- D.C. school enrollment increases, with charters growing faster than DCPS
- D.C. charter board considers oversight problems [Options PCS mentioned]
- Charter school enrollment up by 6.2% compared to previous year [Carlos Rosario PCS mentioned]
D.C. school enrollment increases, with charters growing faster than DCPS
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
October 17, 2013
D.C. traditional and charter schools grew for the fifth year in a row, together enrolling 4 percent more students this fall than last, according to a raw count the Office of the State Superintendent of Education released Thursday.
Public charter schools grew faster than the traditional school system, continuing a years-long trend that has given charters a larger share of students in the District than in nearly any other U.S. city.
Individual schools report the raw student numbers, and an independent accounting firm will audit the enrollment figures. The numbers are likely to change somewhat, but they offer a strong indication of enrollment trends in the city.
The District’s charter schools reported enrolling nearly 37,000 students, an increase of 6 percent, or 2,000 more students than last year. Charters enroll 44 percent of the city’s public school students, up from 43 percent last year, according to the preliminary data.
But the traditional school system also saw growth, ticking up 2 percent to 46,516 students. After falling considerably short of its enrollment projections last year, the system exceeded this year’s expectations by nearly 1,000 students.
Altogether, the city’s schools enrolled more than 83,000 students, according to the raw count, up from 80,231 students last year.
Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) said the growth is evidence that the city’s long-struggling schools are improving and attracting new students, showing “that the District is a great place for young families.” State Superintendent of Education Jesús Aguirre called the figures a “positive indicator of the impact of our reform efforts.”
The school system’s enrollment peaked at about 146,000 in 1967 and fell steeply for decades before increasing in 2010. Enrollment has held more or less steady since.
This year’s uptick comes in the wake of Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson’s decision to close 13 under-enrolled schools in June. Activists and some lawmakers had feared that move would push more students into charter schools, eventually leading to further traditional school closures.
Henderson has said that enrollment trends will be one key way to judge the school closures, which she argues ultimately will strengthen the system. The figures are important because schools are funded based on enrollment.
City officials did not immediately release grade-level enrollment data. In recent years, the city’s universal preschool policy has added thousands of early-childhood seats, bolstering enrollment in both charter and traditional schools.
Charter school growth might be attributable to the opening of four new charters this fall, and the expansion of several others. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education plans to publish final audited enrollment figures in February.
D.C. charter board considers oversight problems [Options PCS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
October 17, 2013
The D.C. Public Charter School Board decided at a meeting Wednesday not to immediately initiate the closure of Options Public Charter, the Northeast Washington school at the center of allegations that its former managers diverted millions of dollars to their own for-profit companies.
But the charter board’s staff, seeking to improve oversight after the Options allegations, proposed several policy changes meant to ensure accurate and timely disclosure of charter school contracts, conflicts of interest and salaries of top-paid officials.
The proposals are a “result of our reflections and learnings from the Options episode,” said Scott Pearson, the charter board’s executive director. Former Options officials allegedly ran a contracting scheme — which court papers say involved the help of an insider at the charter board — that moved large sums of money from school coffers to two companies that offered services back to the school.
Charter schools are required to submit all contracts worth more than $25,000 to the charter board for review and to disclose any conflicts of interest in financial transactions. They also are required to submit minutes from the meetings of their boards of directors.
But Pearson said schools have not always submitted those items on time or at all, which could limit the charter board’s knowledge of some sizable contracts. The proposed policy changes are meant to clarify what is expected, acknowledging that the charter board has “frankly not been as clear as we should have been about what contracts needed to be submitted and what contracts didn’t.”
Under the proposal, schools would for the first time face sanctions if they fail to submit contracts and meeting minutes.
Charter schools also would be required to disclose the total compensation of their top three highest paid officials and to publish that information on the charter board’s Web site.
That idea stems from what Pearson called “one of the more disturbing aspects of the Options incident”: high salaries and bonuses for school officials. Donna Montgomery, the former chief executive of Options, allegedly earned at least $425,000 in one year, according to a pending civil complaint.
According to court documents, Montgomery and two other former Options leaders allegedly received “exorbitant” bonuses shortly before leaving the school to run their companies full time earlier this year.
They were allegedly aided by J.C. Hayward, a news anchor for WUSA (Channel 9), who according to the complaint approved the lucrative contracts and bonuses in her role as Options board chairwoman at the time. And Jeremy L. Williams, the former chief financial officer of the city charter board, allegedly maneuvered to ensure that the contracts were not reviewed by board staff.
All of the accused have denied wrongdoing. No one has been criminally charged, but investigators have been conducting interviews and a grand jury is expected to convene as early as this week.
Pearson said the board does not intend to regulate salaries but instead wants to encourage disclosure of information about the city’s public charters.
“Charter schools have full control over their operations,” Pearson said. “But we do think transparency and sunshine is important.”
Several charter board members greeted the idea coolly, expressing discomfort with the idea of publishing salaries online. They argued that such additional disclosure might burden law-abiding charter schools or make recruitment of top-level executives more difficult.
“I want to be careful that we don’t overreach and add unnecessary burdens to all the charters because of the misbehavior of one or two,” said John H. “Skip” McCoy, the board’s chairman.
Charter schools usually must disclose the salaries of their top earners on annual reports to the Internal Revenue Service, but those reports are sometimes incomplete and often are outdated by the time they become public.
The charter board is accepting public comment on the proposals and plans to vote on them in December.
The Options self-dealing allegations, revealed publicly earlier this month, prompted charter board officials to announce that the board was moving toward closing the charter for financial mismanagement. Options is the city’s oldest charter and serves about 400 at-risk teens.
The board now plans to decide whether to initiate the school’s closure by December, postponing any decisions to give Josh Kern — a court-appointed receiver charged with overseeing the school — time to assess Options operations. The school will continue to operate at least through the end of this school year.
A final decision on the school’s long-term future must be finalized before Feb. 4, which is the deadline for high school students to enter enrollment lotteries at schools across the District.
Charter school enrollment up by 6.2% compared to previous year [Carlos Rosario PCS mentioned]
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
October 18, 2013
Yesterday the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) released the unaudited student enrollment figures for both DCPS and charters. Amazingly charters demonstrated a 6.2% increase over last year's count with a total of 36,823 pupils compared to 34,674 for the 2012 to 2013 term. DCPS also demonstrated an increase, with 2% more students attending this system. The total is now 46,515 compared to 45,557 last year.
Both DCPS and charters are benefiting from a growing number of students entering public school in the nation’s capital. OSEE published the following figures:
Term 2009 to 2010 2% increase
Term 2010 to 2011 4% increase
Term 2011 to 2012 2% increase
Term 2012 to 2013 5% increase
Term 2013 to 2014 4% increase – unaudited
It is extremely interesting to find which charter schools contributed most to the increase in students attending this sector. The Public Charter School Board pointed out that pre-school enrollment improved by 7.5%, or 440 students, over the previous year. In addition, adult education programs attracted 1,036 more students, a 37.4% gain from last term. Remember that Carlos Rosario International PCS opened their new 50,000 square foot Sonia Gutierrez Campus in September.
It also appears that the Performance Management Framework is having the intended effect of driving parental school choice. The PCSB revealed that 2,266 have selected Tier 1 schools this term compared to the 2011 to 2012 school year, the first time PMF results were made public. Simultaneously, 1,120 fewer kids are attending Tier 3 schools.
The news means that charters are continuing their stubborn steady march toward enrollment equity with DCPS.