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First charter middle school aims for 2003
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- Another school year will pass without the promised launch of Pinellas County's first charter middle school. The Bay Village Center for Education Inc., which has been trying to get off the ground for years, failed to meet a deadline this week to enroll 100 students. Though the school will not open as planned on Aug. 7, organizers are pinning their hopes on a new start date in the fall of 2003. "I'm disappointed," said Marcia McGhee, president of the Bay Village board of directors. "We did not make the cut for this year. We are looking forward to opening next year. We've still got bright hopes." If it opens next year, the Bay Village school will come at a crucial point in history for the Pinellas County School District. The district is preparing to introduce "controlled choice" next fall that will replace court-ordered busing for desegregation. Parents of all races will be able to select schools for their children that are closer to home. Selection begins this fall. "We expect to be ready (for the choice program) and we expect to make all the deadline dates," Mrs. McGhee said. Putting a good face on the delay, Mrs. McGhee said organizers now will have time to find a permanent site for the school. Three different sites have been considered since the school was first conceived. The first was in the failing Bay Village Shopping Center, at 2220 62nd Ave. S. Negotiations for that fell through and organizers were forced to cancel plans for last year's opening. A few months ago, St. Andrew Lutheran Church, 1901 62nd Ave. S, offered its property, saying the school could set up portable classrooms there. That idea proved too costly and was abandoned. In June, organizers announced that they had been offered the use of classrooms at Maximo Presbyterian Church, 3200 58th Ave. S. That offer came too late for the new school year. "Because we went right down to the wire," said Mrs. McGhee, the school did not succeed in enrolling "very many" students by the July 15 deadline the school district set. Melanie Fernandez, who started Academie Da Vinci, the district's first charter school, and now is principal at Athenian Academy, the nation's first Greek language immersion charter school, is sympathetic. "Just getting it up and running, just making it work for everybody is very, very hard," she said of a charter school. "And you've got to have dedicated people. At Da Vinci, I was founder and principal and everything. I know that those people have a strong passion for what they're doing too, and when you have that and certain things don't work, it's hard. Emotionally you take it hard." Money is one of the problems, she said. "It's always about money," Ms. Fernandez said. "The charter schools get a little bit less money than the public schools. You have to count every single penny. ... When you're the administrator of a charter school, you're it. There's no janitor at the school. You are the plumber. You're everything. You're always on deck. Always. Always." Though charter schools are operated by private groups, they get public money and therefore are considered public schools. They receive the same amount per student as other public schools, minus 5 percent for administrative costs. They are eligible for some funding for building costs, as well as materials and technology. For each of the first two years, a charter school can apply for a $70,000 state grant. Besides money, enrollment can be another difficulty. "At Da Vinci, we had enough enrollment immediately. It had such a broad base of clients because it was the arts, so we were able to draw from all around," Ms. Fernandez said. The narrow focus of Athenian Academy has made enrollment difficult, she said. "I guess people are leery of something that is not tried and true," she said but added that Bay Village has one major advantage. "That's a middle school and I mean, if I'd had an alternative for my children in middle school, I would have taken it blindly," she said. The expected capacity of Bay Village is 750 students. During its inaugural year, though, the school will accept only sixth-graders. This week school district officials met with Bay Village organizers to discuss the school. Since it will not open as planned this fall, organizers will have to submit a new charter school application to the School Board, said Tom Wittmer, assistant Pinellas School Board attorney. "We'll work with them to be successful in their application," he said. "The deadline is in October sometime ... and we basically have a 60-day window to make that approval. We're looking probably at a December vote by the board. It could be earlier." The matter is expected to proceed routinely, Wittmer said. That wasn't always the case for charter schools. "You really have to have a good relationship with those district people, or you're lost," Ms. Fernandez said. "Now they are helpful. They are not obstructionist. Initially, they didn't really want any part of this, of charter schools in general. We were both making our way in the dark and it was new to me and it was new to the people in the district. Now they are used to working with the charter schools."
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From the Times South Pinellas desks Letters |
