Reply to Does anyone know the status of the Proposed BASIS Expansion

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This post finally came full circle: if BASIS had an elementary school, at-risk students who would otherwise miss the 5th grade lottery or struggle to catch up would have a better chance at not only getting in but also succeeding.  5th grade is currently a nice way to more gradually acclimate to the demands of middle school.  So many students come into the school without good foundations and BASIS has to catch them up.  There would be far less catch up in middle school if the students had mostly uniform preparation going into middle school.  Certainly some DCPS elementary schools prepare their students but many do not.  [/quote]

Yes!

We need a Basis elementary school.

Hopefully, PCSB didn’t mess everything up.[/quote]

More like BASIS messed it up by presenting a scenario they were unwilling to carry out.[/quote]

Messed up?  No.

The PCSB approved the Basis expansion.  Basis is now just trying to negotiate the details to see if they can add additional grades faster.[/quote]

+1.  PCSB staff recommended approving Basis for K-4 but adding a grade a year so Basis would have a full k-4 in 4 years.

This is normal PCSB caution (in 2012, Basis 5-12 had to start with 5-8 and add one grade from 9-12 each year over the next 4 years; other charters such as DCI have had a similar staggered start).  But, still, the approval is there.

I think that Basis is peeved because obviously they have a lot of experience in this area and a great track record.  In less than a decade, they created the top-ranked middle school AND high school in Washington, DC.  Plus, they now have over 50 other Basis schools (back in 2012, Basis DC was the first Basis charter outside of Arizona), many of which are among the top 100 public schools in the US (Basis also has the #1 ranked public high school in the US).

Given that, it seems kind of insulting for PCSB staff to decline to recommend that Basis be allowed to open up a k-4 elementary school the first year--especially given that they let Basis start in 2012 with 5-8.

Most of charter schools in DC are pretty terrible and, of course, PCSB recently dealt with the Eagle debacle.  But lumping Basis in with these other schools and derailing Basis' quite detailed and justified expansion plans to jumpstart a k-4 elementary school is just dumb bureaucratic inertia and thwarts school choice.[/quote]

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