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19 schools seek charters
(Published May 30, 2005)

By STEPHANIE BRINSON
Staff Writer

One school would mandate single-sex classrooms. Another would teach students to speak Chinese by sixth grade. One boarding school promises to show "love" to the city's at-risk youth.

These are among 19 potential public charter schools that are seeking approval from the D.C. Public Charter School Board, many with the hopes of opening their new schools by fall of 2006.

The board has scheduled a first-round vote on the applications June 20, when it will decide which, if any, of the proposed schools qualify for immediate approval.

This year's applicant pool is the largest the charter board has seen since its first year, when 26 groups submitted proposals. Created by Congress in 1997, the board currently oversees 26 public charter schools serving more than 11,500 students throughout the city.

The board's process for approving new charters is divided into two stages and takes about seven months. Within that time, the charter applicants and their proposals are extensively reviewed by specialized panels, the public and the board.

Once applications are received by the deadline, which was March 28 this year, a panel of experts specializing in the focus of each proposed school – such as early childhood or special education – rate the applications according to specific rubrics.

Public hearings are then held to inform residents of the different proposals and to allow them to give feedback on how the school could affect the community. This year, the hearings were held on May 16 and 17 and were publicized in newspapers, the D.C. Register, on the board's Web site and through advisory neighborhood commissioners, said a spokesman for the charter board.

Following the hearings and its own review, the board votes on one of four possibilities for each application.

In rare instances, it approves the application as is. For this to happen, the school not only needs a stellar proposal, it also has to show it has access to a facility. Usually, nonprofit organizations looking to start a school have a better chance at meeting this requirement, said board spokeswoman Nona Richardson.

Most often, applications are approved with conditions, meaning they have strong proposals but lack facilities. Applications that receive first-round approval, on the other hand, need to strengthen their proposals. Applicants in both instances have until September to revise their proposals and resubmit them to the board for review.

Applications that are not approved to any degree in the first round of voting are denied, and applicants may resubmit a proposal next year based on the feedback they received from the board.

The board plans to meet Oct. 17 to make a final decision on the applications.

The following proposed public charter schools are seeking approval from the board this year:

City Collegiate seeks to educate students from grades 6 to 12 in a program that uses data-based research to ensure academic achievement.

Septima Clark is an all male institution that looks to target low-achieving students in Ward 8, beginning at the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten levels, and adding a class a year up to the eighth grade.

Richard B. Harrison plans to offer a general and vocational education curriculum – beginning with culinary arts and landscaping – for low-income, high-risk, high school-age youth that would focus on expeditionary learning.

Dupont Circle International Academy promises to challenge children from grades pre-kindergarten through six with an internationally-focused curriculum, in which students will learn Chinese. It plans to lease temporary classroom space from a former private school in Dupont and is sponsored by the embassies of China, Italy, New Zealand and South Africa.

McKinney-Byrd Academy intends to educated high school-age special education youths with a vocational program that offers courses in business technology and marketing, construction and maintenance, environmental science and landscaping, and information technology.

Washington Montessori would establish a curriculum based on ideologies that support a learning environment in which children can practice self-direction and discipline. The school would target high-risk, low income children from age 3 through grade 6 who live in Ward 5 and Ward 7.

Academic International, a pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school serving at-risk youth in far Southeast Washington, looks to provide an internationally-focused curriculum where students could learn French and Spanish.

ORACLE Global intends to create globally-conscious youths by empowering them to be aware of and participate in world events. It would begin with ninth and tenth graders, predominantly in Wards 4 and 5, and grow to grade 12 over two years.

Life, Opportunity, Values and Education (LOVE) is a boarding school that looks to equip the city's adjudicated and at-risk youth in grades 9 through 12 with the skills they need to succeed in the workforce or higher education.

The Pneuma Academy would educate Wards 6, 7 and 8 students in grades six through eight in the fields of fine arts, humanities, entrepreneurship, leadership development, and mathematics and technology.

Washington Latin would consist of a lower school that would teach fifth and sixth graders fundamentals, such as reading, writing and speaking skills, and an upper school, where seven through twelfth graders would be prepped for higher education.

Education Strengthens Families (ESF) would offer a dual academic program for both pre-school children and parents of low income, immigrant families that would focus on literacy enrichment and job preparation.

DC Latin, an elementary, middle and high school of grades pre-kindergarten through 12, seeks to minimize the achievement gap between Ward 4 students and surround jurisdictions through a literacy-based, classical education program.

Friendship Tech Prep a college preparatory institution for careers in technology divided into the three career foci of technology, health and human services, and public service, targeting youths in Southeast Washington.

H2C (Heading to College) Sports Academy would use single-sex classrooms in a program for seventh grade student athletes at high academic risk that would focus on teaching financial management, computer skills and physical education.

PowerCommunicators, a public speaking program for students in grades 1 through 12 based in Alexandria, VA, looks to start a preschool for children ages 3 to 5 who live in Southeast Washington.

Dorothy Height Community hopes to serve pre-kindergarten through third grade children in the low income neighborhoods of Wards 7 and 8, with the intent of expanding to grade eight.

Mandin Yachay Cyber would use a technology-based academic program to educate high school youths – including middle and elementary students over time – in the struggling neighborhoods of Wards 6, 7 and 8.

Capitol Hill Learning Academy, founded to serve pre-kindergarten through third grade and adding a grade a year until 12, emphasizes small classrooms and plans to be temporarily located at 700 Constitution Ave. in Northeast Washington.