Reply to What's it like to be in a new charter school in its first year?

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[quote=Anonymous]We were first year of a charter that is now on year 4. There are always significant growing pains in any organization. Some of those are beneficial, some of them are necessary evils and others present the dichotomy of benefit/disservice.  For example, having a shrewd business person at the helm is very important for financial solvency and physical strategy. However, it is unlikely that person would have any experience in education, psychology, etc. (and vice versa). Bringing in teachers who have the motivation and hours in the day to start up a school from scratch means that they either don't have children yet and will leave in a short period of time, they will burn out quickly and leave, or they have their own children at the school- which leaves much to be desired. Small issues can become magnified when parents are unsure of things like facilities or teaching staff or program changes. Communication can suffer because the administration is overworked. In the absence of communication parents get more stressed and the empty space can turn into a chasm.

I went to an open house for a new charter today. I was overwhelmed with the number of fretful, overbearing parents of kids new to school. They were filled with intense and naive questions like "how do schools get funded" and "are their reduced fees for low income". I feel that I don't have the mental reserves to put my littlest one in a new charter after all, especially after having done it once with my older kids. It was a good experience, but you need to be ready to work hard, be patient, be flexible and help the school along. By that I mean that you need to help them problem solve sometimes and not expect immediate, high-quality responses without working with them on it.[/quote]

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