Massachusetts charter schools (overstated demand)

“Charter school demand in Mass. Disputed.” Boston Globe (MA), 4/8/2013

A state tally showing more than 53,000 students on charter school waiting lists is overstating demand, according to a Globe review of state data.

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in tallying the waiting lists statewide and for many individual communities, including Boston, frequently counts the same students more than once.

That’s because the state simply adds up the waiting lists from each charter school without collecting individual names to learn whether a student appears on more than one list or, in fact, may be enrolled at another charter school.

Charter school leaders have been seizing on the large number of students on the waiting lists as evidence of soaring popularity for the schools and the need for more of them.

But critics note that as lawmakers debate legislation this spring to raise a state-imposed cap on the number of charter school seats in Boston and other cities, they will do so without a full picture of demand...

The Globe review found that waiting list policies can vary tremendously among the state’s 81 charter schools, which at minimum under state law must place all unsuccessful applicants in a lottery for admission on a list.

While some schools purge their lists annually and ask those students to reapply, others keep students on lists for many years without knowing whether they are still interested, or add names when parents merely request information about the school.

In Boston, where students on combined waiting lists have nearly tripled to more than 27,000 over the past three years, the rate of duplication could be high, said guidance counselors and advocates who monitor school registrations.

“If a family is applying to charter schools, they are applying to all of them,” said Susan Trotz, a guidance counselor at the city-run Curley K-8 School in Jamaica Plain, whose 200 eighth-graders each year often apply to 20 traditional, charter, or private high schools...

“It is disappointing and upsetting not having a measure [implemented that] we all agreed to,” said Thomas Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, which pushed for a more accurate waiting-list count. “It continues the tension between charter and traditional schools.”...

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Smith Leadership Academy

“Charters chool’s layoffs raise ire.” The Boston Globe (MA), 3/12/2012

Several parents at a Dorchester charter school are calling for the ouster of the executive director and the chairman of the school’s trustees, following a firestorm over the layoffs of the principal and five other employees...

“We don’t want Smith Leadership Academy to close,’’ said Ayesha Moore, whose son is in the eighth grade. “We want the people who are ruining it to leave.’’

But Karmala Sherwood, the academy’s executive director, said the school had to lay off the employees, mostly administrators, to remedy an unexpected budget shortfall of more than $100,000. Fewer students enrolled than anticipated, cutting into per-pupil aid, which averages about $10,000 per student...

But the turmoil at Smith Leadership Academy shows that charter schools are not immune to the same kinds of budgetary problems and academic challenges that can afflict traditional public schools.

Students at Smith Leadership Academy, where math and science are taught in single-gender classes, often score lower than Boston public school students on the MCAS, and the state has labeled the academy for restructuring to fix persistently low scores. For instance, fewer than half the students scored proficient or higher on last spring’s MCAS exams.

In May 2011, a state review revealed a number of problems with instruction, saying that too many teachers failed to challenge students - relying too heavily on lectures and worksheets - and that the school lacks a coherent curriculum.

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Spirit of Knowledge Charter School

“Charter school’s founder resigns; Parents tell of many concerns.” Telegram & Gazette (MA), 6/12/11

WORCESTER —  The founder of the city’s newest charter school has submitted her resignation, the second time she has parted ways with a school she created.

Julia Sigalovsky, executive director of the Spirit of Knowledge Charter School, submitted her resignation Friday, effective July 10, according to Richard Langevin, chairman of the school’s board of trustees. The resignation came just before the board was due to meet and discuss her evaluation, he said.

Parents said yesterday that the school had not lived up to its academic promises and that their children had felt bullied by staff. Shawn Yates of Worcester, who with his wife, Tess, leads the school’s Parent Action Team, said he hopes Ms. Sigalovsky’s resignation will be “a positive change.” The couple has not decided whether their daughters will return in the fall and will be looking for changes in how the school communicates and collaborates with families. He said the small class sizes, interactive learning and enrichments promised had not been fulfilled.

Maydee Morales of Worcester pulled her daughter out of the school before April vacation. “She was having anxiety attacks,” Ms. Morales said. “It wasn’t that the work was hard, because they can all do the work.” She said she had expected advanced curriculum and encouragement for her daughter to go to college, and instead found staff members skeptical of her daughter’s ability to get there.

“It was not tough love. They were not encouraging,” Ms. Morales said. “They actually put a lot of kids down.”

She and two other parents are writing a letter to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which granted the school its charter, to inform them of their concerns, which include mistreatment and safety issues...

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Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School

“Lighthouse Charter School loses director applicant, board member.” Cape Cod Today (MA) 6/28/11

Director applicant withdraws, three board members not replaced / Are things coming apart at the Cape's only charter middle school?

The school room where last night's Cape Cod Charter School's (CCLCS) Board of Director's meeting was held had the feeling of a bunker with beleaguered people hunkered down to avoid an attack. The skylight was half covered with a tarp to protect us, and gave added meaning to the board's earlier decision to have their last director Kathy McNamara find a new home for the school.

But that prospect seems dimmer than ever as it was announced that the board's choice to replace recently resigned director McNamara had pulled her name out of consideration as the school's 8th director in its 16 years of existence...

Present Chatham school principal Lisa Sjostrom was expected to be introduced at last night's meeting, but instead board president Norman Michaud said she had withdrawn her application...

Perhaps more ominous, three members of last night's eight member board are retiring after the meeting, and the nominating committee reported that no new names would be submitted for consideration until at least the September board meeting.

The next three months are important in the negotiations to buy the Regal Cinema building on Route 137 in Harwich, and these departing board members were on the school's building committee.

All this while contending with the demands of newly unionized teachers and trying to raise two million dollars to buy the Regal Cinema building which the school has under a sales and purchase agreement...

The school plans no salary increases, but that depends on the ongoing negotiations with staff which has recently joined an ALF/CIO teacher's union.

One assumes the negotiations will be more vigorous than in the past. One of the reasons suggested for the teachers joining a union was resentment over funding for the new school building in Harwich rather than pay raises for the teachers.

Some teachers have reportedly complained about the extra work which may accrue to them with the new Harwich location drawing more Mid Cape students needing extra tutoring and/or special ed...

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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...

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Worcester (MA) charter schools

CHARTER SCHOOLS FOUND LACKING ON LEARNING GAP; March 18, 2011; Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA) 

WORCESTER —  Data from two local charter schools showed the School Committee last night that the two schools are not likely to help solve the achievement gap in this city, one of the goals the governor cited when he supported legislation to increase the number of charter schools in the state.

Information was presented on students at the newly opened Spirit of Knowledge Charter School, which serves Grades 7-9. The district found data on 85 percent of the school’s students from when they were Worcester public school students and found that those students scored higher on the MCAS exams than the district average. In other words, Chief Research and Accountability Officer David Perda said, the schools took “the more academically able.”

Committee member Jack L. Foley made the obvious prediction. “We should not be surprised if their MCAS scores are higher than our average score and they claim success,” he said.

That, in turn, would be used to justify the charter movement, said Mayor Joseph C. O’Brien. “This is not about closing the achievement gap. This is about ... creating elite opportunities for successful students.”…

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Roxbury Charter High School

COMMISSIONER TO RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE CLOSURE OF ROXBURY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL; Tuesday, December 14, 2004; Massachussets Department of Elementary & Secondary Education press release 

MALDEN - Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll will ask the Board of Education to vote next week to immediately suspend and revoke the charter granted in 2002 to the Roxbury Charter High School for Business, Finance and Entrepreneurship (RCHS). If approved, the school will shut its doors at the start of the winter break next week and will not reopen after the new year.

A letter was sent to leaders of RCHS late Monday to notify them of Driscoll’s recommendation.

“This is not a decision that I take lightly, but closing this school down is absolutely the right thing to do,” Driscoll said. “We as educators have a responsibility to our children, and it is unacceptable to me to leave students in that school any longer than necessary. This school has been in a downward spiral both financially and administratively for some time, and while we have tried to give them time to resolve their issues, the obstacles they face now are too big to overcome. Closing their doors is the best option for everyone.”

This recommendation is based on evidence that the school is not financially viable and does not have a strong enough governance and administrative structure to provide sufficient oversight to the operations of the school. As a result, Driscoll said he fears the 107 students enrolled at the school are simply not getting the education they deserve.

If approved, this would be the first time the Board of Education will have voted an emergency revocation and suspension of an operating school’s charter since the state’s charter school movement began in 1993.

The school received a Commonwealth charter in 2002 and opened in September, 2003. Their curriculum focus is on business, finance and entrepreneurship, and was chartered for grades 9 through 12, with a maximum of 400 students. It is currently in its second year, with an enrollment of 107, rather than the 175 projected on the school’s original growth plan.

Driscoll said his decision was based on several issues:

The school is experiencing significant cash flow problems, due in large part to the school not reaching its enrollment projections. Currently, the school is projecting a deficit of $113,000 for the current year, which could result in the school being forced to close its doors on its own accord later in the current school year.

The school has no viable financial plan for addressing its facility needs. The school is currently leasing a former parochial school; the lease expires at the end of next year. If the school remains at this location, it will need to address significant ADA compliance issues as well as expand the facility to accommodate its planned enrollment.

The school has had serious governance problems, leading DOE officials to conclude that the school’s Board of Trustees has not provided effective oversight to properly address the major issues facing the school.

The school has failed to implement required procedures and programs relating to special education and English language immersion.

The school is not complying with state and federal requirements regarding student record keeping and documentation of Title I eligibility.

DOE officials have been in contact with the Boston Public Schools, and have been assured that seats will be made available after the new year for any RCHS students who choose to enroll in Boston.

“I know that this may be a difficult transition for some, but what matters most to me that our students get the best possible education in our schools," Driscoll said. "This is what’s best for these kids.”

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Seven Hills Charter School

SEVEN HILLS CHARTER SCHOOL FAILS TO MEET BENCHMARKS, FACES PROBATION; February 26, 2011; Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, MA) 

WORCESTER —  The state commissioner of elementary and secondary education has recommended that Seven Hills Charter School be put on probation, according to a memo he sent to the state board.

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is scheduled to vote on Seven Hills' charter Monday, and Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester recommends that the board impose several conditions on the charter's renewal, including that it demonstrate that it is an academic success by December 2012.

Mr. Chester's concerns include that the school has not met federal and state improvement benchmarks (called adequate yearly progress) in any subject since 2005, although some subgroups of students have met their goals in some subjects. The department's review of the school also found that eight teachers (one-fifth of instructional staff) were fired or left at the end of the 2009-2010 school year (including all of the fourth- and fifth-grade teachers) and that the school has had a different governance model for each of the last five years, although it has had the same leader throughout those years. During the 2009-10 school year, the school's board of trustees, which is supposed to have nine to 25 members, dwindled to four, three of whom quit the following year, when eight more joined….

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