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Articles
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| Charter board OKs options expansion |
admin writes, "Charter board OKs options expansion
BY BEN WEINSTEIN
The D.C. Public Charter School Board on Aug. 8 approved Options Public Charter School's request to add new grades to its Northeast Capitol Hill campus.
Options, 1375 E St., NE, will add a ninth-grade class this school year and will phase in 10th, 11th and 12th grades over the next several years, according to a school official. Before this year, the school had fifth through eighth grades.
The school, which serves special-needs students, currently has 240 children and will add 40 more when the ninth grade is established. Though expanded uses and charter schools have become controversial themes in the school's Northeast neighborhood, community representatives have not opposed Options' charter amendment."
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Members of the Northeast Capitol Hill advisory neighborhood (ANC 6A) — which has criticized both the charter board and the city's zoning board over charter school cases — support Options' expansion.
Commissioner Mary Beatty, whose single-member district contains Options, said the school notified her of its request before the charter board's vote. She added that she supports the change.
Indeed, Dr. Charles Vincent, the school's program development manager, said Options ensures it keeps the surrounding community informed about decisions potentially affecting residents.
"Any changes here we work out with our neighbors," Charles said. In a letter to Beatty and fellow commissioner Bill Schultheiss, Vincent said the school has had "measurable success" with special-needs students, a population District schools are criticized being unable to serve, he noted.
"Options receives a third of the money to educate these children that it costs to send them out of the city. In short, for every 40 students we take, the city saves about 2 million dollars a year," Vincent wrote. He added that with last year's closing of Sasha Bruce, and with the Washington Academy elementary school moving from onsite annex space, the school is in a good position to expand.
But Northeast commissioner Nick Alberti underscored past complaints that the charter board doesn't do enough to notify affected communities about area schools. He said the charter board sent the commission notice post marked eight business day before the Options vote.
"That's pretty short notice in which to alert our constituents of this public meeting," Alberti wrote in an e-mail. "The lack of timely notice for this meeting and the sparse information provided is just another example of [the charter board's] disregard for public input from the communities in which they operate."
Earlier this year, commissioners and residents complained that the charter board shut down public comment during a public meeting on the AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School, which is engaged in an ongoing battle with residents over attempts to open a preschool in its 12th Street, NE, building.
But the charter board, for the first time in its 10-year history, opened its meetings to public comment after the neighborhood commission asked the city's attorney's office and Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells to examine the charter board's policy.
Options, the District's first charter school, came under the charter board when the D.C. Board of Education transferred oversight of its charter schools earlier this summer.
A charter board spokeswoman said that in reviewing the charter amendment request, the board assessed Options' academic performance, as well as its educational, operational and business plans.
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Posted on Aug 31, 2007 21:11pm.
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