Starting a Public Charter School: The Road to Reality

After eight years of involvement with charter schools, I think I have learned one truth above others—it is incredibly difficult to start a charter school. I have heard more than once over the past year from people who want to start charter schools. They are uniformly enthusiastic and are eager, no, desperate for any piece of advice I can offer as someone who has managed to start a grassroots charter school. The grassroots charter school is the school that is started by a group of community residents without the oversight or control of a Charter Management Organization (CMO) or an Education Management Organization (EMO). Our school is independently governed and operated. The only piece of advice I feel is useful to them is that the work is hard, and that if they are not prepared to commit completely to the task, then they should not even begin.

The reasons why it is so hard to start a charter school are myriad—it requires a comprehensive and professionally crafted petition, a dedicated and diverse founding board, community support, a total comfort with uncertainty, and a lot of luck. There are few endeavors in life where maximum effort applied with maximum competence can yield zero results, but starting a charter school is one such endeavor.

At Latin Academy, we were fortunate to navigate the perilous waters of authorization successfully, being the only grassroots start-up charter school authorized in the state in 2010-2011. That was an achievement in and of itself. Latin Academy is associated with Building Excellent Schools, a national urban charter school formation program which has helped to launch over 50 charter schools in 18 different states. Until Latin Academy's authorization by Atlanta Public Schools (APS), Building Excellent Schools had never successfully won authorization from a local school board to launch a Georgia charter. July 11th, 2011, the date of our authorization, is one that holds a prominent and joyous place in our school's history.

Though authorization is not an easy thing to come by, too much delay and resting on laurels can result in an authorized school that never opens for students. So, we spent every day after our authorization preparing to clear the hurdles that stand between getting the permission to have a school and actually having one. From nothing, we have had to recruit students, find a building, hire staff, and plan for the actual day-to-day of the school. Nothing along that journey was simple or came easy—for instance, our start-up year coincided with a tension-filled and controversial redistricting process within APS that placed charters (particularly new ones) under an increased level of public scrutiny. We also had challenges finding a suitable facility—we did not learn that we would have a place to open in until the 2nd week of July.

Regardless of those challenges, we have managed to overcome each one—we have all of our students, we have all of our wonderful staff, and we do have a building. Though that is a significant accomplishment, it is not enough, and it is not why we have undertaken this work. All the work over two years that we've done to create Latin Academy was only so that we could have an opportunity to address the real issue that brought us to this work—the significant academic challenges of our southwest Atlanta children.

We opened to 92 very bright and eager 6th grade students three weeks ago, and I can see the elements of our plan falling into place, and our school slowly but surely turning into the Academy our students need it to be. The pathway of starting a charter school is fraught with more opportunities to fail than Odysseus' road back to Penelope, but we are thrilled to have made it to this point and eager to make the most of a remarkable opportunity.

We cannot know yet whether Latin Academy will be a good school, but as of August 6th, it is a real school, and one that we are all hopeful will be a transformative influence on children's lives.


Author Chris Clemons is the Founder and Principal of Latin Academy Charter School in Atlanta, Georgia.

South City Preparatory Academy Grows from a Humble Beginning

The idea for South City Preparatory Academy was born from seeing evidence of great urban charter schools throughout our country. Over the course of several years, I had the opportunity to visit amazing charter schools like Boston Collegiate, Academy of the Pacific Rim, Roxbury Prep and schools in the KIPP, Uncommon Schools, Achievement First, and Noble Street networks. These schools changed my paradigm on what schools could accomplish. They were eliminating the achievement gap for countless students across our country. 

South City Prep opened in August of 2011, when we welcomed our first crop of 5th and 6th grade scholars. Within the first week, we realized one of the hardships of charter schools throughout the country: financial issues. Because of a lower than expected student enrollment, we were forced to make some hard decisions. We had to lay off our PE teacher and one of our support teachers within the first month of school. Additionally, we decided that we would pinch our pennies even more by not hiring a school secretary. Every person on staff had a shift at the front desk answering phones, sorting mail and assisting our students. 

Despite these roadblocks, by many accounts, our year was a success. Our scholars averaged 1.9 years worth of growth in Reading and 1.7 years worth of growth in Math as measured by a national norm referenced exam. Our families love our school and during our first year, we heard countless tales of gratitude from these same families. In looking back, I’m amazed that these families “took the leap” with our school. When they were touring our facility, all we could point out were dusty, empty classrooms with no walls. 

August 2012 signals the start of our 2nd year. Sitting at coffee shops working on our charter now seems light years away. We have doubled our students and added 5 new staff members. Having 16 staff members feels like an embarrassment of riches compared to our first year as we even have someone to answer the phones! We’ve earned a positive reputation in our community and feel proud about our first year. However, we also know that thousands of students in our city do not have access to high quality schools and thousands are doomed to failure in failing schools. We know that we must do our job well as the reality for many of our students is that we are their only hope. Additionally, once we’ve laid the groundwork for this school and proved that it can work, we have to replicate the model. The beauty of the public charter model is that we can serve as an incubator for what works. When something is working, it can be replicated and expanded; when it is not working, it can be changed or closed. We look forward to building more great schools in the St. Louis region so that we can dramatically change the educational landscape of our city and our nation. Big dreams from a humble beginning. 


Photo: Author Mike Malone, Head of School of South City Preparatory Academy (St. Louis, Missouri)

Walking the Talk: An Ed Reformer Reflects on Choosing a Public Charter School

It’s Time for Public Charter Schools in Washington State

The state that brought the world Starbucks, Boeing, Microsoft and Amazon, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has not exactly been leading the charge on innovative educational practices. When it comes to education reform, Washington has basically been a status quo heaven state.

Fortunately, a broad and growing bi partisan coalition of education advocates in Washington State plans to change this picture on November 6th. They submitted over 357,000 signatures for Initiative 1240, a well-crafted charter school measure proposal that just qualified for the fall statewide ballot.

Washington is a large, smart state with a growing population (we got the congressional seat that Massachusetts lost) that has been too attached to the educational status quo. It has been too easy for us to import the labor force that our technology driven economy needs, and too hard for us to help our low income and minority students stay in school and succeed.  

Buoyed by the model law developed by NAPCS and a pile of research studies showing that public charter schools serving low income minority youth consistently outperform traditional public schools, advocates in Washington State have drafted a very strong law. We think it will be one of the strongest charter school laws in the country. 

But first, we have to get our messages out to voters, and make certain that a majority of them approve Initiative 1240 on November 6th. Because Washington voters have defeated other charter school measures (three times, actually), this ballot fight has high stakes, and it is one of national importance. If you want to help, please visit www.yeson1240.com.


Image: States with (blue) and without (gray) a public charter school law. Via National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Dashboard, http://dashboard.publiccharters.org/dashboard/schools/year/2012

Author Lisa Macfarlane is the Washington State Director of Democrats for Education Reform.