Want to start a charter school with me?

[Anonymous]

Parents is Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan, MtP have the recent threads depressed you enough? Apparently we are dooming our children to failure. Cooke is riddled with crime and low scores, Bancroft has drug dealers on the playground and is generally a disaster, no one even mentions Tubman. The waiting list for Cap City, yu ying and Haynes are miles long. What are we going to do?

Can we start a charter school? That is where Cap City and Two Rivers came from. Why can't we do it? Do you have kids between the ages of 1 and 5? Do you want to create good educational options for them, here in our own neighborhood? E-mail me at

[e-mail]. I'm serious. We can do this.

[Anonymous]

Should say
Parents in...

I promise I won't be the English teacher at the charter school.

[Anonymous]

i think your enthusiasm and goals are really laudable. my very initial reaction is twofold (and i live in the nabe, btw):

1. what about focusing all of this energy on really and truly improving Cooke and Bancroft?

2. what about looking into expanding Cap City?

[jsteele]

I have heard of a couple of different efforts to create "neighborhood" charter schools. Charter school regulations in DC don't allow geographic entrance restrictions. Therefore, while a school could be located in a neighborhood, it can not be created for a neighborhood. Kids from all over the city could attend the school and neighborhood children will be entering lotteries just like kids from across town. Are those trying to organize these schools aware of this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2. what about looking into expanding Cap City?

My understanding is that founders of charter schools can get priority spots for their kids, but I think that's it--if you could get preference for volunteering, including coordinating something as massive as an expansion to a new location, charter schools would become the domain of those children whose parents had the time/organization/foresight to do the most volunteering.

[Anonymous]

How about picking a school like Bancroft or Cook to mobilize efforts to improve what currently exists instead of trying to set up a charter school from scratch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about picking a school like Bancroft or Cook to mobilize efforts to improve what currently exists instead of trying to set up a charter school from scratch?

Because if you start your own charter school, YOU get to make all the decisions about the program, the curriculum, the staffing...

You could make it a Pre-school to 5 if you think you want to focus on early education and then send kids to their neighborhood middle school. You could go all the way through middle school. If you do a good job, then you could probably expand your charter to include H.S. - that's what Cap City and Haynes are doing.

You could make it an arts school, a science/technology/math-focused school, an immersion school, etc. You could do expeditionary learning/outward bound like Cap City and 2 Rivers. You could decide to teach every child to read music and play an instrument. You could do year-round school like Haynes or language immersion and IB like Yu Ying.

You would still have to have your children take the DC-CAS, but you could decide that you don't value drilling and killing them to death just to burnish Michelle Rhee's image. You could make your own staffing decisions: selecting a principal who creates a real partnership with parents, and selecting teachers who want to be creative in the classroom and not have to follow the Rhee rules.

If you start a charter school you get to make ALL the important decisions! NONE of the DCPS schools can offer you anything close to that - no matter how much time and effort you expend improving them. So many DC charter schools were started by idealistic parents who wanted more for their children than DCPS would offer.

That's why you start your own charter. I think it's a fantastic idea. It's not an easy one, but it's a great one. And you'd know from the very beginning that the people who built it with you were genuinely committed to creating something wonderful - not just doing the closest, easiest thing.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks JSteele, I am aware that the charter school must serve all DC students. I was focused on Ward 1 parents as possible founders b/c our options are so limited. Rhee is not trying to make our neighborhood schools great. Parents on these boards focus on trashing our neighborhood schools, so it seems impossible to get critical mass of involved neighborhood parents enrolling their kids in those schools.

PP is right, we get to make the decisions if we start a charter school. If we merely try to fix the local school we are fighting Rhee, the Union, etc. plus trying to overcome the inertia of a lot of parents who don't really care. A charter school automatically selects for parent who care (regardless of race, economic class, etc, etc).


E-mail me at [e-mail]

[Anonymous]

I applaud you OP.

I have a DC at Yu Ying, and I jumped in the first year when the school had no building, no record, no teachers, and no principal to show prospective families. I made the decision to apply for my DC based almost entirely on the PARENTS I met that were starting the school. Passionate, educated, serious, and capable. Now I don't have to worry about lotteries, neighborhood schools, etc., etc. until post 8th grade, and I literally feel like I owe the parents that started Yu Ying this tremendous debt. I think you should do it, and if you find other parents to help you, you can absolutley succeed.

Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Cap City and Yu Ying were both started by Ward 1 families. Yu Ying started on the Mt. Pleasant listserv.

OP, you might want to post to a couple listservs in your neighborhood. Also consider looking for support in Ward 4. Parts of Petworth are really close to Mt. Pleasant/Columbia Heights and I think you could get some interest there too.

My kids would be too old, but I think it's a great idea!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I applaud you OP.

I have a DC at Yu Ying, and I jumped in the first year when the school had no building, no record, no teachers, and no principal to show prospective families. I made the decision to apply for my DC based almost entirely on the PARENTS I met that were starting the school. Passionate, educated, serious, and capable. Now I don't have to worry about lotteries, neighborhood schools, etc., etc. until post 8th grade, and I literally feel like I owe the parents that started Yu Ying this tremendous debt. I think you should do it, and if you find other parents to help you, you can absolutley succeed.

Best of luck.

I heard at the Yu Ying open house they would like to go through high school, once they get a building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP is right, we get to make the decisions if we start a charter school. If we merely try to fix the local school we are fighting Rhee, the Union, etc. plus trying to overcome the inertia of a lot of parents who don't really care. A charter school automatically selects for parent who care (regardless of race, economic class, etc, etc).

Not exactly. Kids who have major special needs, have been kicked out of other schools or may not even have parents could apply and you'd have to take them. Many decisions, like where to operate, need to be cleared by the charter school board which is under increasing pressure (from no less than the Obama admin) to close or deny charters that aren't viable.

General caveat. The charter world is vastly different now than 10 years ago when some of the now-popular ones started. The major challenge is competing for enrollment. Basically every child has a $10K bounty on their head. Almost every year there is a charter that closes because it can't keep numbers up. The competition is fierce and DCPS is stepping up, with or without Rhee. It's no coincidence that Eaton is rolling out a Chinese "world cultures" theme (with extra budget) just as Yu Ying is showing momentum. There is also growing competition for teaching and administration talent. (TFAers line up to get into KIPP.)

This is not meant to discourage anyone from exploring education choices. But take it from someone who has BTDT, starting a charter these days may not be the most effective or expedient way to get the best for your child. Stongly encourage visiting many of the existing charters before you pursue further. You may also want to consider homeschooling for a year or two, seriously, to get some more perspective.

HTH

[Anonymous]

1808 PP here. Forgot to mention I think Yu Ying is fabulous example of how charters can fill unique, citywide, long-term educational needs. Immersion is extremely hard to do well in any type of school. A school like that needs expertise from founders as well as passion. The Ward 1 idea really sounds more like a neighborhood need than a charter mision. Heard somewhere that on average charters move location every 18 months or so. How far are you willing to commute Ward 1ers? This is not a challenge, just an honest question. There are lots of ways to organize for kids. Charter is not the only way, but do applaud initiative.

[Anonymous]

Crime/drug issues are a POLICE issue, not something under the control of DCPS. Pressure Jim Graham, Fenty and local police commanders. Force them to move the activity for good, it has been done in other areas. Cameras and "Drug Free Zone" signs are pretty token responses. Parents and neighbors of the schools could really make a difference with a sustained effort. I think that is part of the issue, without a lot of activist, invested neighborhood parents pressing for real change outside as well as inside the schools, nothing changes.

If you are serious about a charter, reach out to the Yu Ying founders and get their recent experience.

[Anonymous]

It is a very unfriendly city for charter school real estate. Yu Ying, proclaimed as a success on this thread, has one more year in temporary space that is way too small for the projected student body in 2010-11. Feels pretty close to homeless right now. Yu Ying parent here, I wish I was as confident as an earlier poster that there is nothing to worry about thru 8th grade. Where the school will be located, and how that will work for the logistics of our single parent family, constant worry. What the DC council will do with budget cuts to charters, how that will affect Yu Ying's program, serious concern.

Last year, the charter school board did not occept any applications for new charters. This year, 13 applications

http://www.dcpubliccharter.com/News-Room.aspx?ID=138

Hearings March 15 & 16, attend if you want to have a sense of how tough it is to start.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/2010/02/capitol_hill_neighbors_wary_of.html