JUNE 29, 1999

Good evening Subcommittee Chair Kinlow and members of the D.C. Board of Education Subcommittee on Public Charter Schools. I appreciate this opportunity to talk with you about the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School and our experiences as a first-year charter school. I am Linda Moore, founder and director of the school.

I would like to begin by giving you a little background about our school. The Elsie Whitlow Stokes community freedom public charter school opened its doors in September, 1998. When I am asked, “What makes your school special?” I respond by noting that: 1) every student in our school is expected to become fluent in two languages: English and French or English and Spanish; and 2) that students engage in community service activities, as a means of learning good citizenship.

Our school is named for Elsie Whitlow Stokes, my mother and a first-grade teacher in Arkansas for 36 years. As the best teacher I've ever known, Elsie Whitlow Stokes is the role model for our school. Our mission is based on three simple educational principles that made Mrs. Stokes a superbly successful teacher: 1) every student can succeed academically and become a responsible citizen; 2) every student must receive a solid foundation in reading, mathematics, social studies, science and the arts; and 3) community service activities prepare children to become caring neighbors and good citizens.

In our first year as a public charter school, we served 35 kindergarten and first grade students. As we add one grade a year, we expect to serve 75 kindergarten, first and second grade students in the 1999-2000 school year, and 220 students in kindergarten through grade five in school year 2002-2003.

While many of our students live in the immediate Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of the school, others come from all over the District of Columbia. We have begun to create in our school an environment of acceptance, respect and nonviolence – not just among our students, but among all members of our school community. This year we launched a peace education curriculum that introduced our children to such peace-loving figures as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; King Hussein, the late ruler of Jordan; and Mahatma Ghandi of India. We have formed a partnership with a senior citizens center, where our students and seniors practice t'ai chi and read and sing together, all while making discoveries about each others's lives and histories.

Our students took the leadership to pursue community service activities focused on the environment. Our first graders, as part of their science and language arts curricula, were studying pollution. They took a walk around the block of our school and noticed a considerable amount of trash in the neighborhood. The students invited ward one council member Jim Graham to the school to join them on a tour of the neighborhood and talked with him about what they saw and how they could help rid the neighborhood of trash. As a result of that meeting, our students decided to start a recycling program, to join the neighborhood association in clean-up efforts and to join with the national youth community service organization, City Year, in re-building a community park. They were also honored with a D.C. Council resolution.

Our first year has been incredibly rewarding. One of my favorite success stories involves a first-grader, Wheeler Mendoza who came to us because he had significant behavior problems and low academic achievement at his previous school. His mother, a Salvadoran refugee, wanted a better opportunity for her son. We found Wheeler to be an exceptionally bright child, who, until April of this year, was very satisfied that he could not read. But he could do math. He was fluent in English and Spanish. His teacher, Alexis Dickens, an extremely talented teacher experimented with a variety of techniques to teach Wheeler to read. As a result, Wheeler picked up a book for the first time in April and read it from cover to cover. He now reads with great enthusiasm.

Wheeler is just one of several successes we have experienced this year. We are grateful for any help that this subcommittee can provide to our school and other district public charter schools as we continue to provide an exemplary education for the children and youth of the nation's capital.

Thank you for your attention.