofficially, the 55 schools enroll 19,859 students on 69 campuses, up from 17,419 in the 2005-2006 school year — an increase of 14%. Although this number likely will drop when the official count is done in October, it is probable that public charter school enrollment will reach around 27% of total 2006-2007 in-city D.C. public school enrollment, up from 24% last year.

The five new schools:

City Collegiate PCS
Project-based learning for middle and high school students.

Education Strengthens Families (ESF) PCS
Family literacy model, enrolling preschool and early-childhood students along with their parents.

Nia Community PCS
Community-centered elementary and middle school on South Capitol Street.

Septima Clark PCS
DC’s first single-sex public charter school, for boys grades Pre-S through 8.

St. Coletta Special Education PCS
Founded by St. Coletta of Greater Washington, the school serves children and adults, age 3-22, with severe mental disabilities.

Washington Latin PCS
A classical middle and high school focusing on arts and sciences.

The expansion school:

KIPP: WILL Academy PCS
DC’s third KIPP school, WILL features an accelerated program to prepare students grades 5-8 to attend top-ranked college preparatory high schools.

More information on all of these schools is available on the FOCUS website, www.focusdc.org.

Under Pressure, Board of Education Agrees to Look at State Function

The D.C. Board of Education, which, uniquely, operates both as a local school board and a state board of education, intends to establish a task force to study the functioning of its highly troubled State Education Agency (SEA). The SEA recently was designated a “high risk grantee” by the U.S. Department of Education.

Currently, the superintendent of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), which the BOE oversees, also functions as the District’s “chief state school officer.” In the latter capacity he heads the DCPS SEA, many of whose employees have both state and school system functions. Among other things, the SEA is responsible for disseminating federal grants and entitlements to the DCPS “local education agency” (LEA) and to the charter schools, all of which are independent of the school system and each of which is considered its own LEA. Over the years the charter schools have complained of second-class treatment by the SEA, citing delayed or improperly reduced federal payments, among many other problems. The payment issue grew to crisis proportions during the 2005-2006 school year, when the charter schools did not receive any federal funding until well into the second semester, and some charter schools got no money at all.

Although agreeing to study its handling of the SEA functon, the Board, in a resolution passed at its July meeting, fell far short of the requirements of a directive issued earlier by the U.S. Senate D.C. Appropriations Subcommittee. Subcommittee members, upset by the high-risk grantee designation and complaints from charter schools, directed DCPS to contract with an outside entity to develop legislation to separate the SEA functions from DCPS. The resolution, however, does not mention the Senate directive and refers not to separation but to an “organizational alignment” within DCPS.

But FOCUS has learned that a revised resolution will be considered by the Board at its September meeting. That resolution, although unusually opaque even by Board standards, appears to expand the mandate of the task force to include an examination of whether DCPS’s SEA function should be spun off. A Board majority evidently favors this result, which the charter schools have been demanding since 1998.

Candidates Back Moratorium on Charters, Zoning Restrictions

Two of the many candidates for election this year have taken public stands that put them at odds with D.C.’s charter school community. Mark Borbely, Ward 5/6 candidate for school board, has come out strongly for a moratorium on new chartering. Borbely writes on the “Concerned4DCPS” list-serve (heavily used by the anti-charter group Save Our Schools) that “new charters should not be approved at least until there are systems in place to provide real public oversight over what goes on in charter schools.” He adds that “the public, not nonprofit boards, must be deciding what goes on in our publicly funded schools.” Meanwhile, according to the Current newspaper and other sources, council chair candidate Vincent Gray told a group of D.C. preservationists that private school zoning rules should be applied to charter schools. According to the Current, Gray’s reasoning was that “Until they [charter schools] start to behave like public education, I’m not prepared to treat them that way.” Gray, a first-term Councilmember who serves on the Education Committee, previously had come out in support of a moratorium on chartering. One of Gray’s supporters is Emily Washington, a longtime DCPS teacher who has spoken out frequently against charter schools.

Other candidates are on record as being in favor of parental choice and charters, among them the two leading mayoral candidates; Kathy Patterson, Gray’s opponent for council chair (at the meeting of preservationists at which Gray made his remarks she advocated treating charters as public schools for zoning purposes); and Lisa Raymond, a contender for the School Board seat being sought by Borbely.

FOCUS Hires Literacy Specialist to Help Startup Schools

FOCUS has hired Naomi Rubin DeVeaux, formerly co-chair of the English Department at the SEED Public Charter School, to help FOCUS startup schools design and implement effective literacy programs. The move is a major expansion of efforts begun last year to provide those going through the FOCUS program with the tools they need to tackle the toughest problem facing inner city school leaders — the literacy deficits of their students.

Prior to going to work for SEED, DeVeaux was a literacy coach at an urban public school in California. A former Fulbright Scholar, DeVeaux has a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis on literacy.

Fourth Annual Startup Program To Begin October 24

On Tuesday, October 24, FOCUS will kick off the 2007 version of its charter school startup program with a free introductory session for those who are thinking about starting a public charter school in the District. The program, which will include a “tour” of D.C.’s charter school landscape and answer the question “Are you ready to start a public charter school?” will take place from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

The startup program will continue on Saturday, November 4th, with day one of the two-day FOCUS School Design Workshop (day two will be held on Saturday, November 18th). Those attending the Workshop will hear from academic, business, and real estate experts who will help them understand the requirements for designing a good school and for making it through the application process. Participants in the School Design Workshop receive a copy of FOCUS’s comprehensive Guide To Starting A Public Charter School in the District of Columbia, 4th Edition.

Five of the six new charter schools opening this fall are graduates of FOCUS’s 2006 startup program.

Those interested in attending the introductory session and/or the design workshop should contact FOCUS at 202/387-0405.

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