News Article - Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Contact:	Jacqueline Reis 781-338-3115

Founders of 5 Proposed Charter Schools Invited to Submit Full Applications

MALDEN - The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has invited the founders of five proposed charter schools to move to the next stage of the 2014-15 charter school application process and submit a full application. Final applications are due back to the Department by Wednesday, November 5, 2014. Once applications are received, Department staff and external review panelists with expertise in education, business, law, and governance will review and evaluate each of them. In addition, the Department will hold public hearings in the areas where the founding groups propose to open a school. The Department will also conduct a review of any public comment submitted. Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester will then review all of the materials and make his recommendation on awarding new charters to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The Board will decide whether to award new charters at its February 2015 meeting. A total of seven prospectuses were submitted in August from groups hoping to ultimately receive approval this year to open new charter schools in Massachusetts. The proposals for the 2014-2015 application cycle include two proposals to open Commonwealth charter schools and three proposals to open Horace Mann charter schools. Commonwealth charter schools are fully autonomous and operate independently of the local school district. Horace Mann charter schools are developed and operated in close cooperation with the host school district and require approval of the local school committee. Charter schools are open to all Massachusetts students, with enrollment preference given to students in the district or region where the school is located. The proposed schools invited to submit full applications are:

Proposed Commonwealth Charter School	District or Region	Opening Year	Grades	Proposed Maximum Enrollment
Academy for the Whole Child Charter School	Fitchburg, Leominster, Lunenburg, Ashburnham-Westminster, North Middlesex, Athol-Royalston, Gardner, Orange, Winchendon	2015	K-4	360
New Heights Charter School of Brockton	Brockton	2015	6-13	840

Proposed Horace Mann Charter School	District or Region	Opening Year	Grades	Proposed Maximum Enrollment
Bentley Academy Charter School	Salem	2015	K-5	350
UP Academy Charter School of Springfield	Springfield	2016	6-8	800

In addition, the Department will advance to the final application stage a proposal to grow a charter school network in Boston under a new one-stage process for eligible, existing charter school boards of trustees. UP Academies is seeking to open a third Horace Mann charter school in Boston as part of its existing network of schools.

Proposed Horace Mann Charter School	District or Region	Opening Year	Grades	Proposed Maximum Enrollment
UP Academy Charter School of Boston - 2015	Boston	2015	K1-5 or K1-8 or 6-8	800

In January 2010, the Patrick Administration raised the charter school cap in the lowest performing school districts and made a number of changes to the charter authorizing process. The cap on district net school spending under the Achievement Gap Act is being raised from 9 percent to a maximum of 18 percent through incremental steps. The cap lift only applies to districts with academic performance in the lowest 10 percent based on the most recent two years of MCAS results using the 75 percent achievement/25 percent growth combination that the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved at its June 2014 meeting. Since February 2011, the Board has awarded 27 new charters, which at maximum enrollment will enroll nearly 13,000 students. For more information on charter schools, visit Massachusetts Charter Schools.

Last Updated: September 30, 2014