Boston Renaissance Charter Public School

“State board places Boston Renaissance Charter School on probation.” Boston Globe (MA), 2/25/2013

MALDEN — State officials on Monday placed the Boston Renaissance Charter School on probation, formally putting the school on notice that it must improve student academic performance or risk closure when its charter comes up for renewal in two years.

By a tally of 7 to 1, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted for probation, despite pleas from Renaissance school leaders who fear the designation will unsettle families, hurt staff morale, and hinder fund-raising efforts...

Renaissance, one of the city’s oldest and largest charter schools, has faced the possibility of closing before. In 2007, the state placed the school on probation for poor academic performance...

Renaissance moved aggressively to fix its problems, and achievement improved. In ­December 2010, the state board ended the school’s probation.

But scores on the MCAS statewide standardized tests have been sliding since 2009, when 54 percent of students scored ­advanced or proficient in math and 61 percent scored in those two categories in English. By comparison, only 36 percent of students scored proficient or advanced last spring in math and 53 percent in English...

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“Opinion: Cheating - Charter Schools and Their Unfair Advantages.” Back Bay Patch 09 Jun 2011 

...Approaching the building, you would be forgiven for thinking you are actually entering a chic, private country club. The grounds are fenced in and accessed through a gated entrance. The renovated brick buildings look beautiful rising above the manicured lawns (fresh flowers have just been planted). There are many luxury vehicles in the parking lots; BMWs, Lexuses, a Range Rover. Off in the distance, blue-uniformed children play on a regulation-sized soccer field.

But, this is no country club, it’s a Boston public school - actually, a charter school. The Boston Renaissance Charter Public School recently moved out of its Bay Village home and into this $39 million, custom-built, three-building suburban campus in Hyde Park.

Meanwhile, parents in the North End have been pleading with the city of Boston for a larger school, seeing as their K-8 Eliot School, which lacks a gymnasium or playing fields, is bursting at the seams. The number of children living in the neighborhood has increased by more than 13% during the past ten years.

The Renaissance’s new 6-acre, 107,000 square-foot campus includes a multimedia center and a large interconnected complex with a gym, cafetorium, library, music classrooms, and dance studios. The school says it offers its students “a full range of educational, emotional, social, and health care” (including eyeglasses and dental care)...

The Commonwealth’s charter school program, controversial even now, was met with much suspicion when first proposed. In 1995, in order to get the nascent program off the ground, then-governor William Weld worked out a financial scheme to cover Renaissance’s start-up costs; a cheap lease and a low-interest loan. Four years later, the Commonwealth sold the building to Renaissance for just under $8 million, which the school paid for with additional funding arranged by the state.

Fast forward to 2006, when the Renaissance decided to move from Bay Village to Hyde Park. In 2008, the school signed an agreement to sell its existing building for $45 million. After using some of the proceeds to pay off debt and start renovations on its new campus, it was left short, so it again got help from the state, in the way of two tax-exempt government-sponsored bonds.

Of course, at the same time Renaissance was banking millions of dollars in real estate proceeds, it was receiving additional millions in state aid, money diverted from the Boston public school budget...

The Renaissance was able to build and open its school during a terrible recession only because of some clever real estate manipulation not available to your typical Boston public school...