Family & Community Alternative Education
Massachusetts Charter Schools

For Immediate Release
Monday, August 16, 2010
Contact: Heidi Guarino 781-338-3106 or JC Considine 781-338-3112

42 Groups Submit New Charter School Prospectuses

MALDEN - The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has received 42 prospectuses from groups hoping to ultimately win approval to open new charter schools.

Founding groups whose prospectuses show the most promise will be notified by mid-September and encouraged to submit a full application, which will be due on November 1, 2010. Those final applications will then be reviewed and evaluated by Department of Elementary and Secondary Education staff and external review panels with expertise in education, business, legal, and organizational structure. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will vote to award new charters at its February 28, 2011 regular meeting.

The 42 submissions represent the highest number received in a single year since 1997, when the cap on district net school spending for funding of charter schools was last raised to 9 percent. The cap on district net school spending for funding of charter schools was raised to a maximum of 18 percent through incremental steps (beginning with 12 percent in 2011) under the new landmark education reform law, An Act Relative to the Achievement Gap, which was passed in January 2010. In subsequent years, the cap will increase 1 percent annually until the 18 percent maximum is reached. In addition, the cap is only raised in districts in which academic performance is among the lowest 10 percent in the state according to MCAS results. Charter school applicants are also required to demonstrate that they are proven providers if they propose to serve students in those lowest 10 percent of districts.

Another change resulting from the new law allows the board of trustees of an existing charter school to apply for additional charters. Several of the prospectuses are from existing charter schools seeking to expand and build networks of schools, primarily in Boston and Lawrence.

The proposals that were submitted for consideration are: