Chamber of Commerce Academy.
A charter school proposed for a suburban Rhode Island area has drawn a mixed reaction, wary in some cases, hopeful in others.
“We were not involved in the planning and will not be involved with the school itself, yet it will be a drain,” said Helen Barboza, Ph.D., Bristol-Warren’s superintendent of schools.
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Having been granted preliminary approval, the proposed school, the Roger Williams University/East Bay Chamber Charter School , is set to open in the fall of 2001. Barboza estimated that because local education funding follows the child for whom it was intended, as much as $400,000 could come out of her annual school budget and go to the charter school.
“That means local contributions, money-wise, are almost negligible,” she said. “We have a different level of concern.”
Rhode Island’s other charter schools are in Providence.
Barboza worries that the school could have limited appeal. A school targeting at-risk students – those in danger of dropping out of school – “wouldn’t necessarily draw children who would go on to college,” she said. “It could appeal to a narrow range of children.”
Barboza is not convinced the school has the support of the community which it is intended to serve: In last month’s general election, a local question aimed to gauge the public’s support of a charter school failed to pass by a two to one margin.
“We’re under a microscope, particularly with the town council,” said H. Wells “Red” French, who is coordinating the charter school effort with the East Bay Chamber of Commerce and Roger Williams University. “The powers that be don’t like charter schools because they don’t control them. If there were full state funding, there wouldn’t be a flap down here.”
The school, which French compared to the Met School in Providence (which is not a charter school), is intended to combine the efforts of educators and business people to create individualized learning plans for each child, offering students a variety of ways to fulfill requirements. For example, to satisfy a Rhode Island history requirement, a student might intern at the Rhode Island Historical Society for class credit.
“They’re (students) going to be out in the community a lot, with the exception of common core classes and team meetings,” French said. “The kid constructs a curriculum around their area that sparks his passion for learning.”
French believes that business and education is a natural partnership on which to found a school.
“Ninety-five percent of kids, when they leave high school, go to one of two places: a post-secondary institution or work,” French said. “Who is better situated to look at the products of that high school than people from the business and education communities?”
Three other charter school projects are under review by the Rhode Island Department of Education: Kingston Hill Academy, the Urban League Academy for Arts and Technology and the Phoenix Community School.
Kingston Hill Academy, sponsored by Easter Seals of Rhode Island, is proposed as a kindergarten through grade eight school. Located in South Kingstown, the school is designed as an inclusionary school combining students with special needs with typically developmental students.
The Urban League Academy for high school students targets primarily inner-city students and is designed to encourage students to pursue career paths in the arts, sciences and technology. This proposed charter school, located in Cranston, would serve grades nine through 12.
The Phoenix Community School, sponsored by the Tri-Town Community Action Agency, is proposed as an alternative middle school in the town of Johnston.
The three proposals were initially submitted to the department in December 1999; revised proposals were submitted in October 2000. One component of the charter review process is to provide for a 60-day period for public comment on each proposal.
During the public comment period, the department will host two public hearings for each proposal. The public is also encouraged to provide written correspondence to the Department of Education.
Currently, Rhode Island has three charter schools — all in Providence, which
has a cap of four- – with enrollment totaling 573. According to the Rhode Island
State Budget Office, $4,019,249 (of a total public school budget of more than
$500 million) was allotted to those three schools — the Textron Chamber of Commerce
Academy, Times Square School and the Highlander School — this year.
A fourth school has been approved to open in Providence next fall, the Paul Cuffee School, which will use the sea as the theme throughout its curriculum.
The charter school (publicly funded, independently run) movement began in Minnesota in 1992. Today, according to statistics from the Center for Education Reform, there are 2,069 charter schools in the United States. Over 300 new charter schools opened this fall; nationally, charter schools have an enrollment of a half million students, which accounts for about one percent of the nation’s school children.
