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Proposed new charter school

There is a proposal for a new charter school in Somerville. The state (DESE) will be reviewing the application for the next few weeks and will possibly grant the charter on February 28th. If granted this charter school will undermine the existing Somerville Public Schools by reducing school funding by nearly $5 million a year, which is almost 10% of the current school budget. This cut in funding will lead to devastating cuts in public school programs, loss of 60 -75 teachers, and potentially closure of an entire school. This would represent a huge set back for public education in Somerville, setting back much of the progress that has been made in our schools in the last 25 years.

There will be a public hearing by the DESE on this on December 14 2011 at Somerville High School. More info can be found at:

https://sites.google.com/site/progresstogetherforsomerville

http://www.thesomervillenews.com/archives/21168

http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.aspx?id=6532

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The name of the charter school is the Somerville Progressive Charter School.
They have submitted an application, and it is in the state's decision queue and would open in 2012 if approved. There is a public hearing on it at the Somerville High School, from 4-6pm on December 14th (that is in just under 1 week from now.) The state DESE will accept written feedback (email feedback) until January 3. The state will decide at the end of February.

The funding model for this sort of charter school, as I understand it, is that they draw their entire budget allocation (number of students * per student "tuition"/spending in Somerville) from the state, and based on the number of students they enroll, that money goes to their budget and some of that money is subtracted from the city of Somerville's share of state school funding. (In the first year, the charter school is fully funded and the city funding remains the same, in years 2-5 some transitional money continues to go to the city as well as the charter school, and from year 6 on the city receives as much less state aid as is being given to the charter school. There has been a lot of spinning on both sides and mincing of numbers for what exactly it means (at one point, for example, I read on the SPCS's website that "no money would be lost from the Somerville Public Schools budget _in 2012_ - yay, let's just ignore what happens in the following year!)

A lot more information on how to submit feedback and what else you can do to learn about the situation are posted at Progress Together for Somerville's website (link goes to how you can help/submit feedback, rest of site can be navigated from there): https://sites.google.com/site/progresstogetherforsomerville/i-want-to-help (https://sites.google.com/site/progresstogetherforsomerville/i-want-to-help) (disclaimer: I am a member of Progress Together for Somerville and I oppose this charter application.)

I don't know a lot of facts about the proposers of the school. I understand that most of them have had children in the Somerville Public Schools and were not satisfied with their education, or with the decisions made by the school system (in particular regarding the Healey school and the progressive programs there which now serve all students.) I don't know how many of them have made their names public, where they live now (not all are still in Somerville), where their kids attend school currently, etc. Their website is here:
http://www.thespcs.org/home (http://www.thespcs.org/home)

Here is an update on the costs to the existing schools:

Year one: 100% reimbursement for 180 students, no loss to the district schools.

Year two: no new students, 25% reimbursement for 180 students. 180 x .75 x $13,000 = $1.75 million loss to district schools.

Year three: 60 new students whose costs are fully reimbursed. Same $1.75 million loss to the district schools.

Year four: 60 new students fully reimbursed, 240 students reimbursed at 25%. 240 x .75 x $13,000 = $2.34 million loss to district schools.

Year five: 60 new students, 300 reimbursed at 25%. 300 x .75 x $13,000 = $2.925 million loss to district schools.

Year six: 360 students reimbursed at 25%. 360 x .75 x $13,000 = $3.51 million.

There are other factors such as the mix of students – the city will pay more if the school succeeds in attracting English Language Learners (kids who aren’t fluent in English) than if the school falls short. This may have something to do with why the School Department’s numbers are higher, I don’t know.

But even with the charter organizers’ numbers, these are very big cuts.

Keep in mind, the total budget of an elementary school, like the Brown School is $1.7 million. The Winter Hill Community schools budget is $3.7 million.

By year two , we lose an entire school.

These families want better education for their kids and so they are doing something about it, having given up on getting the superintendent and the rest of the politicians in the city to do it for them. They are the spirit of DIY!

It's not about scores or tests, it's about education for real life. Mainstream schools are designed to produce "good workers who take orders well". Many parents don't want that for their kids (or anyone's kids really!). You might be happy to let your kids go to such a school, but don't force someone else to, and seriously don't expect the citizens to have to pay for such a thing if they believe it's bad.

And you've entirely missed my point about making the schools MORE useful, MORE alive, MORE valuable rather than letting them "die". I want to see schools being used all the time, by anyone who wants to learn, explore, and share ideas and information about living a great life on this planet and beyond. You might not want that, but I do!

The application is filed publicly. You can download it here:
http://www.thespcs.org/home/official-documents/SPCS_Final_Application_2011-12.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1 (http://www.thespcs.org/home/official-documents/SPCS_Final_Application_2011-12.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1) It's apparently over 250 pages of fun stuff to read.

You can get more information from the proposers at their website (a href="http://www.thespcs.org/home">http://www.thespcs.org/home, and from the opponents (I'm one of them) at ours: https://sites.google.com/site/progresstogetherforsomerville/ (https://sites.google.com/site/progresstogetherforsomerville/)

no, in the application Medford is listed as a feeder school.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/medford/topstories/x1626870826/Medford-School-Committee-opposes-new-Somerville-charter-school#axzz1funQHBl2

Thanks! This was useful.

I have a kid, but she is not school-aged yet. I also have a PhD in science education (from Tufts) and as part of that spent some time doing research in both public and charter schools (mostly middle schools). My experience is that charter schools are all over the map in terms of quality. The good ones are a combination of strong thematic elements and a public/private sponsorship. The bad ones are the purely public ones that do nothing more than try to replicate a public education, but without the oversight. It's a complex issue that should not be judged as white and black.

Based on what's in this article alone, I think it sounds like a good idea. It will serve almost 500 students who have been identified as needing special help (immigrants and first generation) and provide a learning environment that is not available to public schools (native language classrooms).

As to whether Somerville should love $5 million to educate those 500 students, I can't say. I haven't looked into it in detail. But, generally, immigrant students cost a *lot* more to educate than native students because they have a higher special education rate.

That's a nice vision. I think that if Somerville parents got as involved as you outline, actually grappling with the issues of where to direct funding and what kinds of programs to have/not have, we'd have one kickass system. I'm not sure the school board is ready for that, but am *really wishing* for *that* problem, you know? :)

I guess what I'm saying is, wouldn't it be cool if this charter school proposal touched off a massive restructuring of the decision-making process? *dreams*

A list of (at least some of) their proposers is on pages 31-35 of the SPCS application document, with more detail about them on pages 50-132. (btw, one of them appears to be a nearby neighbor of yours)

ETA: The document also lists and briefly describes their Advisory Board on pages 170-173.

Edited 2011-12-08 22:11 (UTC)

I agree that all funds should be based on the number of students served (and I'm not sure that this isn't the case here), but you seem to be discounting the needs of many families who are being harmed by the bad/ignorant attitudes of the politicians involved. All families deserve to have the best education that that money can get them. And if there are no schools doing that, than the money should not go to them. What you seem to be suggesting would be like going to a restaurant and ordering a vegetarian meal, and being served pig meat, simply because thats what the politician decided the cooks should prepare, regardless of what the customer ordered.

Probably for very different reasons, but still, we are definitely both of the same opinion on this issue. :-) Congratulations, or something...

Yes, this. The funding really works that way. The school district would get $4k from the state for a non-charter school student, and pony up $9k from other city funds. The charter school would get $13K from the state for a charter school student, and the state would give the city $13K less in aid (once the charter school has been around for 6 years. There's a bunch of transitional math that phases it in gradually, in the first 5 years.)

In the the end an elementary school's worth of students is projected to attend teh charter school rather than the public school, so the budget probably can't withstand losing an elementary-school's worth of budget (and then some) without closing an elementary school -- since they can't close a portion of each existing elementary school even if the numbers are just down proportionally throughout the system.

Perhaps things have changed. Impossible to know without seeing the actual paperwork.

Actually its more like "if we can get this charter passed, we can have our own private school and not have to pay for it....screw the rest of 'em". That is not the DIY spirit I believe in.

Have you ever been to a public school in Somerville? Do you know that the Healey School curriculum is the same progressive methodology advocated by the proposed charter school? Do you really think it so simplistic that schools are designed to produce "good workers who take orders well"? Do you realize how offensive that point of view would be to some of the amazing teachers who have dedicated their working lives to teaching children?

Maybe I missed your last point, you seem quick to put words in my mouth. Of course I agree with all your "MORE" statements. Actually the best way to achieve this would be working together, not apart.

I don't like the idea of a quality, free education for *some* kids that passes over the kids who need it more - the kids whose parents didn't know about applying, the kids who werent' randomly selected in the lottery, the kids who moved to Somerville in the middle of t he year, the kids who can walk to school and don't have a way to get to the charter school locations. I like the idea of a quality, free education for *all* kids, and if this proposal happens I think it will be a much longer, much more uphill battle to get that for our kids in Somerville. I really think what this proposal has to offer is NOT dramatically idfferent from the quality, free education that is already been offered in our schools - in fact, I believe it is weaker in many of the areas it proposes to be stronger in. The one already offered in our schools is the one I chose, and the one I plan to work hard over the next 18 years for.

I'm not overall against charters, and I think PHA is serving a useful purpose in our community, even though the math hurts our school budget in a similar way. But I don't think our school budget can actually support two charter schools without really hurting the existing elementary schools, and I think there is a way to create more options for kids without this particular charter at this particular time.

Having seen this movie about the problems with the educational system I really have a much better understanding of why it's impossible to change mainstream schools from within, at least with the current union rules and government laws. Charter schools are a band aid, at best. An even better option is for parents to band together and create DIY "home school" programs without any government involvement at all. There's one that some MIT folks started that may or may not be called Camp Kaleidescope (or was at least connected to that camp). It was a school run by maker types for maker types, from what I understand.

I'd love to see some mainstream programs allowed to stay in each school, and with the majority of the school being open-ended for pretty much anyone in the community to create classes and workshop spaces.

> Actually its more like "if we can get this charter passed, we can have our own private school and not have to pay for it....screw the rest of 'em".

Do you seriously want to publicly say something like that about people who've invested a huge amount of their time and energy and probably money in making a school that will serve hundreds of kids in a way that they believe is best? Please reconsider, so that you at least sound like you value these families and their interests and needs. :-)

I have not personally gone to Somerville schools, but I've known (and been a nanny for) kids who have. And I saw the effect of the schools on these kids. And it was sad. I even know of one family who was in the Unidos program and did have problems with a teacher. I'm sure the teacher was passionate about their work, but even the most fantastic teacher can't do much when repressed by politics. As a teacher I'm offended by what most teachers and students have to put up with in mainstream schools! (And yes, it is the case that the primary political goal of schools is to produce effective workers. You might not like it, and I hope you don't, but it's the truth.)

My goal is to help all students get the best education possible, based on what they want to learn about and what will help them be the kinds of people they want to become in life. The mainstream schools as they are now are in opposition to that.

And, yes, working together would be great. But as I've pointed out several times already, the superintendent doesn't want to. Thus, the DIY spirit that is so amazing in the Camberville area has been evoked!

Again, if you're happy with the schools the way they are, or even want to just tweak them a little, within the bounds of what the politicians allow you to, go for it. But don't force other families to do the same when they honestly believe that they can do better.

From what I can tell this would be a program specifically serving the lower income immigrants with "language challenges" who aren't being served well by the current school system. And it's one of the charter schools that is most likely to serve their students better than the mainstream schools, as opposed to the for profit charter schools. It's important NOT to lump "charter schools" into one group, because they are extremely diverse.

This group was started, from what I've read, by parents who believe the schools are not serving their kid's needs and who believe that they can do better.

So maybe you understand now why this might actually be a very good thing for Somerville?

Apparently they did propose a Horace Mann school last year, but it wasn't a very serious proposal, or it wasn't done right, or something (I didn't pay attention to the details). A lot of people are suggesting that if the state rejects the charter, they should resubmit the proposal as a Horace Mann school.

If they're losing students, that means the proportion of special needs students in their schools will rise. Average test scores will then look lower, which drives the more affluent families away from that district, taking their tax dollars with them, so then the schools don't have as much money. It's a vicious cycle. I am not sure that will happen in this case, but it has happened in other districts around the country with charters and I'm wary.

Not restricted to Somerville, but Somerville kids get priority in the lottery.

Oh good, we needed to branch off into a flame war about how low standardized testing scores are necessarily the district's fault. =)

This presumes that standardized test scores are a valid measure of the quality of education. Maybe we'd be better off without these tests entirely?

And as far as I can tell, the current charter school proposal is like leaving that restaurant in order to go to the new restaurant next door... which has a big sign saying "Pig Kitchen! Lard in every meal!". =)

In other words, I have so far failed to see what in the current charter school proposal is novel and improved compared to the district schools, other than the fact that it would not involve the "dreaded" Somerville School Committee. (And that includes the ELL offerings.)

Last I checked, the School Committee is an elected office. Perhaps the founders of the new charter school should consider that if they truly want to help all Somerville students.

Wait, where is it in the charter that they won't allow students with special needs? All I see about it is that students with special needs will be expected to graduate on time, unless accommodations are stated in their IEPs.

Looking at the actual charter, I'm not sure if this school is actually going to reject students with special needs. However, it still will most likely disproportionately pull students with higher test scores, since those will be the children whose parents are pushing them harder to succeed.

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Proposed new charter school

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The school system is failing the families of those who are working to create this new school.

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Re: Here's a litte more info for balanced reporting. :-)

Re: Here's a litte more info for balanced reporting. :-)

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Your school isn't serving the needs of some students, so it should lose money.

I do believe that this might be the first time you and I totally agree.

Re: Not sure why the name calling, but...

I don't see an application listed there...

Re: The school system is failing the families of those who are working to create this new school.

Re: Not sure why the name calling, but...

Watch Waiting for Superman!

Seriously?

This program is one of the good ones...

Re: Not sure why the name calling, but...

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Re: Not sure why the name calling, but...

Re: Your school isn't serving the needs of some students, so it should lose money.

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