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Jumping through hoops
Oakmont Education is working to launch a new dropout-recovery school in Toledo, offering “a unique blend of classroom instruction and hands-on work experience” that allows students to earn their diploma along with credentials in many different industries. According to local news coverage, however, they’ll have to jump over Frogtown’s notoriously charter-resistant planning and zoning hurdles first.
Supporting charter school growth across the country
East West Bank showcases their many efforts to assist growing charter schools in this piece. They discuss the area of financial services, of course, but also showcase their work in building networks of support, including here in Ohio. “Many charter school leaders don’t have access to the networks that help institutions grow,” said Rob Giordano, First Vice President of the Charter School and Non-Profit Division at East West, at a recent event in Columbus. “Connecting those dots is an important part of the ecosystem.” Nice.
Focus on the real message
This is a pretty good piece, in which an Ohio charter leader discusses why families need and deserve educational choices for their children, and why she thinks her schools and others like them are particularly attractive. “When you take away all of the other adult stuff, when you take away the focus on the ‘me’ piece and focus it all on the students,” says Accel Schools Senior Vice President Sherree Ray Dillions, “that’s when you see the academic success.” Unfortunately, the headline frames the article as a comment on the “public-private schooling debate”. This could not be further from the truth. Dillions says that all educational options have merit, but “the bottom line is people go where there is success.”
After-the-fact
Arizona’s largest online charter school had been facing the specter of closure after three consecutive years of D grades on their state report cards. Primavera charter school leaders argued that the poor grades reflected “administrative error” in calculation but the State Charter Board did not agree and voted recently to shut the school down after much debate. However, State Schools Chief Tom Horne intervened this week and those grades were recalculated to Cs using an alternative grading process. Primavera will stay open, but will face a corrective action plan to boost student—and state report card—outcomes. Horne himself will face the public ire of several charter board members for what they term “after-the-fact” rewriting of the school’s performance.
Legal maneuvering in West Virginia
West Virginia’s Professional Charter School Board last week submitted a formal brief to the state’s Supreme Court of Appeals in the legal case against the constitutionality of charters in the Mountain State. Among the arguments in their brief, the board disputes the lower court ruling of unconstitutionality, saying that charter schools are not independent and operate under state oversight—and with the same academic standards—as traditional district schools. May 18 is the last day for filing of additional briefs in the case.
Reimagining charter-district cooperation
The Orange County (FL) School Board voted unanimously last week to approve the conversion of one of their elementary schools into a STEAM-focused, PreK-12 charter school, as voted by parents back in January. Said one board member after the vote: “I believe that we are on the verge of seriously reimagining what it means for traditional public schools and charter schools to join together.” Hopefully so! For her part, school parent Dana Wallace is excited about “having the cradle-to-career facility in [the] neighborhood” for her sons. “I believe in what they’re trying to bring to the table for us,” she added. The new school will open in August.
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