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Charter schools OK'd by board

Panel gives tentative nod to opening 3 new city sites; 7 other facilities to be converted; By next fall, thousands seen attending 10 facilities

By Liz Bowie
Sun Staff

Originally published November 10, 2004

Baltimore's school board became the first in Maryland last night to approve the opening of charter schools next fall in what is expected to be a budding charter school movement supported by the governor and state education leaders.

The board gave conditional approval for three new schools, and its blessing for the conversion of seven existing schools to charters. The 10 schools - with public funding but operating independently - would enroll thousands of students from neighborhoods throughout the city next year.

The charter schools are the first to be approved under Maryland's two-year-old charter law.

Several dozen parents, teachers, principals and City Council members who waited for hours in the board room for the vote cheered when the schools were approved. Some hugged and cried; others handed out flowers in thanks to board members.

Many charter school proponents had said they would move out of the city to neighboring counties if their children did not have the opportunity to go to a new charter school.

"We are just overjoyed that they have approved three schools," said Stephanie Simms, head of a group of parents who won approval for a school near Patterson Park.

But the vote was not unanimous, with one board member obstaining and a second opposed. Several members expressed reservations about the financial implications for a school system that has struggled to keep spending under control.

Under the state law, local school boards must fund charters out of their budgets.

School board member George M. VanHook Sr., who voted against the charters, said he has great fears. "I am concerned about establishing educational enclaves. I am concerned about the overall impact this has on a school system struggling to raise standards to where everyone would want their child to go. ... I am concerned about the social implications."

The city got a jump in 1997 when it began to allow what are called New Schools Initiative schools to open. Seven of these schools, including Midtown Academy and City Springs Elementary, that had operated nearly as charters were approved to become charter schools last night.

"I think Baltimore has been ahead of the curve in terms of providing more choice in the state," said Bonnie S. Copeland, chief executive officer of the city schools.

Charter schools are publicly funded and approved in Maryland by local school boards but operate independently. They have more freedom to choose curriculum and teaching staff.

The city school board also has encouraged nonprofit groups and universities to open new small high schools, and it approved one more last night that would be run jointly by Coppin State University and the school system. The high school, which will be located on the Coppin campus, will open in the fall with a ninth grade.

The three new charter schools that won conditional approval last night are all pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade schools being started by groups of parents who wanted an alternative to their neighborhood public elementary schools.
The schools will get their charters after the city has inspected their facilities, agreed on a formula for providing funding and reviewed the schools' plans for how they will enroll children.

The three new charters are:

• Patterson Park Charter School - located in St. Elizabeth's of Hungary, a former parochial school in Patterson Park - that plans to enroll a racially and ethnically diverse student population from neighborhoods adjoining Patterson Park.
• Southwest Baltimore Charter School, which will accept children from the Poppleton, Union Square and Franklin Square areas but has not selected a location.
• City Neighbors Charter School in Northeast Baltimore, which also has not settled on a location.

The school system also is in discussions with Sojourner-Douglas College about the possibility of opening a fourth school, according to David Stone, who heads the school system's charter schools office.

The major issue remaining for charter schools in the city and across the state is how much money the local school board is willing to give them per pupil. The New Schools Initiative schools have been receiving an amount based on a complicated formula that averages out to about $4,300 per student, but the new charters are concerned that that is too little and are asking for more money.

Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun

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