- Shining Stars finds new home in time for school year [Shining Stars PCS mentioned]
- D.C. Public Charter School Board releases annual report [Harmony PCS, Democracy Prep PCS, and DC International PCS mentioned]
Shining Stars finds new home in time for school year [Shining Stars PCS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Michael Alison Chandler
August 6, 2014
Shining Stars Montessori Academy leaders announced Tuesday that they have secured a new building in time for the school year to begin, bringing to a close a last-minute scramble for space after their initial lease fell through late in June.
The new site is an office building at 2461 Wisconsin Ave. NW in the Glover Park neighborhood in Northwest Washington. It will be the only charter school in Ward 3, which encompasses mainly affluent neighborhoods where many families attend neighborhood schools.
Executive Director Regina Rodriguez notified families of the new space by e-mail Tuesday with the subject heading: “Great News!!!! We have a home!”
The 12,000-square-foot building is “light-filled,” adjacent to a park with a playground and needs little work to prepare for students to arrive Aug. 25, she said in the letter.
Officials had planned to move into a building in Petworth but found out in late June that their deal had fallen through because the owner accepted a more lucrative offer from another charter school before the lease was finalized. The sudden uncertainty left families reeling and highlighted the demand for space among the city’s proliferating charter schools.
At a meeting with parents in July, school officials said they were considering a building near the Maryland border in Northeast Washington.
Kamina Newsome, director of operations, said the building they ultimately leased, which is owned by the International Union of Operating Engineers, was one of a number of sites that they had inquired about this summer. “The building owner saw what a challenge we were facing,” Newsome said. “It happened really fast.”
She said it was the best site for the “health and sustainability of the school,” with an environment that is “conducive to Montessori learning” and closer proximity to the current school location near the U Street Corridor.
She said she hopes they do not need to look for another building again soon.
“We want to hunker down and focus on academics from this point on,” she said.
D.C. Public Charter School Board releases annual report [Harmony PCS, Democracy Prep PCS, and DC International PCS mentioned]
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
August 6, 2014
Monday of this week the D.C. Public Charter School Board released its annual report and it is packed full with interesting data about the local movement. For example, the document lists 23 schools that are in Performance Management Framework Tier 1, 34 schools in Tier 2, and only seven charters in Tier 3. Of those 14 have been in Tier 1 for 3 consecutive years and five are making their first appearance in this category. Nineteen charters have scored in Tier 2 for 3 consecutive years, ten charters are new to this group. For Tier 3, four schools have landed there for the first time.
The PMF seems to be having its intended impact on which schools parents choose. A graph illustrates the movement of pupils over time. For example, since 2011, the first year the PMF was available, 1,972 students have moved out of Tier 3 institutions compared to the current year. Between 2011 and 2014, Tier 2 schools have gained 602 students, with Tier 1 charters showing the most change with the addition of 2,324 kids.
The document also reveals the change in the number of seats per PMF Tier for the 2013 to 2014 term compared to the number that will be present for next year. These statistics are a little skewed in that it includes seats in schools not yet open such as Harmony, Democracy Prep, and DC International which are all expected to be Tier 1 schools at the start of their operation. The findings are that there will be 13,541 seats in Tier 1 charters, a 20.7% increase over the current year. The number of Tier 2 seats will grow by 4.9% to 12,926, and Tier 3 spots will shrink by a significant 62.4% to 1,187 seats for the 2015 term. This decline in Tier 3 seats is impacted by the closure of four charters by the end of the current school year and another two by the conclusion of next year.
There are also a couple of graphs that brought a smile to my face. One shows the steady enrollment increase in charters since 2002 which now reaches the 44% mark of all public school students. The other details the improvement in DC CAS proficiency rates which now equals 59.6% for reading and 53.4% for math. These numbers are not high enough but the positive trajectory of the line gives great hope for the future.