Charter School Proposed in Union: Township Approval is Sought for the Use of the Former Monocacy Kindergarten Center.

By Rebecca Vandermeulen, Reading Eagle, Pa.

Jul. 23–An Amity Township mother and educator hopes to open Berks County’s first charter school, possibly in the former Monocacy Kindergarten Center along Route 724.

Kimberly I. Minor asked Union Township supervisors Monday whether part of the Monocacy building would be made available for Polymath Charter School, which she hopes to open in September 2009.

Union Township bought the building from the Daniel Boone School District this year and will use part of it for township offices beginning in August.

The school district closed the kindergarten center in June because it built a new elementary center in Amity Township.

The kindergarten center consists of about 24,000 square feet, which Union supervisors Chairman Donald E. Basile said is more space than the township needs.

Supervisor John Salaneck III said the township’s needs would be met fi rst.

“The school is an afterthought,” Salaneck told Minor. “If we can accommodate you, that’s fi ne.”

Minor also is looking at commercial sites but said that the Monocacy building would be ideal because it was a school.

Minor, who is principal at Evergreen Elementary School in the Perkiomen Valley School District, Montgomery County, said the charter school would be more flexible than standard public schools. The word polymath refers to someone who is knowledgeable in a variety of topics.

Minor said her experience has shown her the limits of what public schools in large districts with many students can do.

“They’re huge, and they have these big bureaucratic systems,” she said.

Polymath would start with about 130 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Parents would work with teachers to develop an education plan for each student.

And children would be able to do schoolwork at their ability levels, Minor said.

“Each child will have an individualized plan,” Minor said. “Kids aren’t going to be constrained by their chronological age.”

Minor, who has three daughters, said she thought of starting a charter school after seeing some of the options that were available to students at schools such as Evergreen or at private schools.

For example, she said Evergreen students take Spanish starting in kindergarten.

Minor said that private schools that offer more fl exibility than most public schools are too expensive for a lot of parents.

“I can’t really afford to send three kids to private school,” she said.

With charter schools, tuition is paid by each students’ home school district. Charter schools are held to the same academic standards as Pennsylvania’s 501 public school districts.

By state law, the Daniel Boone School District would have to approve Polymath’s charter.

Dr. Gary L. Otto, superintendent, said the Daniel Boone has an excellent educational program, and even though parents have the right to send their children to charter schools, he would hope they would remain with district schools.

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